Tagines--the Meal and the Cooking Vessel

This is a meal cooked in a tagine, and brought to our table. Exact contents can vary, of course. "Tagine" is both the name of the cooking vessel, and of the meal itself.

These are tagines, though the rear-most here is just the upper portion. The conical upper part has a vent on top, but steam that rises from the cooking food in the dish below condenses before reaching that vent. The upper portion of the top will in fact remain cool enough to hold. When done, the top is set aside and people are served from the bottom dish. Cooking temperature is fairly low, and times are long. The tagine (or tajine) is used in Morocco and in northern Africa.

I would love to have one of these, but prices for imported ones are high--on the order of $95, though I believe I saw one for only $38. I should have bought one in Morocco where they're probably cheap. But I'd have had to get it home.