No tagine pot? No problem!

In our recent post about the year of saying yes, I talked about making lamb for Easter. I had about half of the lamb left after allowing for leftover meals, and decided it was time to branch out into a cuisine I had always wanted to try – a Moroccan tagine.

Tagine refers both to the type of pot and the food itself. A tagine (or tajine) pot has a large, shallow bottom and a conical lid. They are from north Africa and are used to prepare slow cooked meat stews. The conical lid catches steam and allows it to trickle back into the bottom, adding intense flavor to the food. It works in a manner similar to a dutch oven.

I spent some time looking at recipes and ways of cooking without a tagine pot. As long as you have a heavy pot with a tight fitting lid, you can cook a tagine. I ended up using this recipe from Delish (no affiliation).

Preparing the dish

You start to make this Lamb Tagine by cutting up dried apricots. You add them to boiling chicken broth and then remove it from the heat. This plumps them up beautifully. I used turkey broth from the freezer because I had it.

You brown the lamb in your heavy pot with some olive oil until it is brown on all sides. Put the lamb in a bowl and saute onion, garlic, and ginger in the pan. Add tomato paste and stir until the vegetables are coated. You add the spices next and very briefly saute them to toast them.

You then add the lamb, broth and apricots in and let it simmer covered for about an hour and a half, until the sauce has thickened and the lamb is tender. Add some cilantro to the pot and give it a stir. It’s ready to serve over couscous with more fresh cilantro, fresh mint and toasted almonds.

The Spices

The best part of this dish is all the spices and seasonings. Some of the spices lean more savory, like turmeric and coriander. Other spices like cinnamon and cardamon tend to be sweeter. It makes for a complex meal, with lots of layers.

I had most of the seasonings called for in my spice cupboard already, but did have to buy cardamon and saffron. I also picked up the fresh ginger.

Since I was going to be adding the spices all at once during the cooking process, I measured them all and put them in a small bowl together.

It made a colorful and fragrant bowl. This was everything but the cinnamon stick.

Tips

I have actually made this dish twice now. The first time was a couple of weeks after Easter. We liked it so much, I picked up another leg of lamb roast from the grocery, split it in half and put it in the freezer. All the spices makes it seem complicated, but it’s fairly easy to make.

I found that it’s best to just rinse the mint and put it on the table as whole leaves and tear it last minute or it browns very rapidly.

Storing your seasonings

Adding more spices and seasonings to my collection made me wonder how other people organize their cupboards. I have a very large variety and have been thinking about options for storage. Between oils, vinegar, herbs, spices, peppers, flavorings (like vanilla), and so forth, I have 6 turntables, two of which are double stacked, and a number of other items in baskets and bins. And that’s just some of what I have.

I sometimes wonder if it would make sense to get a bunch of the same sized jars for everything, but what do you do if you have a lot of something? For instance, we always buy bigger jars of chili powder and oregano. Or if you have just a little bit of something you don’t use often? I looked at some options and had to laugh when I saw sets that hold 40 seasoning bottles. I would need something for a lot more than that. Let me know what you do in the comments.