More Adventures in Tagines -- Beef "Tagine" Soup

I've been hankering for another tagine, so today's dinner is Beef Tagine with peppers and preserved lemon. 

I had bell peppers and some preserved lemon left from when I'd made tuna tagine back in January (yes, it's still good, I kept it in the fridge AND it's preserved in salt) and a lovely beef shank. And a can of artichokes, which may or may not come into play.

I cannot leave a recipe alone, even when I'm not sure what I'm doing, and I have no Moroccan cookbook (yet). I found several interesting recipes for reference online. Because I didn't put beef in the search line at first, many were for luscious-sounding vegetarian tagines. I may try one of those soon. But, beef shank needs using.

I read a dozen; I'll link these two because I referred to them the most:

Artichoke chickpea tagine stuffed bell peppers at Around Anna's Table

and

Artichoke pepper tagine at Citron and Vanille

My alterations

I mixed spices from different recipes (knowing that I was risking the end flavor) because I got wrapped around the axle about Must Use All The Spice. The biggest hurdle was that I didn't have any Ras el hanout, a mixture of 20 to 30 spices that some of the recipes viewed as essential for making meat tagines. Apparently, every version of Ras el hanout is different, containing varying amounts of allspice, black or white pepper, cinnamon, clove, coriander, cumin, ginger, and occasionally cayenne, lavender, paprika, tumeric, and ... oh, just go look at this recipe, it's amazing (rose petals!): Ras el Hanout at An Edible Mosaic

I was in a hurry and it's April -- no roses* -- so I took Liberties and used shortcuts other folks had taken. We'll see how it turns out. (results below)

There isn't a lot of water in this;** tagines are supposed to be slow-cooked in the oven with very little water in a conical pot called, oddly enough, a tagine. I have waaaay too many cooking implements in my kitchen, but I don't have one of those. I used a dutch oven last time but I wasn't going to be home when it needed to go into the oven, so crockpot it was.

I listed the things I'd do differently next time below, after the dinner report.

Dry spice mix:

• 2 tsp. garam marsala (the jar I have is a mix of cumin, black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, coriander and cardamon)
• 1 Tbsp (sweet) paprika
• 1/4 tsp tumeric
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/8 tsp ground long pepper (because I had it and wanted to try it, regular black pepper would do)

1 pound reconstituted garbanzo beans (1/2 pound dry soaked overnight; or 16 oz can)

3 sweet bell peppers coarsely chopped (two green, one red)

1/2 large onion, chopped

1 can diced tomatoes (14 oz)

4 cloves garlic

1/2 preserved lemon, rinsed and chopped

1/2 tsp paste from preserved lemon jar and an cup of water

2 pounds beef (or less; the bone in the shank I used was much larger than I expected. Oops.)

Reserve 3/4 of the dry spice mix, half the garlic and half the tomatoes.

Put the vegetables and beans, lemon, and remaining tomatoes into the crockpot and toss with remainder of dry spices and half the garlic. Add lemon water. 

Spread the reserved dry spice mix on both sides of the meat (or toss, if you've chopped it up). Nestle meat on top of veggies and spread reserved garlic and tomatoes on top. Set crockpot for eight hours. Don't lift the lid to check it! (Always the hardest part about cooking with a crockpot)

Dinner report

** Well, that made a nice SOUP. Canned tomatoes and probably the bell peppers and the meat all juiced, filling the crockpot with liquid and diluting the flavor. To think I'd added the water so it wouldn't burn! Ha! It was a decent soup -- he loved it -- but I'm ruling out the crockpot for future tagine use, at least with watery veggies and meat.

It could have used more salt. I was relying on the lemon brine, but it wasn't enough.

After we ate I reduced the remaining broth and visible tomatoes by half to 2/3 (i.e., I boiled the water out of it), until it was thick but not quite syrup. THAT had the intensity of flavor I was after, notes of cinnamon and cardamon and cumin all tempting my tongue. How I could taste that over the paprika I don't know, but I actually didn't NOTICE the paprika. It was pretty damn good. The meld wasn't quite what I was hoping for  -- certainly nothing close to Dar Essalam's fantastic oxtail-- but I didn't expect that perfection out of my kitchen, especially given the tossed-together nature of the meal.

I poured the reduction over the leftovers, mixed it well and threw it in the fridge, hoping it will be awesomely melded tomorrow.   *edited to add: OH YEAH that was what it needed, and sitting overnight merged the flavors nicely. The lemon pieces were nice bright flavor bursts in the midst of a very savory spice blend. I could do this again.

Notes for next time

- Remember I blogged about this and look up the old recipe (I did not remember the tuna tagine post until I went to write this up. Doy. Remember the subtitle of this blog? Yeah, that.)

- Buy some Ras el hanout. Experiment with various spice melds. Worry less about using the entire spice cabinet.  

- Use the dutch oven without a lid (or with the lid ajar) and bake.

- The preserved lemon kind of got lost, possibly because of the tomatoes, possibly because I put it in too soon, possibly because the spice mix was diluted. Look closer at the spices and ingredients of the recipes that use preserved lemon. 

