Tagine.

I have a friend called Phil who is a Chef. He is a really good cook but I think his mission in life is to wind me up in a cooking sense. Phil is a Chef manager working in a lovely staff restaurant down near the quayside in Newcastle for a large World wide company. His kitchen is spotless, the restaurant has a lovely view of the Tyne bridge and his kitchen team of June and Tina are the most lovely people you could work with.
Anyway this week I spent 3 days working for Phil while he had a few days break and I said to Phil I did not want to think too much so could he do me a menu. On the menu he had Beef Tagine which got my taste buds going as I had not had this dish for a long time. Unfortunately had Phil not had his Hawaiian shirt and holiday flip flops on when he placed his food orders he might have ordered some of the basic ingredients necessary for the dish ! So instead I had to 'think' and do something else.
However I just could not get the thought of the mouthwatering dish a good Tagine can be out of my rumbling stomach so today I thought I would make it for my supper.

Aubergine and Chickpea Tagine.

A Tagine is a dish that is cooked in a special type of earthenware Moroccan Cookery pot. So can I really call this a Tagine ? probably not but I can cook the ingredients that would go into the pot so that's close enough for me ! ha ha !
In my Tagine mind the 3 main components of the dish are Cumin, Chickpeas and Preserved Lemons. I am sure their are many variations but this is my recipe.
Preserved Lemons are pickled in Salt, lemon juice and water and are quite tart in flavour. They are  expensive but you tend to use them sparingly.

In a pan saute 1 sliced Onion, 1 garlic clove, 1 2cm squared of sliced ginger, 1 small birdeye chili and the finely sliced peel of 1 whole preserved lemon.

Next I add about a Tbsp of chopped fresh coriander stalks and stir. If you want to add some meat then add some diced Beef chuck steak or lamb neck fillet at this stage and colour. I was having a Veggie version of this dish so I omitted the meat and just poured a 400gm tin of chopped tomatoes in at this stage, half a pint of water and one knorr vegetable stock pot. Put your lid on and simmer for about 30 minutes. If you are cooking meat it will need about a hour and a half until the meat is tender.
While this is cooking away I placed some finely sliced Aubergines into a bowl and poured some Olive oil into the bowl with the juice of 2 lemons and a handful of a dried lemon and garlic seasoning. I lightly massaged the mix together and then set aside in the fridge until my sauce was nearly cooked.
After about 30 minutes add a 400gm tin of chickpeas to your sauce and continue cooking for a further 15 minutes with the lid removed. It is fair to say that the longer you cook this sauce the more intense the flavour will be but I am hungry !
Take your sliced Aubergine out of the fridge. I have a griddle pan which I put on the gas stove so I can grill my slices of marinated Aubergine but if you don't have one of those most people have a George Foreman grill so you can use that to get the grill marks and flavour onto your Aubergine.

Aubergine to quote The Philosopher Rich once again " Is a vehicle for  flavour...........Kev...........Man ! "

When the Aubergines are nicely coloured lay them onto a plate. Taste your sauce it will probably need  seasoning. Add some roughly chopped fresh Coriander into the sauce.Now add a dollop of the sauce onto your Aubergine layers.

Roll the ends of the Aubergine over the sauce to form a parcel. A bit Cheffy I know so if you don't want to do this then just start sticking this delightfully fragrant meal into your gob !!!

Who would have thought something would taste so good ! The Preserved lemons really take this dish to another dimension. You can have some cous cous with this dish if you like also.
Did I just do a Vegetarian blog post ? My mate Simon Wells might be happy at last !!! ha ha.......Enjoy !