It's not Moroccan style; I'm just using the pot. I put sliced onions in the bottom and tucked in a bay leaf. I mixed seasonings (thyme, sage, salt and paprika) in olive oil and tossed the meat in it. Put the meat on top of the onions, put a little water in the bottom, slapped the lid on and turned the heat on low. Should take about 3 hours or so. Steamed cauliflower on the side, with the juices dribbled over. Weird Thanksgiving. There'll be leftovers for Tuesday.
I always wanted a tagine, and finally got a 2-person sized one from Goodwill. It came with a thick fur coat – you know that stuff that comes when something stays unused in the kitchen long enough that the aerosolized grease mixes with dust and settles. You’re not supposed to use soap on these things; the clay soaks it up and releases it into the food. (You clean them with salt and/or baking soda, if plain hot water isn’t enough.) I threw it in the dishwasher anyway. It came out clean and unbroken, but reeked strongly of dish soap. Anything I cooked in it would have tasted the same.
So, this had been kept in the kitchen, but I saw no other signs that it had ever been used. The next thing I had to do was to ‘season’ it, so it didn’t break on the first use. If it had been used and already seasoned, doing it again wouldn’t hurt it. Seasoning involves soaking it overnight in water and then baking it in a slow oven for hours to harden it. I soaked it for several nights in many changes of water. By the time I did the final soak and baked it, the smell disappeared. I don’t know if this would have worked, had it been unglazed, but it did. I had a tagine.
I've used it a couple times and like it a lot. It's kind of a self-basting slow cooker that intensifies all the flavors, instead of diluting them.
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