If you are looking for something you can quickly throw together for dinner, this is NOT it...If you're looking for a succulent dish with an exotic blend of flavors and are ready to open up your kitchen to a far away world then this would be it!!
Pictured below is a lamb tagine with carrots and potatoes
The steps pictures in the step by step instructions are from a beef tagine with fennel and potatoes
My way of cooking tagine is not too traditional; only because I cut the cooking time by first cooking my meat in a pressure cooker and then transferring it to the tagine and building the layers of ingredients on it. This is my mom's way of making it and there are many ways of preparing it depending on different regions and even families.
Steps 1 through 4 can be used to make many kinds of lamb or beef tagine so you can change the vegetables you choose to top it with.
Step 1:
Heat up some canola oil in your pressure cooker (about 4 tablespoons) and add your meat, quickly start adding your spices (pepper, salt, cumin, paprika, ginger, saffron, cinnamon) and stir until it is nice and brown all over.
Add water; you want it to slightly cover the meat and cook for about an hour or an hour and 15 minutes (depending on what cut you choose)
Tip: Spices are good, over usage of spices is bad...You want your blend of spices to compliment your other ingredients not to completley mask and overwhelm them. Please go light on the cinnamon, it needs to be one pinch in this savory recipe (we're not making cinnamon rolls here ok?! LOL)
Another spice that tagine calls for is (Rass el Hanout) which you will not find in your grocery store, if you can get your hand on it great! (use 2 pinches as it's strong) if not then just do without it.
Step 2:
After your meat has cooked, transfer it to the tagine but before you do so you will need to protect it by lining your tagine with either some old utensils or bamboo skewers as shown in the pictures.
Add the sauce from the pressure cooker to the tagine and at this point you will not have the stove on; you will wait until you assemble all the other ingredients on top before you do that.
Step 3:
Get the basic tagine ingredients ready; compare these to a "Mir aux pois" in a soup or a bouquet garni...Meaning that you build your tagine's flavors based on these ingredients:
-Cilantro
-Tomatoes
-Onions
-Garlic (about 3 minced cloves)
-Bouillon cube (I use Knorr)
First add the onions and 1 minced garlic clove with half the bouillon cube, then follow with tomatoes and cilantro. Finish by adding the rest of the garlic and bouillon cube directly on top.
If you're using olives you can add them at this point.
Step 4:
Add the vegetables you chose to make your tagine with; I half cook mine before placing them in my tagine so that by the time the onions and tomatoes are cooked my other vegetables would be ready too (this keeps the flavors fresh)
My favorite combinations to add to my tagines are: peas and potatoes/Carrots and green beans/ peas and artichokes and potatoes and fennel (as pictured)
If you're not familiar with fennel you really need to give it a shot; it is so delicious and fragrant. You only use the bottom part in the tagine (as pictured)
Step 5:
Now that you have assembled your tagine you will place the lid on it and let it cook. It needs to cook on a low heat until the onions are cooked and your topping vegetables are tender (remember that the meat is already cooked). While your tagine is cooking you want to arroser it from time to time (fancy talk for getting some of the sauce over your vegetables so they can absorb the flavor)
If you find that you have a lot of sauce in your tagine and it starts bubbling over the edges, simply place a spoon between the lid and the bottom to let it blow off some steam and reduce.
Enjoy!
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