- This is, like, my ideal hearty fall dinner.

- This is a really easy to make aromatic beef stew.

- What was so interesting, and why I love this recipe in particular, is that all the flavors were still themselves.

- There is so much flavor in this stew, it's almost hard to believe.

- Oh, man.

Each bite gives you some new pops of flavor.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - You know, everyone's heard of the classic tagine from Morocco, with lots of variations.

We went to Fez to find out how to make beef and onion tagine with prunes and apricots.

Then we travel halfway across the world for a Chinese beef stew with chickpeas and star anise.

And finally, we make a recipe for toasted pearl couscous with butternut squash and cranberries.

Please stay tuned.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (speaking Arabic): ♪ ♪ (speaking Arabic): ♪ ♪ - So many years ago, on my honeymoon, Melissa and I went to Morocco, and we drove across the Atlas Mountains.

We got to the other side, and we stayed at a casbah, which means a fortress, that was turned into a hotel by a French couple in Dar Ahlam.

And the food was great.

It was just terrific.

So, one afternoon, I asked the cook if he could show me how to make a tagine, a chicken tagine.

And what was so interesting was, he did cook the onions in a little bit of oil for a few minutes, like we're doing here, and then everything else went into the pot: chicken and the olives and the ginger and the potatoes and everything else.

And then he cooked it for a couple of hours and we had it for dinner.

What was so interesting, and why I love this recipe in particular, is that all the flavors were still themselves, right?

It hadn't melded down like you would, let's say, in a French stew.

You could still taste the ginger, and the turmeric, and the olives, and the preserved lemons, and the chicken, and the onions.

Everything maintained its sort of diverse personality.

So we're going to do that now.

And it's really a great lesson in how other cultures think about flavors.

When you take a bite, it's just so much more interesting.

So we're going to start with boneless short ribs.

We really like these.

We use these a lot for a stew.

They need to be cooked a long time to break down the tissue, but they have great flavor, which is nice.

And we'll just cut an inch, inch-and-a-half pieces, and we'll be adding that to this pot.

So you can notice half the onions went into the pot with some oil to start.

We've reserved the other half of the onions there, so it gives you two different textures and flavors, which is nice.

Now, we were taught this recipe not in Marrakesh, where I spent part of my honeymoon, but in Fez-- our editor was there recently.

And we cooked with two people, Hayat Hamass and also Rkia Ouali.

And both of them made this dish for us in their homes.

So it gave us really a good sense of how to get the flavors to maintain their vibrancy and also the techniques they use.

So, that's it for the meat, it goes in.

You've noticed, by the way, I haven't started by sautéing the beef.

This is another takeaway from this recipe.

You don't have to spend 20 minutes sautéing the beef ahead of time.

I'll explain that in a minute.

Ginger goes in.

Turmeric goes in.

We have a few prunes, chopped.

One stick of cinnamon.

And a head of garlic.

This is a great technique.

Take off any excess paper, cut the top quarter off or so, and nestle that down in.

And what's going to happen is, those cloves are going to get cooked, and we'll squeeze the head of garlic and mix that back in.

We have a teaspoon and a half of salt.

And half a teaspoon of pepper.

And now the remaining onions that are, obviously, still raw.

And finally water.

So we're going to put this in a 325 oven for a couple hours.

But first, we want to bring it up to a simmer.

If you don't bring it up to a simmer on the stove top, it takes a really long time to do that in a low oven.

So go ahead and do that, and we'll be back, and we'll start to finish up this great recipe from Morocco.

So what's so interesting about this recipe is, what I learned when I was in Morocco, is, you don't stir anything, you're not doing a lot of sautéing, and you let those flavors, as I said, keep their personality.

So when we're done with this recipe, you're going to taste everything I just put in there; the prunes, the turmeric, the garlic, the ginger, et cetera.

It's all going to still have that vibrancy.

So we're not mushing everything together.

We're letting things actually maintain their individual personality.

So this goes into a low oven, 325, for two hours.

Bring it up to a simmer before we do that, and then we'll be back.

So this has been a couple of hours, and you can see the onions on top, you know, still have retained their shape during cooking.

Before we put this back in the oven, we're going to take out half a cup or so of liquid, and that liquid is going to be used as the base of a compote.

There we are.

So this goes back in the oven without the cover, and we do this a lot at Milk Street, and it's, people do it around the world.

They start a stew with the top on, helps to cook and steam the meat, break down the collagen, take the top off, and there's not that much liquid in here.

So this would be some browning, some caramelization going on with the top, so you don't have to do that on top of the stove.

