The Weekly Cook Up: Morrocan Beef Tagine

Moroccan food, in my book, is absolutely gorgeous. This tagine is no different because it’s filled with delicate flavours, amazing freshness and the pangs of yumminess that come from lemon and olives.

I admit, there are a few ingredients in this dish – but that’s why it’s a Weekly Cook Up recipe. It needs a little love and time to ensure you are left with a succulent, tender and flavourful dish.

I generally get annoyed when people call dishes like this a tagine – when they didn’t actually use a tagine to cook it in. I mean, that’s the whole point! So, I apologise to myself right now. I am calling this a tagine, because the flavours deserve that title. I didn’t have mine handy because we were house-sitting for my brother and his girl while they were off sunning themselves in warmer places of Australia. Also, this is a large batch, which will serve 6 to 8 to allow for freezing, so it wouldn’t probably fit in a tagine anyway. Feel free to halve the quantities and break out your tagine, if you have one. They are definitely a worthwhile investment.

You will see below that the first component of the recipe involves making a chermoula. This is like the equivalent of a curry paste – but in this case the consistency is more like a watery salsa. This is a critical step in making this dish as it’s where you start to build the flavour base. Keep in mind when making this dish that you really need to marinade the meat for about two hours after adding the chermoula.

Beef Tagine with Lemon, Olives and Coriander

Chermoula

• 6 tomatoes, finely diced
• 3 tbs of fresh coriander root, finely chopped
• the zest of a whole lemon
• the juice of half a lemon
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 large green chilli, finely chopped
• 2 cm of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 tsp of Moroccan spice paste (I used Dave Bittons – but there are others available in the spice section at the supermarket)

The tagine

• 2 kg of chuck steak – trimmed of excess fat (but leave a bit on for tenderness and flavour). Cut into 2cm cubes
• 1 large red onion, finely chopped
• 3 large tomatoes, cut into wedges
• 2 potatoes (I didn’t peel them, but you can if you prefer) cut into wedges
• 1/2 a cup of water
• 1 cup of green pitted olives (you can use kalamata, if you like)
• 4 tbs of chopped, fresh coriander

Method

Combine all the ingredients for the chermoula.

Place half the chermoula in a bowl with the meat. Mix thoroughly and seal both bowls with cling film and place in the fridge for an hour – 2 if possible to allow the flavours to meld and marinate.

 Take the meat and chermoula out of the fridge and set aside. Meanwhile, heat some oil in a large, heavy-based pan and add the onion, cooking over a medium heat until nice and soft.

Add the meat, the remaining chermoula as well as the tomatoes, potatoes and water.

Bring to the boil, cover and simmer over a very low heat for about two hours, or until the meat is lovely and tender. Add the olives, allow to heat through for a minute or two. Add the fresh coriander, then serve.

Serve with cous cous and some nice crusty bread.

This dish has amazing layers of flavour that will dance in your mouth. The soft, fluffy cous cous soaks up the juices perfectly. This really is an awesome dish.

As for my music recommendation – One Republic was definitely a feature of my playlist while I was making this. Make sure you look up their albums – but one of my favourite songs is called Lullaby. It’s a song about home, about feeling safe and content. Have a listen below. It’s a really beautiful song.

The tagine will freeze well for up to three months. Seeing as it’s the Queens Birthday long weekend, why not spend some time whipping up some dishes like this to freeze to make your life easier when work and life gets crazy again! Check out The Weekly Cook Up for more inspiration. Other than cooking – what are your plans this long weekend? I’m working at my brother and dad’s shop, and relaxing with my finacee. No doubt there’ll be some cooking going on too 🙂

The Weekly Cook Up: Marinades

Marinating meat is a great way to not only save time, but to inject lots of awesome flavour into a week-night meal.

This week I’m going to share with you three really awesome marinades, which can be used on chicken, beef and lamb which will have your family raving not only about the great flavours, but also the tenderness of the meat.

Marinading meat is so convenient because you can do your weekly/fortnightly or monthly shop and marinate whatever meats you wish before popping them in the freezer. Once thawed, all that is left to do is cook it, and because it will be bursting with flavour, a simple salad or side of vegies is the only accompaniement required.

