Basic Home-style Tagine
1. Crush four cloves of garlic. Grate a 1 inch finger of fresh ginger. Put the two in a shallow dish.
2. Chop roughly and place together into a large bowl: 4 yellow onions, 1 green bell pepper and 4 hot fresh peppers.
3. Cube to half inch pieces and add to another bowl: 2-3 lbs. of fresh lamb meat (shoulder is fine -- leg is extra fine). Alternatively, cube 2-3 lbs. of fresh beef roast. NOTE: whatever meat you use, placing a largish piece of meaty bone raw into the pot will generously thicken the stew.
4. Place these items raw into a very large pot with a close-fitting top (which will cook in the oven - so must be oven-proof): 6 small potatoes, quartered; 4 medium carrots roughly chopped; 1 fresh fennel, diced. Also add a bunch of parsley minced to the pot. Preheat the oven to 400* Fahren.
5. Roughly dice up 4 fresh tomatoes.
6. Get a large, high-sided frying pan. Add enough olive oil so that you can cover the base after shaking the oil back and forth over the pan. Get a pan cover large enough to cover the frying pan.
7. Turn the heat to Highest and then down to medium high. Let the olive oil get hot enough that you can feel the heat well on the top you've placed over the pan.
8. Add enough of the cubed meat so that, once you've stirred the pieces up, they are not lumped over each other in the pan. You're looking for one shallow layer of meat covering the pan's surface. The heat should be at medium-high. Add the cubes in a lump in the middle of the pan and leave for 3 minutes (this allows the oil at the peripheries to get super-hot). After this time, stir the meat cubes, preferably with a wooden spoon (you gotta watch the surface of your good skillet -- especially if it's iron or enameled iron). Cover the pan and allow it to cook four minutes. Give the meat a good stir, recover, and cook three minutes. Turn off the heat, and use a slotted spoon to remove the braised meat from the skillet to the pot (where you've already got the potato, carrot, etc.). Add another batch of meat and do the same (2 batches should do it -- the meat should be 'grey' rather than uniformly brown).
9. With the meat removed from the skillet, there should be a layer of oil and meat essence. Add the garlic and ginger: cover and cook on medium high. When they begin to get brown, and the oil has turned clear and is popping with heat (diminished) add the tomatoes. Cook all of these together, covered, until you've found that most of the liquid has evaporated. Brown ginger and garlic have been infused with red tomato. Scrape it all into the big pot.
10. Add just enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the skillet. Cover and heat at medium high. After about three minutes, add the onion, bell and hot pepper mix. Recover. Cook, stirring every 3-5 minutes. When the onion mixture begins to stick slightly to the skillet and it's turning brown, then turn the heat down a little. Add the tomato bits and liquid and recover. When the tomatoes have reduced with the onions and the peppers, scrape the mixture into the big pot. Dont let the onions burn.
11. Add these spices to the big pot with everything else: 1 tablespoon of the following -- ground cumin, ground coriander seeds and ground chili pepper (cayenne). 2 teapsoons salt. 1 teaspoon of tumeric, cinnamon, black pepper. 1 dash (1/2 teaspoon) allspice, cloves.
12. Add water or broth to the big pot. The amount is 3 cups (approx.). I recommend broth -- lamb, chicken or beef. Fresh or granuated is fine (fresher's always better -- stew with a bone or two is always better).
13. Heat the whole mess in the big pot over an oven hob to the point that you can hear it beginning to bubble.
14. When the pot is beginning to bubble, cover it and place it in the oven. Turn the heat down to 350* Fahren. Cook an hour, take out and stir, return, and cook another two hours at 300*. Turn off the oven and leave the pot in the oven closed for an hour.
Tagine tastes much better the second day, and is better still on the third day.
Couscous to accompany tagine:
1. Measure 1 cup of medium couscous and dump in a big ceramic bowl.
2. Boil water with a kettle or a microwave. Add same volume (1 cup) of boiled water to the couscous with a big dab of butter and a few shakes of salt. Stir with a fork until the water is absorbed. Leave the couscous for ten minutes.
3. Fluff the set couscous with a fork. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave for 3.5 minutes on high heat. Fluff grains with a fork and you're ready to serve with tagine.
4. OR if you have no microwave, then put another dab or two of butter over the settled couscous and cover with aluminium foil. Bake the ceramic dish covered for one hour. Check to make sure that the butter has melted, and then fluff the baked couscous with the fork. It should be ready to serve with the tagine.