So back in the oven, 325, for about half an hour.

♪ ♪ So now we're going to do an easy compote.

We have the half-cup of the braising liquid, the stew liquid here, as a start.

We have more prunes.

This is actually a beef tagine with prunes and apricots.

Some apricots, a little honey.

You know, mixing sweet with savory is very common.

Little bit of cinnamon and a half-teaspoon each pepper and salt.

And a little bit of water, as well.

So we're going to bring this up to a simmer and cook it down for about 15 minutes or so to concentrate the flavors and the liquids.

And then we'll go take the stew out of the oven, which needs another 30 minutes or so.

So the compote's cooked down.

We're going to add some sesame seeds to this, mix it up, and put that in a bowl.

I like things that look as good as they taste.

So the stew's been out of the oven now.

It got some nice browning, actually, as I said.

It's a great technique.

So now we have to find two things.

(chuckling): We got to find the head of garlic, which is here.

And I'm going to also look for the cinnamon stick.

There we are, right?

So, cinnamon stick...

So again, this is that garlic head, where we cut off the top quarter or so.

And now we're going to squeeze it to get all the inside cloves, which are buttery, they're fully cooked, obviously, and they don't have that harsh, you know, garlic aftertaste, which I do not like.

That's the skin.

There's a little bit more skin here.

Take out.

Okay.

So now, as I said, the cloves are really soft.

I'm just going to mash it up against the side of the pot, and then we'll stir it in.

So this gives you really a nice garlic foundation without being overpowering.

That looks really good, and it, it smells great, as well.

And look, I love French cooking, but when it comes to things like this, this has so many different flavors in it.

And a French beef stew is great, but it's more one-note, right?

It's sophisticated, it's deep, it's rich.

But this has many more notes of flavor, which is terrific.

♪ ♪ There we are.

Let me get a serving.

Okay.

So now we have a couple of garnishes.

A little parsley goes on.

♪ ♪ Toasted almonds, sliced almonds, as well.

And a little bit of that compote, obviously, goes on the side here, as well.

♪ ♪ And a little bit more of the compote, there we are.

And that's it, so this is a beef and onion tagine with prunes and apricots.

Lots of different flavors going on here.

That deep garlic flavor, the onions.

Mm.

Wow.

You know, a lot of beef stews are heavy and dense, and heavy on the palate.

This is lighter.

It has bright notes in here, as well.

Like, those onions are bright.

The fruit is really nice, as well, the sesame seeds, parsley.

Mm... Just phenomenal.

So if you want to, you know, change the way you cook-- I, we say that all the time here at Milk Street-- think about a stew as having lots of different flavors which maintain their individuality in cooking.

So when you taste it, there's so many things going on in your mouth.

It's not just beef stew.

It's not just meat.

It has fruit, it has light, it has nuts, it has onions.

It has all sorts of great flavors.

So a beef and onion tagine with prunes and apricot we learned in Fez in Morocco.

Really a great addition to your regular repertoire.

♪ ♪ - This recipe, we toast pearl couscous before we cook it in liquid to bring out its really nutty, toasty, wheaty flavors.

And we pair it with butternut squash for its creamy texture and its subtle sweetness.

We also incorporate other flavors, like caraway seeds, dried fruit, including sun-dried tomatoes, as well as some toasted nuts.

So that way, each bite gives you some new pops of flavor.

Now, to start, I have here a large pot, and I'm going to set that over medium heat.

And to that, I'll be throwing in my oil along with my couscous.

And, finally, caraway seeds.

If you don't have any caraway at home, cumin seeds are a perfect substitution.

Now, we'll bring this mixture up to temp, and all the while, we will be toasting our couscous until it's golden-brown.

In addition, we're also blooming the caraway in the oil, and that way, that earthy flavor permeates the entire dish.

Toasting off the couscous, going to take about five to seven minutes or so, so keep a close eye.

Do not walk away from the pan.

So it's been five minutes.

My couscous is beautifully golden-brown.

Now we can go ahead and add in our butternut squash, which has been cut up into one-inch pieces.

We'll also throw in our dried fruit.

Here I have some cranberries.

And a different kind of dried fruit, a little bit more savory, sun-dried tomatoes that have been chopped up.

We'll also throw in just a pinch of salt and pepper.

And give that a stir just to make sure that everybody gets a little bit of that seasoning.

And now, for the really hard part, we add in water.

(sizzling) And now we wait.

All we got to do is simmer this combination for about ten to 14 minutes, or until that couscous and that butternut squash is tender but not mushy.