Don’t know much about marinating? Well, you’ll see from the below recipes that there are generally three main ingredients in each – acid (like lemon juice), oils and seasonings (herbs, spices, salt and pepper etc). The oils and the acids help tenderise the meat and break down the fibres to allow the seasonings to penetrate their great flavour. Once you get hold of a few good marinating recipes and start to understand what flavours work – then you’ll be making up your own before you know it!

Greek-style marinade

• Half a cup of olive oil
• The juice of a whole lemon
• 1 tsp of ground black pepper
• 1/2 a tsp of sea salt
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 tbs of dried oregano

This marinade is great for chicken thighs or lamb chops, which can then be grilled on a hot pan or on the barbecue.

You could also spread it over a whole chicken or on maryland pieces (which is the cut with the thigh and leg bone, joined together) before roasting in a medium  oven (about 180 to 200 degrees C – cooking times depend on the size of your whole bird, but marylands should take about 45 minutes).

But this is most ideal on a leg of lamb before roasting, or ask you butcher to butterfly the leg – which means he’ll remove the bone, leaving a nice flat piece of meat. Marinate it, and then cook it on the barbecue. It’s just amazing!

 Spicy Asian Marinade

• 2cm piece of ginger, finely chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 a red chilli, finely chopped (remove seeds to reduce spice)
• 1/2 a green chilli, finely chopped (remove seeds to reduce spice)
• 5 tbs of soy sauce
• 2 tbs of fish sauce
• 1/4 of a cup of peanut oil
• 1 tsp of sugar
• The juice of half a lime

This marinade is ideal for chicken and beef. Chicken strips can be marinated and stir-fryed with some Asian greens, or beef steaks will soak up these beautiful flavours before being cooked medium to rare on a barbecue and used in a Asian beef salad. It’s also great for meats you want to skewer and then barbecue. Beware though, it is quite spicy – so not one for the kids.

Moroccan marinade

• 1/2 a cup of olive oil
• 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar
• 2 tbs of Moroccan spice blend/seasoning
• 1 tsp of lemon zest
• 1/2 a tsp of sea salt
• 1/2 a tsp of black pepper

This marinade is very versatile and is great for all cuts of chicken, is fabulous on lamb chops or back strap (cooked medium on the barbecue) or on tender cuts of beef.

Method and tips for all marinades

Combine all ingredients and whisk well. All these marinades yield enough for 1 to 1.5 kilograms of meat. The best way to marinade it to place meat in a freezer bag, add marinade and seal the bag, ensuring all the air is out. Toss, turn and massage the meat in the bag (having the bag sealed prior to doing this exercise saves your hands from getting all dirty, but ensures the meat and marinade is well combined). Ensure you use a large enough freezer bag for your quantity of meat.

Freeze for up to three months. To thaw – place the frozen meat in the fridge the night before you need it. This is the most hygienic way of thawing meat.

You can marinate the meat on the same day as you plan to use it, but the flavour won’t be as good. However, as long as the meat has at least 2 hours in the fridge, it will still be delicious.

This really is the simplest and easiest process to inject wonderful flavour. So, no more boring lamb chops or roast chickens. Inject some flavour – your family will thank you!

Any questions about marinating? Feel free to post them in the comments section below.

And before I forget – Uforic Food now has its very own Facebook page. Visit it here and don’t forget to ‘like’ us!

Be Inspired~

Lisa

Cous cous – Perry style

Today, I am feeling nervous and excited – because today is the day one of my Christmas presents comes to fruition – to have a cooking masterclass with one of the Geelong region’s best chefs. I am sooo excited to be cooking lobster, oysters and mud crab. Not only that, but I’ll get to eat the food, with matching wines, as well. It’s going to be the most incredible experience. I can’t wait!

In the coming days I’ll be blogging about the experience, everything I learned, and I’ll be taking some photos too! Hope I can make the food taste wonderful and look sexy. I’d be mortified if I burn something, or chop my finger off!!

But, in the meantime, here’s a recipe from another great Masterchef – Neil Perry.

Cous cous is one of those things I am just soooo happy I discovered.

I was always a bit scared of it, for some reason. It looked complicated to make. Not only that, it looks like sand on a plate. Not exactly appetising.

However, when my brother gave me a Neil Perry cookbook a few years ago, I was flicking through and he had a really simple way of preparing it. I thought, if Neil reckons it’s a good idea – so do I.

So, this is how Neil does basic cous cous – it’s a great accompaniment with stews and casseroles. I mean I am a rice girl at heart – but cous cous is right up there for me.

