Tagine of lamb with dates and almonds

The weather is grey and miserable at the moment – today was the sort of day when you stay indoors with a roaring fire and snuggle down with a good book or film. So when thinking of food for dinner we wanted something warming and sustaining but with one eye on our expanded waistlines, something with at least a pretension to healthy eating. We had some lamb shanks in the freezer and these ‘mini portions for one’ seemed to fit the bill. Now, we’ve cooked these in various ways over the years and conclude that some sort of braise is the only way to go. Roasting just doesn’t seem to work – it needs long slow, cooking to breakdown all that connective tissue. We decided to go Moroccan for a dose of winter sunshine and consulted our guru Claudia Roden. She offers various tagine combinations for use with lamb and we liked the sound of this one with dates and almonds. It also gave us the chance to use up the remains of a packet of dates lurking in the cupboard. She uses a boned shoulder or neck fillet but the shanks work just as well.

It looks, when you read the recipe, not very exciting but we have come to trust Ms Roden and we have never been disappointed and this time was no exception, it really is a delicious combination. She comments that some people (including herself) find it too sweet with the honey in which case leave it out (as we did).

• 1 lamb shank per person, or equivalent of boned shoulder or neck fillets
• 4 tbsp sunflower oil
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp saffron threads (optional)
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• salt and black pepper
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 – 2 tbsp clear honey (optional)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 200g pitted dates
• 100g blanched almonds

If using shoulder, trim any excess fat from the lamb and cut into large chunks. Heat 3 tbsp oil in a large casserole, put in the meat and brown lightly all over. Take out the meat and put in the onions and cook, stirring, until they begin to colour. Stir in the saffron and ginger and return the meat to the pan. Add salt and pepper and the cinnamon stick. Add hot water just to cover, and simmer, covered, for 2 hours or until the meat is very tender, turning the pieces from time to time.

Stir in the honey, if using, and the ground cinnamon and more pepper (it needs plenty to counterbalance the sweetness). Cook uncovered, until the sauce is reduced, turning the meat over as you do so. Add the dates and cook for 5 – 10 minutes more.

Meanwhile, fry the almonds in the remaining tbsp of oil until lightly golden then drain and cool on kitchen paper. Chop roughly.

Serve the lamb sprinkled with the chopped almonds and accompanied by couscous.

Tagine of lamb with artichokes and peas

On one of our shopping trips to Spain we spotted some fine looking lamb shanks. They don’t appear in our local supermarket very often and when they do they seem to be snapped up very quickly so we took the opportunity to buy some and put them in the freezer. Slow braised until meltingly tender they are really delicious. This is not a cut of meat you can hurry – all that sinew needs time to break down. For dinner yesterday we decided to take it down the Moroccan route in a tagine and while the classic is with dried fruit such as apricots we thought this sounded a nice change. It is based on a recipe for knuckle of veal by Claudia Rodin from her book Arabesque. It struck us that veal knuckle and lamb shanks were not a million miles apart. If you don’t have lamb shanks you could use boned shoulder or neck fillets but they won’t need so much cooking.

serves 2

• 2 small lamb shanks or 500g of shoulder/ fillet (or 2 thick rounds of veal knuckle)
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed or chopped
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• a good pinch of saffron threads (optional)
• 200g frozen artichoke bottoms, defrosted
• 200g frozen peas, defrosted
• salt & pepper
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• peel of 1/2 preserved lemon
• bunch of coriander, chopped
• 8 green olives

Heat the oil in a roomy casserole or saucepan. Brown the meat  on all sides. Put in the onion, garlic, ginger and saffron and cook over a low heat for about 5 minutes until the onion is softened. If using shanks, pour in enough water to half cover, if using one of the other cuts then enough water to just cover. Season with salt and pepper and simmer with a lid on for about 2 hours for the shanks (less for the other cuts) until the meat is so tender it comes away from the bone. Check from time to time in case it needs a little extra water and turn the shanks and give it a stir to ensure that nothing is sticking to the pan. Remove the lid for the last 15 minutes or so to reduce the sauce.

Add the artichoke bottoms, cut in quarters, lemon juice, preserved lemon peel cut into strips, and cook for 5 minutes. Add the peas, coriander and olives and cook for 5 minutes more. Check that the artichokes are tender and the sauce reduced and thick. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Serve with couscous (see our previous recipe for this).