Comfort Food: Lamb Tagine recipe

In my September In Review video I mentioned that I have been loving making (and eating) lamb tagines. I have written up my recipe - please see below. My apologies for the lack of photos - the many times I have made the tagine, the ravenous hordes have descended before I have had the chance to take nice photos...

This recipe serves four or five hungry people.

Ingredients:

1kg lamb neck fillet
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp hot chilli powder

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

a few strands of saffron

2 small cinnamon sticks

1 lemon, unwaxed

500g of passata

150g dried apricots

125g dried pitted dates and/or sultanas

1 pint of lamb stock, or the water the lemon was boiled in

50g shelled pistachios

50g flaked almonds

Method:

1.     Pre-heat the oven to 150C (for fan-assisted ovens)

2.     Boil the lemon in a saucepan of water for 20 minutes, remove carefully and dice up the whole lemon while removing the seeds. Put the diced up lemon in a dish to use later. You will also want to retain the water it was boiled in for later...

3.     Dice the lamb neck and fry in a large oven-proof (and lidded) casserole dish over a very hot heat. Once the meat has browned, remove it from the casserole dish and set aside.

4.     In the same casserole dish you browned the lamb in, add the onion and garlic with some oil and start to sweat this down.

5.     Once the onion and garlic have started to soften, add all the spices (except the cinnamon stick and saffron) and stir over the heat to release the flavour.

6.     Add the lamb back in after a few minutes and stir the meat into the onion and spice mix, so that everything is thoroughly coated.

7.     You will now want to add your chosen liquid and also the passata. If your chosen liquid is lamb stock, then add the few strands of saffron to the stock before you pour over the meat. If you prefer, you can simply use the leftover lemon-y water from Step 2 and add the saffron to this. Stir!

8.     Add in the cinnamon stick, all the fruit (including the lemon) and the nuts and turn up the heat until the liquid is at a simmer, and let it bubble for a few minutes on the hob.

9.     Once the mix has bubbled away nicely for a few minutes, put the lid on the casserole dish and pop it in the oven for between 2 and 2.5 hours.

10.  Serve with a scattering of fresh coriander, rice, couscous or a green salad and watch the tagine magically disappear.

Let me know if you make this recipe - did you change anything? Are there any other recipes you make that are great comfort food meals?

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