Thomasina Miers’ carrot soup with chilli and brown butter: ‘Warming and exotic.’ Photograph: Johanna Parkin for the Guardian. Food styling: Maud Eden
After a trip to Marrakesh, I can’t get enough of those heady, exotic spices in everything from soup to tagine
I recently went to Marrakesh for the first time and found the food thrilling: tagines with warm, gentle but evocative spices; honey that brought sweet and savoury dishes alike to life; vegetables given as much precedence as meat. Here are my interpretations of two dishes I loved best.
Carrot soup with chilli and brown butter
This gorgeous soup brings out all the flavours of the sweet carrot, which is made warming and exotic by the nutty brown butter seasoned with Turkish chilli (if you can’t get hold of Turkish chilli flakes, use smoked paprika instead). Served with some flatbread and a sharp salad, and maybe some halloumi, it’s a great light midweek supper, and perfect for meat-free week, which starts 23 March. Serves four.
2 tsp coriander seeds
½ tsp cumin seeds
50g butter
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 sticks celery, chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
600g carrots (preferably organic, because they have the best flavour), peeled and roughly chopped
1.2 litres chicken or vegetable stock (or water)
4 tbsp Greek yoghurt
1 handful fresh dill, chopped
For the spiced butter
50g butter
Juice of ½ lemon
1 tsp Turkish chilli
Heat a large, wide-bottomed pan on a medium heat, gently warm the coriander and cumin seeds until fragrant, then grind to a powder.
In the same pan, melt the butter and fry the onion and celery, again on medium heat, for 10 minutes, until soft; season them generously at the start. Add the ground spices and carrots, stir to coat, then cover with a circle of greaseproof paper and a lid: the idea is for the carrots to steam gently in their own juices. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring every five minutes, so the carrots do not stick to the pan (add a splash of water if they do). Add the stock, bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes, until the carrots are very soft. Blitz smooth and adjust the seasoning to taste.
Put the butter in a small pan on a medium heat and cook until it turns deep brown and smells nutty. Add the lemon juice and chilli, and take off the heat: the fat may spit a little when the lemon is added, so watch out. Serve the soup in warmed bowls topped with dollops of cold yoghurt, a scattering of fresh dill and a spoonful or two of the hot, nutty butter.
Lamb neck, prune and chickpea tagine
In this gorgeous stew, the gently heady flavours of saffron, honey, cinnamon and ginger permeate the falling-apart meat. This is a brilliant way to cook a cheap cut. Serves four.
3 tbsp olive oil
1.3kg boned lamb neck, cut into 3cm slices
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 onions, peeled and sliced thin
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced
1 heaped tbsp coriander seeds, roughly ground
½ tbsp cumin seeds
1 large pinch saffron threads
1 tsp ground ginger
1 cinnamon stick
300g pitted prunes
1 tbsp honey
3 tbsp flaked almonds, toasted
For the chickpeas
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2 400g tins chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 handful parsley leaves, chopped
1 handful coriander leaves, chopped
A squeeze of lemon
Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Heat two tablespoons of the oil in a heavy-bottomed pot over a medium-high heat. Lightly season the meat, then brown in batches on all sides, and set aside.
Add the remaining oil to the pan and turn down the heat to medium-low. Add the onions, garlic and a pinch of salt, and fry for 10 minutes, until the onions are slightly coloured and soft; add the coriander and cumin after five minutes. Return the meat to the pan and add the saffron, ginger and cinnamon. Season, add 200ml boiling water, cover and cook in the oven for 90 minutes; stir in the prunes for the final 30 minutes and remove the lid for the final 15.
Meanwhile, prepare the chickpeas. Add half the oil to a saucepan and fry the cumin until it begins to crackle. Add the garlic, fry until it begins to turn golden, then stir in the chickpeas and enough hot water just to cover them. Season and simmer for 15-20 minutes until they start turning mushy. Stir in the parsley, coriander and remaining oil, and add a squeeze of lemon.
When the lamb is falling apart, spoon off and discard any excess fat on the surface. Stir in the honey and almonds, and serve with the warm chickpeas and bowls of steaming couscous (or rice). The stew will taste much better after a few days.
And for the rest of the week…
Make double the amount of nutty butter – it will transform even the simplest of ingredients. I like it dribbled over sauteed cabbage on toasted sourdough and topped with a fried egg; that’s my idea of a sumptuous midweek meal. Blitz any leftover carrots with equal quantities of apple and a large knob of peeled ginger and you have a zingy pick-me-up of a juice. The tagine’s flavour keeps improving with time: try it with couscous one day, soft polenta a few days later and freeze some for a rainy day. The method also makes a great vegetarian tagine: replace the meat with potatoes or sweet winter squash.
• Thomasina Miers is co-owner of the Wahaca group of Mexican restaurants. Her latest book, Chilli Notes, is published by Hodder & Stoughton at £25. To order a copy for £20, go to bookshop.theguardian.com
Follow Thomasina on Twitter
Thomasina Miers’ carrot soup with chilli and brown butter: ‘Warming and exotic.’ Photograph: Johanna Parkin for the Guardian. Food styling: Maud Eden
