Lamb meatball tagine

I felt like playing with my tagine again...  it's one of my favourite cooking toys, but this will just cook in a heavy-bottomed saucepan if you don't feel like a trip to Morocco to get one!  You can't hurry anything when you're using a tagine as it takes so long to heat up and cool down: it makes for a very relaxing way to cook.

I'm not sure how authentic this is, but kafta - lamb mince - is certainly a popular ingredient.

First, make the meatballs.  Some people are funny about handling raw meat, but I quit enjoy this - the only way to do it right is to get in there and mush it up with your hands.

Finely chop half an onion and put it in a bowl with an egg yolk, 400g good quality lamb mince, a teaspoonful ground ginger or ginger paste, a teaspoonful of paprika, a teaspoonful of paprika and a teaspoonful of dried coriander leaves, or some fresh chopped up coriander leaves if you have them.  A bit of chilli pepper or something else to add heat probably wouldn't go amiss either.

I know I said "finely" chop, that would be my legendary knife skills in action...  I could always have put it through the blender.

Smoosh it all up and turn it into meatballs with your hands, then fry them gently in the tagine.  When they've got a little bit of colour set them aside for the time being.

Now, to the sauce.  Chop the other half of your onion, turn the heat down low under the tagine and fry gently for five minutes or so until translucent.

Stir two tablespoonfuls of tomato puree and two teaspoonfuls of honey through the onions.

Now drain the liquid from a tin of chopped tomatoes and add the tomatoes.

Throw in a handful of frozen peas, add the meatballs back in (it'll be a tight squeeze!), cover everything with the lid and cook over a medium heat for about 15 minutes.

The plan was to add an egg to the sauce to poach before the end of cooking time, but the tagine was too full and we felt this already had enough going on so I didn't bother.

Serve over couscous.