When you give a mouse a cookie II: Lamb, prune and almond tagine with honeyed caramelized onions and couscous

Tag-ine. You’re it.

Sorry. I couldn’t resist.

There was one rule for the potluck: bring something from a cuisine from which you normally don’t eat. Okay. There were two: list the ingredients beside the dish.

I suppose the challenge was easier said than done.

In the week prior to the lunch, I’d already partaken in Scandinavian, Italian, French, Mexican, Southern US, Thai and Vietnamese, along with the ubiquitous “Canadian” fare (foods that if I thought over long and hard I could ascribe to a region, but really: when you’re at the point of gnawing off your own leg, as long as the meal’s ready, edible and within reach, do you really want undertake a genealogical search on what you’re about to put in your mouth?).

Instead of challenging myself to a cuisine, I decided to revisit an underused-in-my-kitchen ingredient, and from that find some sort of national or cultural theme.

I’m not sure why I settled on lamb. As an unashamed carnivore who doesn’t practise ageism (apart from best before dates), I’m fully aware of the controversy of such a choice for a communal meal. But at the same time, it is a favoured meat in so many parts of the world. With so many options that lay before me—Chinese, Indian, the swath of Arabic-speaking nations, countries that lie on the Mediterranean’s northern shore—I decided to throw caution to the wind and simply cook.

Thanks to the genius that is Claudia Roden, I quickly became fixated on Morocco. I’d spent a day in Tangiers two lifetimes ago and fell in love with it as only a 16 year old school girl could. In Arabesque, I found two dishes that immediately leapt to the head of the queue Tagine Bil Barkok Wal Loz and Keskou Tfaya—Tagine of Lamb with Prunes and Almonds and Couscous with Lamb, Onions and Raisins.

Flicking between the two recipes, I quickly realised they could easily be combined into one. The prunes and almonds would be kept along with the couscous and honeyed caramelised onions. The couscous Claudia calls for is plain, but mine is usually made with stock, whole spices and raisins. A happy marriage of her two dishes, I think.

Moroccan stews or “tagines,” borrow their name from shallow round clay cooking pots with conical lids. If you don’t have the eponymous cooking vessel, you can simply use an aptly-sized lidded pot. Sweet and hearty, tagines of lamb and prune are the most well-known fruit tagines outside of Morocco, and often served with couscous and hot, buttered chickpeas.

Lamb, Prune and Almond Tagine with Honeyed Caramelized Onions
Serves 8

5-6 onions (approx 1.25kg (2.75lbs)),
Flavourless oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1tsp ground ginger
4 whole cloves, bashed lightly
3Tbsp ground cinnamon, divided
1kg (2lbs) boned lamb shoulder, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 2.5 cm (1”) chunks
Copious amounts of black pepper (start with 3Tbsp)
Salt
Water (approx 1.25L (5c))
400g (14oz) moist pitted prunes
A good, solid pinch of saffron threads (about 0.5tsp)
40g (3Tbsp) butter
1Tbsp olive oil
2Tbsp runny honey
100g (3.5oz) blanched whole almonds
3-4 drops sesame seed oil

Finely chop one of the onions and tip into a large heavy-bottomed pot with four tablespoons oil, garlic, half the ginger, cloves and one teaspoon cinnamon. Cook until the onions begin to turn translucent. Add the meat and brown on all sides. Cover with water, add about two tablespoons of pepper and a few heavy pinches of salt. Bring the pot to a boil and then reduce the flame and leave the meat to quietly simmer for about 1.5-2hrs.

Meanwhile, prepare the caramelised onions. Thinly slice the remaining onions into lunettes, place in a wide, shallow pan with 250ml (1c) water. Cover and cook over a low flame for about half an hour. Unlid, turn up the heat and continue cooking until all the liquid has evaporated. Add the butter, olive oil and stir until the onions caramelise to a warm, deep brown. Mix in the honey, one rounded teaspoon of cinnamon and a good pinch of salt.

Toast the almonds in a few drops of oil until golden. If you wish, you can roughly chop about half the nuts, or leave them whole.

The lamb is ready when it is tender and can be easily pulled apart with your fingers. When so, give the pot a stir (you can remove any scum that's floated to the top, if you wish, but it's not necessary) and add the prunes, remaining cinnamon, saffron, another teaspoon or two of pepper, the caramelised onions and stir again. Let simmer and thicken for 30 minutes.

Taste the thickened tagine and balance flavours to taste. Stir in the almonds and a few drops of sesame oil.

Note: Beef can be substituted for lamb.


