Archive for » July 18th, 2009«

• Cuisine: Moroccan

• Prep Time: 15 min(s) + 1 hour to marinate in the fridge

• Cook Time: 1 hr(s)

• Serves 4

This Moroccan inspired dish is great when prepared with goat, which has a natural sweetness that is a perfect combination with this well-spiced dish. Serve the stew with couscous and a simple salad accompanied with plenty of bread to soak up the juices.

Ingredients:

For the goat:

250 mls of thick Greek style yoghurt

1 tbs of oil

750g goat meat cut into 3-4cm cubes

1 onion, finely diced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 can plum tomatoes, chopped

1 red or yellow capsicum chopped

1 cinnamon stick

30g dried apricots, roughly chopped (or sultanas or prunes), but can be left out

Goat stock or water

For the spice mixture:

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground ginger

1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp ground chilli

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Or: ready made Moroccan spice mix

To garnish: 4 tbsp finely chopped coriander

To Serve: Prepare couscous by adding small tsp of spice mix into it and mixing it well, then as per usual. Sprinkle with chopped coriander. Serve in separate dishes couscous and stew.

Preparation:

Place all the spice mixture ingredients in a bowl and mix together until combined.

Toss the goat pieces in the spices so that it is well coated. Then add yoghurt to coat it well and chill for an hour in the fridge to marinate. This will make meat very tender and will cut cooking time.

Place the olive oil in a large saucepan or casserole pan and put it over a moderate-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion to the pan and sweat for one minute until transparent.

Add the spiced goat and garlic to the pan and seal the goat on all sides so that it is browned.

Stir in the chopped tomatoes, cinnamon stick, apricots, saffron and enough stock to just cover the goat. Bring to the boil then reduce to a slow simmer. Leave the goat to cook for 1 hour or until the meat is tender, stirring regularly with a wooden spoon (add more stock or water if the liquid is below the goat).

Add remaining yoghurt into a saucepan at the end of cooking and reduce until thickened. To finish stir in 3 tablespoons of the chopped coriander and to serve garnish with remaining coriander.

I like this recipe for simplicity, as well as Jamie’s cooking which is always practical and down to earth with good ingredients.

drinks | serves 4-6
Ginger beer is one of my favourite things in the world, especially blooming good in the summer when it’s getting hot. I can’t think of anything more sexy than having a big jug of iced ginger beer on the table with a barbecue on a hot day. The classic real ginger beers use a starter, and these are fantastic but slow, so here’s my shortcut for getting amazing results taking hardly any time.

First of all you need to grate your ginger on a coarse cheese grater – you can leave the skin on if you like. Put the ginger with its pulpy juice into a bowl and sprinkle in your muscovado sugar. Remove the rind from 2 of your lemons with a vegetable peeler, add to the bowl, and slightly bash and squash with something heavy like a pestle or a rolling-pin. Just do this for 10 seconds, to mix up all the flavours. Squeeze the juice from all 3 lemons and add most of it to the bowl. Pour in your fizzy water or soda water. Allow to sit for 10 minutes and then taste. You may feel that the lemons are slightly too sour, therefore add a little more sugar; if it’s slightly too sweet, add a little more lemon juice. To be honest, these amounts are always a little variable so just follow your own taste. Pass the ginger beer through a coarse sieve into a large jug and add lots of ice and some sprigs of mint.