This is a recipe that is a hybrid of two others that were a little dull individually but together make a great tagine of lamb! If you are using a traditional tagine, don’t forget to soak it in water for an hour before you begin cooking.

1 kg of trimmmed lamb pieces cut into generous mouth sized portions (a little bit of fat is fine, but get rid of any sinew)

Olive oil (enough to brown meat & onions with)

2 onions chopped

4 cloves of garlic minced/chopped

1 tbsp of each paprika and ground cumin

1 tsp of each ground turmeric, ground cinnamon, and minced/finely grated fresh ginger

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/8 tsp ground cardomom

2 1/2 cups of chicken broth/stock (use stock cubes dissolved in water if you have no stock on hand)

1 can of diced tomatoes or 4-5 ripe med fresh diced tomatoes (I always use fresh when possible)

2 tbsp tomato paste

salt & pepper to taste

1 bunch coriander (cut bunch so that leaves and stalks with roots are separated. Finely chop stalks & roots then set aside. Roughly chop leaves and set aside)

1/4 or 1/2 preserved lemon (remove flesh from skin & rinse skin then chop finely. If you love the flavour you can use both skin & flesh, but rinse flesh really well. If you use both 1/4 of lemon should be fine)

handful of raisins

handful of slivered or shaved almonds

3-4 mdm pototoes (adjust for how many pple you are serving) Peel, and quarter

3-4 carrots (adjust for how many pple you are serving) Peel and slice diagonally into thick chunky slices)

Note 1: Pumpkin, sweet potato, red capsicum, green beans all go well with this dish. Add smaller veg to pot closer to serving time.

Note 2: Use a diffuser between your tagine and heat source to distribute the heat more evenly and reduce the risk of cracking your tagine.

1. Heat olive oil. When hot enough, brown lamb.

2. Add onions garlic and cook over medium heat til soft; stir often. Add paprika, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, cayenne, and cardomom; stir until very fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add tomatoes, broth/stock, preserved lemon, coriander roots & tomato paste. Bring to the boil over high heat. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer, stirring occassionally, until lamb is tender when pierced; about 1 hours.

3. Add large vegetables & cook til almost tender.

4. 10 minutes before you are ready to serve add any small vegetables, almonds, and raisins.

5. Just before serving add remainder of coriander.

Serve with rice or couscous. Enjoy!

I bought this very nice looking 32cm tagine last week. I’ve cooked lamb tagine in a cast iron pot before and it was YUM, but it’s a whole other experience to cook in a traditional method. I use leg meat chopped coursely and of course if you’re going to use a traditional tagine you need to have a diffuser on your stove top. My darling sister-in-law Hazel got me one many years ago, so I’ve never had to think about such things LOL. The other thing you need to do before you use it each time, is soak it in water for an hour. This is so the pot has lots of moisture to make the meat as soft as butter. I use a recipe i got from the web but i’ve added some things to it from another couple of other versions of the recipe.

I’m going to find some moroccan recipe books…there’s nothing like a recipe book to make my heart sing!

xx s