Friday, December 12, 2014

Lamb & Dried Apricot Tagine - French Fridays with Dorie








Per Tricia~
Even though this is a "French Fridays" recipe I have to share some exciting 
"Tuesday" news. We have a wonderful new addition to the Dorie community 
- my former neighbor, Nicole. She was the sweetie who bestowed some 
gorgeous heirloom tomatoes on me this summer - on the precise day I
 was knocking out a FFWD recipe that required tomatoes. Serendipity. 

Tomato Provençal 
She mentioned she had an interest in the whole cooking/blogging concept 
and with the roll out of "Baking Chez Moi", she made it official. To say I am
 delighted would be an understatement. Please do check out her blog and send
 her a warm welcome. And yes, she put me to shame with the amazing
 accomplishments she knocked out her first post....she is a natural !

www.CanineKitchenCapers.blogspot.com

Now for story #2. I bought a tagine while in DC on business and did
 not even know exactly what it was. I am not proud, but I am honest. 
I found the item in  an antiques/catch all shop and I "caught all". 
I simply could not resist the stunning green color of 
the pottery. Even my cat is quite fond of it. 
Yes, this is the "fond" look- taken a day before making the dish so no worries -both tagine and counter were cleaned ! 
 I later researched to find it's intended purpose .......
but had yet to actually use it. (Hangs head in shame) 
I'm so pleased I could christen it with a recipe from
"Around My French Table" and such a yummy one at that. 
I lucked out with the boneless lamb shoulder at my local
 butcher shop and even had saffron on hand, not to mention
 most of the other exotic spices. 
Rather than using chili's I subbed the "piment d'espelette" 
that this group has come to know and love, and traded ground ginger 
that I had on hand for the fresh grated ginger of the recipe.  
As promised, the aroma was intoxicating and the end result
 was a comforting winter's meal- a sort of exotic comfort food.  
It would have been even better if I remembered to add the sliced almonds on top........
 I served it over French Couscous. 

The tagine is now slated to get a lot of play this season, thanks to Dorie. 
Per Nana~
This is such a perfect recipe for a cold winter night.
 I could not find the boneless lamb shoulder so I went with a small
 2 1/2 lb boneless leg. Hubby was intrigued by all the ingredients going 
into this dish so he offered to help. I asked him if he would cut the meat 
into stew portions,which he did. There was a lot of trimming on this 
piece of meat- fat, silver skin, etc. and I think he was sorry he offered.
 However I must admit,he did a great job. 
I haven't had lamb in years and this was so tender and delicious. 
All the ingredients blended together beautifully and the flavor was 
extraordinary. I served this wonderful tagine over Acini di Pepe, 
which is very similar to couscous. It was so delicious.

13 comments:

  1. Tricia - gorgeous tagine pot! How exciting that you finally got to use it. I'm always eyeing such things in the shops, but the size of my kitchen usually keeps me in check. Yours looks like it would work as a lovely decoration.

    Nana - hopefully your husband enjoyed the dish after all of that work? I was lazy and bought my meat pre-chopped.

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  2. What a great treasure to be found! Tricia, I have to admit the smells were driving your cat's PR twin wild. She couldn't keep herself away from my bowl.

    Love that Mr. Jim joined you in the cooking fun this week, Ro. All three of you did a wonderful job.

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  3. The family that cooks together... I'm glad you both enjoyed this. Tricia, your tagine looks like a total score. Nice job! And, Ro, how nice to share this dish with your sous chef!

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  4. I'll trade my tagine for your tagine. Love the story about your finding it, Tricia. It's the color that "got me" right away. Don't you wish you knew the history of that kitchen equipment. (Make up a story. Tell it often enough. It becomes a truth.) Your lamb looked delicious. Almonds or no almonds. And, Ro, I am glad you enlisted Jim to work for his meal - your tagine looks delicious. Of course I had no idea what Acini di Pepe was so had to Mr. Google again. Love that man! What surprised me the most in the Post was the fact that you don't eat lamb, Ro. Nice Post, Ladies.

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  5. I went shopping for a tagine today and my husband didn't say, "no", but he wasn't thrilled with the $200.00+ price tag, especially since I couldn't think of anything else I could cook in a tagine. I just showed him your pictures and said, "Look, Tricia has a tagine!!!". Beautiful! Nice job recruiting a new Dorista!

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  6. Absolutely beautiful tagine that even if you don't cook with it often it is a lovely piece of art. Nice that you had a sous chef to cut the meat. Those lucky doristas who found chunked lamb, never seen it in a store around here. We don't see much lamb except around Easter. I like the idea of pimento d'espelette for a heatless substitute for chile peppers... great idea.

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  7. I received a Tagine as a birthday gift from my d-i-l and son a few years ago and still have not used it. I planned on making this one yesterday, but when I pulled out the directions…I found out it had to be seasoned! I’m hoping to get this one done today!
    Both of you ladies did a great job on the tagine! Tricia…love your new tagine…what a find! Nana, I love that you got your hubby to cut up that meat. Way to go!!

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  8. Tricia, I love your pictures (and your cat!). Also, go Nana! (I got my butcher to cut up my meat!)

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  9. Love the tangine. I also used boneless lamb leg and my hubby did all the butchering too:)

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  10. Tricia, your tagine is just gorgeous - no wonder you fell in love with it. Nana, your hubs is such a champ for trimming the lamb for you. Ladies, a great job all round.

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  11. 1) Nana - love the team effort this week. Tell him he did a wonderful job and I hope he enjoyed the fruits of his labors.
    2) Tricia, Tricia, Tricia. You totally pulled a Cher with that tagine. LOVE IT. Funny story about the pimente d'esplette. I have been searching for it forever with no avail. When we were on vacation in Scottsdale in October, I finally found some at Sur La Table. Joe decided to clean out the car and threw my newly purchased treasure out along with the car garbage. I cried. Literal tears... (We can laugh about it now).

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    Replies
    1. PS Looking forward to checking out the new Dorista.

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  12. I'm envious of your beautiful tagine and how you acquired it Tricia:) A wonderful memory to go with your beautiful and functional dish. I haven't made this yet. I'm still in Memphis as my people are recovering from their health issues. I thought about making it this week but I have all those spices at home and hate to buy them again so I think I will wait. Hope mine looks as gorgeous as yours! Nana, I'm glad Hubby did the trim work and chopping on the lamb. I really dislike that job! I can't wait to get home and make this. Gary says he knows I'm missing my kitchen therapy and he's missing the home cooked meals! Tricia, I'm going to check out the newest Dorista right now!

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