I would say most of my housemates are pretty avid cooks and when they have the time, love to make a proper meal worthy of a cookbook. But the one that takes this to the extreme, is my housemate Rebecca (got to give credit where credit is due!) who introduced me to my first tagine:
Right, so you do need a slow cooker for this recipe but BBC good food has their tagines done in the oven (200C/180C/gas6). When doing this, it’s an hour in the oven, stir it once and then another 30min.
The basic recipe is from the Scottish butcher with a few minor tweaks added in.
(http://www.thescottishbutcher.com/lambandapricottagine.html)
Ingredients:
· 675g (1Ib 8oz) Simon Howie diced lamb
· 2tsp each of ground cumin, coriander and ginger
· 1tsp salt
· freshly ground black pepper
· 1tbsp clear honey
· 25g (1oz) butter
· 1tbsp vegetable oil
· 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
· 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
· 1 small cinnamon stick, broken
· 150g (5oz) ready-to-eat dried apricots
· 25g (1oz) blanched almonds, toasted
· 2tbsp freshly chopped coriander
· 400g canned chickpeas
· 2tsp Harissa
· Natural yogurt to serve
Step by step tagine:
1. Put the slow cooker on High setting to preheat for 20 minutes while you prepare the tagine.
2. Put the lamb in a bowl and mix in the ground spices, salt and pepper, and honey.
3. Heat the butter with the oil in a large frying pan until bubbling and fry the garlic and onion for 5 minutes. Add the spiced lamb and cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes until lightly browned all over.
4. Transfer all the pan contents to the slow cooker dish and add the cinnamon stick, the chickpeas and the Harissa paste. Pour over 300ml (½ pt) hot water. Put the cooker lid securely on top, reduce the setting to Low and cook for 5 hours.
5. Remove the lid and foil and stir in the apricots. Re-cover with the lid and continue to cook for a further 1 hour. Discard the cinnamon stick.
6. To serve, ladle the lamb and apricots over freshly cooked cous cous, and sprinkle with almonds and freshly chopped coriander. Serve the tasty cooking juices separately as gravy.
It’s healthy, you can wack it on before you leave for lectures for the day, and most importantly, it is just incredible tasting.