Moroccan Beef Tagine

The beef tagine that I made last 2 weeks. Putting daging qurban to good use (*_^).

A tagine (tajine) dish is basically a rich meat stew originated from North Africa. It is a dish made popular by the Moroccan people with their style of cooking the dish in a special claypot called tagine/tajine. Safe to say that a tagine is a rich meat stew cooked in a tagine.

This is a tagine (the pot). Made of clay with the bottom part forming a shallow pot comes with cone shaped lid. Pic credit to www.mediterraneandiet.com

But with the absence of a tagine pot, cooking this Moroccan stew made easy with simmering it over heat on the stove or alternatively cooking it in the oven over long period, say 1 1/2 hour to 2 hours until the meat is tender.

Moroccan Beef Tagine

courtesy of Bordbia

Ingredients

• 1 kg well trimmed shoulder/chuck beef or shoulder of lamb, cubed
• 1 tablesp. ground ginger
• 1 teasp. ground black pepper
• 1 teasp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tablesp. turmeric
• 1½ tablesp. paprika
• ½ teasp. chilli powder
• 1-2 tablesp. olive oil
• 2 large onions, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 100g dried apricots, chopped - i omit coz i don't have any
• 50g sultanas or raisins
• 250ml tomato juice
• 125ml beef or lamb stock
• 1 tablsp. honey
• Juice of ½ lemon
• Salt to taste

Topping: (optional) 

Mix together:

• 1-2 tablesp. fresh coriander, chopped 
• Grated rind of 1 lemon 
• 50g almonds, chopped 
• Salt and black pepper

To Cook

Method

Set oven Gas Mark 4, 180ºC (350ºF).

Place the meat in a large bowl.

Mix the spices together and coat the meat with the spices.

Heat half the oil in a large pan and brown the onions well and place in a flameproof casserole, then brown the meat in the remaining hot oil (do this in batches to get the meat a good colour).

Transfer to the casserole with the onions.

Add all remaining ingredients. Stir well, bring to the boil.

Place in the oven for approx. 1½ hours or until the meat is very tender.

Serving Suggestions

Sprinkle on the topping and serve with rice or cous cous.

Cooking this dish reminds me of another meat stew dish popular among the Italian called Osso Buco. They share similiarity in ingredients use except in a tagine spices is added. It is a one pot meal which can be eaten with white rice or cous cous. This is the second time I made cous cous. I bought the instant cous cous a couple of months back but I hesitated making it. Mainly because I've never tried a cous cous before. But now, I can say that I like it. It is very light and fluffy, non-starchy alternative to rice. Its texture is similar to millet because cous cous actually originates from millet!!!  But slightly lighter version. The taste of cous cous is rather bland on its own. You need to add a small pinch of salt or cook them with chicken stock to add flavour. It is packed with protein and fiber. Not only it tastes good, it makes a perfect diet too!!!