Moroccan Lamb Tagine

There is a part of me that cries every time I come across a good lamb recipe. The excitement becomes too much for my fragile heart to bear and the expenses on flashy ingredients becomes too much for my frailer wallet to bear. So when I finally land on some recipe that feels like a cool shower in a parched summer desert (excuse the poetic reverberations…this is a foodie’s blog. What else did you expect to find?), I get so attached to it that my dreams of inventing a chocolate that burns belly fat, gets replaced by the said lamb recipe. Yes, if you have a husband who loves lamb and aromatic flavors like mine does, you will start prioritizing your dreams too!

Ranting and lamb recipes don’t quite go well together. So let me get straight down to business.

Moroccan Lamb Tagine.

Things you need:

Lamb shanks/ legs – 4

Sunflower Oil for frying – 2 tbsp

Onions – 2 , sliced

Egg plant – 1, sliced (round)

Garlic cloves- 2 pinch, crushed

Saffron- a pinch

Ginger- ½ ground

Cumin- 1 tsp, ground

Bay leaf- 1

Cinnamon stick- 1

Canned Cherry tomatoes / Chopped red tomatoes- 400g

Dates- 10 (deseeded & halved)

Figs- 5 (optional)

Chicken stock – 1 cube

Step 1: Scroll up, get your motivation from the picture above, and get back to your kitchen stove!

Step 2: Fry the lamb shanks/ legs in the oil, until golden. (Picture shows legs, though I prefer shanks much more!)

Step 3: In some 200 ml water, drop a cube of chicken stock and let it boil. Keep aside.

Step 4: In a large casserole, put in the browned lamb shanks/ legs, sliced onions, crushed garlic, ground ginger, saffron, cumin, bay leaf and cinnamon stick. Saute the egg plant slices in few drops of oil and add it to the mix along with dates and tomatoes. Pour chicken stock over this until it barely covers. (If you need more to cover, just add some hot water.)

Step 5: Cover and simmer for about 2- 2 ½ hours. Use your spoon to mix it around every 15 minutes so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the casserole. Meat should be tender by now! Spoon out the bay leaf and discard.

You can serve it with some crusty bread, or with some couscous rice which will absorb the gravy perfectly. To make that, put the couscous rice grains into some boiling water and mix around with a fork. Turn off the heat in 2 mins, mix around some more, and you are done to serve your drool-worthy dinner!

The Moroccan Lamb Tagine is not spicy, neither is it too sweet. It’s a wonderful blend of both, which hard-core lovers of masala would not get the hang of. So a word of caution if you are cooking for some fanatics of Indian spicy masala- this probably won’t be their thing. The others however, are sure to cream it off the plate!