Mishmishiya

The boy is tired of tagines.  Makes sense I guess, I've been kinda shoving them down his throat lately.  So this might be last one for a while.  At least I ended with a bang - lamb and apricots :)

Mishmishiya

Tagine of Lamb with Apricots

recipe from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden

Ingredients: 

2 large onions, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cumin

Good pinch of chili pepper, to taste (I used Aleppo chili)

2 pounds leg or shoulder of lamb, trimmed of excess fat

Salt and plenty of pepper

1 1/2 inches fresh gingerroot, cut into slices

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 pound dried Apricots

14-ounce can of Chickpeas, drained

My lovely cookbook also tells me that this dish gets its fabulous name from the Arabic word for Apricot - mishmish.  Sometimes things just sound so much better in another language.

I had originally planned to make this dish on Friday when my little sister was staying over for the night.  She started Spring Break, its her first year of college, and my poor dad accidentally booked her a flight home for the wrong day! But, as per usual, the boy calls me last minute to tell me of plans he's made so instead of my tagine, then homemade cinnamon rolls with sister plan I ran home to shower (like my friend who blogs here, I rarely shower daily and NEED a little notice for going out events that require me to look more than just "ugh its friday") and delegated my poor sister to puppy sitting and walking. and THEN, boy remembers to tell me that his parents want to take us out to dinner Saturday night which really means 4PM so there goes my other plans of hanging out with my sister because I then had to clean like a crazy lady all morning to make sure things were looking their best for his parents.  Hectic but good, if slightly not what I had planned weekend. Long story short, I finally made my tagine on Sunday, but I had a sore throat and was tired and boy was complaining that it was another tagine so the pictures are slightly lacking. My apologies. 

Whew. 

First, you'll need 2 large onions, chopped. 

 

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium-low heat and add onions. 

Once the onions are soft, add the spices:

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cumin

and a Good pinch of chili pepper, to taste (I used Aleppo chili)

Side note:  I think the boy is tired of all the cinnamon and cumin and that's why he's complaining, so tonight (hopefully) I'm planning to make a Chicken Pilaf with DIFFERENT spices - We'll see how it goes. 

Mix well and add the meat.  The recipe calls for 2 pounds leg or shoulder of lamb - I found lamb cut into chunks at Trader Joes but I forgot to look if it was leg or shoulder or what, nor do I remember how much it was - J had a bad meat experience at Joes once and has forever shunned it so as soon as I got the lamb home it came out of the distinctive Joes case and into a plastic bag for freezing.  

Mix in the meat and then add:

Salt and pepper

1 1/2 inches fresh gingerroot, sliced - I completely estimated here, its my first time using fresh ginger and they're such funky shapes I had no idea how to effectively measure. 

and 3 crushed garlic cloves.

Add about 2 1/4 cups of water and simmer, covered for 1 1/2 hours. 

After the hour and a half add 1 pound of dried apricots - make sure they're un-sweetened - and cook for another 30 minutes.  I only had about a 1/2 pound of apricots, and even that was ALOT in the dish.  J is not a fan of dried fruit so this was pushing things.  

Add the chickpeas to cook for the last 10 minutes. 

One of the things I really like about Roden's cookbook is all the extra information she tucks into the sides.  For example, the next time I make this recipe I want to try the Ancient Egyptian method of soaking the dried apricots, then boiling them and straining out the juice and only adding the juice to the tagine.  I would also add less water, or try to boil the liquid down into more of a gravy than a broth.  

All said and done, J thought it tasted pretty good and I have to agree, definately a keeper.