Beef tagine

I like to think of a tagine as a sort of stew with attitude. It’s really all about the spices and the slow cooking, giving all the wonderful flavours time to develop. What’s great is that you don’t need an authentic Moroccan tagine in order to recreate this beautiful food – a saucepan will still give you great results. Having been to Marrakesh and learnt all the principles, I now feel I'll be able to rustle up an endless variety of tagines at home. Give this one a try and you’ll see what I mean.

Jamie Oliver's beef tagine. Credit: Jamie's Food Escapes

• serves

  4-6

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  3:15 hours

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 600 g stewing beef
• olive oil
• 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
• Small bunch of fresh coriander
• 1 400 g tin chickpeas, drained
• 1 400 g tin chopped tomatoes
• 800 ml vegetable stock, preferably organic
• 1 small butternut pumkin (squash) (approximately 800 g), deseeded and cut into 5cm chunks
• 100 g prunes, stoned and roughly torn
• 1½ tbsp flaked almonds, toasted
• Cooked couscous, to serve

For the spice rub

• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tsp ras el hanout spice mix
• 3 tsp ground cumin
• 3 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 tsp ground ginger
• 3 tsp sweet paprika

Chilling time: at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Instructions

1. Mix all the spice rub ingredients together in a small bowl. Put the beef into a large bowl, massage it with the spice rub, then cover with clingfilm and put into the fridge for a couple of hours – ideally overnight. That way the spices really penetrate and flavour the meat.
2. When you’re ready to cook, heat a generous lug of olive oil in a tagine or casserole–type pan and fry the meat over a medium heat for 5 minutes. Add your chopped onion and coriander stalks and fry for another 5 minutes. Tip in the chickpeas and tomatoes, then pour in 400 ml of stock and stir. Bring to the boil, then put the lid on the pan or cover with foil and reduce to a simmer for 1½ hours.
3. At this point add your squash, the prunes and the rest of the stock. Give everything a gentle stir, then pop the lid back on the pan and continue cooking for another 1½ hours. Keep an eye on it and add a splash of water if it looks too dry.
4. Once the time is up, take the lid off and check the consistency. If it seems a bit too runny, simmer for 5 to 10 minutes more with the lid off. The beef should be really tender and flaking apart now, so have a taste and season with a pinch or two of salt. Scatter the coriander leaves over the tagine along with the toasted almonds, then take it straight to the table with a big bowl of lightly seasoned couscous and dive in.

Recipe from: Jamie's Food Escapes © 2009 Jamie Oliver

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.