Cous Cous – Perry style

• 100gm of butter
• 2 tbs of extra virgin olive oil
• 400ml of boiling water
• 2 1/4 cups of cous cous

Method:

Combine the butter olive oil and boiling water in a large mixing bowl. Once the butter has melted in the water, while stirring – add the cous cous. Leave until the cous cous has absorbed the liquid, then fluff it gently with a fork.

Put the cous cous in a steamer, which you’ve lined with a clean tea towel. Put over a saucepan of fast-boiling water and steam for 20 minutes.

This makes enough cous cous to serve 4 to 6 people. But – here’s a very important tip. Use a white, or light-coloured tea towel. I once used a blue one, and it turned the cous cous blue! Needless to say, I had to throw it away. You can also use some muslin cloth, if you have it handy.

This is a good base recipe to add other flavours. So, get creative.

Be back soon to blog about the Masterclass. Woo hoo!!

Be Inspired – because I know I will be!

Lisa~

The final day of The Inspiration Challenge – Tagine Chicken

Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the final recipe in The Inspiration Challenge – which was for me to share with you 30 Recipes in 30 Days – during the month of November.

As I prepare to share with you the final recipe in the challenge (which I think is the most exciting of the lot!), I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has followed along for the past 30 days and encouraged me during this journey. November has been a record-breaking month for this blog – with more people visiting then I ever could have imagined! Incredible!

However, November has not been a dull month for me by any stretch of the imagination and, I honestly admit, that posting these 30 recipes has been a massive challenge. But the journey has taken me, and hopefully you, on a great journey – we have visited Italy with dishes including yummy mussel pasta, lamb ragu, pollo alla caciatora, marinara sauce and the most popular recipe on the whole blog for the month, I am very proud to say – was Matt’s meatlovers pasta . It has even been replicated and credited on other blogs too! Well done Matt!

We have also been to many other parts of the globe for flavour inspiration including India with chicken madras and Tandoori chicken risotto. There’s also been some great tips on how to brew your own stock make the best roast lamb and make perfectly crispy roast potatoes .

However, I know the most touching thing for me is my mum’s constant commentary on how proud she is that I have taken this blog on a journey of my teenage years, when I used to cook most of my family’s dinners. I have written about how watching my mum cook growing up has inspired me and I have shared with you some of the recipes she used to make including beautiful, yet simple sweet pastries, called Matchsticks, leek and potato soup, baked potatoes – Darwin style and baked barramundi.

While it has been fun going down memory lane – today I wanted to bring you a recipe that has excited me sooo much. It’s called Tagine Chicken with Preserved Lemon and Olives. You can check out how to make your own preserved lemon here – or you can buy it from any good gourmet food shop.

I have been wanting to buy a tagine – which is a Moroccan cooking utensil – for ages now. I finally got one a few weekends ago and it was only $15!! Make sure you buy just a plain terracotta one, and not a decorative one – as these are not meant for cooking.

It is important to prepare your tagine before you use it. I soaked mine in the sink overnight (the base and the lid) and then I put it on the cooktop, over a very low heat and filled it with water, salt and a few bay leaves. I brought it to the boil (which took ages!!) – and then tipped out the water. This is the process of “seasoning” the tagine – like you do with a wok. If you use your tagine regularly, you probably don’t need to soak or season it again. However, if you only use it every few months, I think it would be worth doing this before you use it each time – it helps prevent cracking when the tagine comes into contact with heat.

It’s also very important to cook anything in the tagine under a very low heat – it’s not designed for frying, but slow cooking.

Now that I have given you some tips about your tagine (you can find a lot more advice on the web too, if you Google it) – onto the recipe. This is the second most popular dish in Morocco, behind cous cous. I was inspired to make it after watching Food Safari – all I could think about after watching the episode about Moroccan food was that I had to go out and get a tagine!! Check out more of the recipes from this episode here.

I found with this recipe that I had to cook it for double the amount of time then then suggested 45 minutes – that the 1 cup of liquid should be about half a cup, as the tagine overflowed!! I also think it needs a little less preserved lemon for the finishing garnish. It’s a very tart flavour – but I think with a little less, it would have been perfect!

I really hope you give it a try!!!

