A tale of two tagines

I promised readers of my Hot Home Products column, which will appear in the Toronto Star's New In Homes section on Saturday, February 28,  two recipes to go along with the article I did on Tagines. Here they are!

 

 

 

Ali Bessi’s Lamb Tagine with Fennel

What you need:

• 2.5 lbs. lean lamb shoulder, cut into 1.5.-inch cubes

• 1 red onion grated

• 4 cloves garlic, crushed

• 4 tbsp chopped cilantro

• A pinch of saffron threads

• 2 tbsp ground fresh ginger

• ½ tsp ground pepper

• 1 cup water

•  3 fennel bulbs, thickly sliced

• 2 tbsp lemon juice

• salt

• ½ cup Kalamata olives

What you do:

Mix the lamb, onion, garlic, cilantro, and spices together in the bottom of the Tagine. Pour in the water, bring to a simmer, cover with the Tagine lid and continue to bake at 325 degrees. After 1 _^1/4 hours, when the lamb is almost tender, add the fennel, lemon juice and salt. Bake another 20 minutes covered until the lamb and fennel are both tender. Remove from oven, scatter with the olives, and keep warm until ready to serve.

Gary Hoyer’s Vegetable Tagine

(This recipe serves 12, so cut it in half or invite a lot of friends over!)

What you need:

• ½ lb dry chick peas, soaked and cooked in water with ¼ of a stick of cinnamon till tender, and then drained

• 2 large onions, peeled and cut in big wedges

•  4-5 whole plum tomatoes, peeled

• 1 lb carrots

• 1 lb turnips

• 1 lb zucchini

• 1 lb sweet potato

• 1 lb parsnip

• Salt and pepper to taste

What you do:

Clean and prepare all root vegetables into large rustic cuts. Put an appropriate amount of vegetables in the Tagine with enough braising liquor (see recipe below) to keep moist. Add about one part Charmoula (see recipe below) to every four parts of liquor. Heat and braise till tender. Adjust seasoning before serving. It may benefit from a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and a soupcon of fresh Charmoula. Serve with couscous and some Harissa (a hot sauce available at many Middle Eastern grocers.) Note: Hoyer likes to caramelize the root vegetables in the oven briefly before cooking in the Tagine to get more concentrated and complex flavours.

Vegetable Tagine Braising Liquor

What you need:

• 6 shallots

• 6 cloves garlic

• ½ cup each of raisins and dried currants

• 1 cup cracked fresh almond

• Large pinch of saffron

• 1 tbsp Ras El Hanout (spice mix available at many Middle Eastern grocers)

• 3 cups Chardonnay

What you do:

Simmer until the nuts are quite soft, takes at least 1.5 hours, add saffron in at the end. Use leftover for braising lamb or as the liquid in cooking rice pilaf with wild rice.

Charmoula

What you need: 3/4 cup coriander leaves

• 3/4 cup parsley leaves

• 5 cloves garlic

• 1-2 tsp vinegar

• 1/3 cup lemon juice

• 1 ^1/2 tsp salt

• 1 ^1/4 tsp paprika

• 1/4 tbs cumin

• Pinch pepper and cayenne

• Pinch saffron

• 1 fresh chili

What you do:

Grind everything into a paste. Use leftover for fish marinade.

Potatoes with Pedigree

Here's a fun thing to do on a dull Saturday (Feb. 28) in late winter. The Toronto Community Garden Network is hosting Seedy Saturday, a day-long event with opportunities learn about gardening and buy or exchange vegetable and flower seeds. The gardening get-together takes place at the Artscape Wychwood Barns,  601 Christie Street, just south of St. Clair Ave. This year's theme is heirloom potatoes, perfect for that Recession Garden you're planning to plant this year. Of course you are - it's what all the cool kids are doing!

Home Depot Tool Sale

If there's a glaring hole on your tool wall, now may be the time to stock up. Home Depot has a sale on its Ridgid and Ryobi Tools, both of which have a good rep with the tool heads I know. It's on until March 1, and the e-flyer I got promises up to 50 per cent off selected items. I'm very tempted to pick up a Ridgid 15-amp, 12-inch sliding mitre saw for  $399, (regularly $599) for my husband John. Of course, I'm not EXACTLY sure what one uses a mitre saw  for, but it looks pretty impressive!!!! And if tools really are your thing, you'll want to get yourself over to the Canadian Home Workshop Show, which starts on Feb. 27.  

My dirty little secret

O.K. I confess. I developed this weird fascination with Vince the Sham-WOW guy. You know, the tall skinny dude who sells the seemingly miraculous cleaning cloths on television late at night ("made in Germany - you know the Germans make good stuff!!!!!") Finally admitted to the family that I had ordered some Sham-WOW. Clearly, I'm not the only one who had fallen under Vince's spell, because my son started jumping up and down, shouting "we're getting a Sham-WOW, we're getting a Sham-WOW!" the way a rich kid might squeal "we're going skiing at Gstaad, we're going skiing at Gstaad!"  Which makes me ask - is there some kind of subliminal message being flashed across Vince's forehead at high-speed? Why are we all so quick to believe him? Turned out my son just wanted to replicate Vince's claim that the Sham-WOW will mop up twenty times its weight in liquid, using an entire can of cola - ON THE BEDROOM CARPET!  Sham-WOW! I stopped him just in time! Hhhhmm, thanks, Vince. Will let you know when I decide if the Sham-WOW is a life-changing thing...

