Taming the tagine

I enjoy a well seasoned lamb tagine. A few years ago I followed a recipe I saw on the internet and made the dish on a cold winter's day. A recent  cold snap led me to make this dish again. After searching for several hours for the recipe I used before without success I opted to follow a lamb tagine recipe I found on allrecipes. I noted that someone had provided commentary on how make the dish more authentic. The  suggestions were: use beef stock,  ground caraway, ground allspice, preserved lemon, and add harissa, a spicy pepper paste/sauce used frequently in North Africa. I went to a nearby supermarket with the list of ingredients in hand.  I asked three different employees where harissa might be located. I was pointed in three different directions in the store. I went home without harissa.  By the time I arrived home with my ingredients the weather had worsened, so I focused on unloading the bags of groceries and starting the lamb tagine.

My tagine included: onion, garlic, potato, rutabaga, raisins, carrots, apple, prunes, Brussels sprouts, lamb and numerous spices. I added the beef stock. I added the ground caraway seed. I added the ground allspice. I added a bit of preserved lemon.  No harissa! I called another nearby supermarket, Giant Food. The man who answered the phone calmly explained that the store was now closed, but I could come to the store in the morning, at 6am.  I laughed when the call ended because I realized he most lilkely received calls from panicked would be customers often.


What could I use as a substitute? I looked at the shelves in desperation. I mixed one tablespoon of tomato paste with the  a dash of scotch bonnet pepper sauce, habanero pepper sauce and Smackason's ghost pepper sauce in my spice cabinet. I thought  this combination should be close enough to
harissa. I added to the other ingredients and let the crockpot do its work.  I  awoke the next morning to a delicious aroma. The crockpot timer went off, signaling the timed cooking was done and the dish would now be kept warm.

I decided to venture to the Giant Food supermarket  to see if harissa was sold in the store. After the unsuccessful attempt at the other supermarket I determined I would have to go to one of the nearby international markets to buy harissa. The produce manager at Giant saw me walking up and down the spice aisle and asked me what I was looking for. When I told him  I was looking for harissa. He  told me that he wasn't familiar with harissa and asked what region it was used. He stopped what he was doing and walked down the international food aisle with me. Several jars and varieties of  Mina harissa were neatly stacked on the store's shelf! I was impressed. I thanked the producer manager several times and made a mental note to check the store in the future for other items.

I finally had a bowl of the much anticipated lamb tagine for dinner. It was smoky and savory. I enjoyed it very much. An hour later and for the remainder of the evening my system was distressed- the pepper sauce combination was too much. I refused to throw away a nearly full crockpot of lamb tagine and remaking the dish was impractical. The tagine would have to be tamed.

A little research yielded three options:

• add sugar to the dish
• add lemon juice to the dish
• add vinegar to the dish

I chose to add lemon juice to individual servings of the tagine. The juice of half a lemon seemed to neutralize the alkaline effects of the pepper sauce.  The tagine was tamed!

Next time I'll just use the harissa (or wait and buy it at the store).  Do you like lamb tagine? What ingredients do you use in your lamb tagine? Share in the comments below.


Be well,

Technicolor girl

image created by Ink+ LLC 

SNAP Challenge 2014 - Day 5: Lobster and deserts

snack time

Day 4 got off to a late start - I overslept after staying up very late to complete a deadline driven task for work. I attempted to run out the door to my first appointment, but stopped and took the time to eat breakfast. I'm glad I did because I didn't have lunch until 330pm.  I looked at the clock again and it was almost 430pm. I needed to leave soon for the volunteer event and hadn't eaten a snack, much less dinner. I  ate a few pieces of carrot  before heading out the door to the volunteer event.

arugula salad with lobster and quail egg

I should clarify, the volunteer event was being a volunteer assistant in a cooking class. I signed up for the class long before I knew the dates of the SNAP Challenge. The topic of this particular class was "Everything You Ever  Wanted to Know About Lobster". This was also a participation class; students would prepare their own dishes and the chef/instructor prepares a sample dish for the students to see that is served to the volunteer assistants.  Chef Bernard did a wonderful job demonstrating how to use every part of a lobster in a meal. When he finished preparing the arugula salad with lobster and quail egg  and began to create mini plates for the assistants he passed a plate to me. When I declined the plate he asked if I liked lobster. I replied that I was fasting in preparation for a procedure. He apologized and I offered my plate to another assistant. For the remainder of the evening when food was bring distributed I would disappear to the back and work with a member of the staff to dry dishes. The other assistants heard my reply to the instructor and told me they didn't know how they could volunteer in a cooking class and not eat. After class we cleaned up and I got home as quickly as I could. I was terribly hungry and tired. And while I didn't eat the food prepared in class, my best made plans had gone awry.  At 1118pm dinner was served.

Day 4 dinner

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley, [often go awry]

- Robert Burns, To A Mouse

Lessons learned on Day 4:

• More snacks may have been an option than trying to carry my dinner with me.
• While I did fast - it was last week for labwork. Is there a better way I could've answered the offer of food from the chef? I need to think about that because I'm assisting in another class very soon.
•  While I may have been tired, my will power to stay on track with the SNAP Challenge remained steady.
•  As I prepared my lunch for Day 5 I realized I have enough soup for Saturday, but will need to be creative with my option for lunch on Sunday. 

clean cooking classroom!

 Questions posed to me on Day 4 and my answers:

• Q: Did you comparison shop for your food?
• A: I did comparison shop (see Day 1) and I also consider myself fortunate because I have my own transportation and drive to a store with access to fresh fruits and vegetables. I know there are food deserts - places without ready access to fresh, healthy, affordable food. 

Cooking Class Volunteer

• Q: When you were unemployed did you consider emergency food services?
• A: I didn't. 

• Q: How did your friends and family respond to your change in circumstances?
• A: My immediate family was supportive as they could be, but they have commitments in their own lives that they have responsibility for. As for friends, this change in circumstances was an opportunity to experience my support network in action. And yes, there were those who distanced themselves because I couldn't go to happy hours and other events.

• Q: what's in your hummus?
• A: chick peas (ceci, channa), olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, peanut butter and sriracha. See budget bytes for the recipe.

Day 5 marks the beginning of the final stretch of the SNAP Challenge for me. I have enough split pea soup for Days 5 and 6. I will need to think creatively about what to eat for lunch on  Day 7. Perhaps a fruit medley for lunch on a bed of spinach?  Any suggestions?

Be well,

Technicolor girl

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