Recipe: Moroccan Tagine

Sorry for my absence. Here is the recipe one reader, Valerie, requested from my "Scenes from our Rosh Hashana Table" Post. Please note that my family does not cook with a lot of salt, so please adjust to your own taste preferences. We also made quite a quantity of meat and vegetables, so the meat was stewed in our tagines, and the vegetables were cooked in the same spices, but in the crock pot. Before serving, we combined them.

Key Ingredient:

• Stew meat (we used 5 lbs but the recipe works better when you use 1-3 lbs), cut into 3/4" chunks or cubes

Spice Ingredients:   

• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp chili powder 
• 2 TBS olive oil 
• pinch of salt (if meat is not kosher, i.e., was not salted before purchasing, use 1/2 tsp)
• 2 cinnamon sticks, broken into small pieces
• 1/2 tsp lemon pepper 
• 1 tablespoon date syrup (if no date syrup, use 1 tsp brown sugar)
• 3 minced garlic cloves
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup semi-sweet wine (rose or red, type and amount up to you)

Vegetables (cut into chunks 3/4" cubes or so):

• 1 butternut squash, peeled and cut
• 2 or 3 parsnips
• 2 or 3 potatoes
• 2 or 3 carrots
• 1/2 lb cauliflower (optional)
• 1 large onion, thin sliced to allow for easier caramelization

Fruit:

• handful of raisins
• 10 dried apricots, quartered
• handful of dried cranberries (optional)

To Make:

1. Marinate the meat overnight in a mixture of cumin, coriander, chili powder, olive oil, minced garlic, pepper, salt, cinnamon sticks (break up into small pieces). Use similar marinade to marinate the vegetables -- which can be cooked on the low setting of a crockpot while tagine meat is stewing. 
2. Heat tagine pan on medium heat.  Add 1 tablespoon olive oil.  When it is hot and coats the tagine bottom, add onions.  Cook until caramelized, then remove from tagine. 
3. Add beef and reserved marinade.  Cook until lightly browned all over.  Add the now caramelized onions.  Cover and cook on lowest heat setting for 1 1/2 hours.  
4. Add wine and date syrup.  Recover tagine and cook another 1 hour on lowest heat setting.  Add raisins, apricots and cranberries.  Recover tagine and cook another 30 minutes at lowest heat setting.  
5. Combine with crock pot vegetables in a large serving bowl.  Dish can be served as a full main course with couscous  

A picture of a tagine courtesy of Google Images.