Tagine
Tagine, or stew in Arabic, is to North African Sephardic
cooking what Tzimmes is to Ashkenazic cooking. It's a meat, fruit, vegetable,
and spice dish, cooked slowly over a long period of time. Such dishes are
often served on the sabbath to conform to the proscriptions against cooking on
the sabbath. As such, they are begun at high temperatures and then slowly
cooked on a sabbath warming tray (blech) until Saturday noon. Tagine
is more aromatic than tzimmes. It is typically served with couscous. This
particular recipe is based on one from Paula Wolfert.
Ingredients:
- 2 T. olive oil
- 1/8 tsp. ground saffron
- 1/2 tsp. turmeric
- 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
- 1 tsp. ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
- 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
- 3 pounds lamb shoulder or brisket
- 1 cup thinly sliced onion
- 1 pound pitted prunes
- 2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut in 2-inch pieces
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 cup orange or rose blossom water
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 T. toasted sesame seeds or almonds
Combine the oil, saffron, turmeric, pepper, ginger, cayenne, and onion. Dip the meat in the mixture to coat.
Heat a large casserole over moderately high heat. Cook meat until seared on all sides. Add enough water
to just barely cover the meat, bring to boil, and simmer, covered for 1 hour. Add sliced onions and simmer
another 30 minutes or longer until the meat is quite tender.
Add prunes and simmer, uncovered, until the sauce is reduced to about 1 cup.
In a saucepan, arrange squash, honey, orange blossom (or rose blossom) water and cinnamon sticks. Simmer 15 minutes. Reduce
cooking liquid over high heat until syrupy. Add squash mixture to the meat mixture, combine well, and simmer
an additional 5 minutes.
Serve with couscous, sprinkled with either the almonds or sesame seeds.
To prepare this for Shabbat lunch: about two hours before Shabbat, prepare the squash. Then brown the meat in a heavy cast-iron pot or the cooking vessel of
a crock-pot. To the meat, add the liquid from the squash, the onions, prunes, and just enough water to barely cover the meat.
Then refrigerate the squash (liquid removed), and keep the meat mixture cooking on a blech or in the crock-pot. On Saturday morning,
warm the squash on the blech. Just before serving, remove the tagine from the blech, combine the squash with the tagine, and
serve over couscous, sprinkled with either the almonds or sesame seeds. 8-12 servings.