Tajine Tunisien

Tajine tunisien is a dense, baked egg-and-cheese casserole studded with chicken or tuna and herbs, sliced into squares. It's not the stew the name suggests to anyone who's had Moroccan tajine — the word here refers to the shallow baking dish it's cooked in, not a slow-simmered pot of meat and vegetables.

What it really is

Beaten eggs mix with grated cheese, chopped herbs and a cooked protein — chicken or tuna most often — into a batter thick enough to hold its shape once set, poured into a shallow dish and baked until it firms up like a dense quiche without the pastry shell. The texture lands somewhere between a frittata and a baked custard, sliceable into neat squares once it's cooled slightly rather than falling apart like a loose scramble.

The name is the single biggest point of confusion on any menu. A guest who knows Moroccan tajine — the slow-cooked stew in a conical clay pot — will expect something entirely different from this baked, sliceable egg dish; the shared name describes only the cooking vessel, not the dish itself.

How it is served

• Cut into squares, warm or at room temperature.
• As a starter or a light main, rarely the centrepiece of a large meal.
• With bread or a simple salad on the side.

How to write it on the menu

• Flag the egg and the dairy from the cheese.
• Clarify that it's a baked, sliced dish rather than a stew, since the name genuinely misleads guests familiar with Moroccan cooking.
• Say which protein is used, since chicken and tuna versions are both common and taste quite different.