Lamb and Roasted Cauliflower Stew with Harissa
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Aperçu
Lamb shoulder browned and cooked slowly with tomato, cumin and cinnamon, finished with harissa and dates, and topped with charred cauliflower and toasted almonds. No country is named, but the flavour vocabulary is unambiguously North African. **It contains almonds, which the title gives no indication of.** Harissa, dates, cumin and cinnamon in a lamb stew is a Maghrebi combination, Tunisian in the case of harissa specifically, which is Tunisia's national condiment. The dates are doing what dried fruit does throughout North African cooking: providing a sweetness that balances the chilli rather than making the dish sweet. That savoury-sweet axis is one of the defining characteristics of the region's cooking, and it runs through tagines, pastilla and couscous alike. The cauliflower is treated separately and that is the smartest thing in the recipe. Rather than being cooked in the stew, where it would go soft and grey, it is tossed in smoked paprika butter and charred under a grill, then scattered over at the end. It arrives with texture and colour intact. The white wine is not North African and is worth flagging for anyone avoiding alcohol; it cooks off, but it is there. The source's extended nutritional discussion of cauliflower has not been carried across.
Ingrédients
Les mentions alimentaires sont fournies par les contributeurs à titre indicatif. Elles ne sont pas vérifiées par AFN et dépendent des produits que vous achetez. En cas d’allergie grave, vérifiez vous-même chaque ingrédient. Cuisine, allergies et votre propre jugement
Préparation
- 1
Warm the olive oil and 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Season the lamb with salt and pepper and brown it in batches on all sides, transferring each batch to a plate, about 20 minutes in total.
- 2
Put the garlic, tomatoes and onions into the pot and cook, turning occasionally, until golden brown, about 10 minutes.
- 3
Mix in the white wine, tomato paste, cumin and cinnamon and cook for 3 minutes.
- 4
Return the lamb to the pot with the beef stock. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat, cover and cook for 2 hours.
- 5
While it cooks, heat the grill to high. Combine the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter with the smoked paprika in a bowl, toss the cauliflower florets through it and season with salt and pepper.
- 6
Spread the cauliflower on a baking sheet and grill until browned at the edges and slightly chewy, about 10 minutes, turning every few minutes.
- 7
Toast the almonds lightly until fragrant.
- 8
Mix the cornstarch slurry into the stew and bring it back to the boil. Lower the heat, work in the harissa and the dates, season, and cook for a further 5 minutes.
- 9
Ladle into bowls and top with the charred cauliflower and toasted almonds.
Notes de l’Africook
Notes personnelles de Nympha Nzeribe- This contains almonds. The title gives no indication, so say so when serving.
- Char the cauliflower separately. Cooked in the stew it goes soft and grey; grilled and scattered on top it keeps texture and colour.
- Brown the lamb in batches. A crowded pot steams the meat instead of colouring it and you lose the base of the whole dish.
- Add the harissa at the end, not the start. Long cooking dulls it and the fresh chilli note is what lifts the finished stew.
- The dates are doing balance work rather than making it sweet. Do not leave them out.
- It contains white wine. The alcohol cooks off but the wine is there, which matters for some households.
Questions fréquentes
Where is this dish from?
No country is named, but the flavour vocabulary is unambiguously North African, harissa, dates, cumin and cinnamon in a lamb stew is a Maghrebi combination, with harissa specifically being Tunisia's national condiment. The technique of charring the cauliflower separately and the use of beef stock read as contemporary rather than traditional, so this is best understood as a modern dish working in a North African idiom.
Why char the cauliflower separately?
Because cauliflower cooked in a stew for two hours turns soft, grey and waterlogged, contributing nothing but bulk. Tossed in smoked paprika butter and charred under a hot grill, it arrives at the table browned, slightly chewy and with its own distinct flavour, sitting on top of the stew rather than dissolved into it. It is the best idea in the recipe and worth borrowing for other stews.
What are the dates for?
Balance rather than sweetness. Dried fruit against chilli and warm spice is one of the defining moves in North African cooking, running through tagines, pastilla and couscous alike, and it is what stops a harissa-heavy dish being simply hot. Eight dates in a stew this size will not make it taste sweet, they round off the heat and give the sauce depth. Leaving them out noticeably flattens it.
Can I make it without wine?
Yes. The third of a cup of white wine is deglazing the pot and adding acidity, and stock with a squeeze of lemon does much the same job. The alcohol cooks off during the two-hour braise in any case, but the wine is in the ingredient list and that matters for households that avoid it entirely. Nothing else in the recipe depends on it.
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