I’m awful for following a recipe. Unfortunately I just looked at a handful of recipes for "apricot chicken tagine"to look for the right kind of spices and the tequnique. And I think I just decided to add almonds. Here’s basically what I did, though:

Essentially, you soak the tagine for a little while to allow it to absorb some water, and mis en place all your other ingredients. Marinate some chicken, sauté 2 med (thinly sliced) onions in a pan with some eevo until translucent and starting to brown.

Layer the onions on the bottom of the tagine. Add marinated chicken thigh pieces, dried apricots, lightly toasted almonds, repeat, then pour a little chicken broth in so the onions don’t burn.

Bake for 35-45 min or until the chicken is cooked through. We added some garlic slices, but they didn’t cook fast enough and were a little overpowering, so… I wouldn’t do that again. I’d add some crushed garlic to the marinade instead, next time.

I would think of it as just a terra-cotta pot- something to bake and steam whatever your imagination can come up with! :) I feel like it would do a mean potato and onion dish…

It’s been years now, but especially started ramping up once I bought a house and had the cellar space to expand- my little appartmemt wasn’t ready to handle the collection before that. I had a bad habit of going to my local international foods markets, seeing a spice I didn’t recognize, and bringing it home to research later. Even the weird one-offs get a jar, a label, a kiss, and a place on the shelf.

Almost all are individual spices, but I do have a handful of blends. Except for one that was a gift, they’re all homemade blends, though (taco seasoning, Donair spice, chaat masala, garam masala, lemon pepper, Japanese curry powder…).

All my baking stuff is left in the pantry (cocoa powder, cream of tartar, BP, BS…) So they aren’t counted in with the spices. I tend to just throw together my own grill seasonings in the moment.

Honestly, I love my collection. Aside from the fresh ing. I would need, it makes me feel like I’m capable of making literally any dish I can think of. A million flavour combinations and opportunities to be creative.

If you’re in the US or Canada, they’ve already been cleaned! :)

Yes, this has been a recurring debate in my kitchen, too. I try to organize alphabetically to help my partner find the right ones when I send him out to the cellar to gather spices, but it’s also a contentious issue that I tend to ignore the adjectives (like “green cardamom” and "black cardamom are both in the “c” area, not g and b) when organizing.

They’re from all over- for years I kept and reused all my old pickle, sauce, and jam jars to accommodate the collection as it grew (in addition to a bunch of thrifted mason jars). Glass feels easier to keep tidy and to find what I need.

There are still a handful I’ve never tried (hwentia, dundicut, black lemons, pomegranate peels, sorowisa…) but I like to experiment whenever I can. Some of my favorite foods to make are Indian dishes like chicken korma or goan-style pork vindaloo, which both use many spices.