Lamb dried fruit tajine

Moroccan Lamb Dried Fruit Tajine Recipe

Lamb Dried Fruit Tajine

Lamb dried fruit tajine

Talk about a glowing example of how a just little work can lead to a glorious feast!
Such is the magic of Moroccan cooking. Stovetop Cooking is THE BEST!

You will make a sensation on Passover and all year-round with this treat!

What is a Tajine?

It is the name of the earthenware pot that gave its name to all dishes cooked in it. The dish cooks on hot coal clay stove called majmar, and comes out impossibly fragrant and succulent.

But of course, no problem using a good heavy wide bottom stainless steel pot, for dried fruit tajine and all tajines.

Side dish? What’s that?

In our native Moroccan cooking, there is no such thing as a side dish. We give equal time for veggies and meat or fish—this is where our respect for veggies comes from. Vegetables cook, either alone or along with the fish or the chicken or the meat and various seasonings, according to their respective cooking times: This is what makes our cooking so flavorful and exciting, and makes us eat our vegetables without any begging or urging.

Lamb Recipes Galore!

My blog is chock-full of lamb recipes. To name just a few favorites;

Lamb Crockpot Soup, 
Boneless Lamb Roast
Tomato Lamb Curry
Lamb Moussaka 

Keep going in my search box: there’s a lot more!

No need to buy expensive cuts of lamb!

There are plenty of very tender and decently priced cuts, such as shanks, or neck. If you start with bone-in parts, you will get a more complex more gelatinous sauce, but there are times where you might be cooking for a larger group and might not be able to accommodate the bones in your pot. In this case boned is fine too.

Beef Tajine

No problem making dried fruit tajine with beef. The recipe remains the same.

Ingredients

  • 4 pounds lamb shanks, or lamb or beef cubes
  • 8 cups water

 

  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 2 large onions, thinly sliced in a food processor
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 pinches saffron
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1 tablespoon grated ginger
  • 1 tablespoon Ras El Hanout
  • 3 sticks cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground pepper
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 ½ cups pitted prunes, packed
  • 1 ½ cups dry apricots, packed
  • 1 cup slivered almonds, toasted 15 minutes in a 300 degree oven

Instructions

Bring the meat and water to boil in a large heavy pot.
Reduce the flame to medium and cook, covered, 2 hours.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet.  Add the onions and cook, on a medium high flame, until dark brown. Add the sugar and cook 1 more minute.

After the meat has cooked 2 hours, add the fried onions, saffron, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon sticks and ground pepper, and cook 45 more minutes. Add the ground cinnamon and dry fruit, and cook 15 more minutes. Transfer the meat and fruit to a platter with a slotted spoon. If the liquid in the pot is too thin, reduce at high flame until thickened, and pour over meat. Just before serving, sprinkle the dried fruit tajine with the almonds.

Makes 8 servings

8 replies
    • Lévana
      Lévana says:

      Ruthie Thank you so much! Yes you can. Don’t sprinkle the almonds in the portion of the dish you are not serving. Always sprinkle them just before serving.

  1. Lévana
    Lévana says:

    I wouldn’t force this very dish into a vegetarian dish. Instead, Look in my new cookbook for my vegetarian dried fruit couscous: fabulous!

    Reply

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