Butane Tagine

As the rest of the crew at Bags of Flavour would unhestiatingly agree, al fresco dining sits at the apex of summer treats. As such, it is important to find new ways of eating in the sun as the BBQ, whilst never failing to tick every possible box, cannot be the only way of cooking and eating outside.

I recently moved house and Jennie's mum bought me a butane gas stove as a housewarming present. Wow, what a present! We recently bought Steve (ourmaninegypt) a tagine for his birthday. An unlikely combination for outside cooking but god damn were the results spectacular.

So the story goes that one sunnny Saturday at the start of September, we decided to cook in the garden with the stove and the tagine. Steve prepared the food, which was Moroccan lamb (actually it was beef but dont tell anyone) with spices, aubergines, tomatoes and apricots. We covered it up and left it to simmer on a low heat for about four hours, checking it regularly. Just before serving it up, we put a generous handful of fresh coriander in.

Naturally, Alex turned up just as we were serving and we obligingly offered him some of the food, which was delicious. The meat fell apart perfectly, the apricot had gone sickly gewy and the aubergine had made the sauce thick, rich and tasty. I could not find a single fault with the food.

The drawback was that the tagine only feeds four people. Outdoor eating should involve more people so I would suggest purchasing the largest tagine available.