Sweet Beef (the second time around...)

Moroccan Beef Tagine as captured by a webcam... i.e. not in all of its glory.

Modifications: Beef brisket comes with a price tag of $6.99/lb around here, so the less expensive blade roast (also known as chuck roast) became my meat of choice at $3.69/lb. I used regular salt, Ida red apples, and Sultana raisins. I also left out the parsley and range peel. I can never use all the parsley and I hate having it wilt and rot away so quickly! I used whole almonds and sliced them into almost-slivers!

Preparation: Did that take 40 minutes? I don't think it did, but I must admit I didn't keep track. 40 minutes sounds like a long prep time, though, and I do usually notice when it's long. The main tasks were to cut the beef and peel and cut the apples. I'm going to guess it was closer to 25 minutes. Of course, preparing the couscous later on took a a few minutes, too. Nothing special or complicated, though. I used the high setting on the slow cooker (5.5 hours).

Verdict: It was good. The beef was quite tender, as one would expect from 5.5 hours of cooking. I found that the tagine smelled quite similar to the empanadas we made in the winter, which is likely due to the beef and raisins combination. The raisins, apples and honey definitely imparted a sweet roundness to the dish. By my third leftover meal, though, I was tired of the sweetness. The dish was also much soupier than I expected, though having all that liquid probably helped keep the leftovers from tasting dry. We both liked the almonds in the couscous, but they did keep surprising me with their hard crunchiness, since everything else in the meal was so soft.

This recipe made 8-9 servings. If I were to make it again for just the two of us, I would cut it in half. Although I usually like leftovers, it didn't take too long to get tired of the sweet softness in this supper meal.