Moroccan Lamb Tagine

Arrrrgh, I can't sleep tonight. Actually, no let me rephrase that, I was asleep and I can't get back to sleep. Normally, once I am asleep I stay that way until a series of alarms wakes me, the first being an alarm clock, the second my alarm on my mobile phone and the third being my hungry kitty cats. If, for some reason, the first two do not wake me I can be assured that my kitties will, although not always in time for things that I am supposed to be doing. What is waking me at the moment is a rather awful recurring dream about being in a car accident. It has been just awful. I told some friends about it after the second time hoping that would stop it coming again. Perhaps by mentioning it on here it will stop now. 

I made this tagine a couple of weeks ago now. I have to admit I was a tad apprehensive about making it as I haven't been overly fond of the tagines that I have had in the past. This was the first one that I had made though. I will admit that there are some ingredients that I would not normally associate with a Moroccan dish but hey, I enjoyed this so much I am not going to object to them. I did make a couple of my own changes to the recipe. Since lamb shanks became trendy and popular the price of them has sky rocketed. My favourite butcher has them for $3.50 each, and I believe most of the others in town have them for around that price too. With the full recipe using 8 small ones it makes for a very expensive meal. I had 1/2 kilo of diced lamb in the freezer so I decided that I would use that instead of the shanks. The recipe had kaffir lime leaves in it, which I didn't have, so I left them out. It was so very good and the meat was wonderfully tender. I will definitely make this again.

Moroccan Lamb Tagine 

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 500g diced lamb 
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp cardamom pods
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 tbsp grated palm sugar
• 4 teaspoons fish sauce
• 4 large ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 2 cups chicken stock or water
• 2 potatoes, unpeeled and chopped
• 1 sweet potato, unpeeled and chopped

Method: 

• Preheat oven to 160 C. 
• Heat oil in a flame-proof casserole dish (I used my Emile Henry clay pot) over a medium-high heat. Brown lamb in batches, remove and set aside.
• Reduce the heat to medium and add onion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until onion is translucent. Add garlic and ginger and cook for 1 minute longer, then add chilli powder, turmeric, cumin, cardamom and cinnamon. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add sugar, fish sauce, chopped tomatoes, lime leaves and stock, bring to the boil. Remove from heat.
• Return lamb to the dish and add potatoes and sweet potato. Cover with lid or foil and bake for 1.5 - 2 hours, or until lamb is very tender and potatoes are cooked.
• Serve with couscous, mezgaldi and cabbage salad (recipes to come)