Rosh Hashanah Recipe: Lamb Tagine with Apricots and Prunes

I created this recipe for my cooking class as an example of braising, the process of slowly cooking meat until it is so tender that it can be cut with a fork. I wanted the flavors to evoke the road trip I took from Marrakech to Essaouira in my twenties while also capturing the many decadent Shabbat dinners I shared with Moroccan families in Sderot, where rocket fire hit the southern Israeli town daily as I worked on a documentary film about frequent barrages there.

A few notes on preparing the dish itself: you don’t actually need a cone-shaped tagine to get the full effect of this dish. In fact, the cooking process allows a lot of room for error and can even be prepared days in advance without losing any of the lamb’s juiciness, which makes it a great option for Rosh Hashanah because the warm spices of cinnamon and ginger, paired with sweet yams, are sure to invite a prosperous new year.