Tagine Chicken with Preserved Lemons and Olives

Chermoula Marinade

• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 preserved lemon, rinsed and thinly sliced
• 2 onions, chopped
• ½ birds eye chilli
• 1 tbsp sweet paprika
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• Salt
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander, stems and leaves
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads, soaked in a little water
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 bay leaves, torn in half

Other ingredients

•  1 whole chicken, size 10 or 12
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 large potatoes, cut into wedges
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 tomato, sliced
• 150g pitted green olives
• 1 bunch fresh coriander, chopped
• 1 cup water
• 1 preserved lemon, cut into 6 segments.

Method:

Marinade
Process all ingredients together in a food processor until finely chopped and thoroughly combined. Leave for 30 minutes before using. Can be stored in the refrigerator for up to seven days.

Wash and dry the chicken and remove backbone, wing tips and any excess fat. Cut into pieces. Rub all over with ½ of the chermoula marinade and refrigerate overnight or for at least 2 hours.

Combine the tomato and onion with a little more chermoula and spread into the base of the tajine (this will prevent the chicken from burning on the bottom).Arrange chicken pieces in the centre of the tajine on top of tomato mixture. Coat potato wedges with chermoula and arrange around chicken. Top with onion slices, then tomato slices and olives in between the potato wedges.

Mix chopped coriander with remaining chermoula and water. Pour over mixture. Decorate top with preserved lemon wedges.

Cover tajine with lid and cook on a very low gas heat for 45 minutes. Do not stir or lift the lid during the cooking process.

Serve with couscous.

As mentioned earlier – I needed to cook my tagine longer, and when I make it again, I will be reducing the amount of liquid and preserved lemon. However, this is the original recipe and you can modify as I have advised if you like.

Despite that – this tagine recipe was sooo delicious. I really enjoyed it – it was something quite different to things I have made before – which is exactly what had me so excited to try it in the first place!

I really hope you run out and buy a tagine, if you don’t already have one, and give this a try. I can’t wait to use mine again and try out heaps more Moroccan recipes!

While this is the end of The Challenge – it’s by no means the end of Uforic Food. In fact, it’s just the beginning! I have so many great ideas for future posts – so many more recipes and an idea to get you more involved as well. So stay tuned!

Thanks again for all your support and encouragement – I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have. I would really love it if you could share your thoughts on The Inspiration Challenge with me in the comments section below. What was your favourite recipe? Did you try any?

I know you have all been a bit bombarded with my foodie ramblings for the past month, so I’m going to give it a rest for a least the next couple of days.

So, until next time.

Be Inspired~

Lisa

Day 25 – lamb shanks

Welcome to Day 25 of  The Inspiration Challenge – this is the day I am going to tell you all about my love for lamb shanks.

Back in the “olden days” nobody ate the shank part of the lamb, unless you were poor, because everyone seemed to believe the “cheap cut” wouldn’t taste good.

As I have learnt more and more about food over the years, I have come to the realisation that food today has benefited so much from the methods poor people, even many hundreds of years ago, used to use to not only make their food taste good, but also preserve it.

Take this as an example – many peasants in Italy could not afford to buy cheese to put on their dishes – so they ground their stale bread into crumbs, toasted them with a little olive oil (you can infuse them with other flavour too, like garlic and rosemary) and scattered them on top instead. If you haven’t tried this – it’s a definite must. It doesn’t taste like cheese, of course, but it’s a perfect alternative. It gives a beautiful texture to the dish with the crunch of the bread crumbs, but it also adds an excellent nutty flavour.

Meat really is no different. People with little money would take the pieces of the meat that no one else really wanted, like the lamb’s shank, and cooked them slowly – to make what would otherwise be tough meat, very tender.

Nowadays, lamb shanks are the “in” thing. Long cooking is also cool these days, making shanks succulent and the fat on them means they are full of fabulous flavour and that melt-in-your-mouth texture of the meat is just incredible. Sadly now that demand has risen, the shank is no longer cheap – but well worth the money and the time to cook them.

This recipe is one I made up myself – and as I am totally obsessed with Moroccan flavours at the moment – I think that’s why I came up with this. As soon as it comes to the boil, the smell of cinnamon, cumin and other spices just fills the house. So amazing!

