Lamb Tagine

Like lamb tagine, many foods are made in tagine or tajine, a heavy clay pot –frequently decorated – consisting of two parts: a flat circular base and a cone to cover it. The food is cooked slowly to make the meat tender. One of this dishes is lamb tagine, but chicken tagine is also very common.

One of the most popular recipes for the lamb tagine is as follows:

For 6 persons:

• 1.4 kg lamb meat, cut into cubes

• 70 ml olive oil,

• 0.8 g ground turmeric

• 1 small cayenne pepper

• 6 cloves of garlic

• 2 g cumin

• 25 ml honey

• 7 g paprika

• 3 g cinnamon in powder

• 1 g cloves

• 2 g cardamom

• 7 g salt

• 1 g ginger

• 2 g saffron

• 2 g coriander

• 330 g onions,

• 7-1/2 carrots,

• 8 g fresh ginger

• 2 zest of lemon

• 15 ounces of homemade chicken broth

• 80 g tomato sauce

Fry the lamb in the olive oil and set aside.

Ground and mix the rest of the ingredients.

Add the ingredients and the lamb to the broth and put to heat in the tagine. Close it with the cone.

Simmer for 2 hours. Add water if necessary. And the lamb tagine is ready!

Tagine Pot, for lamb tagine

You can try with some other type of meat, adding new ingredients as pine nuts, raisins… etc. Experiment!

Moroccan Beef Stew

The tagine can be used to cook any food

Big Tajine

O to present food

Big Tagine full of chickpeas and cuscus

A few days ago, I visited Malta for business purposes. Anyway I had time to visit the two main cities of the principal island: Valetta and Mdina (and its suburb Rabat). Rabat means suburb in Arabic world. I also had time to try its main specialties: octopus and rabbit, although the dishes I got are not the most traditional ones.

The best way to visit Valetta is going there by urban bus (€0,47). I recommend staying at a hotel at St Julian’s or Silema, at the seaside. If you want to visit the island, you can take a tour bus to the North, to visit that part including the beautiful city of Mdina. There is another tour to the South and you will have the opportunity to see Valetta and the surroundings. Anyway, if you have already visited Valetta, better take the North one.

Another tour day can be dedicated to the Gozo and Comino islands. For me it will be next time. Ferries departs from Silema.

I have to say that both the rabbit and the octopus were fantastic!. I enjoyed it at the sea side, at Silema beach.

The buses are uncovered. You can see everything. By the way, the girl was not only pretty, but very interesting.

The Mdina streets were empty at 10 o’clock in the morning

Baba Ganoush is a popular Middle East and Mediterranean dip made out of baked, roasted or broiled eggplant mixed with several other products. It is delicious and some people claims its romantic properties due to it sweetness. Even more, some oral traditions advice not to eat too much of it, as it could endanger the virtue. The reality is that not aphrodisiac properties have been proved but it is true that, after starting, it is not easy to stop eating the dish. It is accompanied by pita bread.

After cooking the whole egg plant for 40 to 50 minutes, peel it, smash it and mix it in a mixer with lemon juice, garlic, raw tahini, olive oil and cumin and salt.

Proportions:

• 1 large eggplant
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons raw tahini
• 1 clove garlic
• Salt
• Parsley and tomato (optional) to garnish

After finishing the blending to get a smooth paste, pour it in a bowl and add some virgin extra olive oil on top of it.

Serve it with pita bread.

1 tablespoon of Baba ganoush has from 20 to 25 calories

Falafel

We want to present you the genuine receipt of Falafel and the original way of making it. It is the best video about falafel that we have found in Internet. The scripts are in French, but we are going to translate it into English:

Ingredients and processes:

• 1 Onion
• 1 Bouquet of parsley
• A little bit of green pepper
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 tea-spoon of cumin
• 2 tea-spoon of coriander
• Salt and pepper
• 500 grams of dry chickpeas
• 2 spoons of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)
• Soak the chickpeas a during one night in water with sodium bicarbonate
• Drain the chickpeas and smash them to get a puree
• Mix the puree with the mélange of parsley, garlic and green pepper
• Add the cumin
• Add the coriander
• Add salt and pepper
• Make small ball with the dough
• Fry the balls in very hot olive oil during several minutes until it is brown
• Serve hot or cold accompanied by salad and yogurt sauce. Many people like to have it with hummus.

Good appetite!

Note: You can do the yogurt sauce with:

• 2 cups of natural yogurt
• 1/2 cup of chopped cucumber
• 2 tablespoons of chopped onion
• 1 crushed garlic clove,
• 1 teaspoon dried mint
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt