anthony worrall thompson's moroccan lamb tagine

I promise you I did not choose this particular recipe for any latent SEO benefits I might reap from people looking up "cheese thief".

In fact it was totally Ana's choice as we've got Mr Peter Magnus Leary coming over for lunch, and I was feeling uninspired. With yet-another "We've got friends coming round, let's bang a roast into the oven" looming, she takes the executive decision and plumps for Le Voleur Fromage's pretty blinking good tagine - and this one gets the full 24 hour marinading!

For once, I think the marinading time does make a difference: the depth of the flavour is really marked, rather than being slightly overpowered by turmeric, and what better way to finish it off than with a large wodge of carrot cake from Carluccio's? I love that other people supply pudding these days...

Certainly it was more successful than our entertaining, (or my posh couscous which was a bit too sloppy) which consisted of making Pete meet us in the park, walk home, play Lego and then slump on the sofa watching Horrible Histories. It turns out we're not very good hosts after all.

Wine Time
There's all sorts of things going on here - spices like cinnamon, dried fruit, acidic tomato and rich, unctuous lamb. Mmm, so what you're probably looking at is an equally complex red, with spice, dried fruit notes, and enough acidity to cut through the fat whilst balancing the fattiness of the lamb: We're talking Rhone. A villages appellation is probably the best place to start, but if you wanted to push the boat out head to one of the premier ACs - I think a ten year old Gigondas or Vacqueyras would nail it. And you'd look classy an all.

sources
moroccan lamb tagine - Anthony Worrall Thompson, BBC Food Site

moroccan lamb tagine

sources
Moroccan lamb tagine - Anthony Worrall Thompson, BBC Food Site

moroccan lamb tagine

After a hard day watching rugby (featuring Wales finding yet another way to lose a match they should've won), and putting together Ana's vast collection of new things from IKEA, tonight we've got an experimental extravaganza planned for Kendra and Brian.

The starter is fairly easy: Smoked salmon on toasted rye bread and horseradish. Sadly we've run out of the Isle of Wight Garlic Farm horseradish, which is just about the most perfect accompaniment, but Ana more than makes up for it by discovering a pack of salmon featuring three different cures, and on massive discount offer!

From left to right - Romanov cure (beetroot & dill), Highland Peat (peat I suppose) and Lemon and Pepper (you get the picture):

I can eat smoked salmon all day, particularly the Highland Peat and Romanov varieties, and whilst we're wolfing fish and wine, in the oven a culinary miracle is taking place.

Ana bought me an amazing fig Emile Henry tagine for my birthday, and having seasoned it with milk (really), tonight is it's inaugural outing. Hold onto your hats though because controversially it's a recipe from Anthony Worrall Thompson.

It was recommended to me by Angela Hazel at work and it's amazing, even if I do say so myself:

I have to do a bit of fiddling as he doesn't use a tagine in his recipe, consequently I only use the bare minimum of tomato juice and only half the amount of chopped tomatoes. I don't marinate the meat overnight either (it gets an hour tops), but I think everybody was happy.

Certainly the ladies had two portions each, which was good from my point of view as it meant I could drink the leftover pudding custard once Brian and Kendra had gone. By crikey I was full though!

Next stop, a chicken and preserved lemon version - there must a decent recipe out there somewhere!

Food of the Milos
Today he was mainly fuelled by sweets in our continued effort to bribe him into potty training. To be honest he picked it up a couple of weeks ago when Kay was up for half-term, but every now and then he remembers the chocolate buttons/jelly dinosaurs in the cupboard and plays hardball.

He has poached eggs for lunch (and me and Ana have left-over halloumi casserole), and follows it up with a miniscoff chilli yum yum for dinner. As he came shopping he knows we've got sausages in the house and kicks up an almighty fuss when he realises it's chilli, but remarkably the power of Scooby Doo on the computer seems to trick him into eating it all.

sources
Moroccan lamb tagine - Anthony Worrall Thompson, BBC Food Site