We are exploring some Mediterranean recipes this week, so we could not skip this classic. This recipe originates from North Africa and arguably is one of the most famous to have made it into our culture to the north.

It is really simple, or at least we have taken out some of the fuss from this recipe for all you at home by showing you the easily adaptable recipe. You can substitute the meat for an additional can of beans, or root based vegetables like sweet potato goes well. As well as this, you don’t have to use pork either like we did. You can use the same technique with beef, chicken, lamb or more veggies!

If you do use this as a veggie recipe, then skip the first step when we fry the meat off first.

We use our own spice blend that you can check out here. Making it simple to store for the future and even quicker to make your tagines.

 

INGREDIENTS

500g pork loin/chicken/lamb/oxtail cut into 2 cm cubes 

1 onion (white or red doesn’t matter) roughly chopped

8 cloves of garlic minced

1 can of chickpeas or 2 cups freshly cooked

2 tbsp fresh ginger ground or finely chopped

1 carrot peeled and roughly chopped

1 tin of chopped or whole tomatoes

50g of dried apricots/plums/raisins chopped roughly

250ml boiling water

1 cube of vegetable stock

2 tbsp tagine spice

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt to taste

 

METHOD

  1. Add 1 tbsp of the spice mixture to the pork/chicken/lamb and mix well until all the meat is covered and let this marinade for 2 hours.
  2. If you haven’t prepped your veg, now is the time to do it.
  3. Soak your chopped dry fruit in 150ml of boiling water and let it sit for 15 minutes to soak up some of the water.
  4. Add the stock to the remaining water and mix well and set aside for later.
  5. Heat a heavy based pan (that you have a lid for) on a medium heat with the olive oil and add your meat, stirring frequently until it is sealed off on all sides (5 minutes)
  6. Add the onions and a splash of stock to remove anything that may be sticking to the pan. Sprinkle with salt and stir for 5 minutes.
  7. Add the garlic and ginger and fry for an additional 2 minutes.
  8. Add the veg stock, dried fruit and the water it sits in, canned tomatoes, carrot, remaining spices and chickpeas. Turn the heat down to a low heat so it is very lightly bubbling.
  9. Cook for 1 hour 30 minutes with the lid on, stirring frequently. If it starts to stick, this means that your temperature is too high.
  10. Check the meat by taking a piece and pressing it in your fingers and it should break up easily. This is how you know it is cooked. If it is springy and not breaking, cook for an additional 25 minutes until it is.

 

Done! It is a one pot job, so there will be little cleaning left for you!

Serve with couscous traditionally, or you can serve with rice or any other grains, even some pita on their own with this is lovely.

Garnish with some fresh coriander if you have any.

We will soon be sharing our vegan alternative, which is equally amazing and tasty, so don’t fret, it will come soon our veggie followers

 

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