Lamb Tagine

Having recently decided to kick off our camping season at Yellow Sands, we wanted to prepare a dish on the fire that we hadn’t tried before. Lamb Tagine, with its wonderful spices, sweet apricots and toasted almonds over a bed of Mediterranean couscous sounded like a great option.

There’s a problem though – we don’t have a tagine (the traditional Moroccan cooking pot made of clay or ceramic with a cone-shaped cover).

Photo by Maria Orlova on Pexels.com

Traditional Moroccan tagine pot

We decided that our ‘potjie’ (cast iron pot/Dutch oven) would probably produce the same results. This is our version of Moroccan lamb tagine – made in a South African ‘potjie’.

South African ‘potjie’ – our tagine pot

Before we started making the lamb tagine, we went for a stroll along the Kwelera River. Great was our surprise when we ran into the owners of Fooderia in Langebaan, our home town. Fooderia is a lovely deli/coffee shop and my favourite place in Langebaan when I want to buy those mouth-watering pastel de nata. We have never met before and here, 1100km from Langebaan we camped together at Yellow Sands – I love it when life throws such wonderful surprises at you.

Kwelera River at Yellow Sands – the backdrop for our Dish of the Week

Put it on the table:

There is no doubt that it is the spices that give this dish such a unique taste. The recipe calls for the spice Ras El Hanout, but we couldn’t find it anywhere. However, we came across a good alternative at Woolworths, namely Moroccan Tagine Seasoning. We will probably keep a few packets of these in our pantry.

Ingredients for Lamb Tagine

750g lamb cubes

2 onions, chopped

½ tablespoon grated fresh ginger

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 cinnamon sticks

2½ tablespoons Moroccan Tagine Seasoning

½ tablespoon turmeric

1 teaspoon cumin

1 pinch of saffron (dissolved in 2 tablespoons of hot water)

salt & pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 can (410g) chopped tomatoes

500ml (2 cups) chicken stock

1 tablespoon honey

1 cup dried Turkish apricots

butter & olive oil, to fry

1 cup blanched almonds

chopped fresh coriander (garnish)

Mix all the spices (except saffron, salt & pepper) together in one bowl and set aside. Toss lamb cubes with salt and pepper. Heat butter and oil in ‘potjie’ and brown the lamb in 2 batches, turning all over to colour (about 3 minutes each side). Once done, remove to a bowl.

Brown lamb cubes and set aside

Add chopped onion to ‘potjie’ and fry for about 5 minutes. Add ginger and garlic and cook for another 5 minutes until soft.

Fry onion and add ginger and garlic

Add cinnamon sticks, spice mix and dissolved saffron to the onion mixture and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Add the spices

After 2 minutes there was a wonderful aroma in the air

Return the lamb to the ‘potjie’ and add tomato paste and then the chopped tomatoes.

Add tomato paste and chopped tomatoes

Add chicken stock and honey. Place the lid on the ‘potjie’ and cook slowly for 1 hour.

Add chicken stock and honey

Add the apricots after 1 hour, put the lid back on and cook for another 45 minutes. (If you are concerned that the liquid reduced completely, add ½ cup water.)

Add apricots

Lamb Tagine after almost 2 hours on the fire

Fry the blanched almonds in a little butter, oil and honey until golden brown. Follow the instructions on the pack to prepare the couscous and set aside.

Fry almonds until golden brown

Couscous – ready in only minutes

Serve the lamb tagine over the couscous and sprinkle with toasted almonds and garnish with freshly chopped coriander.

Yummy Lamb Tagine

A five-star camp meal

This is a dish we will definitely make again when camping. It doesn’t require much effort – it’s the combination of spices that turn this into an exceptional meal. In our next post (read here) we will show you more of our campsite and surroundings. Until then, enjoy cooking!