Recipe: Lamb Tagine by Mary Berry

Just by looking at the list of ingredients in this recipe you can tell all those spices are going to make this fabulous.

This recipe is by Mary Berry and one I make time and again.  It's one pot cooking and can be cooked in the slow cooker too.  The flavours pack a punch and my kitchen always smells wonderful when this is cooking. I have slightly adapted the recipe and added some chicken stock to loosen the sauce. I made this for the two of us and halved the list of ingredients, although for the lamb I used 300g. The tagine is best made the day before and left in the fridge overnight for the flavours to develop.

Lamb neck fillet from Waitrose was used in my recipe. For some unknown reason the butchers around here don't seem to sell it.

One of my hubs favourite meals and I craftily always make this if I've been out and bought things I didn't realise I needed:)

I served mine with rice purely because we aren't fans of couscous.

You will need:

1 tbs sunflower oil, 900g neck fillet of lamb, boneless shoulder or leg, 2 large onions, 3 cloves garlic crushed, 175g quartered dried apricots, 1 tsp ginger, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tablespoon ground paprika, ⅛ tsp hot chilli powder, 1 generous pinch of saffron soaked in 3 tbs hot water, 2 tbs honey, 800g tinned chopped tomatoes, ½ pint of chicken stock, chopped parsley and coriander to garnish.

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C.
2. Heat the oil in a large casserole and brown lamb in batches. When browned, remove and put on one side.
3. Add the chopped onions and garlic to a pan on a low heat, stir and then cover for around 10-15 minutes until soft.
4. Increase the heat and add the spices including saffron and soaking liquid.
5. Add the apricots, honey, tomatoes and lamb. Add some of the stock to loosen the mixture - you may need to top up the casserole during cooking to make a sauce.
6. Bring to the boil, season and cover with a lid. Pop in the oven for at least two hours.
7. Garnish with lots of parsley and coriander and serve either with couscous or rice.