Couscous is semolina made from ground hard durum wheat which is then sprinkled with water and then rolled in flour, and is Morocco’s national dish. The couscous found in Western markets is the pre-cooked, instant variety that requires some boiling water and a relatively short steaming time. Properly cooked, couscous is light and fluffy and can be served with meat or vegetable dishes, or can be sweetened and used in desserts.

Couscous
Serves 8

500g (3c) couscous
Pepper
Salt
A couple of handfuls of sultana raisins
5cm (2-inch) cinnamon stick
4-6 cardamom pods, lightly crushed
600ml (approx 2.5c) vegetable broth, off the boil
2Tbsp flavourless oil
A couple of teaspoons of butter (optional)

Mix the couscous, raisins and spices together and then pour the hot broth over the grains. Mix well. Cover the bowl with cling film, a lid or simply put a dinner plate over top. Let the grains swell for 10 minutes.

Mix in the oil. Rub the couscous between your hands, above the bowl, letting the grains separate and tumble back to the bowl, breaking up any lumps.

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F.

Tip the couscous into an ovenproof dish and pop it into the oven for about 15 minutes (or until it begins to steam). Before serving you can, if you wish, stir in the butter, as you fluff the grains with a fork.

cheers!
jasmine


I'm a quill for hire!

If you give a mouse a cookie Part I: Roasted pepper, chickpea and feta salad

If necessity is the mother of invention, then an inability to sleep is the upstairs neighbour of a busy kitchen.

Which is probably why a caffeine-fuelled evening that led to my inability to sleep, combined with my natural (and I would argue genetic) completionist tendencies, transformed a single-dish potluck offering to a multi-part supper in itself.

It all started when the Toronto panel session I attended ended a tad early. Traffic on the 401 was more than a tad easy. The coffee I had early in the evening kept me more than a tad awake in the-close-to-wee hours.

At home, I did what any normal person would do: I flitted around my kitchen like a hummingbird wired on double espressos, looking for something to do. I didn't feel like baking. Cooking another meal would have been silly as most of the week would have me eat anywhere but home. Alas, it was also too early in the week to prepare my potluck offering.

There I stood, illuminated by the fridge's bulb, pondering its contents. The only thing I could see were bell peppers: the mediumscarymegamart had them on sale so my veggie drawer was full to bursting with oblong orbs.

My potluck muse must have arrived directly from the markets of Tangiers or Marrakesh, sending me into a decidedly Moroccan frame of mind. With North Africa in mind, Claudia Roden's Arabesque offered a solution to my excesses of energy and bell peppers. Her recipe for Felfla Wal Hummas Wa Jban (Roast Peppers and Chickpeas with Fresh Goat's Cheese) was reminiscent of Nigella's roasted pepper and feta starter from Nigella Bites.

Yes, my singular, effortless potluck offering became two relatively effortess potluck offerings. As my Dear Little Cardamummy believes: better to have more food than less.

So there I sat on my kitchen kick stool, at midnight, in front of Beelzebub's window, wearing my white and blue floral printed flannelette granny jammies, occasionally practising culinary voyeurism while reading Nigel Slater's latest tome. I peered into my oven's window as the buckled baking tray encouraged the peppers to rock, roll and wobble in their desert-like heat: their wrinkled and blackened skins spat and oozed boiling juices from blistered gashes. Before my energies dissapated, they were stripped of their char and voided of their seeds, sliced into strips and popped into the fridge to be mixed with chickpeas and their flavourings.

Anyone who didn't know me (and I'm sure those who do) would have thought me mad, I'm sure.

This is easily a pantry dish, especially if you are running late and don't want to roast the peppers yourself and have a favourite jarred offering from your grocer, but you may have to adjust the dressing to make up for the extra sharpness that comes from the vinegar store-bought peppers are packed in.

For a more substantial lunch dish, add chunks of boiled potatoes and perhaps chunks of tinned tuna, with a sprinkling of roughly chopped flat-leafed parsley.

How to roast bell peppers:
Set your oven to its hottest temperature and let it come up to temp. Place whole peppers onto a foil-lined tray and pop into the oven. After 15 minutes, turn the fruit so an unblistered side is foil-down, roast for 10 minutes. Roast remaining sides for 8-10 minutes each.

When done, remove the peppers from the tray and place in a pot with a tight-fitting lid and let steam for about 15 minutes. When the fruit are cool enough to handle, slip off the charred skins from the flesh and remove the stem and seeds.


Roasted pepper, chickpea and feta salad
Serves 8-10

6 roasted red bell peppers, slivered
1x540ml (8.5oz) tin chickpeas, drained
60ml (0.25c) extra virgin olive oil
Juice of one lemon
4 garlic cloves, minced
salt
Pepper
1 Tbsp dried oregano
100g (3.5oz) feta cheese

Make the dressing by combining the oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper and oregano.

