Try this hearty slow-cooked date-beef tajine the next time you’re cooking. Enjoy your homemade North African dish boosted with aromas of many different spices and sweet fruits. It’s crazy good! And it’s a very easy slow-cooked dish. In fact, once everything is in the pot, you just let it do its thing. As a result, you’ll get a vibrant dish packed with sweet dates, raisins and savoury mouth-melting beef.
A tajine is a classic Moroccan, Tunisian and Algerian dish consisting of slowly stewed meat with many warm spices and dry fruits. In case you are a little confused, let me explain; a tajine or tagine can be either a clay cone-shaped pot in which you traditionally cook a tajine or a classic North African stew. Consequently, you can cook a tajine in a tajine. Wink.
However, even though you don’t have this special clay cookware at home, you can still obtain 99% of the same flavour cooking it in a normal pot. In fact, I will show you how to make a wonderful date-beef tajine on the stove.
Mouth-melting beef
If you’ve ever made beef goulash before, then you know a good goulash or stew needs time to become perfect. And the same goes/applies for a tajine. A secret to a great tajine is slow cooking and loads of spices. A tajine is only ready when the meat (in this case beef) falls apart only by looking at it. He he he. Just kidding. But you got the point?
Only when the beef falls apart with a simple touch of the fork and melts in your mouth, then you reached the goal. Yeah, sometimes good things require time and patience. I’ve seen somewhere, Jamie Oliver calls it a stew with attitude. Wink. Since spices are playing a big role, I will call it a multi-personality stew.
In addition, have you ever heard of Ras el-Hanout? No, it is not an Arabic prince or something. Wink. This is a Moroccan mix of 25 spices or more. Something similar to garam masala in Indian cuisine. It is frequently used in North African dishes. Can you imagine the explosion of flavours in your mouth? Unbelievable!
The nine great spices
Moreover, I used the most common spices, usually used when making a tajine. Let’s check which and how many spices I used. For instance, I used the classic black peppercorns, fresh ginger, cilantro seeds, cinnamon, sweet paprika, nutmeg, turmeric, cardamom and cloves.
Maybe, you heard of all of these spices before, but you never used them. Be bold and try them in your next dish. As mentioned before, what makes the slow-cooked date-beef tajine special are spices and sweet dry fruits.
Furthermore, spices give personality to your dishes. Also, sometimes it’s good to explore other cooking traditions and take your taste buds on a new adventure. Wink. For this reason, check out this delicious seven-spice chicken, the creamy and healthy cauliflower soup or the lovely banana-chicken.
Moreover, this tajine is packed with sweet dates and some raisins. In addition, I didn’t use just any dates. Along with normal dates, I also used big chocolate-orange-coated dates. Yes! That’s right; chocolate with orange! Yummy! I got this delightful treat from my mother. They were really delicious. Using some of them for my tajine, was a great idea.
Ingredients for 2 portions of slow-cooked date-beef tajine:
- 350 g beef (cubes)
- 2 red onions (sliced)
- a piece of ginger (2 cm, chopped)
- 20 black peppercorns
- 1 Tbsp of cilantro seeds
- 5 cardamom pods
- 2 tsp sweet paprika
- 3 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp turmeric
- 1 nutmeg (grated)
- 10 cloves
- 600 ml of warm water (more if needed)
- 15 dry dates (8 regulars, 7 covered with chocolate)
- 2 Tbsp of raisins
- 1-2 Tbsp sesame seeds (toasted)
- fresh cilantro (garnish)
Prepare a larger non-sticking pan or a pot. Then slice the onions, chop the ginger and in case your meat is in one piece, cut it into bite-size cubes.
Before you start with cooking, prepare your blend of spices. First of all, take the spices which are not in a powder form. For example; black peppercorns, cardamom (use only the seeds inside the pods), cilantro seeds and cloves. In order to crush them, use a mortar or simply put them in a kitchen cloth and crush them using a rolling pin or a heavy pan.
Then, remove some bigger pieces of the cloves that were left behind and put the rest in a small glass together with the other spices (paprika, turmeric, nutmeg and cinnamon). And there you have your homemade spice mix.
Finger-licking good beef tajine
Furthermore, heat some olive oil or melt some Ghee in the pan and add the chopped ginger. Stir it for a minute. Then, add the onions and the beef. Continue stirring until lightly browned. Last, add all of the spices to the meat and stir for a couple more minutes.
Next, pour in the warm water and bring to a light simmer. Let it simmer for 50 minutes (covered with a lid) or until the beef gets tender. Meanwhile, it is time to lay back and relax.
After the meat is tender, add the dates (whole or chopped) and the raisins. Give it a good stir and cook for another 10 minutes. In the meantime, toast the sesame seeds in a small frying pan. Be careful not to burn them.
Finally, serve the finger-licking good date-beef tajine with some fresh cilantro. Remember to scatter the sesame seeds over the meat too, to get a lovely crunch. You are going to love it! Make it on a special occasion or on a family reunion and bring Morocco into your home. It tastes amazing!
Enjoy!
