Lamb Tagine with Sweet Tomato Jam

This was incredibly delicious. I played around with the quantities a good bit. This is because I became confused trying to convert measurements and gave up. I used a pack of stewing lamb, 9 tomatoes, an onion, two cloves of garlic, two tablespoons of olive oil, one teaspoon of ground ginger, a quarter teaspoon of black pepper, a cinnamon stick, a pinch of saffron, three tablespoons of tomato paste, two tablespoons of honey, one and a half teaspoons of ground cinnamon, and a handful of almonds.

I used a cast iron Le Creuset pot on the stove. I don't actually own a tagine dish although I am always making tagines. I find that they are bulky to store and would require me moving shelves in my oven. I browned the lamb and removed it from the pot. I ground up the onion in the food processor and then fried it for ten minutes in the pot. The recipe called for the onion and tomatoes to be grated by hand. There was no way I was going to do that so I just did it all in the food processor. I finely chopped the garlic and added that to the pot with a teaspoon of ground ginger, a quarter teaspoon of black pepper and a cinnamon stick. After a minute I added a pinch of saffron and three tablespoons of tomato paste. After a further minute I put the lamb back into the pan. I had previously deseeded the tomatoes and remove their juice. I was supposed to remove the tomato peel but I didn't bother. After food processing them I added them to the pot. I covered the pot and let it cook for an hour and a quarter. I then uncovered the pot for fifteen minutes. It should be nice and thick at this point. I stirred in one and a half teaspoons of powdered cinnamon and two tablespoons of honey. After a minute it was ready to serve. I toasted almonds in the oven for ten minutes at 200 degrees to sprinkle on top.

My verdict: This was my first time making this recipe and, as such, it was quite time consuming. However, I know that it will be much faster the next time. It tasted amazing. I had wanted to make Moroccan bread to eat with it but, due to time constraints, I served it with couscous instead which was also delicious. I will definitely make this again.