Mix the pepper ribbons and chickpeas together. Pour the dressing over top and give the contents a light stir.

About 10 minutes before serving, mix in the feta cheese.


cheers!
jasmine

I'm a quill for hire!

BloggerAid: H20 Hope for Haiti

When our dear Val from More Than Burnt Toast announced a fundraiser to assist with providing potable water for those impacted by last month's Haitian earthquake I immediately offered her the use of my space to help publicise this endeavour.

BloggerAid's online raffle will take place from 21-28 February 2010; $10/£6.50 tickets can be purchased through their JustGiving page. There's no pressure to donate or buy a ticket--if you can, that's fabulous. If you cannot donate, that's fine, but please consider passing the word on via whichever means you choose (email, your own blog, Twitter account...).


As we watch the horrifying events unfold in Haiti and reflect on how soon in the new decade thousands of people's lives have been destroyed, it is easy to feel overwhelmed – I’m sure we all do. But a first-hand account from somebody who had flown a relief flight to Haiti after the quake provided the impetus to push us into action and not stand idly by as others suffered.

H2OPE for Haiti co-ordinator Jeanne writes:

“A few days after the quake, one of my closest friends updated his Facebook
status to say he was off to Haiti. As a qualified pilot he had volunteered to
fly a plane full of relief supplies from Paris to Haiti. He told me afterwards
than nothing could have prepared him for the experience. When the plane finally
was allowed to land, there were no steps up to the cockpit level - which was a
good thing because the plane was literally stormed by desperate people. While
the cargo doors at the back were opened and guarded by troops so that the
supplies could be offloaded, the pilots were left looking at a sea of desperate
and pleading faces below them. In the end, they opened the passenger doors
and threw everything they could to the people below - the plane’s first aid
kits, blankets, toilet paper, and even bottles of water and food meant for the
crew. He said he had never seen such desperation and hopes never to do so again.

He also told me that the air traffic controllers were operating a strict
priority landing system. The operators of each plane had to fax the ATCs proof
of what cargo a plane was carrying. Planes carrying priority items got to land
first. My friend’s plane was in a holding pattern for 2 hours - until the cargo
manifest came through and showed they were carrying water. Then they were
instantly told to land.”

From Sunday, February 21 - Sunday, February 28th, BloggerAid Changing the Face of Famine (BA-CFF) will be launching H2Ope for Haiti, an online raffle to raise funds for Concern Worldwide's relief effort in Haiti. As clean drinking water was one of the most acute needs in the aftermath of the quake, we selected Concern Worldwide because of its long track record and quick response after the quake to provide clean drinking water and water purification tablets. This non-governmental international humanitarian organisation founded in 1968 works around the world to reduce suffering and work towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world's poorest countries. Concern International has been working in Haiti since 1994 and had over 100 staff members on the ground when the earthquake struck. Despite losing several team members in the tragedy, they have been quick to act with distribution of supplies and in the first 14 days after the quake they chartered two flights to bring emergency supplies to Haiti, distributed 135,000 litres of water per day (and water purification tablets) to 50,000 people and set up 3 nutrition camps which have helped 700 people.

According to Tom Arnold, CEO of Concern Worldwide: “The destruction is profound, you see the devastation everywhere, but you see the depth of this tragedy most in the eyes of the people you meet as they struggle to survive, to respond and to grieve. The task ahead is huge.” Concern Worldwide estimates that its initial response to the emergency will last at least six months. In the coming weeks, Concern Worldwide’s priorities are to: Initiate a cash-for-work cleanup campaign to help victims of the earthquake earn a basic living - Build temporary latrines for 15,000 people - Provide temporary shelter (tents and plastic sheeting) for 25,000 people - Set up 7 outreach nutrition centres in camps for displaced persons, especially children under the age of one.

All of this will, of course, need financial resources and we hope that by running this raffle BA-CFF will be able to help in some small way to finance Haiti’s recovery process.

The money raised by this raffle will be paid directly into a Justgiving page, meaning that nobody at BA-CFF will have any money in our possession - the money gets paid directly into the charity's account, to be applied exclusively to the Haiti relief effort. We thought this was the most secure and least controversial way to do it, even if it attracts a 7.5% fee. The other benefit of Justgiving is that they accept credit cards, debit cards and Paypal as payment methods, making it as easy as possible for people all over the world to donate and participate.

cheers!
jasmine


I'm a quill for hire!