Wednesday, July 20, 2016

This week's Recipe. Moroccan Lamb Tagine

We had a roast leg of lamb, deboned, from Woolworths on Friday night and it was tough. Why are we paying premium prices for meat like this? It was cooked as instructed on the packet. So what to do with the remainder? A Moroccan Tagine. We had lots of lamb gravy left over so that became the stock. You can use cooked lamb or raw. Ras al Hanout is a blend of spices used in Morocco, it is now available at good grocers or spice shops like Atlas. You can use many other vegetables: courgettes, butternut, aubergine, baby potatoes etc. Just cube or half them. And you do not have to add meat
Moroccan Lamb Tagine
1 T Olive oil - 1 large onion, finely chopped - 3 small carrots, sliced - 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, crushed -1 teaspoons Ras al Hanout spice mix - half a kilo lamb cut into cubes - half a red pepper cut into 3 cm pieces - 10 green beans, sliced - 1 tin of chick peas, drained - 250 ml tomato passata - 500ml lamb or chicken stock - 6 or 8 baby tomatoes - 6 dates, roughly chopped - 6 dried apricots, roughly chopped - 20g flaked almonds
In a cast iron casserole with a lid, fry the onion in the oil till soft and golden but not browning. Stir in the carrots and continue to fry for another 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and then the Ras al Hanout. Stir well for a minute to warm the spices. Add the lamb and stir well to incorporate the flavours. If raw, brown it all over. Then add the rest of the vegetables and the chick peas. Pour on the stock and the tomato passata, the dates and apricots and stir. Put on a lid and put into the oven. If you have a Tagine, transfer to that. Cook for 1 or 2 hours or until the meat is lovely and tender. Check that the liquid does not cook out, add some water mid way through if it looks a bit dry, you do need a sauce as you will serve this with couscous (or rice or flat breads if you prefer). Just before serving, sprinkle on the flaked almonds
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016

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