Pomegranates are in season and the grocery stores have been full of them. I had been looking forward to the pomegranates as I had been wanting to explore with them some more. Despite the fact that a lot of the recipes that I have been seeing that use pomegranates are for sweet dishes for my first recipe I was thinking about something savoury. I was remembering the pistachio crusted rack of lamb with pomegranate and port sauce that I had made a while ago and I was thinking that another take on the lamb a pomegranate combo would be just right. I was also remembering a slowly braised lamb tagine that I had recently enjoyed and the thought of the falling apart tender lamb combined with pomegranates would be really nice. For the pomegranate ingredient I decided to use pomegranate juice to braise the lamb in and then to garnish the finished dish off with pomegranate seeds. Pomegranates can be a little on the tart side so I wanted to include something sweet in the recipe to balance things out. As luck would have it, medjool dates also seem to be in season and they fit in perfectly with the Mediterranean theme that was quickly developing. From there I went with the usual components from my previous tagine dishes making sure to include some fresh mint as a part of the herb blend. The pomegranate and date lamb tagine turned out great! I made absolutely sure to simmer the lamb long enough that it was falling apart tender and this gave time for all of the flavours to mingle. The tart pomegranate and sweet medjool dates balanced and complimented each other perfectly and they went really well with the lamb and the mint finished things off perfectly. I served the pomegranate and date lamb tagine on some light and fluffy pomegranate and pistachio whole wheat couscous .
Pomegranate and Date Lamb Tagine
ingredients
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 pound lamb (cubed)
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 2 onions (sliced)
- 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 1 tablespoon ginger (grated)
- 2 cups pomegranate juice
- 1/4 preserved lemon (pith removed, and peel rinsed and sliced)
- 1/2 cup dates (pitted and coarsely chopped)
- 1 tablespoon harissa
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 pinch saffron
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup mint (chopped)
- 1/4 cup parsley (chopped)
- 1/4 cup pistachios (chopped)
- 1/4 cup pomegranate
directions
- Heat the oil in a large pan over medium-high heat, add the lamb, brown on all sides and set aside.
- Heat the oil in the pan, add the onion and saute for 3 minutes.
- Add the garlic and ginger and saute until fragrant, about a minute.
- Add the pomegranate juice, preserved lemon, dates, harissa, paprika, cayenne pepper, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, saffron, salt and pepper, cover and simmer until the lamb it tender about 2-3 hours.
- Remove from heat and mix in the mint and parsley.
- Serve garnished with pistachios and pomegranate.
That looks great. Bonus points for seasonal ingredients!
Nice site you've got here.. your dish looks fantastic and thanks for sharing.
I got a tagine several year ago and have never used it. You have inspired me to break it out!
The counter balance flavors you have used here are just amazing….dates and pomegranates!!! I would imagine that te pomegranate juice works wonders as a meat tenderizer!!!
Beautiful dish, my mouth is watering terribly. I think I'll have to make this one 🙂
That is a gorgeous picture. And I would have never put those flavors together. So creative!
A fabulous tagine!
Cheers,
Rosa
Kevin, a beautful dish and despite all the ingredients…an easy one to too!
Your description of the "falling apart tender lamb" is definitely making me salivate. This tagine sounds ideal to me at the moment.
Hi Kevin,
A great dinner, sounds very tasty indeed.
Love,
Herrad
Wow! I want to fix that tonight. Much better than the short ribs I was going to do!
I haven't cooked with pomegranate before but this looks great.
Sweet spicy nutty lamby it looks great!!!
That meal looks awesome! And the picture is amazing too. cheers!
Nice work!
The poms are so versatile.
What a lovely fall dish!
ooooh! this reminds me of my trip to Morocco! Love how you added pomegranates to this!
Looks delicious! You should have entered it in the PAMA contest (http://www.rocketdownload.com/program/entourage-email-archive-x-82807.html) although then you would've given me & my teammate a run for our money… We submitted the flatbread and red snapper if you feel like voting 🙂
Kevin, have you ever made Fesenjan? It's an Iranian (I think) dish that has a sauce of minced walnuts and pomegranate syrup. I tasked it when I did my last Foodbuzz 24,24,24 event and have been wanting to make it ever since – your tagine reminded me to try it!
Beautiful! I have to try this!
Cooking with Michele: I am going to have to look up the recipe for Fesenjan as it sounds really good!
Salivating here. This is so fancy and elegant and exotic. Did you know that this is national pomegranate month or something?? Found out about it on some other blog.
I am in heaven!! I am drooling over this, dates and lamb are my favorites, must make this asap!! Did i mention you are genius?
Thanks for posting this recipe. I made it last night with the couscous recipe. It turned out great! Since I didn't want to buy both pomegranate juice AND molasses, I measured 1/2 c pomegranate molasses + 1 1/2 c water for the pomegranate juice. It worked perfectly.
Thank you Kevin,
once again you have solved my dinner problem 🙂
oh very very greate, very attractive