African Spiced Plum Stew

This is a savoury and flavorful dish inspired from a traditional Morrocan recipe.

Coat a heavy pot (Brater) lightly with oil
Let the oil heat up for about a minute on Medium High Heat (Stufe 7)
Place the meat in the pan evenly spaced out. Don’t overcrowd the pan. If you dont have enough room, make 2 batches.
Dont touch the meat! let it cook for a few minutes undisturbed while you do the next step (chop onions)
The meat is ready to be flipped once you lightly touch it and it releases from the pan. OR it starts to smell a little burnt. If this happens immediately reduce the heat. (either your pan is too hot or you waited too long to flip it)
It should have a deep golden colored crust.
Don’t worry that the meat is still raw on the inside.
Set the meat to the side as soon as it is brown on both sides.

Thickly Slice 2 Large Onions
These onions will be cooking for a long time, so the thicker the better.
If your onions are too thin, they will disappear.
You can use the same cutting board as the meat, because they will be thouroughly cooked.
At this time your meat is probably finished browningand you are ready for the next step. If not, you can jump to step six (preparing the seasoning) to save time.

Once your meat is done browning your pot should look something like this.
This is a beautifully colored fond and it is what will give this dish flavor. DONT throw it away.
However, if it smells burnt or is really black instead of brown, you need to get rid of it, because it will ruin the dish.

Reduce the heat of your oil to medium (Stufe 4)
Add the thickly sliced onions.
Generously salt them, this will give them flavour and force them to release their juices.
The moisture from the onions will deglaze the pan and release any hardened fond at the bottom of the pan.
Stir the onions occasionally while you do the next step. (preparing the seasoning)

Spice Mixture

1 table spoon dried parsley (petersilie)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried ginger (ingwer)
1 teaspoon ground black pepper (1/2 for mild, 2 for spicy. It doesn’t seem like a lot of pepper, but the long cook time really does make it a litttle spicy.)
1/2 teaspoon tumeric (kurkuma)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder

As soon as the onions are translucent, and the fond has completeley released from the bottom of the pan, add the spices to the onions as well as the frozen garlic (about 46 grams).
Let the spices toast for a few seconds until they are very aromatic.
Its ok if some of the spices stick to the bottom of the pan. Just make sure they dont burn.
As soon as the spices have been toasted, add the 400 ml of broth (wildfond). Make sure none of the spices are still sticking to the bottom of the pan, because they will burn and ruin the dish.

Now it is time to let the meat cook. You can either do this on the stove, in the oven, or by using a crockpot.
Regardless of which method you choose, you need to make sure that the temperature is hot enough to cause a very slow simmer.
We will cook the meat until it is tender and falling apart. It will probably take 3-6 hours depending on the meat.
Set a timer to remind yourself to stir it at least once an hour.
During the first hour, you should check frequently to make sure the temperature is right. If it is too cold it will take it years to cook. if it is too hot and boiling, you risk burning it.
160 degrees celcius is a good temperature to try at first and adjust as necessary.

While the meat is cooking, you can prepare the rest of the ingredients that will be added later.
Cut the zuchini (about 155 grams worth) and eggplant (256 grams) into bite sized pieces.
Add the plums into a bowl and pour 48 grams of honey on top of it.

Set these aside and add them to the dish as follows:

Add the eggplant and plum/ honey mixture as soon as the meat is tender (usually after 3 hours).
Set a timer for 15 minutes letting the epplant and plums cook.
After the 15 minutes is up, add the zuchini to the mix. REMOVE THE LID and add another timer for 15 minutes.
Keep an eye on the pot, stir frequently, and make sure the sauce doesnt burn.
In this 15 minutes without the lid, the sauce will start to thicken. If this doesnt happen increase the temperature to a boil and cook until the sauce is reduced.

When the sauce is reduced, it will look something like this.
At this point you can check to make sure it has enough salt.
typically the more spices you have, the less salt you will need. but since we only salted this dish twice in the beginning, you still need to check.
you can also stir in some fresh parsley (petersilie) if you want.

This dish taste really well with potatoes or cous-cous.
when you serve it, you can top it with toasted sesame seeds and crushed almonds.
Guten Appetit!