Great recipe. I made it "as is" initially but found it was missing that certain-North-African something. Here are my modifications based on the fact I grew up eating and making this dish:
- Add 1/2 tsp of ground caraway and 1/2 tsp of allspice. This really adds that extra kick for those who are craving Restaurant quality North African cuisine.
- Don't bother with the saffron in the marination. Saffron is more expensive than gold, and it only releases flavor in liquid (warm water or broth). Using it in the meat marinade just lends color; the flavor (and cost) is lost (the turmeric will give enough).
- I cooked the onions, garlic and ginger and let them sweat before adding the raw meat; completely skipped the browning process. (We don't brown meat for stews in North Africa).
- I added homemade beef broth - it's not recommended to use chicken stock if dealing with a lamb dish. This is a big NO-NO in North African cuisine. Disregard my comment if you used chicken!
- I used preserved lemons instead of the lemon zest indicated in the recipe. These are hard to find based on where you are located; but not hard to make at home if you have time. I used half a preserved lemon, sliced it thinly and added it with the carrots.
- Lastly, if you have "Harissa", a Tunisian chili paste, I would recommend this mixed with regular tomato paste, over the sun-dried tomatoes. Please NOTE: Harissa is spicy so disregard if you are trying to tone it down.
Delicious!! I prepped everything and let it simmer all afternoon in a slow cooker. The meat was so tender and flavorful!
Excellent. I just wish I had more time to marinate the lamb - only had a couple hours. But I browned the lamb and then threw everything in the crock pot and it was great. If you happen to be able to get your hands on ras al hanout season blend, you don't have to worry around with all the different spices - just use 2 1/2 tablespoons of that for the marinade, and then add and additional tablespoon and the ginger to the crock pot. Places like Cost Plus carry it really cheap!
Oh YEAH!! Need to up the 'stars' to 10 out of 5 for this! What a fantastic recipe!! This was the first time I had cooked Moroccan for my family but this was the BEST! I bought a jar of Moroccan Seasoning but also added a little bit of each of the spices I had in the cupboard too. Marinated it in the dry spice mix in the fridge overnight. Next morning browned the meat added the rest of the ingredients to the pot as per recipe then tipped it all into the slow cooker for 3.5 hrs on high. Added sultanas and pine nuts in final hour. Served over rice as we are not cous cous fans.
Fantastic!! As soon as I mixed all the spices together I knew this dish would be amazing. I used chicken as I could not find lamb and it worked out really well. I also added some cubed yams since I didn't have too much meat. I couldn't wait for this recipe to finish cooking!! The wonderful aromas filled my entire apartment building and it tasted every bit as good as it smelled. I will be making this frequently. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!Highly recommended!!
I am blessed with having experienced North African cooking at it's best -- in the everyday households around Morocco. This recipe produced the best tagine I've had outside of Morocco and definitely my best personal effort. I followed "lumiere's" review -- don't brown the meat as that is never done in traditional North African cooking! I haven't made preserved lemons yet, but instead I added juice of half a lemon at the very end -- added it to the broth and stirred gently. A Moroccan tradition (and possibly Algerian and Tunisian?) is to use 7 vegetables: alway onion and the 6 of the following: carrots, parnips, potato, turnip, zucchini, yellow squash, pumpkin or other squash, tomato, green beans -- you get the idea, whatever is fresh and in season. I also substituted chicken for the lamb. I love lamb, but chicken is easier to find than good lamb, which requires a trip to the local halal meat market. I am not a fan of turnips, but just one small turnip will add a rich flavor and if I end up eating it thinking it's a potato -- well, the sauce is enough to mask the strong taste for the most part. :) As they say in Morocco -- b'sahatik! To your health!
Very good! I didn't include turmeric and substituted garam masala for many of the individual ingredients (cardamom coriander cinnamon etc which I did not have on hand). It still came out well and is really quite easy to make despite the long list. I added pine nuts for that extra crunch. The recipe tastes very good with lamb but lamb is not my favourite meat and I will probably try it with chicken next.
I know it looks like lamb in the pic but it's actually chicken. The ingredient list was a bit intimidating but it really wasn't too difficult to make. Next time I'll serve this with brown rice.
Amazing Recipe! What flavor - and the aroma... the spices are a great blend. I'm going to make the spices up in larger quantity to use more frequently. I added a handful of dried apricots & prunes... definitely will make it again.
it's basically really expensive beaf stew.WAY greasy and time/money consuming.