- Don't use the brine, just add 1/2 tsp of salt to the recipe.

- After eight hours in the crockpot, the peppers were seriously overcooked and the garbanzo beans were done but not can-tender. I liked the texture of both (I prefer my peppers either raw or cooked to death), but others might find one or the other unpalatable. If I cook this in the oven using dried garbanzos, they would need to be cooked to at least the halfway point first.

* I passed blooming roses in a neighbor's yard on a short walk today. Suppose they'd notice a few missing petals? Oh, mine will be blooming soon enough.

A Experiment in Tuna Tagine

A friend of mine mentioned this afternoon that she liked to hear about my kitchen adventures because she doesn't cook much. It occurred to me that I might actually blog more about writing here if I also blogged about food. I've been cooking for longer that I've been writing, and it's much easier for me to write about. I certainly don't mull over decisions at the stove as long as I do at the keyboard! 

So this evening I made a Tuna Tagine. I love tagines (both the cooking pot and the food cooked in it, but mostly the food), having been introduced to them with my aunt at a fabulous restaurant called Dar Essalam in Wilsonville, just east of Frye's. If you're ever in the area, try them out. Just leave some oxtail tagine for me.

Anyway, we have some tuna M. caught on the coast last year that needs using. The package I thawed was lightly freezer burned, so I wanted a highly flavorful recipe for it and tagine really fits the bill. He's wanted to try the Mediterranean Diet this winter, and I had bought a jar of preserved lemon I was dying to try.  

So....I found this Tangy Fish Tagine recipe from Fine Cooking. I've never even seen a fish tagine before so I had to try it. I altered it to what I had on hand and, well, to my time and patience. It is a tad fiddly but worth the effort (and some of the fiddly is unnecessary). 

It's also insanely nutrition-dense. I entered it into my nutrition program and was amazed. (I'm using Cron-o-meter, and I absolutely love it. Most nutrition programs out there focus on calories, protein, carbs and fat, but I like a LOT more information than that. It may have saved me from a broken bone or worse; I had no idea how little calcium and Vitamin D I had been eating, and I know better! If you've ever wanted a program that actually runs on a Mac and will actually tell you if you're meeting your Vitamin D, calcium and B vitamin needs, check it out.  It also has a smart phone app that does everything the web interface does, except let you enter recipes. I was so taken with it I got a lifetime subscription.)

Back to the recipe. It was delicious and definitely something we'll try again.  However, I was really unhappy with the textures. That's partially the recipe directions but largely my fault. I used a baker because we were out of boilers, and the original recipe has you parboil the potatoes and then put them under everything and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes. So of course I ended up with smushed watery potato paste tinted purple by the red onion. Tasted fine, but looked awful and the texture was mealy. Wasn't even a good mashed potato texture. 

The peppers, hanging out on top, never got any of the tagine flavor and weren't as done as I like, staying tender-crisp. Some folks like them that way. If you do, leave them there and do the steaming, they'll need it. But next time I'm going to layer them on the bottom with the onions, and maybe put the potatoes on top and then the fish -- or maybe the fish and leave the potatoes on top. Hm. Maybe try both -- I really did like this recipe so I'm sure I'll try both options! 

The potatoes definitely do not need to be parboiled in advance if they're going to simmer for 30 to 45 minutes.  That might be intended to wash out some of the starch, but a good rinse of the sliced raw potatoes should do that. Ah-- the recipe says, (now that I read the introduction) that it's to make sure the veggies are cooked when the fish is done. And the fish was done well before 45 minutes. I (cough) overcooked the hell out of it because I didn't like the look of the freezer burn. Don't need to do that again.

So. First, where I veered off from the recipe.

 First major substitution is a biggie: my wildly over-equipped kitchen somehow lacks a tagine. (Here's what one looks like. That page also has an explanation of preserved lemon and a lamb-apricot tagine I need to try). However, I DO have two fabulous Dutch ovens and I figured one of them would work. And did, quite nicely.

Other changes: I used tuna, obviously. I left out the carrots and doubled the peppers, and made some ingredient subsitutions -- canned tomatoes instead of fresh, ground coriander for cilantro, baker for boiler. 

Things I did that I'd do again: use tuna instead of monkfish or black bass. I honestly have never tried the other two types of fish, and, well, we've got a lot of tuna in the freezer. I will say fresh fish might work better here.

The mincing of the preserved lemon seemed quite fiddly largely because it was time-consuming, but it worked perfectly, melting into the marinade and resulting sauce.

My day's schedule meant I needed to make the marinade about three hours before I made the dish; the recipe says to marinate the fish for 30 minutes. I figured tuna being a strongly flavored fish, more time in the marinade meant more tagine flavor, and I was right. I would certainly marinate tuna for longer than 30 minutes.

Grating a fresh tomato over a sieve to eliminate the seeds and skin was a novel idea to me. It might work well in the summer when one can get really ripe fresh tomatoes, but in January in the Pacific Northwest notsomuch. I was already pressed for time, so I simplified my day, skipped that step and used canned tomatoes. I'd do that again. The seeds and skin were not an issue. That said, fresh tomato would certainly give a fresher flavor.

