A Moroccan Easter Feast: Lamb and Fennel Tagine

A couple of weeks before my birthday in March, I told my husband that I was on the lookout for a tagine.  And not just any tagine, but a traditionally decorated clay tagine.  He replied, "Really?" And I went on to explain that perhaps I would start a clay vessel collection.  I already have a cazuela from Spain and a baeckoeffe turine from France.  I thought the next addition should be a tagine.  Lo and behold, guess what I got for my birthday--the beautiful tagine in these photos!  And the funny part is that he had already ordered it before I mentioned I wanted one.  He's quite a husband!  :-)

The beautiful Moroccan tagine

I hadn't had time to make anything in it, but we thought that Easter would be the perfect time to test it out.  And let me tell you, this little clay vessel can cook a mean stew.  The lamb practically melted in our mouths.  According to the Moroccan cookbook that my husband also gave me, you can create a tagine (which also can mean the stew) in a dutch oven or pot with a heavy lid, but dutch ovens can't beat a traditional tagine's beauty--it brought a certain elegance to our table that is often missing with a four year old and an 11 month old.

I served this tagine with a traditional bed of couscous and some Moroccan carrots on the side.  (I'll post about these later this week.)  This is definitely a time consuming, if simple, dish to make, so plan accordingly--but I'll be looking for every excuse I can to use this special birthday gift!

Lamb and Fennel Tagine
Adapted from Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco
Serves 6-8 easily

1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup grated onion
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
3/4 tsp ground ginger
Pinch of saffron
1/4 tsp turmeric
2 1/2 to 3 pounds lamb shoulder, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks and trimmed of excess fat

1 clove garlic, smashed1/4 cup chopped cilantro, plus more for garnish
4 small fennel bulbs
1 preserved lemon, or one lemon plus 1 Tbl olive oil, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and halved
1/8 cup lemon juice

In the base of a tagine or a dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.  (If using a tagine, make sure to use a diffuser.)  Saute the onions until translucent.  Add the salt, pepper, ginger, saffron and turmeric and stir for one minute.  Add the lamb, garlic, cilantro and one cup of water and stir well.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer over medium to low heat (keep at just a simmer) for 1 1/2 hours.  Stir every so often and add water if necessary.

While the lamb is cooking, prepare the lemons if you do not have preserved lemon.  Slice the lemon into thin rounds.  Heat about one tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat in a non-stick skillet.  Add the lemon slices and one teaspoon each of salt and sugar.  Cook, stirring often, until the lemons soften and start to brown, about 20 minutes.  Remove from the heat and set aside.  (If using preserved a preserved lemon, quarter the lemon.)

Trim the tops off of the fennel bulbs and quarter them lengthwise.  Cut into 1-2 inch pieces.  Add to the lamb after it has cooked 1 1/2 hours.  Cook, covered, for 10 minutes.  Add the lemons, olives and lemon juice and stir well.  Cook, covered, for another 10 minutes or until the fennel is tender.  Taste and add salt or pepper to taste.

Serve in the tagine or in a large bowl with couscous.  Serve hot.

Although my 11 month old doesn't understand the concept of an elegant Easter dinner, he sure did enjoy it!

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Rogan Josh: A Warming Lamb Stew

I have decided to dedicate the rest of January to a few Indian food recipes that my husband and I like to make. Why? Because it's cold and rainy here, and Indian food, with its spices and heat, warm you up like no other food. It's comfort food at its best.

My husband does most of the Indian food cooking in our household. There's no real reason except that he likes it, although I just can't keep myself away from the kitchen, even when it is my night off! So I usually help prep and cook the rice. We've found that Indian food isn't difficult to cook, but it can be time consuming, and the ingredient lists are often daunting. Rogan Josh is a pretty simple recipe to start with, and if you can get some good local lamb, all the better! A friend from India mentioned that he sometimes puts beets into his Rogan Josh, but we haven't tried that yet...feel free to play around with the root vegetables you add, though. We typically stick to potatoes and carrots, but peas would be great added at the very end too.

