Savour a slow-cooked lamb tagine to keep winter’s chill at bay

This week chef Clodagh McKenna prepares a warming stew seasoned with cumin and parsley and served with spiced and jewelled couscous

ASLOW-COOKED tagine with lots of warm spices is my idea of a perfect autumn supper. I use lamb here but you could swap it for chicken pieces, pork or add other pulses such as butter beans for a vegetarian version. In the recipe, I say cook it for an hour, but if you have time, reduce the heat and slow-cook it for a couple of hours — the meat will get more tender and the flavours will develop more.

I made this last Friday and brought it up to our home in the country as I had friends coming to stay on Saturday night. I made a simple couscous spiced with cumin and cinnamon and added pomegranate seeds and raisins. It was so easy to pull together and we had lots of leftovers to feast on over the weekend. It really is a fantastic supper for the weekend when you have friends and family around.

Here’s how to make my spiced and jewelled couscous. Pour 400g of wholegrain couscous into a bowl and stir in one teaspoon of both ground cumin and cinnamon and 100g raisins.

Then pour in 600ml of hot chicken or vegetable stock to the couscous, cover with cling film and leave to cook in the steam for 10 minutes. Then remove the cling film and separate the grains using a fork.

Stir in three tablespoons of pomegranate seeds and two tablespoons of chopped flat-leaf parsley. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and mix well. So easy!