Beef Tagine with Sweet Potatoes on the Braai/BigGreenEgg

Just a Thought!

Somebody asked me the other day why I keep on promoting the BigGreenEgg, am I on their payroll? I wish!

Well, just to confirm in case I haven’t mentioned it in the past, I'm not. I decided to do this blog after I saw this braai in action, MAN "I thought that this was just the best braai I had ever come across". In fact, just for the record, I struggle to get the BigGreenEggUK or even the USA mother company to recognise this blog. Or in fact even get them to retweet or post this blog on their Facebook or Twitter!!! Not sure why? You guys can help me, please, by retweeting or blogging about this if you want? I think that I'm doing a great job promoting their products.

However, even after my little rant, I must confess that we do sell these braai's and some of their product, just because I personally think that they are great and you can see what we sell by clicking here. I don't think that I'm swayed in anyway because we sell these products but if you think I'm blinkered, please feel free to let me know.

Well, on with this weeks recipe, I knew it was too good to last and summer is over here in the UK, lasted a week this year LOL. Well lets hope not but you never know in this country, so I'm going back to cooking some warm winter dish this week, a tagine. Don't worry if you haven’t got a tagine, you can do this in a potjie or just any heavy sauce pan if needs be.

The traditional tagine pot is formed entirely of a heavy clay, a base that is flat and circular with low sides and a large cone or dome shaped lid that sits on the base during cooking. The lid is designed to help the return of all condensation back into the bottom stopping the dish from drying out and producing a fantastic gravy. With the lid removed the base can be taken to the table for serving. However recently manufacturers have made tagine's with heavy cast-iron bottoms that can be heated and cooked on a braai or stove to a high temperature. I wish I had bought one of these as the tagine I used has cracked. So if you haven't got one with a cast iron bottom brown your meat off in a frying pan.

It wasn’t until I started to eat this meal that I realised that all a tagine is is basically a Northern African Potjie! In fact, this recipe is pretty much a curry for all intents and purposes, similar to the Durban Curry’s from home but with a slight twist, it's cooked in a tagine/potjie. In fact, in traditional Moroccan cooking they would even place hot charcoals on the lid, just like we do with a potjie.

Once again this week I will be giving away 2 bottles of Mrs Balls Peach Chutney just to help make you feel at home when you eat this. See the end of the blog for details, now on with the cooking.

SERVES 4-6: PREP: 15MINS: COOK TIME:2-3hrs

Ingredients for the Tagine:

1kg x Blade or chuck steak (I used Blade)
1 x Brown onion, finely chopped
½tsp x Cayenne pepper
½tsp x Ground cumin
1tsp x Ground turmeric
1tsp x Sea Salt
½tsp x Freshly ground black pepper
½tsp x Ground ginger
1tsp x Paprika
2tbsp x Chopped flat- leaf (Italian) parsley
2tbsp x Chopped coriander (cilantro) leaves
2 x Tomatoes large of 4 small, peeled and sliced
500g x Sweet potatoes, orange ones are best for this recipe
3 x Tbsp olive oil for cooking

Method of cooking the Tagine:

Preheat the braai to 180°C 350°F
Trim the steak of any fat, sinew and cut into 2.5 cm pieces. Heat haft the oil in a tagine or frying pan and brown the beef over high heat. Set aside in a dish to be returned to the onions in due course.
Add the onion and the remaining oil to the pan and gently cook for 10 minutes, or until the onion have softened.

Add the cayenne pepper, cumin, turmeric, ginger and paprika and cook for a few seconds, then add the salt and black pepper.
Return the beef to the tagine along with the parsley, coriander and 270ml water.
Cover and simmer over low heat for 11/2hr or until the meat is almost tender.
While this is cooking peel the tomatoes. To do this score a cross on each them using a knife.
Plunge them into a bowl of boiling water for 20 seconds and then straight into a bowl of cold water to cool.
Remove from the water and peel the skin away, this should just slip off easily, then slice.

Peel the sweet potatoes, cut them into 2 cm slices and leave in cold water until required, this will prevent them discolouring.
Next drain the sweet potatoes and layer them on top of the beef.
Then place the sliced tomatoes on top.
Cover with the lid of the tagine and cook for a further 30mins.
Remove lid and let the braai get hotter up to 220°c 425°F, cook until the tomatoes and sweet potatoes have browned off a little.

All that remains to do is serve with rice or some couscous a fresh salad and of course some Mrs Ball Chutney South Africans pretty mush eat everything with this LOL.

This week we are giving away 2 bottles of Mrs Ball Peach Chutney so you can try this great recipe out. Once again all you have to do is please leave a comment and you could be 1 of 2 lucky people that get a chance to make this really great recipe. Entries will close on the 24th May 2013, give this a try it's worth the time, promise!