Mutton is a full flavoured meat much revered in North Africa. You could make the same tagine with lamb and probably knock a few minutes off the cooking time.

Ingredients - serves 4-6 800g diced mutton or lamb 1 onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, crushed & chopped 2 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp saffron strands 1 tsp ground turmeric 1 cinnamon stick 1 small red chilli, thinly sliced 300ml lamb or chicken stock 2 tbsp Essentialground almonds 75g Essentialdried apricots 75g Essentialdried prunes 1 can Essential chickpeas, drained & rinsed 1 sweet potato, peeled & diced 50g almond slivers juice of 1 lemon salt, pepper Essential Moroccan couscous + olive oil

Method

1 Heat the oil in a casserole and cook the chopped onions, saffron threads and garlic over a gentle heat for 5 minutes. Turn the heat up and add the diced mutton - brown it all over - then add ground cinnamon, cinnamon stick, turmeric, and very thinly sliced chilli together with some salt, fry a further couple of minutes before pouring in the stock. Bring to simmering point then cover and cook gently for 1½ hours.

2 By now the mutton is already tender and the aromas of the stew are mouth-wateringly good. Remove the lid and fold in the diced sweet potato, dried apricots, prunes and ground almonds (this will thicken the sauce), cover and cook a further 15 minutes then fold in the chickpeas, simmer for a further 5 minutes then add lemon juice and adjust seasoning if necessary.

3 Ten minutes before the end of cooking time, dry roast the almond slivers in a frying pan for a couple of minutes to golden, set aside. Heat 750ml of water to boiling, pour in 375g instant couscous and cook gently for 1 minute, cover and leave to stand for a further 4 minutes then add olive oil, chopped coriander - or mint - plus some seasoning to taste.

4 Serve fragrant mutton tagine over couscous in warmed bowls and scatter with toasted almond slivers.