2012 Cooking Club Week 18: Beef Tagine with Cous Cous

The Black Oil

I've made this a few times - enjoy it.



Ingredients

500g diced beef
1 medium onion chopped
1 sweet potato cut into cubes
2 tomatoes chopped
1 tin of chickpeas, drained
1 orange zest
225g cous cous
1 tsp ground cumin (optional)
1 tsp dried mixed herbs
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp sugar
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp plain flour
450ml beef stock
50g raisins
350ml chicken stock or boiling water
Salt and pepper

Method

Fire up your oven to 170°C.

Mix the herbs with cumin, cinnamon, chilli powder and the sugar.



Add a little olive oil to coat the beef. Add the spice/herb mix to the meat. Cover and put the meat in the fridge for 30 minutes.



Next, fry off it on a large frying pan and then transfer it to your ovenproof casserole dish.

Next, fry the onions, garlic and sweet potato for approx 3-4 minutes until well browned. Add the plain flour and stir this with the vegetables for a minute or two. Then mix in your chopped tomatoes with the beef stock.
Pour all of this into your casserole dish, mix in with the meat and place into the oven and simmer for 1 hour until the meat is tender.



Check the dish every 20 minutes to give it a stir and if you feel the mixture is becoming too dry add in some additional stock.

After the hour mark, add the chickpeas, raisins and orange zest and return to the oven for a further 20-30 minutes.



Cous Cous

Add the cous cous to a large bowl, pour in the boiling water or the chicken stock and cover with cling film. Leave aside for 8-10 minutes. Remove the cling film, fluff up the mixture with a fork. Season with some salt and pepper. Additional suggestions include serving with some natural yoghurt or toasted almonds.

fitzcoff

For this would you use stewing beef or what type is best suited?

John Mason

Oh, i think i will be giving this ago on monday

The Black Oil

fitzcoff wrote: »

For this would you use stewing beef or what type is best suited?

Well, the packets I get tend to say 'lean diced beef', that's generally grand for the slow cooker. Haven't had a problem with it in 2 hour casserole set up, either. Not sure if this answers your question sufficiently..

pts

Cheers OP! Made the Tagine yesterday and was very happy with the result. There are so many different flavours contained in it, and it's soooo filling!

Only have the pic from when it came out of the oven, I was too hungry to photograph it after plating.

Faith

I think I might make this over the next few days

The Black Oil

That's great, pts. Thanks for trying it, the flavours do come out well alright. What sort of beef did you use?

It's a supermarket recipe, so you're supposed to be able to make it for around €8 assuming you have the spices, etc already.

pts

Yeah it worked out fairly cheaply. I had most of the things, just had to get the meat (the same one you got I think, the packaging looks the same), a sweet potato and an orange.

BaZmO*

The Black Oil wrote: »

2 tomatoes chopped

???

Do you mean a tin of chopped tomatoes?

The Black Oil

I used one tin of chopped tomatoes. However, the supermarket leaflet/website says '2 (brand X) tomatoes, chopped'. Link

Faith, or one of the other mods, could I trouble you do put 'drained' next to the tin of chickpeas in the OP? Thanks.

Faith

Done.

_blank_

This is nearly ready.

John Mason

we had this last night and loved it.

there is no photo cos i completely misjudged the times and it wasnt ready until nearly 10pm last night and i was far too hungry to stop and take a photo.

The Black Oil

Thanks for trying it.

Lola92

This looks amazing! I'm hoping to try this tomorrow evening but I won't have the time to do it all as I am in late enough, would it be okay to prepare tonight and put in the oven on a timer in the morning for tomorrow evening? Thanks

The Black Oil

I'd say it'll be fine to leave it siting in the fridge over night. Oven should also be OK, assuming you trust your timer. I've never tried that...might take a while for the thing (stock, etc) to heat up. Dunno if it'll need a bit extra time...each oven is different. Also, forgot to mention in the OP that I generally put a layer of tinfoil on top of casseroles, but I can't recall if I did that in this case.

Hope it works out for you.

ibarelycare

Bit of a bump for this thread, but made this on Saturday, except used lamb (and lamb stock) instead of beef. I used tinned tomatoes and for me the whole thing was a bit TOO liquidy, next time I'd definitely reduce the amount of stock. I think I'd leave it for longer next time too because, although the lamb was lovely and tender, it wasn't completely breaking up with the slightest touch, which is how I love my lamb! Also, I had the chickpeas in for over 30 minutes and they were somehow still a bit firm, which I thought was strange. But overall I enjoyed it!

oscarBravo

I made this today. I used a bunch of quartered cherry tomatoes and halved the beef stock quantity since I was cooking it in a covered tagine pot. I chopped some fresh mint into the couscous and also served some flatbreads made to Chucken's recipe in the "two ingredients" thread.



Delicious!

oscarBravo

I forgot to mention that I cooked the couscous in chicken stock that I made according to Sparks' recipe in the random recipe thread. It's starting to feel like everything I cook is inspired by this forum on some level :pac:

The Black Oil

Well, excuse me Mr. I have my own tagine... :pac:

oscarBravo

They had them in Aldi last year. I couldn't resist...!

meoklmrk91

This looks yummy, I live alone so I cook big pots and then freeze portions, this looks like it would be perfect. Will have to free up some space in my fecking freezer first though.