This is another intermediate clay tagine recipe.
I used my terracotta tagine purchase from Sur La Table for this tagine. If anyone in the States, France or the U.K. knows of a tagine distributor of Algerian made cooking vessels please let me know.
This is a piquant, peppery tagine with a touch of smokiness from the ancho pepper and sweetness from the carrots and tomato paste. In Algeria we use a smoked paprika similar to pimentón, smoked paprika this a a great dish to add a little pinch of it too. I would say that broadly speaking this tagine is Oranaise.
First photo- ingredients for my dersa spice paste and aromatics. Half a medium onion grated, 3 small carrots finely chopped, two bay leaves, half an ancho pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of sumac, 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper, 1 teaspon merguez spice blend, and 2 cloves of finely minced garlic.
Lahm is Arabic for meat which almost always means lamb, but doesn't exclude beef either. I'm used beef short rib for this tagine because I like the cut for slow cooking. I chopped the carrots into small dice because I want them to cook down into the sauce as a thickener and to add a little sweetness.
Second photo- Aromatics, spices and 3 tablespoons of olive oil after they've cooked over low heat in the tagine for 10 minutes.
Third photo- 3 ounces of tomato paste fried with the aromatics and spices for 3 minutes. Cooking tomato paste this way is a North African cooking technique. It heightens the sweetness of tomato paste and intensifies it's flavor.
Add 2 pounds of beef short rib (bone in) to the tagine and thoroughly coat with the blend of tomato paste, spices and aromatics and add 2 cups of water as shown in the fourth photo simmer for 1 hour and then add the beans.
I added 3/4 pounds of Ranch Gordo cellini runner beans that had soaked for 3 hours in cold water, 2 whole jalapenos and 1 cup of water. Algerian recipes such as loubia bil dersa (often referred to as Algerian chili) use white beans such as cellini beans or flageolets. I prefer cellini beans for this dish because they are a little sweet complementing the piquant and peppery flavors of this tagine and reinforcing the other lightly sweet flavors such as the tomato paste and carrots. Using high quality fresh beans will make a big difference in this dish.
After 1 hour and 15 minutes of cooking on very low heat. At this point add freshly ground pepper and stir, cover and continue cooking.
After 20 more minutes of cooking the liquid level has reduce by a bout 1 cup. But the beans need at least a1 1/2 hours more to cook so I added 1 cup of water. You may need to add more water depending on how much water the beans continue to soak up and how much moisture your particular tagine vessel retains.
Discard the ancho pepper skin, the flesh of the pepper will have dissolved into the sauce by the time the dish is done. The whole peppers add a peppery aroma, but very little heat. The whole cooked peppers are eaten by the family member(s) who like hot food.
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