There's nothing more satisfying to come home to than a tasty tagine to warm you up. This classic lamb recipe is full of flavour thanks to the combination of spices and tender meat.
Ingredients
- 2tbsp oil
- 1kg casserole lamb, either leg or shoulder, cut into large chunks
- 1 red onion, finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2.5cm piece ginger, grated
- 2tsp coriander seeds, crushed
- 1tsp cumin seeds, crushed
- 1 cinnamon stick
- ½tsp turmeric
- 1tsp dried red chilli flakes
- 850ml fresh chicken stock
- 2 carrots, roughly chopped
- 2 celery sticks, roughly chopped
- 3tbsp tomato purée
- 75g preserved lemons, halved or quartered
- 85g bright green Spanish olives, pitted
- 2tbsp parsley, roughly chopped
- chickpea couscous, to serve (see step 4)
Method
Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan and brown the meat on all sides. Do this in batches so it gets a good colour. Remove and set aside.
In the same pan and keeping the heat to medium, lightly brown the onion; it shouldn’t darken too much. Allow to cook for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Now add the garlic and ginger, and cook for a further 3 minutes. Add all the spices and heat for a further 2 to 3 minutes, adding a splash of the stock if it starts to look dry. Sauté the vegetables now in the same pan until they start to soften – around 5 minutes. Mix in the stock and tomato purée, add the browned lamb, and bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer and leave to cook, partially covered, for 3 hours 15 minutes or until the lamb is tender.
When the tagine is ready, stir in the lemons and olives and heat for a couple of minutes. Season well and stir in the parsley when ready to serve.
To serve the couscous, heat a rinsed, drained can of chickpeas; stir into cooked couscous with juice 1 lemon, 5tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper, and 3tbsp freshly chopped coriander.
