Storms and chickens

[The Dogmother]

(this is my own recipe, so a bit jumbled, but worth cooking for the beautiful smell in the house!)

 

Brown some chopped onion and garlic, tip into the slow cooker, brown some diced lamb and add to the slow cooker. dissolve a Bouillon vegetable stock cube in a mug full of boiling water and add, then add the following: sprig of rosemary, teaspoon of ground coriander, 1/2 teaspoon of cumin, teaspoon of harissa paste, grated lemon zest, 1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves, chopped coriander, 2 tins of chopped tomatoes, 2 tablespoons of tomato puree, salt and pepper, tin of drained and rinsed chickpeas, chopped prunes and dried apricots. mix it all up and set the slow cooker to medium for 5-6 hours and let it simmer away. It is gorgeous served with fresh coriander and either rice or couscous. I like to serve with some plain yoghurt mixed with chopped mint.

[kannie]

Sounds lovely Claret! Do you have Claudia Roden's books? She has some lovely recipes like this.

[The Dogmother]

I've not seen them, but thansk for the recommendation Kannie - I'll keep my eyes open.

[chickencam]

I'll definately be giving this a go But pancakes tonight

[Rhapsody]

I love lamb tagine, good recipe Claret!

BUT if I dont have any pickled lemons to have with it I sulk badly

[The Dogmother]

I know, they are the icing on the cake, aren't they?

 

It's one of those recipes that I don't cook often and when I do, I suddenly remember how lovely it is.

 

I picked up a few recipes when I was living in N Africa - there's a similar one with liver.

[Guest]

here's the one i make all the time, it's also delicious. I tend to brown the lamb and then lob everything else in and leave it in a low oven for a couple of hours as I can't be bothered with any faffing and it's always turned out gorgeous We have it with plain cous cous which is great for soaking up the juices.

 

I use the proper 'ras el hanout' spices and it makes a big difference as I've tried with ordinary supermarket moroccan spice and it's not a patch!

 

I get my spices on line from 'seasoned pioneers'.

 

Anyway, here's the recipe

 

Lamb Tagine

 

Diced lamb (I used 1.5 lb but you can use however much you need)

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 pepper, diced

1 teaspoon flour

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 tablespoon Moroccan spices

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon harissa paste (this is like a chilli paste

- use chillis if you can't get hold of any)

1 handful chopped dried apricots

1 handful flaked almonds

Salt and pepper to taste (I only added a very little salt and plenty of pepper)

 

Brown the meat in a little oil. Add onions and garlic and cook gently for 3-4 minutes. Add the pepper and cook another 2 minutes.

Add the flour and stir until absorbed in the juices Add the tomatoes, harissa paste and spices.

If too thick add a little water until the sauce is the correct consistency.

Bring to the boil, then add the apricots and almonds.

Put into the oven in a dish with a lid at 160 degrees and leave for about an hour and half. If you leave up to two and half hours it is not a problem - just makes it all more tender.

[Tessa the Duchess]

Mmmm am going try this sounds yummy. Poet, what colour pepper do you

use, or doesn't it matter?

 

Tessa.

[Guest]

Mmmm am going try this sounds yummy. Poet, what colour pepper do you

use, or doesn't it matter?

 

Tessa.

 

whatever i have to hand Tessa, sometimes I use romano peppers sometimes bell peppers and i've even used those little sweet orange ones or a mixture. Just depends what I have in the fridge at the time

[Tessa the Duchess]

Mmmm am going try this sounds yummy. Poet, what colour pepper do you

use, or doesn't it matter?

 

Tessa.

 

whatever i have to hand Tessa, sometimes I use romano peppers sometimes bell peppers and i've even used those little sweet orange ones or a mixture. Just depends what I have in the fridge at the time

 

Thanks Poet, will use a mixture then, I always like to see the different

colours in something I've cooked.

 

Tessa

[Guest]

i got a load of price reduced dried apricots a while ago so I'm going to make a huge batch of this tomorrow, some for the freezer Got a massive cauldron full of chilli on the go at the moment!

 

While I love to cook, I'm looking forward to some nights where I can just get hubster to reheat something I've previously frozen