FFWD - Lamb and Dried Apricot Tagine - Cook's Choice for Food Revolution Day

Today is Cook's Choice for Food Revolution Day for our French Fridays with Dorie group.  Our assignment:  choose a recipe from Around My French Table that you loved (or would love to try, if it’s a recipe we haven’t made yet!) and Cook it. Share it. With family, friends, colleagues.

What is Food Revolution Day?  To quote the website:

Food Revolution Day is a global day of action for people to make a stand for good food and essential cooking skills. It's a chance for people to come together within their homes, schools, workplaces and communities to cook and share their kitchen skills, food knowledge and resources. Food Revolution Day aims to raise awareness about the importance of good food and better food education for everyone by focusing on three simple actions – cook it, share it, live it.


I chose to make Lamb and Dried Apricot Tagine from p284 of Around My French Table.  You can find the recipe to make it in the book, or online here.  The photos below take you step by step through that recipe.

First, you put some dried apricots in chicken stock to plump up:

In the meantime, you brown some cubed lamb shoulder in a little oil on the stovetop:

Next, after removing the lamb from the pan, you cook some chopped onions and garlic in a little more oil:

and add a tin of tomatoes:

After reducing the tomatoes for 10 minutes, you add the chicken stock (sans dried apricots), dried chilli, coriander, saffron, ginger, cumin, cinnamon and two teaspoons of fresh coriander  (if you have it):

Put the meat and dried apricots on top:

cover the pot with alfoil, pop the lid on your pot, and cook the tagine in the oven for an hour.  Add a handful of toasted almonds and cook for another 15 minutes.

Serve and enjoy:

This tagine has a lovely zing to it - if you don't like zing, you can adjust the spices to your taste.  However, the overall flavour is just devine in my view - sweet and savoury and spicy, with soft, melty meat.  I served mine with steamed veges and leftover risotto.

You can find out what the other Dorie cooks made for Food Revolution Day by visiting the LYL section of the FFWD website.