Beauty shots

In the old days, only the hoity-toity had the brass to immortalize themselves by having their portraits painted, which were hung in the home and passed down through the generations. The best blended art with history. Then along came photography, and even average Joe's got professional photographic portraits (did your folks ever haul you and and couple of screaming siblings off to a certain department store to have your pictures taken against an improbable background?) Then came digital photography and everybody became a photographer. Little moments in life were forever captured - but the professional portrait lost ground. Even with the best equipment, most of us just don't have the eye of a photographer, and the pics I snap of my kids are well, hhmmm, nice but not exactly portraits for the ages. This really struck me when I saw portraits of brilliant up and coming singer Elise LeGrow (also my step-daughter, but I'm not biased - check her out!) at left. It turned out the pics were done by Manuella Pararas-Hulbert, another up and comer. Manuella is a young Toronto-based photographer who specializes in maternity, newborn, children and family portraiture. She took such lovely pictures of Elise that I used her when I got new head shots done, and now I'm considering getting a family portrait done that could grace the walls of the Hodge Podge Lodge - if I can somehow manage to get everybody in the same place at the same time for more than three minutes. That would truly be an historic event!

Lowe's light fantastic

I’ve been busy doing promotional media for the National Home Show this week, which has been fun. One of the biggest “hits” with folks in the studios has been the lamp I’ve brought in as a show and tell from Lowe’s. This crystal lamp comes from their proprietary lighting brand (proprietary brands are those lines produced specifically for a retailer, and are designed to offer quality comparable to national brands at lower prices.) Everyone has been ooh-ing and aah-ing over this beauty, which sells for just under $70. House brands are a great way to save money throughout the store – look for Valspar paints (save money by using spray paint to refresh tired patio furniture and plant pots) as well as Kobalt Tools. I also picked up a lovely marble floor tile for about $10, which I turned into an inexpensive pastry board – more info and pics on that later.

One thing nobody wants to splurge on is electrical energy. But it's hard to know some times where you're wasting power in your home. With knowledge, comes power (so to speak). That's why I've been really happy to have the Black & Decker Power Monitor on hand over the last few months. It's been a useful tool for determining when and where we're wasting electricity, and in crunching the numbers needed to decide whether ditching our antique washer set and getting a new Energy Star model will result in savings. It will (YEAH!!!). I'll be demonstrating the Power Monitor as part of the "Save or Splurge" seminar I'm presenting Sat. Feb 21 at 1 p.m. at the National Home Show. And I will have a few Power Monitors to give away. But you have to be there to win one!

A daily dish from Dana

I always enjoyed Dana McCauley’s recipes, which I first started seeing in Canadian Living years ago. Today, she’s a Toronto-based chef, and food trend expert who blogs for homemakers.com. To me, Dana’s a creative and inventive foodie from whom a little ‘ol home cook like me can draw both inspiration and information. She's also one lucky women, seeing as she's married to Martin Kouprie, co-owner and chef at Pangea, where the food is beyond heavenly. I have a very soft spot for that place, in part because I think the other co-owner, Peter Geary, must be one of nicest restaurateurs in the city. So it was a treat to discover that Dana's got her own blog with recipes, food facts and clever kitchen gadgets. Having recently subscribed to her RSS feed, I am so enjoying the daily dish from Dana, and can’t wait to start reading her seasonal trends newsletter.

 

An artful way to win a mini-break

 

Not  only can the Artist Project  (March 5 -8) introduce you to a host of Canadian artists, they might also foot the bill for mini-vacation in Toronto. Very Generous Indeed! Check out the details of the contest for six packages that include brunch at the Drake Hotel, followed by a walking tour of Queen Street West’s art and design district with Art Concierge Betty Ann Jordan.  One lucky winner will receive the grand prize of a weekend getaway package at the Drake. I was kind of hoping they might throw in this painting by Stephen Gilberry, but I think I'm out of luck. So I might just have to buy it!

Slow cookers - part 17

Perhaps you thought I had finally finished going on and on about slow cookers. No, no, no! There's more good news. I just got a sample of the new 3-in-1 Slow Cooker from Hamilton Beach. What's so great about this new model is that it has three separate cooking vessels - two, four and six quart sizes. That's important because a slow cooker needs to be at least half-full to cook properly. So having a range of sizes allows you to cook a smaller family dinner during the week or a crowd-size batch of something yummy for a budget-friendly weekend party. After you've finished dinner, go for inexpensive retro fun - pull out a board game like Canada-opoly, or gather round and listen to a hockey game on the radio. Check out my column his weekend in the Toronto Star's New in Homes section for more great save or splurge ideas (if I do say so myself). BTW, "Save or Splurge" is also the title of a seminar I'm presenting Sat. Feb. 21 at 1 p.m. at the National Home Show. (Pssst - I'll also be giving away a slow cooker and other goodies. But you can't win if you don't show up!)