This weekend I had the pleasure of teaching this recipe from for Pumpkin, Apple and Sultana Tagine from my Moroccan Vegetarian Feast at the lovely Organic Farm Shop at Abbey Home Farm in Cirencester. Nestled just outside of town, on the Burford Rd lies a fruitful piece of land that has been cultivated with love and knowledge to become a fully functioning organic farm.

The farm is completely organic and home to a great vegetarian cafe. As well as a place for courses including cookery, cheesemaking, willow and textiles, it is also a great place to stock up on your household groceries such including sundries, fruits, vegetables, eggs, milk, cheese and butter all from the farm. There is a lovely part of the shop devoted to goods from Indian that the farm owners hand pick and bring back to the UK. Most of the staff have been there long term and are extremely knowledgeable, helpful and ever so friendly.

The pumpkin we used for this recipe was Crown Prince, grown at the farm. Crown prince is a top notch pumpkin with a pale blue skin and deep orange flesh. For easier peeling, pop the squash in a preheated oven for 10 minutes, the skin will come off much easier. The farm sells wedges of Crown Prince as purchasing a whole one may be daunting for some households. Any variety of winter squash or pumpkin will work for this recipe, even sweet potato would be nice. Do visit The Organic Farm Shop, it is in a league of it’s own.

For this recipe, a Moroccan marinade called Chermoula is made to add to the tagine while cooking and also to garnish on top for a blast of fresh flavours. It is a very simple marinade and can be used in a variety of other recipes. The tagine can be cooked in an ordinary heavy based saucepan or a traditional tagine, serve with couscous.

Pumpkin, Apple and Sultana Tagine

CHERMOULA
2-3 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp harissa or 1 red chilli, finely chopped
3 tbsp fresh flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
3 tbsp fresh coriander, finely chopped 2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 preserved lemon, rinsed under water and roughly chopped
Using a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic, paprika, cumin and harissa into a coarse paste. Add the chopped coriander and parsley and pound again to as smooth of a paste as you can get. Stir in the lemon juice and olive oil. Alternatively, place all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

TAGINE
2 tbsp olive oil
700g pumpkin, skinned, peeled and cut into bite size chunks
2 apples, peeled, cored and cut into bit size chunks
2 tbsp sultanas
1 tsp paprika
1 batch of chermoula
salt and pepper
fresh mint, finely chopped to garnish

1. Heat the oil in the base of a tagine or in a heavy based saucepan, toss in the pumpkin and sauté for 1-2 minutes.
Add the apple raisins and cook for a further 1-2 minutes, until the raisins plump up.
2. Sprinkle in the paprika stir in the half of the chermoula and pour in enough water to cover the base of the tagine.
3. Bring the water to the boil, put on the lid and cook over a medium heat for 20-25 minutes until the pumpkin is tender.
4. Season the tagine with salt and pepper and garnish with remaining chermoula and fresh mint.