I'd also leave out the carrots again (if you don't like peppers, use carrots instead, but nobody needs both -- that's Vitamin A overkill).  I'd double the amount of peppers again. Because, fresh peppers, a thing of beauty.

Things I did today that I won't do again: substitute a baking potato for boilers. Ever. 'nuf said.

 I'd also wait to add the water until all the ingredients were layered, so more of the marinade flavor gets on the veggies. It was a pretty thick marinade and stayed stuck to the fish, flavoring the veggies below it only lightly.

Run out of cilantro. Last week I used coriander seed in a lentil soup instead of ground coriander -- and boy was that an annoying crunchy mistake. So I'd just bought a new jar of ground coriander, and I used 1/2 tsp. of that in the marinade because we lacked fresh cilantro. It was an okay flavor but I really think cilantro would taste better. 

Future additions and alterations to try.

I'm really curious as to how this dish would work baked instead of on the stove. Tonight's turned out a bit watery, probably due to the frozen fish (and the wrong potatoes) but might have been because I was using a Dutch oven instead of a tagine. Having never used the latter, I'm not sure. Baking in a Dutch oven tends to be a drier but more even cooking experience, and I'd like to try this recipe that way. I also would be able to cut more of the oil, I think -- I cut the original 1/4 cup to 3 tablespoons by using a single tablespoon in the pan because *of course* my Dutch ovens are well-seasoned. 

I used kalamata olives because I like them. The recipe just says "whole olives," but M. pointed out after dinner that the picture shows green whole olives. Oh. *shrug* Either would work fine. Sliced green olives would probably be lovely.

I might add artichoke hearts and/or another vegetable. M. suggested cauliflower but then decided  it wouldn't work with the brightness of the flavor of this dish. I think it's worth a try. Or perhaps some fresh green beans.  

 I'd also like to try a whole grain (maybe partially-cooked barley?) instead of the potatoes. Couscous comes to mind but it it would need to be cooked on the side or it would be mush.

Recipe for next time: 

Here's my tuna adaptation, the way I'd like to make it next time (i.e., with tonight's mistakes fixed and with an experiment written in; pre-cooking only those veggies that will be above the cooking water). The original, as I said earlier, is here at Fine Cooking.

Tangy Tuna Tagine

(four servings)

1 preserved lemon (or six wedges)

1 cup canned tomatoes (or 2 medium plums, halved crosswise)

2 Tbsp. minced flat-leaf parsley

2 Tbsp. minced fresh cilantro

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp EACH ground cumin and sweet paprika

freshly ground black pepper

salt

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 lb. tuna steaks, cut into four similarly-sized pieces 

1 lb. (waxy) boiling potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch slices and rinsed of all starch.

16 baby bell peppers, roughly 9 oz., sliced into ribbons

1 medium red onion, thinly sliced

1/2 cup whole olives (try green)

Make the marinade

Wedge the lemon if it is whole. Rinse the wedges. Separate the pulp and rind and chop the pulp finely, removing any seeds. Take half the peel and chop it, adding it to the pulp, and sliver the rest, setting it aside for later.

If you're using the fresh tomatoes, put a sieve over your marinating container and seed the tomatoes, capturing the tomato juice and discarding the seeds. Then replace the sieve with a box grater and grate the tomatoes into the bowl, slowly and carefully (use the large holes) until all you have left is the skin; discard that.

Otherwise just put a cup of canned tomatoes into your marinating container.

Add the lemon pulp and chopped rind to the tomatoes, along with the next six ingredients (parsley, cilantro, garlic, cumin, paprika and pepper.) Add 1/4 tsp salt if using fresh tomatoes. Pour in 2 Tbsp of the olive oil and 2 Tbsp of water. Mix well.

Add the fish to the marinade, turning to coat. Cover and refrigerate, turning once or twice, for at least several hours.

Make the dish

Steam half the potatoes and half the peppers for about ten minutes.

Cover the bottom of a Dutch oven (or tagine, if you buy one) with 1 Tbsp olive oil. Heating it helps. Separate the onion rings and scatter them and the raw pepper strips and raw potatoes over the oil. Mix them up. Put the tuna steaks on top, and cover with the steamed potatoes and peppers. Dot with the olives and the reserved lemon slivers. Add a 1/4 cup of water to the marinade and drizzle over everything in pan. Make sure some liquid gets to the bottom so the veggies don't burn.

Cook over medium-low heat with the lid well ajar and gently simmer OR bring to a simmer and then bake partially covered in a 375 degree oven. Check periodically to make sure things aren't sticking and burning, or getting too watery; add water or remove lid as needed.

Cook until fish is opaque -- original recipe said 30 to 45 minutes; 30 minutes should be plenty stovetop.

Nutrition info for 1/4 of the recipe:

Calories: 452 kcal; 33.5 g. protein, 42.6 g carbs, 14.8 g fat, (1.1 g omega-3 and 11 g omega-6). Near or more than 100 percent of the day's requirement of Vitamins A, C, B3, B6 and B1; a good source of vitamin K and many minerals (lowest is calcium at 10 percent).