So the store around my house was having a special sale for tajine dishes a couple weeks ago. For weeks I would stop at the ones still sitting there and contemplating whether I wanna get it or not (it really was contemplating whether I have a place to store it or not, I did want it really badly). Earlier this week, I finally caved in and bought it, knowing nothing about how to use a tajine or any recipes to make.

So I spend a good amount of my Saturday morning today to study recipes and cooking techniques. Sind I didn't get a heat diffusor to use the tajine on the stove top, it was clear that I had to use my oven to cook. That's what you want to hear, when its 90° outside and even hotter inside. But I went for it anyway.

The recipe I came up with is in fact a hybrid of several recipes I found online and I was seriously amazed about how great it turned out. There is only one thing I would change - which I incorporated into this recipe already. Since it was my first try, I didn't quite trust the instructions that said to put the raw meat into the tajine, so I seared mine in a pan first. Totally not necessary and I believe the result would be even better without doing it.

In the recipe, I was using Ras el Hanout but if you can't find it in your local supermarket, you can easily just make a spice mixture yourself. It's just a combination of coriander, cumin, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, cardamom. There are plenty of recipes online that tell you how to mix your own.