Lamb tagine with chickpeas, prune and orange
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
For the tagine:
1.2kg lamb should, big fat chunks trimmed and reserved
1 tsp salt and freshly cracked black pepper
All the spice blend, recipe below (or 2 Tbls. pre-made ras el-hanout)
1 cinnamon quill
2 brown onion, peeled and diced
6 large carrots, peeled and sliced into chunks
4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 tbls preserved lemon paste (or chopped preserved lemon rind)
½ - 1 tbls harissa paste (use the full tablespoon if you like spicy, reduce if you don’t)
750ml chicken stock
4 strips orange zest, peeled using a vegetable peeler from an orange
1 cup pitted prunes
1 (400g) tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Zest + Juice of 1 lemon
To serve:
Steamed cous cous
Chopped toasted almonds
Fresh chopped parsley and/or coriander
Method:
Preheat your oven to 180C conventional (160C fan-forced).
Season your diced lamb with 1 tsp. fine sea salt and black pepper. Set aside to come to room temperature.
In a large oven safe pan, add the trimmed fat from the lamb and place it on a medium heat to render some of the fat then, once rendered a bit, leaving a slick of oil in the pot, discard these pieces. Alternatively, if your lamb is not so fatty or you bought pre-cut lamb stew, add 2 Tbls. extra virgin olive oil.
Increase the heat in your pan to high and brown the lamb in the fat, in a single even layer, for several minutes until at least one side is deeply browned. Add in the spice blend and cinnamon stick and toss together just to waken up the spices a bit. Add in the carrots, garlic and onions and toss together. Follow with the preserved lemon, harissa paste, chicken stock, orange zest and pitted prunes. Bring to a simmer.
Once simmering, place a lid on the pot and place it into the oven for 1.5 hours. After 1.5 hours, remove the lid and add a drained tin of chickpeas and return to the oven, uncovered. Cook another 30 minutes to concentrate flavours a bit more.
When finished, add the microplaned zest of the lemon and all of its juice to the pot and stir together.
Serve with steamed cous cous, chopped toasted almonds and fresh chopped herbs like coriander and parsley.
Ras el-Hanout spice mix
Ingredients:
Whole spices:
1 tsp coriander seed
1 tsp cumin seed
1/2 tsp white peppercorn
1/2 tsp black peppercorn
3 whole cloves
Ground spices:
3/4 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 tsp turmeric powder
Method:
Toast whole spices in a small dry pan over medium heat. Once fragrent, add to a mortar and pestle and crush into a fine powder. Mix with the remaining ground spices. Store in an airtight container.