EDIT: If you were having issues with entering the giveaway for the Emile Henry Tagine, you can still enter by leaving a comment below with your favorite way to spend a cold, wintery day!
If you live in the Midwest like myself you are probably stilling digging out of the snowstorm that hit over the weekend. Fortunately I spent the weekend in New York City so I didn’t have to deal with shoveling! And now that I’m back I’m freezing in the sub-zero temperatures of Wisconsin. That’s what I get for living here I suppose. Luckily I have an arsenal of delicious comfort foods to warm me up in times like these; much like this Beef Tagine.
Tagine refers to a cooking vessel as well as a North African dish. My friends over at Emile Henry sent me their tagine to try for myself and I was super excited to prepare this aromatic dish. The tagine’s conical shape makes a uniquely moist, hot cooking environment for the dish being cooked. The base is wide and shallow, and the tall lid fits snugly inside. As the food cooks, steam rises into the cone, condenses, and then trickles down the sides back into the dish. It’s sort of like a Dutch oven or slow cooker.
You will use stew beef to create this dish which is often rather fatty. You’ll be surprised by how this fat slowly cooks down into tender, flavorful bites. This dish will take some time to allow for 3+ hours to complete. I would call this a weekend meal, perfect as leftovers! I served this stew with a side of couscous and a sprinkle of parsley but you can also serve it with rice. You’ll want to marinate your beef in the seasoning blend overnight for maximum flavor.
I think that I have found my new favorite with this tagine. It was definitely a little foreign to me when it arrived but I have confidence I will be using it more and more! My friends over at Emile Henry are offering up their tagine to one of my lucky readers! This is a beautiful piece of cookware that you’ll want to add to your collection. Get the recipe below for Beef Tagine and enter to win your own tagine!
TO ENTER: Please just leave a comment below with your favorite thing to do on a cold, winter day!
- 1 ½ pounds stewing beef
- Olive oil
- 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
- A small bunch of fresh cilantro
- 1 (14-ounce) can chickpeas, drained
- 1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 3 ½ cups vegetable stock, preferably organic
- 1 small butternut squash (about 1 ½ pounds), seeded and cut into 2-inch chunks
- 3 ½ ounces prunes, pitted and roughly torn
- For the spice rub
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon ras el hanout spice mix
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
- Mix all the spice rub ingredients together in a small bowl. Put the beef into a large bowl, massage it with the spice rub, then cover with plastic wrap and put into the fridge for a couple of hours – ideally overnight. That way the spices really penetrate and flavor the meat.
- When you’re ready to cook, heat a generous lug of olive oil in a tagine or casserole-type pan and fry the meat over a medium heat for 5 minutes. Add your chopped onion and cilantro stalks and fry for another 5 minutes. Tip in the chickpeas and tomatoes, then pour in half of the stock and stir. Bring to the boil, then put the lid on the pan or cover with foil and reduce to a simmer for 1½ hours.
- At this point add your squash, the prunes and the rest of the stock. Give everything a gentle stir, then pop the lid back on the pan and continue cooking for another 1½ hours. Keep an eye on it and add a splash of water if it looks too dry.
- Once the time is up, take the lid off and check the consistency. If it seems a bit too runny, simmer for 5 to 10 minutes more with the lid off. The beef should be really tender and flaking apart now, so have a taste and season with a pinch or two of salt. Scatter the cilantro leaves over the tagine along with the toasted almonds, then take it straight to the table with a big bowl of lightly seasoned couscous and dive in.
- NOTE: If you cannot find ras el hanout you can make your own by combining 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 1 teaspoon ground turmeric, ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon, ¾ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, ½ teaspoon ground white pepper, ½ teaspoon ground coriander seed, ½ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper, ½ teaspoon ground allspice, ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg.
Get outside and build a snowman, Come back in for some hot chocolate
Drink hot chocolate!
We love to cook something warming and watch an old movie.
Watch movies with lots of fun snacks
My favorite thing to do on a snow day is to make a snowman
I love to bake cookies!
I really just like to stay in on a snowy day and snuggle with my kids. A good movie and hot chocolate is a must!
I like to read books on a snow day.
No snow days for me but on hurricane days we have wine lol
Play outside for a little bit if it isn’t too nasty, then come in for some cocoa + reading in front of the fireplace.
I love to put on some music, hunker down on my couch and read a great book!
Definitely, get outside and hike and sled and ski!
Thanks
Merry Christmas
Martha S was the first person to pique my interest with this product and cooking! Excited
Baking cookies!
i love making snow cream!
Bake bread!
I’d like to play some soft music in the background, cuddle up with a book, while looking outside watching the snow fall! Well, that’s what I’d like to do.
Fun things to do are making hot cocoa, baking cookies and listening to music
I like to build snowmen
love making cocoa and cookies
I live in S. Louisiana where it snows maybe once every 7-10 years. It’s never enough to completely blanket the ground and is always so wet that it doesn’t last long. So we all stay home (too slippery to drive) and watch from the window.
Snow day, are you kidding! Bake of course, bread and a pie too!
We love skiing! We go any chance we get. All three of our boys ski and we have so much fun together as a family skiing.
I tried 3 different browsers and this is the only form that doesn’t want to load 🙁
But the tangine seem like a great cooking tool
I’m having the same problem as Valerie L.
Want to try my hand at using a tagine!
One a cold winter day I like to stay inside and bake goodies.
Sit by the woodstove with a good book!
At home, under the blanket with a mug of hot chocolate watching comedy
I love to start a winter day with a nice spicy shakshuka. Sometimes finished with feta. Sometimes I like to add goat cheese. And sometimes I turn it into a Mexican version with extra jalapeños and a touch of chipotle, tppped with some good cheddar or Oaxaca. Served with some warm tortillas.