Beef Tangia with Herbs

June 10, 2003

For some years I have belonged to one of those customer loyalty programmes, picking up a few points each time I did my supermarket shopping, bought petrol, etc. Recently they had an incredibly good offer for redeeming about 1000 points - a beautiful enamelled cast iron Le Creuset casserole.

I have lusted after one of these for some time so I was readily parted from my points.

With winter now upon us, my new casserole has definitely come into its own. I've been using it for soups and stews. It can be used on top of the stove, or in the oven. I know it will last for years. I have a terrine and a gratin dish from the same French manufacturer and they have both been in my kitchen and well used for at least 25 years. In that same period I have gone through several pottery casseroles. Either the lid breaks or the main part develops a crack.

While my new acquisition may seem a trifle large for two people, we all know a stew tastes better the second time around so I can freeze leftovers for another day.

Today's recipe is for a Moroccan dish, a tangia (not to be confused with a tagine). A tagine is also a slow-cooked stew and the name is applied both to the stew and to the shallow dish - with its conical lid - in which it is cooked.

A tangia is a dish traditionally cooked by men. Tangia refers to the amphora-shaped earthenware vessel (left) it is cooked in. It is filled with the ingredients then taken down to the local bath-house/sauna (hamman) where it is cooked for several hours in the furnace room ashes underneath the hammans. I couldn't quite see The Spouse, casserole under his arm, traipsing around Wellington looking for a sauna with an ashpit, so I cooked the dish in our own oven. A tangia should also be eaten outdoors, I am told. However, although it was a mild enough winter's day for people to be out in T-shirts last Saturday, the evening was pretty crisp and dinner by the fire was a more enticing proposition.

My recipe is adapted from one in Robert Carrier's Taste of Morocco (ISBN 0-009-960470-6) published by Arrow (1989). The original, Alami's Tangia de boeuf aux herbes suggested either shin of beef or oxtail. I used a good quality blade steak but I think the recipe would be equally good made with lamb shanks.

Moroccan cooking also uses smen, a clarified butter, sometimes herbed. Often it is used in quantities that look like they would readily escalate one's cholesterol reading. I prefer to use a modest amount of olive oil. In fact, as in this dish everything is dumped into the pot and then cooked, and the fat is not used for browning but rather for flavour, I left it out completely. The quantity was 100g if you want to use smen.

Beef tangia with herbs

1kg blade steak, trimmed and diced
3 onions, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon each powdered ginger, coarse salt and sweet red pepper (paprika)
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin seeds
heaped 1/4 teaspoon powdered saffron
1 bunch fresh coriander, chopped
1 bunch flat-leafed parsley, chopped
600ml water4 tablespoons lemon juice (I also added peel sliced thinly from the lemon)

Put all ingredients in a flame-proof casserole (above) cover and put in a pre-heated oven, 150C, for about three hours.