busyAfter looking at the mass of meat actually called for, I decided to reduce the amount of meat and up the amount of fruits and veggies, and add some savor by replacing some of the water with chicken broth. (The recipe says "serves four", but if I ate one quarter of the eight lamb shanks called for, I think it would kill me. A lamb shank is not a tiny piece of meat like a lamb chop. It's more the size of one of those big turkey drumsticks you see at renfaires. Of course, the book is by an Australian, and the Aussies do like their meat...)
Of course, even with only four shanks, I discovered when I got home that I had nothing big enough to marinate them in -- which also meant I wouldn't have anything to cook the tagine in. So I ran over to Macy's, and lucked into an 8.5 quart Calphalon One (oh how I love you, infused-annodized surface!) dutch oven for two-thirds off. (Apparently today is a special "One Day Sale!" I imagine they probably sent me junkmail to notify me of this, and I promptly tossed it in the recycling.) In any case, the meat is now marinating in apricot nectar. I'll add lemon juice and spices this evening when Xta brings those over -- apparently the spice I'd been planning to use is down at her house. And the lemon juice I was going to use went bad, so we need to squeeze more lemons...
