KEY POINTS:
The tagine has historically been the centrepiece of a banquet. No initial browning of ingredients is necessary, though a careful layering of flavours in the heavy clay bottomed dish is essential. The dish is then topped with the cone cover, shaped so that all the condensation produced during the cooking process can't escape and returns to the food in the base dish. (If you don't have a tagine these dishes can also be prepared in the oven).
It is perfect slow cooking, and the ideal time to use the less expensive but more flavourful cuts of meat.
Lamb neck chops are good, or you could ask your local butcher to slice lamb shanks into rounds, as my butcher did for this recipe.
Fish works well in a tagine as do vegetables, paired with the traditional flavours of saffron, cinnamon, lemon, cumin and the delicious North African pastes and rubs like chermoula, ras el hanout and harissa.
These dishes are traditionally paired with couscous - look out for the larger variety called mograbiah, which is deliciously chewy - or rice and flat breads.
CHEF'S TIP
Mograbiah, though a type of couscous, cooks like pasta in boiling salted water or alternatively can be added to the tagine 30 minutes before the end of cooking to absorb all the flavours.