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.