A New Experiment: Sous Vide Lamb Tagine

For Christmas, my wife and I got a sous vide appliance and vacuum bag sealer.  For Thanksgiving, I borrowed one from a friend to try it out.  Preparing food sous vide simply means that your food is vacuum sealed in a bag and cooked in a low temperature water bath.  This idea has always seemed a little strange to me.  I had seen chefs on a number of cooking shows try to cook food sous vide, but wasn't sure if it was really worth the effort.  The Thanksgiving experiment produced one awesome turkey and made me a believer.  So we decided that it would be a great addition to our kitchen.  After the food cooks in the vacuum sealed bag, it can be served immediately or you can take the food and apply another cooking technique like searing it, frying it, or cooking it with freshly sauteed vegetables. There are so many choices of things you can do.  In my first use of my new toy, I decided to try something out of the blue rather than follow a given recipe.  What could go wrong?  Well, things don't always turn out to be fantastic, but this one was in fact incredible, a super tender Moroccan lamb dish with a burst of flavors.

Sous Vide Lamb Tagine

Ingredients for the sous vide:
2 pounds of boneless leg of lamb, cubed
2 tablespoons of tagine spice blend
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon harissa spice
2 teaspoons ras el hanout spice blend
2 teaspoons onion powder
3 stalks of flat leaf parsley
3 stalks of cilantro
1/3 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup grape tomatoes
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Additional ingredients for cooking tagine:
1 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoons ras el hanout
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon kosher salt
black pepper, to taste
1/3 cup half and half

Accompaniments:
1/3 cup almonds, toasted
3 shallots
1 tablespoon olive oil
Curried couscous, such as Near East brand
Cooked Peas

Cut the lamb into bit-sized pieces, trimming off the excess fat.  Melt the butter and add in the all of the sous vide spices.  Coat the lamb in the butter and spice mixture.  To the lamb, add in the dried apricots and tomatoes.  Place the lamb mixture in a sous vide bag.  Add in the stalks of parsley and cilantro.  Vacuum seal the bag and let sit in refrigerator overnight. 

Prepare the sous vide machine with water and set the temperature to 155 degrees.  Place the vacuum sealed lamb in the water and cook for 9 hours.

Once the lamb has finished the sous vide cooking, open the sous vide bag and remove the parsley and cilantro as well as the apricots.  Heat the butter in a skillet and add in the lamb.  Cook at a low temperature and add the ras el hanout, coriander, salt, pepper, and lemon juice.  Cook for approximately 5 minutes.  Add in the half and half, and simmer slowly for 5 more minutes.

To prepare the other components, toast the almonds with a drizzle of olive oil.  Saute the shallots in a tablespoon of olive oil for about 8 minutes, until they are well-browned.  Cook the peas and couscous to serve with the lamb.  With my dish, I used frozen peas and the Near East curried couscous. 

To serve the meal, plate the couscous and lamb.  Sprinkle the lamb with the toasted almonds.  On the side, plate a spoonful of the caramelized shallots.  Hope you enjoy!