On the heat. Mild

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg lamb, cubed or neck slices
• 3 onions, sliced · 4 cloves garlic
• 4 tbsp olive oil or butter
• 2 tsp ground ginger · 1 tsp turmeric
• 2 cinnamon sticks · 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• Good pinch saffron · 1 tsp white pepper
• 250 g dried apricots
• 3 tbsp honey · 2 tbsp orange blossom water
• 100 g blanched almonds, fried
• Sesame seeds · coriander · salt

Method

1. Brown the lamb in the oil in batches. Onions and garlic in, 12 minutes.
2. Ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, saffron and white pepper in, one minute. Meat back in, turned through.
3. Water to come halfway up the meat only. Lid on, lowest heat, 90 minutes. A tagine simmers; it never boils.
4. Soak the apricots in warm water for 20 minutes, then add them with the honey for the last 30 minutes, lid off, so the sauce reduces to a syrupy glaze.
5. Orange blossom water off the heat. Salt now, not before.
6. Fried almonds and sesame over the top. Couscous, and a plain bread.

Cook's note. Ground ginger, not fresh. Moroccan cooking uses dried ginger almost exclusively, and it behaves like a completely different spice — warmer and less sharp.

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