Tagine Rangaswami Style....

The first time I had tagine was at Momo's in London. Knowing Suchi's love for anything Morrocan made reservations at this once hip and happening place for a pre-birthday celebration. The highpoint of the evening was the tagine and watching a very tipsy Suchi after one too many glasses of champagne and wine!!

Whatever you do please don't serve this tagine to a Middle-Easterner or at least call it by some other name. Whoever heard of a tagine sans lamb!!! I can't claim for it being authentic - loved the flavors so much have experimented and tinkered with it over the years and its taken a life of its own. Anit loves it so much he could eat bowls of it all by itself...so I made it for his farewell in Sanaa. I can't wait to pick up my tagine dish next week, who knows it may actually taste even better!!

There's two versions here - Suja's which is probably nearer to the original and mine.

Suja's Vegetable Tagine with Red Pepper Base:

vegetable tagine roast 6 red bell peppers ...skin them...and puree them set aside slice one to two red onions thinly saute in olive oil with sugar and salt over low heat for 15 minutes or till melty add large cubed yellow pumpkin + 1" pieces of skinned sweet potato + turnip same size to the pan stir for a few minutes - add salt then pour in the pepper puree and add two cups of water + stock cube or powder stir and cover and cook till the veggies are nearly cooked in a mortar or mixie grind a cupful of parsley + coriander leaves (1cup roughly when u add BOTH )garlic cloves generous but not overwhelming a tablespoonful of roasted fresh cumin powder olive oil - 2 to three tbs and a lot of lemon or lime juice and red chili flakes to taste grind the whole and add to the tagine let it boil for 5 to 10 minutes till it all comes together taste and adjust seasoning u can make it the day before and reheat before serving serve with bread or couscous when u make cous cous add some stock powder and cumin or coriander to water so it smells yum

My version:
* 4 generous tablespoons olive oil (half if you are cooking the aubergine separately - see note at bottom!)
* 1/4 tsp cumin seeds
* 2 medium sized onions sliced fine
* 150gms small aubergine cut into half-moons
* 150gms courgette cut into half-moons
* 100 gms carrots peeled and cut into half-moons
* 1/2 tsp dry oregano (Suja swears by the Tesco's oregano!)
* 2 red pepper cut any which way
* 1 yellow pepper cut any which way
* 4 cloves
* 1 small stick cinnamon
* pinch saffron
* 1 tsp fresh dry roasted and ground cumin powder
* 1 can peeled tomatoes chopped roughly or if you are using fresh tomatoes 1/2 kg tomatoes peeled and chopped roughly, you might want to dunk them in hot water for a couple of mins to loosen skin before peeling
* 150 gms dry apricots (the juicy orange kind) chopped
* 1 cup cooked garbanzo (kabuli channa) beans or if using canned half a can drained and washed
* salt
1. In a heavy deep pan (I use the pressure cooker) saute the cumin and onions till they are transparent
2. Add the eggplant and salt, cover and cook till eggplant softened. Takes about 10-12mins
3. Add courgette, carrots and oregano, remove lid & cook till they are softened. About 5mins
4. Toss in the peppers and the other dry spices (cloves, cinnamon, saffron and cumin powder) cook for a couple of mins
5. Add the tomatoes with the juice, garbanzo beans and apricots. Let it simmer on low heat for the next 15-20mins till tagine comes together. Adjust salt as per taste

If you have time on your hands you could substitute the small aubergine for one large one, slice into thin rounds, put it in a colander with a bit of salt for 15 mins. Gently squeeze the water out, brush olive oil on both sides and cook on a grill or roast in an oven till golden. The remaining steps is the same!

Variations: depending on my mood I sometimes add chopped ginger and coriander/parsley but not essential.