Sweet Lamb Tagine, and slow cooking the quick way!

It seems that not a lot of people slow cook in their Thermomixes. I think I do enough Thermomix slow-cooking to make up for everyone else who is not! I love slow cooked meals (especially curries!), but never think about it far enough in advance to get a dish in the oven at 11am. Not going to happen. Even when I menu plan to do it, it just doesn’t happen.

Thermomix slow cooking, however, only takes 1-2 hours. Just enough time to get home from preschool, get dinner on, go for a walk/play outside/tidy/read stories/etc, and eat a delicious slow cooked meal!

I made this meal for the consultants in my team on Monday night, simply because I get asked all the time if you can slow cook in the Thermomix and if I wasn’t such a lazybones diehard slowcooked meat fan, I probably wouldn’t know the answer. So I wanted to show my team the answer! Plus, I love feeding people.

But now I want to show you guys that yes, you can indeed slow cook in a Thermomix… but, like everything else we do in our amazing machines, TM does it fast! Something that would take 4-6 hours in the oven or in a slow cooker is going to take just 1-2 hours in a Thermomix.

The reason I say 1-2 hours, rather than something more specific, is because there are so many factors that can affect cooking time:
– cut of meat (e.g. rump will take less time than chuck)
– the life of the animal (I find that organic meat gets tender quicker than conventional meat)
– the freshness of the meat
– and other mystery factors (sometimes it just cooks quicker than you expect!)

The reason(s) I love slow cooked meals in the TM:
– it is faster
– it is easier (chop the onions etc in the TM)
– it tastes so much better!!!! (this is due to being cooked quicker, and because the food is being stirred by the blades spinning in reverse, the food is constantly moving and nothing gets overcooked)
– you don’t have to be so organised as to plan dinner before you eat lunch!

I also am just a little obsessed with curries and tagines. This is somewhere between the two. But who cares what it’s called, it tastes amazing!!!
A lot of spices used in Indian cooking pack an awesome nutritonal-punch. Turmeric and ginger are both great for stimulating your digestive system, among other benefits. I use a combo of fresh and ground turmeric in this dish, but you can use all ground if you find the fresh turmeric hard to source.

Sweet Lamb TagineIngredients:
1 finger of fresh turmeric, peeled (optional, see below)
3cm piece of ginger, peeled
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 large brown onion, peeled and halved
50g oil
1/4tsp ground turmeric (or, if you are turmeric obsessed like me, 1/2 tsp… if you don’t have fresh turmeric, use a full teaspoon of ground turmeric)
1 to 1 1/2 tsp garam masala (I loooove the garam masala from the Indian cookbook!)
1 cinnamon quill
750-800g lamb, cubed (I usually use boneless lamb leg)
200g coconut milk (plus a little extra, see below; I make my own coconut milk from the recipe in the Indian cookbook)
200g tinned tomatoes or 350g fresh tomatoes, diced
2 tsp stock paste
200g dried apricots (please don’t buy the bright orange ones, these are packed with preservatives!)
Kernels from 2 corn cobs
Chard (approx 6-8 leaves); stems finely sliced and leaves roughly chopped
Method:
1) Put fresh turmeric, garlic and ginger in TM bowl. Chop for 2 secs, speed 8.
2) Add onion to bowl. Chope for 2-3 secs, speed 7.
3) Add oil and saute for 4 mins, 100 degrees, speed 1.
4) Add ground spices and cinnamon quill, cook for 1 minute, 100 degrees, reverse, speed soft.
5) Add lamb, cook for 5 mins, 100 degrees, reverse, speed soft.
6) Add coconut milk, tomatoes, stock paste and 50g of the apricots – you should have enough liquid to just cover the lamb; if not, add a touch more coconut milk. Cook for 1hr, 100 degrees, reverse, speed soft.
7) Check the texture of the meat. The last step is to cook the extra apricots and the veg for just 15 minutes. If the meat is not going to be tender enough in the 15 minutes that the veg will take to cook, set the meat to cook another 15 minutes, 100 degrees, reverse, speed soft.
8) Once you think the meat is almost there, add the remaining 150g apricots plus the veg and cook for 15 minutes, 100 degrees, reverse, speed soft.

We either eat this on its own as a stoup (stew/soup), or with rosti (potato cakes). If you can have grains, it would be fantastic with rice and/or naan.

This is a really kid-friendly intro to spiced foods, as it is not actually spicy but has loads of flavour so the grown ups don’t miss the chilli kick! I would stick to just 1tsp of the garam masala when giving it to kids for the first time, and build up to 1.5tsp (depending on your kids’ tastes, of course!).

Do you have a favourite slow cooked Thermomix meal?