Moroccan Lamb

This is a tasty Moroccan style dish. Ras-el-hanout is a superb spice blend that really must be tried. The recipe was adapted from one on the Waitrose© website (originally 8 persons).

Ingredients

For 1	Continued...
1 tbspn olive oil	2 tspn ras-el-hanout
150 gm cubed lamb	40 gm dried apricots (ready to eat - see notes 2)
50 gm onion (prepared weight)	3 tbspn chopped tomatoes
1 clove garlic	300 ml chicken stock (see notes 3)
1 tspn tomato purée	¼ tspn salt
¼ tspn ground cumin	1 tbspn ground almonds
¼ tspn ground coriander	120 gm butternut squash (see notes 1)
¼ tspn cinnamon

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Prepare the butternut squash by cutting off what you need, removing the skin with a sharp potato peeler and cutting into approx 2 cm cubes. Remove any seeds if there are any in the portion you are using. (see notes 1)
Finely chop the onion.
Thinly slice the garlic.
If not purchased already cubed, cut the lamb into cubes. (leg of lamb if you have a choice)
Cut the apricots into 4 pieces (see notes 2).

Cooking

Heat 1 tbspn of oil in a flameproof casserole, over a high heat, and fry the lamb for 5 min until browned on all sides, then remove and set aside.
If needed add more oil and cook the onion over a low heat for 10 min until a golden colour.
Stir in the garlic and tomato purée.
Add the cumin, coriander, cinnamon and ras-el-hanout and cook, stirring for 1 min.
Return the lamb to the casserole and add the apricots (with the soaking water if used), chopped tomato, stock, salt and ground almonds, bring to the boil, cover, and bake in the oven for 1 hour.
Add the butternut squash to the casserole with a little more stock (or water) if needed to prevent drying and to assist in cooking the squash, cover, and return to the oven for 45 min.

Serving

Serve with couscous or rice and optionally garnish with a little chopped parsley.

Notes

(1) A whole butternut squash will be far more than required for this dish, so just cut off sufficient for your needs, cover the cut end with cling film, and keep the remainder in a cool and dark place. A fridge is actually too cool and will hasten deterioration.
(2) If the apricots are really dry, soak in warm water for a couple of hours.
(3) Use lamb stock instead of chicken if you have it.

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