Meat Base For Sweet Tagines / تحضير لحم الطاجين الحلو – CookingWithAlia – Episode 420

This is the base recipe for preparing the meat for sweet tagines.
INGREDIENTS:
– 2 pounds (1 kilo) tender beef or lamb
– 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
– 2 onions (grated)
– 2 garlic cloves (crushed)
– 1 teaspoon ground ginger
– 1/2 teaspoon ground Turmeric
– 1 teaspoon salt
– 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
– 1 cinnamon stick
– A pinch of ras el hanout (optional)
– 1 tablespoon saffron water (large pinch of saffron + 1/4 cup water)

STEPS:
A- Preparing the ingredients
1- First, soak the saffron threads in some warm water for 10 minutes.
2- Grate the garlic cloves
3- Cut the onions in half and grate them using the large holes of the grater. Chop the leftover onion pieces.

B- Cooking the Meat
4- On low heat, in a large pot, drizzle the vegetable oil.
5- Add the onions, garlic, ground ginger, turmeric, pepper, salt, a pinch of Ras El Hanout, and a cinnamon stick. Pour some saffron water and mix all the ingredients together.
6- Add the meat pieces to the pot and mix in.
7- Let the meat cook for a few minutes until all sides get a brown color, this way the spices and flavors are locked in the meat.
8- Add water to almost cover the meat, raise the heat to medium-high, cover the pot, and bring to a boil. Then lower the heat to medium and keep cooking until the meat is done.
9- Check on the tagine from time to time – just stir the meat in the sauce and add water if necessary, the meat should always be half-covered with water until it cooks. Depending on the cut, it may take 1 to 2 hours.
At the end, the meat is soft and the sauce is thick.

C- What’s Next?
10- Check out my other recipes for sweet tagines to prepare the toppings (e.g. Tagine of Caramelized Prunes, Tagine of Apples, etc.)