A Moveable Feast

Unusually for London (unless you’re an Arab prince) our mutual friends, John and Anna Maria, have a cinema in their basement. Sunday nights there are a matter of watching a quirky old movie from the comfort of ancient sofas before moving upstairs to eat, drink and talk about the film (and a whole lot else) far too late into the night.

Last week we saw ‘Morgan, a Suitable Case for Treatment’. It was my turn to supply the food, and, as I wasn’t sure how many people might turn up, I brought a pot of my favourite lamb tagine. All I had to do was heat it up and served it with some precooked wholegrain cous cous. For afters we had chocolate sorbet with freshly sliced oranges.

Low Fat Lamb Tagine

Lamb, beef, kid, game or chicken, any meat will do for this fragrant North African stew, just so long as the pieces are allowed to simmer slowly into a melting tenderness.

For a lamb version, the most important thing is to chop out as much fat as possible before you begin cooking. Too many recipes suggest using boned shoulder meat, but removing the fat from that cut is time consuming and can reduce quantity by a quarter or more! Far better to look for diced lamb pieces from which it’s easy to cut the odd bit of fat, or neck fillets which are already very lean. Also, I can never have too many vegetables in my stews, so I always ra

id the vege box and add any stray bits I find there.

1 kg lean lamb.

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion

8 carrots.

3 parsnips

5 sticks celery

½ tsp ground saffron

½ tsp cayenne pepper

1tsp ground tumeric

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp tomato puree

2 cinnamon sticks

2 tsp orange flower water

12 dried apricots

8 pitted dates

A handful of chopped parsley

Remove as much fat as possible and cut the lamb into 4cm chunks. Peel the carrots & parsnips, and cut into thick lengths. Chop the celery into large bits and peel & slice the onion. Heat the oil in a large, thick bottomed pan and cook the onions & celery over a low heat for about 5 minutes. Stir in the lamb, remaining vegetables and spices and add just enough water to cover the lamb. Bring to the boil and stir in the tomato puree. Reduce the heat and simmer very gently, with the lid half on, for about 1 hour (or longer if the meat is still

a bit chewy). When the meat is tender, add the apricots with the honey, orange flower water and a little seasoning. Simmer, uncovered, for about 20 minutes until the gravy looks like a thick soup. Add the dates and simmer a few minutes more. Scatter with chopped parsley and serve with wholegrain cous cous or brown basmati rice - cooked in stock if possible- to which (if none of your guests are nut allergic) you might add a crunch of chopped and toasted almonds.

Chocolate Sorbet

Forget dairy and eggs, the witchy thing about the smooth finish of this sorbet is you might really think you're eating ice cream. Something to do with the high chocolate content, I suppose, and the trick of boiling the syrup really hard before adding it to the chocolate.

30g white sugar

650ml water

250g best dark chocolate (min 70% cocoa solids)

1 heaped tbsp cocoa powder

1 tbsp liqueur (optional)

Dissolve the sugar & water over a low heat. Bring to the boil and bubble for about 5 minutes until the syrup looks like glossy satin.

Break the chocolate into a large, heatproof bowl with the cocoa. Gradually pour in the hot syrup, stirring until the chocolate has mixed to a smooth gloop. Leave to cool. When the mixture is completely cold, churn in your ice cream maker until thick and fudgy (my machine takes about 40 minutes, but check your maker’s instructions). Transfer to a freezer container and - if you want to – stir in your favourite liqueur (I used Cointreau to go with a side dish of sliced oranges) remembering that the alcohol will effect a softer, less frozen consistency. Store in the freezer and serve with seasonal fruit or crispy biscuits or both.

Note: this sorbet melts very quickly, so keep it frozen until the very last minute.