We're cooking it with the lid on that entire time, maybe stirring once or twice throughout the process.

♪ ♪ It's been 14 minutes, and as you can see, all of that liquid has been absorbed up by the couscous, as well as the butternut squash, and it is beautifully tender.

But from here, we could remove this from heat.

And now we want to add in some textural elements.

So here I have some pistachios that have been toasted.

And I'm just going to give them a very, very rough chop.

Now, you could certainly use pumpkin seeds instead of pistachios.

As long as you add in some sort of crunch, you'll get that textural excitement.

There we go.

Just a rough chop.

You don't want to get too fine on this, but from here, we can go ahead and add it directly into the pot off heat.

♪ ♪ Okay, give that a little stir.

Aw, this smells so good.

You're really getting that toasty aroma from all of the couscous that's been toasted off.

And you can smell that little touch of fruitiness coming from the sun-dried tomatoes and the cranberries.

♪ ♪ All right, from here, we are ready to eat.

So I'll go ahead and serve myself up a little portion here.

Oh, yeah, this is, like, my ideal hearty fall dinner, but it's good any time of year.

Awesome.

Now, we do want to bring in a little bit of freshness, so, of course, we're going to throw in some fresh herbs.

Here I have some chopped dill.

A little bit of that.

And some chopped mint.

Mm, that looks so good.

Yes, get a little fresh herb, some of those dried fruits and sun-dried tomatoes, and a little bit of pistachio.

Mm.

Oh, man.

That toasted couscous really does taste so much different than just a regular old couscous bowl.

But the butternut squash giving a little bit of sweetness, the cranberries giving some tartness, the sun-dried tomatoes giving you some umami richness, and, of course, the crunch from the pistachios, absolutely delicious.

And that's that, a no muss, no fuss, one-pot meal that's delicious as a vegetarian main or great as a side for beef stew.

♪ ♪ - Today we're going to be making Chinese beef stew with chickpeas.

This is a really hearty, aromatic beef stew.

It's really easy to make.

It hails from the Hui people of the Yunnan Province in China.

I'm going to go ahead and get started.

I'm going to start sautéing a bunch of aromatics and spices.

Going to go ahead and heat up a couple of tablespoons of grapeseed oil.

You can use any neutral-flavored oil that you like.

Going to go ahead and heat that on medium heat.

And I just want the oil to start shimmering, and I know it's ready.

Going to want to use a nice, large Dutch oven for this stew.

We're going to be putting this into the oven later.

One of the main ingredients in this recipe are Sichuan peppercorns.

They look like regular peppercorns.

They have a very unique flavor, and when you eat them, they sort of have this tingling, numbing sensation on your tongue, and they're absolutely fabulous.

I'm going to be adding a lot of these to this recipe.

So I think our oil is almost ready.

I have one bunch of scallions.

I have thinly sliced the white and light green parts, and I've reserved the stems for later.

Gonna also add a bunch of crushed garlic cloves.

And here I have cilantro stems.

Again, I went ahead and finely minced the stems, and then I'm going to reserve the leaves to add at the end, but the stems add a ton of flavor.

And this stew is all about flavor.

Okay, now for the best part, we have all of our spices.

So here I have star anise, I have five-spice powder, and then I have, again, the same Sichuan peppercorns.

And I've just ground those up in a mortar and pestle.

You can also use a spice grinder.

And cooking them this way with the onions and the oil really helps to release a lot of their flavor.

And I'm just going to go ahead and stir this around.

I want to cook it until the scallions start to brown.

It's going to take about two to four minutes.

Ooh, it smells amazing.

It's a little hard to tell that the scallions are brown, but I can definitely smell the spices are done.

And I'm going to go ahead and add the liquid for our stew.

I have three cups of water.

(sizzles) And I'm going to also add a quarter-cup of soy sauce.

And then a little bit more salt.

And then a hefty amount of freshly ground black pepper.

Again, we're really building up the flavor base of the stew.

And now for the main ingredient.

We're using beef shanks in our recipe because we really like the richness and body that the bone adds.

Also, it's an extremely inexpensive cut, and it adds a ton of flavor.

And because we have such a flavorful broth going on with all of those robust spices-- we're going to be adding a ton of fresh herbs at the end-- we really don't need to brown the beef, which is a traditional step when you're making a braise or a stew.

So I'm going to go ahead and just put that straight into our liquid.

It's super-easy.

It's my kind of cooking.

I'm just going to fit that down.

I want to really get them immersed in the liquid, so just fit them in the best way you can.

And last, we're going to be adding our chickpeas.

