Moroccan lamb tagine with apricots and olives, served with cous-cous

The Moroccan tagine sauce is our mildest sauce but it is full of many delicious spices to make sure it doesn’t lack in flavour. The sauce packs plenty of our own blend of Ras-el-hanout (Moroccan spice mix), which is freshly ground before cooking. The spice mix contains around 25 different spices, it is quite complex and even includes lavender and rose. The sauce in the packet also already contains apricots but we felt like getting a bit fruity and adding more. We also found a pot of olives with that delicious lemon marinade in our local supermarket – so they went in too.

We’ve cooked this with lamb again, we often do. But it will be equally good with any meat or even just roasted veggies.

The cous-cous is very simple to prepare and just needs some simple exotic garnishing to liven it up.

In this particular dish we added some toasted almonds but that’s not necessary. We also put in a spoonful of marmalade (sounds a bit strange but honestly, it just works), you could add a small amount of harissa instead for an extra kick. It’s great as it is straight from the packet too.

Moroccan lamb tagine (serves 4)

What you need

1 pouch Moroccan tagine sauce

500g diced lamb (use more if you like – we didn’t use much because the kids weren’t sure, they soon regretted that!)

100g dried apricots

200g olives (we used olives marinated in lemon oil – just because we fancied them)

100g almonds

1 tablespoon marmalade (optional)

What to do

Pour the tagine sauce into a large pan (you’ll need a lid for it). Add the diced lamb and bring to the boil. Don’t fry the meat first, if you seal it the flavours won’t penetrate into the meat. Cover and simmer on lowest heat for around 2 hours.

If you are using almonds with skin on, you will need to peel them. The easiest way to do this is to soak them in water for an hour first. After an hour the skins easily come off just by squeezing the almonds slightly. Now you can toast them in a frying pan over a medium heat. They will begin to pop and brown slightly, don’t let them burn. Remove from pan and leave to cool.

With an hour left until the lamb is ready, add the apricots and olives to the sauce. If you fancy trying the marmalade option, add this also. If the sauce has thickened quite a lot, add a little water. Put the lid back on and leave to simmer.

After the two hours are up, check the sauce consistency. Add a little water if you want more sauce, or boil some liquid off quickly to thicken it up. Stir the toasted almonds in and you’re ready to eat!

Cous-cous

What you need

200g cous-cous

300ml boiling water

2 tbsp olive oil

handful of raisins

half a pomegranate – remove seeds

coriander and mint leaves – just a few – finely chopped

What to do

About 10 – 15 minutes before the lamb is due to finish, make a start on the cous-cous.

Put the cous-cous in a pan. Add the olive oil and stir through to ensure all the cous-cous is covered.

Add the boiling water and cover with a lid. Leave for 10 minutes.

Stir through the pomegranate, raisins and herbs.

You could also add a tiny dash of rose water or other bits such as pistachios, chopped dates or roasted veggies.

Now serve it up, have a mint tea, imagine watching the sun set behind djemaa el-Fna and pretend you’re in Marrakech.