Lamb shanks with cumin and paprika

• 4 frenched lamb shanks
• 1/3 cup of seasoned flour (salt and pepper)
• 3 tsp Moroccan spice blend
• 2 tsp of paprika
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper
• 1 large onion, finely diced
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 1 red capsicum, cut into thick slices
• 5 button mushrooms, cleaned and thickly sliced
• 1 400gm can of chopped tomatoes
• 2 cups of beef stock
• 1/2 cup of chopped parsley

Pre-heat your oven to 150 degrees (c)

Place flour and salt and pepper in a large freezer bag. Put one shank in the bag and toss it around until coated with flour. Repeat for all shanks.

Heat a few good glugs of olive oil in a large, heavy-based pan until it’s hot. Cook the lamb shanks on all sides until they are browned, but not cooked. The browning process is about increasing flavour – not cooking.

Remove the lamb shanks from the pan and add a little more oil, if required. Add the onion to the pan, with a pinch or two of salt and pepper and sweat for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic, Moroccan spice blend, paprika, cumin and cayenne to the pan and turn the heat down. Stir the spices for a minute or two, or until they start to release their flavour. Don’t let them burn, or they’ll go bitter.

Now add the canned tomatoes, stock, zucchini, mushrooms and capsicum and return the shanks to the pan. Cover, bring to the boil and then once boiling, place in the oven.

Cook for 1 1/2 to two hours. Check after 1 hours to see how the meat is progressing. To tell if it is ready – the meat should almost be falling off the bone. Once the meat is cooked, stir the parsley through – this gives everything a really nice lift.

Enjoy with some steamed rice, or cous cous.

If you like all the warming flavours of cinnamon (which is part of the Moroccan spice blend), paprika and cumin, this is a recipe for you. The cayenne gives it a little kick, so if you don’t like it a bit hot, leave it out.

At this point I’d like to congratulate my friend Kat for starting her very own foodie blog – check it out by clicking here – I was lucky enough to get a mention in yesterday’s post, where she featured my slow cooked pork with chorizo and cannellini beans. Nice to see the inspiration is getting around. I loved her first post – where she talks about the Italian feast she made the other night – looked amazing! I was so chuffed to see she made her own version of Matt’s Meatlovers Pasta. Check our her version here.

Be Inspired~

Lisa

Day 19: Christmas from the heart – homemade gifts

Many people traipse through shopping centres for hours on end, trying to find that perfect gift for the people we care about to show our affection at Christmas.

But have you ever thought that a nice way to give is to actually make something yourself?

I think it says more about you – that you have taken the time to really think about it and actually put your heart into making something special. No only that, but homemade gifts – in this case a nice jar of preserved lemons – is also very practical. For one, you can eat them by putting them in deserts and casseroles (stay tuned for my Morrocan chicken tagine recipe – sooo good!)- but the bright yellow lemons look so lovely in the jar, that they make a terrific ornament too!

An added bonus us you get to mill around in the comfort of your kitchen to whip up these gifts, rather than spend ages finding a park at the shopping centre and walking a mile fighting crowds. Well, I know where I’d rather be!.

The great thing is that preserved lemons really aren’t at their best until they have been jarred for longer than a month – so you can make them in advance and when you come to give them for Christmas, they can be used straight away. Before the end of the month I will be posting the most wonderful Morrocan dish, for which these are the star ingredient – so you could even include the recipe as part of the dish, to give the recipient a bit of an idea on how to cook with them.

Preserved lemons

• 8 lemons
• Cold water
• Rock sea salt
• Large glass screw-top jar
• 6 cardomom pods
• 3 bay leaves
• 3 birdseye chillies
• Boiling water

Method:

Break the pores of the lemon by scraping gently against the medium setting of grater.

Place in large bowl and cover completely with cold water, then store them overnight in a cool place.

The next day, pour the water off the lemons and cover again with fresh water. The reason for doing this is it removed any bitterness in the lemon.

On the third day, pour off the water. Using a sharp knife and chopping board, make 4 deep slits in each lemon (they should go about halfway to the centre). Pack each incision with a good heaped teaspoon of rock salt.

Place stuffed lemons in a glass jar, add cardamom pods, bay leaves and chillies.

Pour boiling water over contents and screw on lid while the water is still hot. Leave for 40 days in a cool dark place to ensure they are properly preserved.

Other than the fact the process takes a couple of days – it’s actually a really easy thing to do. And, as I said, stay tuned for the best Morrocan chicken recipe. Preserved lemons are the key ingredient!

What other foods have you made and given as Christmas gifts? Hope you share your ideas in the comments section below.

Be Inspired~

Lisa