Meat mains
Chard and lamb kofta tagine
Serve this classic Moroccan dish with warm pitta or flatbreads and a dollop of plain yoghurt. It goes well with a fresh tomato and olive salad. Ras al hanout is a fragrant North African spice blend. Its exact contents vary, and you can't find it you can mix together a little of these spices that you might already have: cumin, coriander, turmeric, nutmeg, chilli, pepper. Keep any you have leftover to sprinkle on roasted veg, as a dry rub for meat, or to liven up stews, soups and tagines.
Ingredients
- 1 large onion, finely diced
- oil for frying e.g. sunflower or light olive
- 450g lamb mince
- 2 heaped tsp dried mint
- 2 tsp ras al hanout
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 tbsp butter
- 300g spinach or chard, tough stalks removed, leaves chopped
- pinch of cayenne or paprika
- 4 eggs
- 2 tsp cumin seeds, toasted in a dry frying pan for 1 min
- a few fresh parsley leaves to garnish
- salt and pepper
Method
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Step 1
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan. Add the onion and fry very gently for 10 minutes to soften it, stirring now and then to stop it catching. Add a splash of water if it looks like it might. Leave to cool.
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Step 2
To make the kofta, mix the mince, onion, mint, ras al hanout and parsley together in a large bowl. Season and then knead for a minute or so, to make sure it is well combined. Mould into small balls, using about 1 tablespoon of the mixture for each one.
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Step 3
Bring a pan of boiling water to the boil and reduce the heat to a simmer. Gently lower in the kofta and cook for 10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and keep to one side. You can use them as they are, or fry them off to colour them slightly, it's up to you.
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Step 4
In a flameproof tagine (or shallow heavy-based casserole or deep frying pan), melt the butter. Add the chard and cayenne and season.
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Step 5
Cook for a couple of minutes until the chard has wilted slightly, then add the kofta to the pan with a couple of ladles of the cooking liquid.
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Step 6
Make 4 spaces between the kofta in each quarter of the pan and crack an egg into each one. Simmer until the whites of the eggs are just cooked but still have runny yolks. This does take longer than you might think, about 5 mins or more.
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Step 7
Serve sprinkled with the cumin seeds and parsley leaves.
