We eat mostly vegetarian at home but once the cooler weather approaches, I feel the urge to cook beef.  On Sunday morning, as I trudged around the city doing errands, I was overcome by that desire.  It is never the vision of a grilled porterhouse steak or even a burger with the works that I envision, rather it is something braised and brothy with lots of vegetables and tender, slow cooked meat.

I remembered that I bought a large ceramic tagine last year after becoming interested in the flavors of North Africa.  I had put it in the closet for the summer but the rain and the chill invited me to pull it out of hibernation for a rich Sunday supper.  I bought some grass fed stew meat and briskly walked home to see what else I had to make the tagine.  It turned out that I had sweet potatoes, tomatoes, onion and cilantro from my CSA and some peas I had shelled and frozen from the farmer’s market over the summer.

With minimal work in the kitchen the tagine practically made itself!  I steamed some couscous for the side and served with some plain local sheep yogurt.  It was belly-warming deliciousness.

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Beef tagine with sweet potatoes, peas, ginger and ras-el-hanout

*adapted from Tagine by Ghillie Basan

2 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter)

1 2 inch piece of fresh ginger, finely shredded

1 onion, finely chopped

1 ½ lbs grass fed beef, cubed

1 tablespoon ras-el-hanout*

2 medium sweet potatoes, cubed

sea salt + freshly ground pepper

1 lb freshly shelled peas or frozen peas

3 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped

1 preserved lemon, finely chopped

a small bunch of cilantro

Heat the ghee in a tagine or heavy ceramic casserole dish.  Add the ginger and the onion and sauté until soft.  Toss in the cubed meat and brown on all sides, then the ras-el-honout.  After a couple of minutes, add water to just cover the contents and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and cover, allowing the stew to simmer about 45 minutes.

Add the diced sweet potato and season with sea salt and pepper.  Cook gently for an additional 25 minutes. Add the peas and the tomatoes and cook another 10 minutes.

Top with the preserved lemon and the chopped cilantro.  Serve over couscous with plain yogurt.

Serves 4

*Ras-el-hanout is a mix of spices (cinnamon, allspice, cumin, coriander, black pepper…).  Look for this in a North African market or make a homemade concoction on your own, like I did!

It was raining this past Sunday when I visited my local farmer’s market, so I wanted a good treat to replenish what I had already eaten from the Thursday delivery of my CSA.  This week the cauliflower looked good, and I knew it would taste incredible if before roasting it I added some patience to the coating of salt, pepper and olive oil. And yes, it paid off. Instead of roasting it for 20 minutes, I left it in for 40, shaking the baking pan every ten minutes to make sure each piece was well cooked.

At the end, the caramelized piece of cauliflower tastes like veggie candy.  There is nothing better.

Cauliflower Candy

1 medium head of cauliflower, cut into florets

3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

a few unpeeled garlic cloves

½ teaspoon of sea salt

a few grinds of black pepper

a sprig of fresh rosemary or thyme (optional)

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Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss the cauliflower with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Lay the florets in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast for about 40 minutes, shaking the pan every 10 minutes.

Pull from oven when deeply golden and crispy.