Tagine Initiation

We have finally used our new tagine, a gift from Damon's mom and Gary. It's not that I didn't want to cook with it; it's just that its cone-shaped red top and thick base intimidated me a little bit. I had to work up the courage to tackle it and the nearly 15 ingredients that needed to be prepped and cooked inside the tagine. They also gave us a really cool cookbook, and after a half-hour of thumbing through recipes, I decided on a lamb dish that is very similar to this recipe: http://www.recipetips.com/recipe-cards/t--3400/beef-or-lamb-tagine.asp.

The dish probably took about 3 hours to prepare, including prep work. I was so wrapped up in the cooking that I forgot to take a photo of the actual ingredients cooking in the tagine. But we took a couple pictures of the plates afterwards.

This lamb dish tasted a lot like pot roast to me. It was good, but not nearly as flavorful as I expected - probably because I've never eaten North African food and I assumed it would be rich in exotic spices. We also found a recipe in the book that calls for prunes, honey and more spices, so I am going to give that one a try later this month.

A tagine is such a cool, original gift for anyone who likes to cook and try new things. I'm still hoping we can make it to Morocco some day.