Can I Use A Larger Quantity Of Lamb For The Caramelized Onion And Olive Tagine And How Will That Affect The Recipe?

Our answer

Nigella's Lamb, Olive And Caramelized Onion Tagine (from NIGELLA EXPRESS) takes a while to cook, but requires very little hands-on time as there is minimal preparation and the tagine looks after itself in the oven. As the lamb leg is diced the cooking time should be roughly the same, as it is the size of the cubes of meat that will dictate how quickly it becomes tender. You will need quite a large casserole dish (dutch oven) or tagine pot, so we would suggest maybe putting it on the stove top first (as long as the pot is suitable for direct heat) and bringing the tagine up to a simmer before covering and transferring to the oven, as this will speed up the cooking time slightly. Generally it is better to cook this type of dish a day in advance, cool, refrigerate (within 2 hours of cooking) and then reheat on the stove until piping hot. The flavours tend to improve overnight and also you are not left waiting hungrily for the lamb to become tender.

Normally you would double all of the ingredients. However, for the liquid, two bottles of wine is quite a lot and the amount you need will depend on the dimensions of your pot. It may be easier to use one bottle of wine then add enough beef or vegetable stock or broth to just cover the ingredients. Also you could probably use only one can of olives rather than two, if you prefer.