Moroccan Lamb Tagine

This is a recipe for Lamb Tagine with Artichokes and Lemons

1. Chop the half leg of lamb or more or of other joint into cubes ...ish ...
2. Chop 2 onions and 2 cloves of garlic as finely as possible without becoming manic and sauté in olive oil.
3. Combine the meat, onions and garlic and add 4 large teaspoons of tagine spices to include cumin, coriander, ginger, cinnamon, garlic, parsley, curcuma, salt and pepper.
4. Cover with plastic film and marinade in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight.
5. Heat a frying pan, brown the meat mixture to seal in the juices. Use extra olive oil if you wish.
6. Add some saffron stamens, paprika, meat or vegetable stock or water. You can pre-soak the saffron in water if you wish. We certainly don't use stock cubes so I added some leftover-efforts of wine-making from several years ago which was made from elderflowers from a cemetery cycle ride visit. It became halfway between a wine and a vinegar because it was not fermented at a stable temperature ...... so waste not, want not.... I used it as a cooking wine and I think it was the last bottle from 6 years ago!!!!!!
7. We put the tagine on the woodburner for slow cooking during the day whilst we went out on the MMT! The wood burner is a Nestor Martin and we can cook casseroles on top.
8. After several hours of slow cooking, take one preserved and pickled Moroccan lemon, (make your own about now for next year or buy expensively from the supermarket) cut it in half and remove the flesh and pips ... chop the rind into small pieces and throw into the tagine. Simmer for approximately 15 minutes more or less!. After that when you are almost ready to serve, add however many artichoke hearts out of a jar or can that you would want to eat, and heat and serve with couscous.

PS. If you have the tagine pot you could put this into the oven on a very low heat, escape for the day and return to heaven!