I am blessed with having experienced North African cooking at it's best -- in the everyday households around Morocco. This recipe produced the best tagine I've had outside of Morocco and definitely my best personal effort. I followed "lumiere's" review -- don't brown the meat as that is never done in traditional North African cooking! I haven't made preserved lemons yet, but instead I added juice of half a lemon at the very end -- added it to the broth and stirred gently. A Moroccan tradition (and possibly Algerian and Tunisian?) is to use 7 vegetables: alway onion and the 6 of the following: carrots, parnips, potato, turnip, zucchini, yellow squash, pumpkin or other squash, tomato, green beans -- you get the idea, whatever is fresh and in season. I also substituted chicken for the lamb. I love lamb, but chicken is easier to find than good lamb, which requires a trip to the local halal meat market. I am not a fan of turnips, but just one small turnip will add a rich flavor and if I end up eating it thinking it's a potato -- well, the sauce is enough to mask the strong taste for the most part. :) As they say in Morocco -- b'sahatik! To your health!

Reviewed On: Dec. 14, 2012