Cooking: Moroccan Lamb Stew

It seems like every time I post a cooking post I always start out with "it's been a while...". It really had and maybe I should just cook more often.

I found this recipe on epicurous.com (Link: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Moroccan-Lamb-Stew-101388) and as I was about to leave work on Friday I decided to peruse the comments. Thankfully I did because they were helpful. I found out that this was more useful as a base recipe and that it was very tweakable. In fact, I tweaked this recipe so much that I could pretty much call it my own.

Unfortunately, I had not calculated my time well on Friday so we weren't able to eat it for dinner. Instead, we ate it today. Justyn really enjoyed it. I think he just finished his third helping! He even wants to try his hand at making it sometime. I told him he might be sick of this by the time we finish the leftovers. He said "nah".

Anyway, here's the recipe I used and pics :)

Moroccan Lamb Stew

3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 generous pinch of red chili flake
2 tbsp flour
2 pounds lamb stew meat
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups chopped onions
6 garlic cloves minced
1 1/2 tablespoons peeled grated fresh ginger
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 can reduced sodium chicken broth
6-8 dried apricots halved
1/4 cup golden raisins
chopped parsley for garnish

1) In a bowl combine the room temp lamb meat with salt, pepper, cinnamon, allspice, red chili flake & flour.
2) In a dutch oven, heat olive oil on high heat.
3) Sear meat in batches until browned well.
4) Remove meat and set aside.
5) Add onions and saute for 3-4 minutes. Then add garlic & ginger and saute for another 2 mins.
6) Add lamb meat back into dutch oven and combine with onions.
7) Add 1/4 cup of tomato paste and mix well.
8) Add the entire can of chicken broth and scrape up the bottom to deglaze.
9) Let everything simmer for 1.5 hours stirring occasionally.
10) Add chick peas, apricots & raisins and let simmer for another 20 mins.
11) Garnish with chopped parsley & serve over couscous.