Meat Tagine with Carrots and Celery

This lamb tagine tasted fabulous and looked pretty special too. I chose this recipe because I had all of the ingredients on hand and it gave me an excuse to break open my preserved lemons which were finally ready to be used!

The recipe called for boneless lamb; I was a little overzealous with the trimming while I was boning my shoulder roast so I ended up with bite sized pieces, smaller than the recipe called for.

The lamb was combined with La Kama Spice Mixture (page37), saffron water (page48), garlic, onions, and fresh cilantro and steamed for 30 minutes in a tagine. Carrots and celery were arranged in a cone configuration, upright, and meeting in the centre of the tagine above the meat mixture. This was covered and simmered for 2 hours - larger pieces of lamb probably would have taken longer. The dish was finished with preserved lemons, olives and lemon juice.

The fragrance emanating from the kitchen while this cooked was phenomenal. The meat was tender and beautifully seasoned, the broth very flavourful and the vegetables soft but holding their shape. The richness of the dish was cut by the vibrant flavour of the preserved lemons. Although we didn't eat the tagine with our fingers and Marrakech bread, we did use the bread to absorb the lovely juices.

My family was very impressed with both the presentation (I brought the tagine to the table with the vegetable "cone" intact) and the flavour.