We still have a lot of beef left in the freezer, so I though it'd be nice to try out one of the beef tagine recipes to use up the next bit of squash. I was just planning on doing the two squash tagines, but I may have gone slightly overboard with the squash purchases, so I think there may be a third squash tagine appearing in the near future. Hopefully they're all different enough that we won't get completely sick of squash before we eat it all. Worst case, I guess I parboil and freeze some of it. But, in the meantime... Tagines!

Beef Tagine with Squash and Beets

Slightly adapted from 150 Best Tagine Recipes

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 Tbsp. ras el hanout
• 500g stewing beef, cubed or sliced
• 4 tsp. garlic paste
• 1 fresh Thai chile, chopped¹
• 1-2 slices crystallized ginger², chopped
• 4 medium beets, quartered³
• 2 c. diced squash
• 1 c. beef broth
• 2 oranges, cut into segments⁴
• 2 c. chopped kale or Swiss chard
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh cilantro or (flat-leaf) parsley

Directions

1. Add oil to tagine and heat over medium heat.
2. Add onion and ras el hanout and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add beef, garlic paste, chile, and ginger. Stir to coat beef and cook for 10 minutes.
4. Add beets, squash, and broth. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 45 minutes.
5. Add oranges and kale/chard, cover, and cook for 15 minutes.
6. Check beef for tenderness. If too tough, continue to cook for another few minutes.
7. Garnish with cilantro and serve over couscous.

NB: catalyst didn't care for the orange in this one. TF didn't object to the orange specifically, but felt that it had too much pith which ended up sort of tough and bitter. Personally, I quite liked the orange. But it appears not to have been a hit overall. I'd say I'd leave it out next time but, realistically, I'll probably just pick a different tagine entirely. So, I guess... caveat emptor orange is not for everyone.

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¹ This tagine was tasty, but I didn't find the chile came through at all. Next time I think I'll try to alternative suggested in the cookbook and use 1 dried, crushed cayenne instead. ^Back
2 The original only calls for a single slice of candied ginger. I used two slices because, historically, I have not noticed a very strong ginger presence when using candied ginger in tagines. Even with two slices, I still couldn't really taste the ginger -- and that's with extra gingery ras el hanout! I do find myself wondering if I'm using the right kind of candied ginger. I suppose next time I could try using some stem ginger (the kind the comes in thick syrup). I think the flavour of that ginger tends to be much stronger than that of crystallized ginger. But stem ginger doesn't normally come in slices (at least not that I've seen). It comes as large chunks or knobs. Since the recipes specifies "slices" of candied ginger, I figured it must want crystallized ginger. The tagine still comes out tasty, even without a strong ginger presence. If you really want to be able to taste it though I'd probably suggest either using candied stem ginger or using 1-2 slices of crystallized ginger and a tsp. or so of ginger paste. ^Back
3 I used sliced frozen beets for this. I cut them in half to make them easier to eat. So, rather than having beet quarters, I had halved beet slices. I'm sure quarters would've been fine too, but I actually quite liked the slices. ^Back
4 I decided to slice my oranges (crosswise) and then divide the slices into segments. (I liked the idea of having lots of small pieces of food rather than a few larger ones.) ^Back