Lamb Tagine with Apricots

Morocco (Andalusian-Moorish medieval culinary tradition)

Lamb tagine with dried apricots, almonds, and honey is the Moroccan sweet-savoury combination at its most representative — lamb shoulder braised until falling-tender in a sauce of onions, saffron, ginger, cinnamon, ras el hanout, and honey, with whole dried apricots that plump and caramelise in the sauce and blanched almonds scattered over the top. The combination of sweet dried fruit, warm spice, and tender lamb is a direct inheritance of Andalusian-Moorish cookery from the medieval period. The honey must be added late in the cooking process — extended heat destroys its volatile aromatic compounds and makes it simply sweet rather than complex. The lamb must be bone-in shoulder: the fat and collagen from the bone are the sauce's body.

Couscous with its neutral grain base is the perfect vehicle for the complex sweet-savoury sauce; harissa on the side provides the chilli contrast that many Moroccans add; a glass of cold pomegranate juice complements the fruit in the sauce.