Tagine Of Lamb With Caramelized Baby Onions And Quinces Recipes

Steps:

• Cut the meat into 6 or 8 pieces, and put it into a wide pan with 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat; turn to brown the pieces all over. Add the chopped onion and barely cover with water. Stir in salt and pepper, ginger, cinnamon, and saffron, and simmer, covered, over a low heat for 1 1/2 hours, turning the pieces over a few times.
• To peel the onions or shallots, blanch them in boiling water for 5 minutes and, when cool enough to handle, peel off the skins and trim the roots. Sauté them in a skillet in 2 tablespoons oil over a low heat for 5 to 10 minutes, shaking the pan, until the onions have slightly colored. Then add them to the meat and cook for a further 30 minutes, until the meat is very tender and the baby onions are so soft that, as they say in Morocco, "you can crush them with your tongue." Toward the end of the cooking time, cook uncovered to reduce the sauce. There should be only a small amount of liquid remaining.
• Wash the pears. Quarter and core them but do not peel them. Sauté them in a large skillet in a mixture of butter and the remaining tablespoon of oil over medium heat until their cut sides are slightly brown and caramelized. If they have not softened right through (that depends on their size and degree of ripeness), put them into the pan over the meat, skin side up, and continue to cook, covered, until they are very tender. It could be 15 minutes, but you must watch them as they can quickly fall apart.
• Serve the meat with the pears, arranged skin side up, on top.
• variations
• Stir in 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of clear honey when you put in the pears, and adjust the seasoning so that there is enough salt and plenty of pepper to mitigate the sweetness.
• Add 1/2 cup blanched almonds to the meat at the start. They will soften during the cooking.
• Instead of pears, sharp green apples, such as Granny Smiths, may be used.
• Use veal instead of lamb.

Steps:

• Follow the recipe for Tagine of Lamb with Caramelized Baby Onions and Pears (page 106) but instead of the pears, use 3 quinces, weighing about 2 pounds. Quinces are now available for several months, starting in the fall, as they are imported from various countries, which have different seasons.
• Wash and scrub the quinces. Boil them whole for about 1 hour, or until they feel soft. The time varies greatly depending on their size and degree of ripeness, so watch them and do not let them fall apart. Drain them and, when cool enough to handle, cut them into quarters, then cut away the cores but do not peel them.
• In a large skillet, sauté the quarters in a little sunflower oil until the cut sides are brown. This gives them a delicious caramelized flavor. Alternatively, for a honeyed version, sauté the quinces in a mixture of 1/4 stick (2 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted with 1 tablespoon sunflower oil and 1 1/2 tablespoons clear honey. You may also add 3/4 cup walnut halves, which gives a wonderful contrast of texture.
• Put the quinces-caramelized or honeyed-in the pan with the meat, skin side down, and cook until they are soft but, again, watch them so that they do not fall apart. If there is not enough room, lift out the meat and put in the fruits, returning the meat to heat through before serving. Serve hot, with the quinces, skin side up, on top of the meat.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 150C/300 degrees F.
• Put all of the ingredients into a casserole or heavy based pan, pouring in the wine last and giving everything a good stir.
• Bring the pan to a boil, then clamp on the lid and put into the oven for 2 hours or until the lamb is very tender.

Steps:

• Using the grating disc in food processor, grate one onion and set aside.
• Using chopping blade in food processor, mince the garlic and set aside. Mince jalapeno, then chop the two remaining onions and set aside. (Do not combine with the minced garlic or grated onion, since ingredients are added to the simmering tajine at different times.) Chop cilantro and parsley, then set aside.
• Heat olive oil in bottom of tagine or dutch oven with a tightly fitting lid. Brown lamb, adding salt and pepper to taste. Add grated onion, saffron, ginger, paprika, cilantro, parsley and garlic and stir with the browned lamb. Add the can of tomatoes and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes stirring occasionally.
• Meanwhile toast cumin seed in a small skillet until fragrant, just a few minutes. Allow to cool, then grind in spice grinder. The Saveur recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin, but you might want to use all that you ground. Or save the rest for another use.
• After lamb has been simmering for 45 minutes, add chopped onions, jalapeño, and 1/2 teaspoon (or more if you want) of toasted ground cumin, then simmer 45 minutes more.
• Meanwhile poach the quince. Cut each quince into 6 slices, leaving skin on and removing core and seeds. Using a large skillet, poach the quince in simmering salted water until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain off almost all of the poaching water, reserving about 2--3 tablespoons in the skillet. Add 2 tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and the cinnamon, making a syrup. Cook fleshy side down until glazed, about 20 minutes. Turn over and brown the skin side. Keep warm to serve with the lamb.
• Simmer okra in a small amount of water until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain and add to tajine. (The Saveur recipe just adds the okra to the tajine after it has simmered for the 90 minutes. But when I did this before, I simply could not get my okra tender within a few minutes. Once the okra had finally cooked sufficiently, it seemed that some of the other ingredients, like the garlic and cumin, had overcooked, resulting in a bitter flavor. So to get the flavor right, I cook the okra separately).
• To prepare couscous, add 1 cup of boiling water to 1 cup of couscous. Cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Then fluff with a fork.
• To plate, serve tajine over the couscous and garnish with the quince. If you have any preserved lemon, add a little to the plate with a few sprigs of cilantro.

Steps:

• Place the lamb, and one of the onions in a heavy based pan.
• Season to taste with pepper and paprika, and cover with water.
• Add the coriander, saffron, and ginger and bring to the boil.
• Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for about 1 hour or until the lamb is tender.
• Cut the quinces into roughly the same size as the meat, and cook them and the second onion in the butter until they are lightly golden.
• Halfway through the cooking time for the lamb, add the cooked onions, quinces and prunes.
• Serve when the lamb is tender,.