Prepare this tagine a day ahead, and you will be rewarded with more complex flavors. Wildflower honey provides an aromatic essence to this dish in lieu of the traditional orange flower water. You can add one-quarter cupfuls of water or broth to sauce during cooking if too thick. Serve with flatbread.
If you ask my mother-in-law it's a 5 star. I'm giving it 4 because it was VERY rich in my opinion. I just couldn't eat much of it as a result. I did use leg of lamb cubed so maybe that was the difference? I served it for a dinner party of 14 for my mother-in-law's 91st birthday. She wanted lamb, but garlic doesn't agree with her. This one has no garlic. Everyone said how much they enjoyed it. It was super easy to prepare and I could do other things while it was in the oven. I tripled the recipe and it worked perfectly. I served it with plain couscous, steamed green beans, salad and naan.
Very good, but I am glad that I omitted the cinnamon stick, used only 2 tsp. of honey, added garlic, crushed red pepper, and parsley, and baked it at 3, rather than 425. It also needed a bit of lemon at the end for brightness. Served with steamed green beans and whole wheat couscous.
Had some lamb stew meat I needed to use, but only one pound of it,so rather than halve the recipe, I added some diced hubbard squash to the mix and it turned out very nicely. Used my homemade chicken broth, which is a dark roasted broth and it filled in well for the beef broth. Served with whole wheat cous cous mixed with some frozen peas and sprinkled dish with chopped parsley. Used Mediterranean dried apricots for their tart flavor. Like most tagines, this recipe can be altered to meet what you have on hand. Very nice.
This recepe is perfect for a larger dinner party as most of work can be done ahead of time thus allowing the cook to spend the time with guest. This has been a huge hit and I'm often asked for repeats as everyone loves the flavors. It also reheats well for next day, but we rarely have leftovers. I have substituted beef as it is less expansive and turns this into a family dinner -nice but not quite as good as the original.
Wow -- a hit. Brought this to a dinner party with 20 women last night and it was a huge success. I followed the recipe exactly. Served with couscous. It was fast for a stew, and easy to prepare, with a rich, sweet and complex flavor. This will be great on our menu this coming fall and winter.
