Ah tagine!
That wonderful rich and aromatic contribution from North Africa.
It’s named after the lovely conical pot that it’s cooked in which is good for keeping the juices flowing back into the food, but following a question from one of our lovely readers we took up the challenge to see whether we could do a great meal in the tagine style, but in a slow cooker.
The cooker wasn’t the only compromise as KC had also ran out of the wonderful spice blend called ras el hanout, so we made up our own from what we had. Oh, and we used beef instead of lamb, we now know we love them both.
The two seem well suited and the results of our first try left our guests itching to lick their plates clean.
The sweet dried fruit and sharp lemon make this pretty amazing.
Here’s what we used to feed four.
Spice mix:
flaked sea salt
ground black pepper – a couple of teaspoons
cumin seeds – a tablespoon (really)
paprika – a tablespoon
tumeric – a couple of teaspoons
nutmeg – a good grind
dried chilli flakes – a teaspoon
ground ginger – a teaspoon
a few cloves
allspice – a generous pinch
Meat – beef or lamb, we used 500g, we just cut it into big chunks, say 3 cm square
A lot of garlic – we used most of the bulb, and we didn’t peel it
An onion roughly chopped
Tin of tomatoes
Tin of chickpeas
A good hand full of coriander including the stalks, roughly chopped
Thumb sized piece of ginger, cut fine
Half a litre of stock, we used vege stock
A handfull of nuts – we used cashews, although flaked almonds are probably more authentic
A small hand full of dried prunes or apricots, chopped roughly
Fine sliced peel of a lemon.
That seems like a lot of ingredients, but assembling them is the hardest part of this simple and wonderful dish.
We rub the spices into the meat and pop it in the fridge overnight, however we have started more like an Indian dish and threw the spices into hot oil at the very start. Both work well, the later gets the kitchen smelling great sooner.
Brown your meat in hot oil.
Soften your onion and garlic then pop in the meat followed soon after by the fresh ginger and lemon peel, giving them a few minutes.
Add the chick peas and tomatoes, then the coriander, then the stock, simmer for ten minutes while you get the slow cooker warm. Carefully pour this mixture into the slow cooker, put the lid on securely and cook on the higher heat for a few hours (or two hours in a saucepan on the hob).
Next pop in the nuts and dried fruit, give it a good stir and then leave for at least another hour on low heat, or until you’re ready to eat. Check the juice and if it’s a bit thin simmer faster with the lid off to reduce.
Serve with couscous or rice.
And if there’s any left let us know – we must have got something wrong!
If you have things like cardamons, mace, anise seeds then pop some into the spice mix, but don’t fret over them. And as always, experiment – ours is different every time.