Berber Meat Tagine with Seven Vegetables

Lovely lamb -- tender and flavorful - with a broad assortment of vegetables.

This is a time consuming dish - takes about four hours. First onions are sautéed and steamed, then big chunks of lamb are browned. The onions and lamb are combined (in the tagine). The pan that browned the lamb is deglazed with a spice mixture and water (and saffron). This is reduced, and a lovely set of vegetables are bathed in the reduced sauce.

The tagine is then filled with the vegetables and reduced broth. You basically make a tipi - meat and onions in the center, and the vegetables piled up in a cone shape. I was unable to get a stable tipi shape, but the dish seemed to cook just fine anyhow.

After you get everything to this point, you are instructed to allow the tagine to cook for another 2 1/2 hours.

I became skeptical about the cooking time - I do not care for overcooked vegetables (zucchini is delicate!) - and checked them several times. I terminated the cooking at just shy of two hours.

Then yet another step -- the broth is reduced, and again poured over the vegetables.

We really enjoyed this dish. Not as meat heavy as most we've tried, and the vegetables were refreshing. I was surprised at how good the cabbage and carrots turned out.

I also prepared couscous -- steamed -- to go with this. It was a great feast, but at a high cost of time.