And the recipe uses two 14-ounce cans of chickpeas.

We're adding half of the chickpeas right now at the front end, because we really like how they soften.

And then we're going to add the other half at the end, because we liked that difference in texture that it really adds to the stew.

Okay, I'm just going to stir those in.

And that's basically it, we are done.

Going to go ahead and cover this.

Going to put it in a fairly low oven, 325 degrees, with a rack set in the lower middle position.

I'm just going to let it cook for quite a while, about one-and-a-half to two hours.

I'm going to give it a stir halfway through.

You're going to know it's done when you poke the meat with a skewer and it's going to have no resistance at all.

So I'm going to go ahead and put this in the oven.

Okay, so while our stew is braising in the oven, I'm going to be making chili oil, and we're going to drizzle this on top of our stew to add a nice little kick.

But it's also good on any number of dishes, including scrambled eggs, I like it on sautéed greens, you can just drizzle it over rice.

Really, really delicious.

And it's super-easy to make.

We're just going to start with a cup of peanut oil.

And if you don't have peanut oil, you can use another neutral-flavored oil.

But we really like the nuttiness that it adds.

It adds a nice richness.

To this we're going to add one cup of dried Sichuan chilies.

If you can't find these, you can also use just regular arbol chilies.

And then we're going to add three tablespoons, we have red pepper flakes.

You can also use Sichuan pepper flakes.

Just going to add really nice heat.

And then last, we're going to use, again, the Sichuan peppercorns.

And again, these don't add heat, but they add really nice floral notes to this oil and that slight numbing sensation on your tongue.

Okay, I'm going to go ahead and heat this over medium-low heat.

(beeping) And give it a stir.

And we do want to heat it sort of slowly and gradually.

We don't want to burn the chilies.

We just want to take it to about 275 degrees, if you have a thermometer.

Takes about three to four minutes.

That's basically it.

Once it reaches that temperature, I'm going to go ahead and take it off the heat.

I'm going to let it cool to room temperature, then I'm going to strain out all those chilis.

And once you strain out the solids, you can store it in a tightly sealed jar in a cool, dark place for up to a month.

♪ ♪ Okay, so our stew is out of the oven.

I have already gone ahead and removed the beef shank, and when it was cool enough to handle, I went ahead and shredded that up into bite-sized pieces.

I removed any tough bits of gristle, and if you do this at home, the marrow doesn't already dissolve out of the center of the bone.

You want to go ahead and scrape that out and add it back into the stew, because it adds a really nice flavor.

So, before I go ahead and finish it off, I want to go ahead and remove those star anise pods, because those are way too tough to eat.

And I'm just going to go ahead and fish them out.

All right.

That looks great.

All right, now I'm going to add my beef.

But I can tell you already, I can smell how intensely beefy the liquid is already, just from how long it sat in the oven with those bones.

Definitely don't need to do that browning step.

Just stir that in.

And then, as promised, I'm going to go ahead and add the rest of the chickpeas.

So some of the chickpeas will be nice and soft and, like, meltingly tender, and the rest will have a little bit of a texture to them, a little bit of a bite.

All right, stir that in.

I just want to heat that through.

It's going to take about five minutes.

Okay, so this is done.

It's nice and heated through.

We're almost finished.

I'm going to go ahead and turn the heat off.

Okay, and now I'm going to add the last few ingredients.

These are the reserved scallion greens I cut up into, like, inch-sized pieces.

And then the cilantro leaves.

Stir those in.

This is going to add so much bright freshness.

Really goes well with those robust spices that we added at the beginning.

♪ ♪ And that is it, we're done, we're ready to serve.

That's how easy this stew is, incredible.

So today I'm going to serve mine with some steamed Chinese broccoli.

You can serve it over rice, you can serve it with, really, almost anything.

This looks delicious.

Look at that, look at all that beef.

Look at all those chickpeas.

So nice and hearty.

Okay, and then we have the wonderful chili oil that we made earlier.

I'm going to go ahead and drizzle that, some of that on top.

It's going to add a nice little kick and more of that really wonderful Sichuan peppercorn flavor.

I like a lot of heat, so...

Okay, I'm really excited to try this.

I'm going to get some chickpeas, a nice piece of beef.

Mm.

There is so much flavor in this stew, it's almost hard to believe.

You can taste the Sichuan peppercorns.

I get a little bit of tingling on my tongue.

Taste the star anise, the Chinese five spice.

Then you get the nice freshness from the cilantro and the scallion greens.

It's really, really wonderful.

This is Chinese beef stew with chickpeas.

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♪ ♪