**We get our Rogan Josh seasoning from Penzey's Spices, but you can also find it at Indian grocery stores, online, or if you're lucky at your local grocery store. If you can't find it, you could always make your own--just Google it!

Lamb Rogan Josh
Adapted from Penzey's Spices
Makes 4 servings


2 Tbl vegetable oil
1 lb lamb stew meat, trimmed of excess fat
1 large white onion, minced
2 Tbl Rogan Josh seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water
1/2 cup plain whole yogurt
2 medium waxy potatoes (such as Yukon Gold), washed and cubed into 1/2-inch pieces
4 carrots, peeled and sliced into coins

Heat the oil in a large saute pan or dutch oven with a lid over medium-high heat. Add the lamb and brown. Remove the lamb to a bowl. Add the onion and cook, stirring often until browned lightly. Add the Rogan Josh and salt and cook for one minute, stirring constantly. Add the meat and juices back into the pot along with the water and yogurt. Stir gently until mixed thoroughly. Cover and cook 1-2 hours over low heat. (We usually cook it for about an hour, but the longer you cook it, the more tender the meat will be.)

Add the potatoes in the last 45 minutes of cooking. Add the carrots in the last 20 minutes of cooking. (If there doesn't seem to be enough sauce to cover the potatoes and carrots, add more water, 1/4 cup at a time until there is enough sauce to adequately cover the meat and vegetables.) Once it has simmered for the amount of time you'd like, uncover and raise the heat to reduce the sauce until it is as thick as you'd like it.

Serve with basmati rice and raita. (Recipes coming soon!)

**This can be made a day ahead and reheated. It can also be frozen easily--just leave out the potatoes. When you are ready to eat it, defrost it, boil the potatoes in water until almost tender, and then add them to the Rogan Josh while you are reheating it on the stove.

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Easter Dinner--Lamb Chops and an Assortment of Veggies

I always say that one of my favorite things about being an adult is that I can eat dessert before dinner (or just have dessert for dinner, for that matter!) I have apparently extended that rule to blogging as well. Although dessert was my favorite part of Easter dinner, the rest of dinner wasn't so shabby either. :-)

We started by deciding to cook some lamb chops. My husband loves lamb, but I've learned from my travels around the world that lamb does not taste the same everywhere. I don't think that I've ever had lamb in the U.S. that I've really, really liked. I don't know what it is about the taste, but there's a strange aftertaste for me with American lamb. I didn't even know I liked lamb until I ate some in Australia, and realized that lamb raised in different places can have different tastes (duh!). So, we decided to try some French lamb--which again is much tastier than American lamb. Maybe I'll have to figure out a way to import lamb once we get back to the States in July. ;-)


I didn't really use a recipe per se, just let the lamb marinate for a couple of hours in a mixture of chopped garlic, rosemary, salt, pepper and just enough olive oil to make the herb mix wet. I pressed that mixture into the chops and let them sit in the fridge. About a half hour before I was going to cook them, I took them out to bring them to room temperature. Then I seared them for a couple of minutes on each side.


I also made a balsamic reduction with some rosemary and peppercorns in a separate saucepan, and then when the lamb chops were done, I poured the reduction into the chop pan, swished it around a couple of times and then removed it from the pan. It was nice and thick, and went well with the lamb. My husband gave the lamb chops two thumbs up...I don't think I heard him say a word, except for "Are you done with that?", until he finished them off!

We also had some garlicky green beans and white asparagus with a Dijon mustard vinaigrette. I make the green beans often as a side dish--just boil some fresh green beans for a minute in a pan, remove them, and drain the water. Add a little olive oil and butter to the pan, add some chopped garlic, and once it starts to soften, toss with the green beans and season with salt and pepper.


And finally, I like white asparagus, but I'm not sure I would use the Dijon vinaigrette again. I wanted a more hearty flavor with it--maybe something more buttery than biting? But they are beautiful right now, aren't they?


We missed being with family for the holiday, but all in all it was a nice little dinner for just the three of us.

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