I used a pack of ‘stewing lamb’ I bought from Makro. They looked like four sections of neck fillet from the outside but when I opened it I discovered it wasn’t boned. So it was a bit of a pain pulling the meat off the bones and cutting it into chunks after it had been cooked.

Anyway, Moroccan lamb with apricots, almonds & mint is really good. Growing up, I never liked savoury food with sweet flavours. I suppose this was because I’d not had that flavour combo it at home. Having said that my mum does make dahl soup with a small amount jaggery in it

Used a tip from How To Cook Without Recipes: laid kitchen roll over the surface after cooking to soak up the fat floating on the top. Worked a treat.

Made couscous according to directions on the packet (from Waitrose) and it was perfect:
Allow approximately 45g of couscous per 80g serving. Place 250g of couscous in a large bowl with 400ml boiling water and 1tbsp oil. Stir, cover and stand for 5 minutes. Stir to separate before serving.

25 Feb 2013

Made this today using lamb neck fillet, with the oven at 150C. I cooked it for an hour with the lid on then half an hour with the lid off. The taste was fine but not all of the lamb pieces were meltingly soft; some were slightly chewy. I’m not sure whether this was down to the cooking time (Nigel Slater cooks neck fillet at 180C for only an hour) or that I put the lamb in with the orange juice before adding the stock or whether it’s just the meat. I have to admit that the meat wasn’t all defrosted to the same extent before cooking. Still, next time I will add the orange juice after the stock so the lamb doesn’t come into contact with it undiluted.

I also did some couscous from Sainsburys. The packet said to use less water than the Waitrose method but since the Waitrose method hasn’t ever let me down I followed that. But the couscous turned out soggy. Perhaps all couscous isn’t created equal and the packet instructions should be adhered to? Anyway, the lesson I learned there was to alway err on the side of less water since you can always add more.