2010 Cooking Club Week 12: Lamb Tagine with Lemon Couscous

foodaholic

Hi thought I'd post it a bit early as wont get a chance tomorrow, hope it works out well for those who try it.

Lamb tagine with lemon couscous

Ingredients:
1 Kg of diced lamb (I use shoulder of lamb)
2 medium sized onions chopped
2 tins of tomatoes
1tbsp tomato puree
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
2tsp grated ginger
3tsp cumin seeds (toast them in a dry pan and then crush)
1.5 tsp coriander seeds (crushed as above)
½ a cinnamon stick (or 1tsp of ground cinnamon)
2-3 tbsp of honey
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

You can add some dried apricots that have been soaked in water 30mins before the end of cooking time if you wish.

For the couscous:
500g couscous
4tbsp olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
500ml chicken stock
Large bunch of chopped coriander or mint
Salt and pepper

To Serve:
Lime or lemon wedges
Greek yoghurt

Method
1. Heat a large pan, and add the olive oil, garlic, onions, ginger, and the spices. Season with salt and pepper, and stir and cook over a low heat, with the lid on, for about 10 minutes until the onions have softened.

2. Add the lamb, along with the tomato puree, chopped tomatoes and honey. Cook with the lid on for about an hour stirring every now and then.

3. Remove the lid, and continue cooking for 20-30 more minutes, on a very gentle heat, until the tagine has thickened and the meat is tender. Season to taste, you might have to add more honey depending on how tart the tin tomatoes are.

4. For the couscous: place the couscous in a bowl and add the olive oil and lemon juice, and mix well.

5. Pour over the boiling stock or water and season with salt and pepper. Cover with cling film. Leave for about 10 mins until all the liquid has been absorbed - about 5-10 minutes. Stir in the chopped herbs.

6. Serve with a wedge of lime and a dollop of yogurt.

Faith

Oh yum! I've had something very similar to this before, and adored it. I'll defo try this sometime. How many people does it serve?

foodaholic

it serves 4 hungry people

brian ireland

Those plates look familiar :rolleyes: Did you cook your couscous in Des's kitchen??

_blank_

brian ireland wrote: »

Those plates look familiar :rolleyes: Did you cook your couscous in Des's kitchen??

:D

foodaholic

;)

nice1franko

This looks the business - can't wait to try it out.

I'll get a leg o lamb for the weekend and do this the following day.

Is there any other cuts I could use and slow roast it for tenderness?

foodaholic

shoulder is always great slow roasted

neuro-praxis

Looks wonderful.

(Could you shrink the photo please? Its size makes the post hard to read.)

nice1franko

foodaholic wrote: »

shoulder is always great slow roasted

Aye it certainly is but it's also €25 a pop. I'll do a nice pinkish roast at the weekend ad make sure there's enough leftover for this. No point in cutting corners!

nice1franko

Btw there's a lovely Indian near where I live and the lamb in their lamb dishes is always lovely n tender chunks. What cut could this be?

It's too cheap to be leg. I assume it's a cheaper cut slow cooked.


edit- From this I'm guessing it's shoulder. Also some good info here.

Malari

Oh great, I just love tagine and am still looking for the perfect recipe so can't wait to try this

Mr Magnolia

Looking forward to this myself, hope to cook it Wednesday.


I resized your pic, hope you don't mind foodaholic

foodaholic

thanks for that, didnt know how to do it

Faith

Mr Magnolia wrote: »

Looking forward to this myself, hope to cook it Wednesday.


I resized your pic, hope you don't mind foodaholic

How did you do that actually? I couldn't figure it out .

watna

Would it be ok with another kind of meat? Maybe with beef e.g .stewing beef? It looks lovely but I don't eat lamb so would need to use something else.

foodaholic

Im sure stewing beef wouldnt be a problem. Let me know how it turns out.

Mr Magnolia

Faith wrote: »

How did you do that actually? I couldn't figure it out .

There's no easy way I'm afraid. Right click, save picture as, open picture and resize, save then host & repost it. Only takes 30 seconds really.

unkel

There is an easy way!

This site will resize an image automatically online.

I use it all the time. The problem these days is that all digital cameras (including the ones in mobile phones) are several million pixels, which leads to pictures being way too big for displaying on the web / in forums.

Another tip: instead of attaching your picture to the post, you can host it here easily and for free (dedicated image hosting for boards.ie)

Little Alex

So, foodaholic, I made your tagine last night and it was great!

When it was finished I had a taste and wasn't mad about it... then I remembered that I had forgotten the honey! When I added it it made a huge difference.

Actually, when I tasted it there was something about it that reminded me of Chicken Makhani. I've tried a couple of times to make this at home, but it never tasted like in the restaurant. I might be wrong, but I think the honey might be the missing something! I'm going to make it again soon and see what it's like.

So thank you for the tagine recipe on two counts.

Anyway, here it is:

foodaholic

Little Alex it looks fab ! your right it is the honey that makes a huge difference.

Could you post your Chicken Makhani recipe

Little Alex

foodaholic wrote: »

Little Alex it looks fab ! your right it is the honey that makes a huge difference.

Could you post your Chicken Makhani recipe

Will do! I'll post it in "Here's what I had for dinner last night" after I've made it.

nice1franko

No Greek yoghurt in my shop. Will plain yoghurt do? On the side one of the serving suggestions is to add to curry.

foodaholic

yep plain yoghurt is fine, sour cream is nice as well

Vim Fuego

This dish is cooking right now. Very excited. I had to omit the cumin and coriander seeds, where do you buy them? I'm also using beef rather than lamb. I'll post a pic when we're all done. My kitchen smells fantastic from the ginger

foodaholic

any supermarket should have them on there spice isle, so what did u use instead of the cumin and corriander

Vim Fuego

I just threw in some chopped coriander and some mixed spices that were in the cupboard. I think I could have let it cook for longer and reduce more but it was getting late.

Here's the final result, I really enjoyed this one. The two other people who ate it were also very happy, and stuffed.

foodaholic

it looks tasty. glad you liked it.

dixiefly

Cooking this now, forgot to put in the cinnamon - only put it in now as its simmering but it should be ok. Managed to get the seeds in the local Super Valu. felt a bit strange not to be initially browning the meat.

Dont often cook couscous but had it in the house.

dixiefly

This was very good. It was an interesting alternative to what we usually cook and the couscous with the coriander matched well with the lamb tagine.

Definitely a keeper. Thanks for the recipe.

foodaholic

Glad you liked it, thanks for giving it a go:D