Beef Tagine...Too Much Cumin?

A_Sober_Paddy

Hey all,

Just gave a beef tagine a go today, put everything into the slow cooker last night and cooked it on low for 7 hours followed by high for 1 more hour(to boil off the excess water)

Spice Mix was

Cumin 1/2 Tbsp
Cinnamon 1/2 Tbsp
Ginger 1/2 Tbsp
Paprika 1/2 Tbsp

Ras El Hanout Blend 1Tbsp(Here)

Followed by Salt and Pepper(Which i may have forgot)

Stock Cube
150mls water(50mls next time should be perfect i think)

Vegtables:
Tinned Tomaotes
Butternut Squash
Onion

With Chickpeas and Apricots added at the end...

It tastes nice, but the cumin seemed to be the loudest spice of the lot...

It was an adapted receipe to cater for 2 large servings, so my question is...

Is it possibly for the lack of Salt and pepper made the cumin stand out too much, could the cooking time have caused this...Or will i just use 1 Tsp of Cumin next time, with less water of course

Cheers in advance

Lovely Bloke

Cumin is weird, and I'm convinced some people are more sensitive to it than others - I can't stand the stuff (especially uncooked in stuff like Hummus), and half a Tablespoon sounds like a LOT to me, in a dish based on one tin of tomatoes, even with the other spices I can imagine I'd pass on that dish and say it is "too cumin-y".

That said, I find Hummus with no cumin added to be a bit lifeless, but there's definitely a fine line where it goes from tasting nice to being inedible, and it's a very low line for me personally.

For information, I'm also one of those people who can't eat Cucumber, Melon, Coriander, or drink coffee.

dibkins

Cumin is deffo weird. I love the flavour, but it can be so powerful. One thing that might have happened was that your cumin was fresher than your other spices, so it was stronger. If i'm making a new recipe, i usually go easy on the spice, but then taste it a lot to see if it needs more of anything. That is a lot of spice for 2 servings of anything though!

Tree

Half a tablespoon of ground cumin is the amount I'd normally put in a can of chopped tomatoes, but then, we love the stuff in our house.

Alun

OP could you post the original recipe? Unless you're making quite a large batch, I'd say those quantities of spice are a bit on the high side, especially as the Ras-el-hanout will also contain the same spices you're putting in separately. Another thing I'd say is that spices cooked like that, i.e. the bung it all in the pot together method, will tend to taste quite 'raw' if they haven't been fried to temper them a little. Also are you sure it's the cumin you're tasting? That much cinnamon would be pretty overpowering in my opinion too.

The Hill Billy

That would be the amount of cumin that I would put in a dish of a similar size. I'm surprised that the amount of cinnamon used didn't overpower it instead.

twerg_85

I agree with the previous posters. I love cinnamon, but would use less of it than other spices.

Everyone has different tastes, so use less cumin if you find it too strong. I'd probably use less cinnamon and ginger and up the paprika ?

F.

A_Sober_Paddy

dibkins wrote: »

Cumin is deffo weird. I love the flavour, but it can be so powerful. One thing that might have happened was that your cumin was fresher than your other spices, so it was stronger. If i'm making a new recipe, i usually go easy on the spice, but then taste it a lot to see if it needs more of anything. That is a lot of spice for 2 servings of anything though!

Can't find it on my phone, but its 2 big servings, the dish had 400g of beef in it... So each serving with 200g of beef

The original receipe if I remember correctly had double the amount of each spice with 600g of beef

Dizzyblonde

The recipe I use for chili con carne uses 2 teaspoons of cumin for 500g of beef. I halve it because that would be way too cumin much for my taste.

A_Sober_Paddy

Here's the original http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef-recipes/beef-tagine/#WXxyzlDvQ1WQumti.97

I also excluded the fresh coriander as I had none

The Hill Billy

Dare I ask, did you use level tablespoons of the spices or were they heaped?

A_Sober_Paddy

The Hill Billy wrote: »

Dare I ask, did you use level tablespoons of the spices or were they heaped?

Always level, I get the piss taken outta me for being g very precise re cooking

MissFlitworth

Ehrr..One More Toy, not round Cooking & Recipes with posts like that, thanks a mill.

One More Toy

MissFlitworth wrote: »

Ehrr..One More Toy, not round Cooking & Recipes with posts like that, thanks a mill.

Had to be done. Apologies

dibkins

I was fighting the urge to post what i'm imagining your posed for the last day. Not entirely sure how my willpower held out.

MissFlitworth

dibkins wrote: »

I was fighting the urge to post what i'm imagining your posed for the last day. Not entirely sure how my willpower held out.

Because you don't want your lovely local Moderation team to spit their breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack onto their computing devices in a combo of shock & nausea? While picking up their cumin bottle with tongs and throwing it in the bin, shaking their head sadly? You like us! You wouldn't do that to us!

Gerry Stafford

I agree with The Hill Billy above. The idea of 1/2 Tbs of cinnamon seems high but 1/2 Tbs of cumin would be about right. The fact that you did not have fresh corriandre may have intensified the spices in my opinion.

BTW if you are worried about fresh versus stale spices and their corresponding lack of flavour intensity look out for a cheap or 2nd hand coffee grinder. You can keep cumin and many other spices for longer as whole seeds and the aroma (this is way beyond a mere smell) is to die for when you grind them yourself.

Curry Addict

I'll vote Hillbilly also the spicing looks good apart from the cinnamon. I would recommend adding 2tsp of harrisa paste also, it will lift the dish big time