LAMB TAGINE WITH DATES

Many years ago, at least fifteen years, possibly more, we were given a book for Christmas entitled "Tagines and Couscous", things that were not part of our usual cooking repertoire.  Then shortly afterwards, Nick came home from work one day with a lovely Emile Henry tagine dish during the January sales, spotted in the window of a gorgeous kitchenware shop which he passed every day on his way to and from the station. (Sadly the shop closed down several years ago.)

The idea of putting a ceramic dish on the hob to cook something seemed very wrong but we crossed our fingers and tried one of the recipes from the book.  It was delicious and we embarked upon a cooking adventure of buying ingredients we had not used before - at the weekends when we had time to do it.  Tagines require long, slow cooking.  

Our opportunities were limited as my dad came round for dinner every Sunday evening and he was not a fan of "foreign food" so it had to be a Saturday or nothing.  Then, a few years later, my GI (gastrointestinal, not American soldier) problem prevented me from eating anything even faintly spicy and the tagine fell into disuse, gathering dust on the top of the fridge.  The shape of them makes them take up too much space in a cupboard!

We dusted it off and brought it back to France with us after our latest trip to the UK at Christmas - such things have to wait until we make the journey by car! Unfortunately we left the recipe book behind but at least that can be easily fetched the next time we fly!  Nick found one of our favourite recipes from it online here which we adapted to use the two lamb neck steaks, destined originally for making haggis, to make our favourite tagine.

I now manage my GI problem by simply leaving the chillies and strong spices out of recipes!  Everything is just as tasty without the searing heat!

If you don't have a tagine you can of course make the stew in a heavy based saucepan with a tight fitting lid or a cast iron casserole dish.

Ingredients 

1 tblsp olive oil

1 large knob butter

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 small knob of fresh ginger, peeled and grated (or ½tsp ground ginger)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 small lamb neck steaks or 250g lamb, trimmed and cubed

1 tblsp honey

125g stoned dates or just a few, as you like

2 tblsp flaked almonds (optional)

Method

Heat the oil and butter in the tagine, add the chopped onion and fry until golden brown.

Stir in the spices then the meat.  Stir well until the meat is well coated in the spice mixture.

Add enough water to almost cover the meat and bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat, put the lid on and simmer for 1½ hours.

Add the dates, stir well, season with salt and pepper and cook for another 30 minutes.

If using the almonds, melt a little more butter and oil in a small frying pan, stir in the almonds, cook until they begin to turn golden brown and add to the tagine just before serving.

Serve with couscous (or potatoes, or pasta)

Serves 2.