X'mas Cheer and Lamb Tagine

Right. So this isn't the most stunning photo of a tagine you've every come across. It probably isn't even the second most or third most. Let's be brutally honest - it isn't remotely attractive. Nevertheless, it has superseded my duck ragu as "Dish Most Likely To Make One Weep with Pleasure". Never judge a book by its cover, I say.

Speaking of books, I was at the local shopping centre today and was (as always) lured into Borders. Ever since I started writing my novel, entering bookstores, riffling through the competition, making mental notes of possible improvements to my novel and marketing suggestions for my publisher (if or when I may ever have one to call my own), have become habitual. No, not merely habitual. Necessary, compulsive. I'm incapable of walking past a store which sells books without investigating if Stephanie Myer has finally been shoved off the best sellers list, if Fantasy is still in vogue, if young, screaming girls are thirsty for something original with a bit more soul and a little less... blind adoration.

As of today? Nope. Doesn't look like it.

In the Young Adults section, I counted at least 6 books with black covers, single-word titles and story lines orbiting around the narrow literary solar system of vampires, immortals, forbidden love and very, very good looking men. Or boys. And it makes me happy, of course, because my book features a very good looking man (or boy), who is an immortal, very wealthy, very intelligent but most of all, very much in love.

So what makes my book any different to all the other stuff going on out there in the YA galaxy?

Reality & Honesty. It is about love, but it isn't simply about romance between a girl and a (very handsome) boy. It is a story about love in its many manifestations. About trust, allowing someone else besides yourself to take care of you. About a daughter and her love for her father and the vain hope that they may be reunited in death.

And so I too hope that for X'mas, Santa gives me a publishing deal. But if not, I will soldier on so that one day, this story which is demanding to be heard will be told. It is honest, even if it isn't in the running for a Man Booker Prize, and anyone has ever lost a loved one will understand what it is to cling on to memories and faith because nothing else makes sense anymore.

P.S. I finally read New Moon. Fine, so I skimmed through it (the first 150 pages were tiresome but Lissa explained that's kind of how it feels to lose the love of your life in the romantic sense), but I do understand now why girls love her books. Forget literary wizardry. These are honest stories for the die hard romantics. All the others are knock offs. I (who was born without the romance gene) did discover a few (not many) similarities between my story and hers (which is why I am glad I put off reading her sequels until now. At least I can honestly say the similarities were unintentional) And in the end, there are only so many ways to write Fantasy.

Thankfully, love comes in many guises.

Back to the tagine. The weather's warming up in Sydney so it's not quite suitable for X'mas, unless you enjoy sweating over your food. But for all you folks out there who are in love with their Dutch Oven as I am, this is the perfect recipe for you to indulge in your slow cooking fetish. And, Ho Ho Ho, It's BLOODY GOOD!

Moroccan Lamb Tagine (adapted from Bill Granger's recipe)

8 small frenched lamb shanks

1 spanish onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, sliced

1 tblspn grated ginger

1 tspn chilli powder

1 tspn turmeric

1 tspn ground cumin

1 tspn cardomom pods

1 cinnamon stick

2 tblspn grated palm sugar

4 tspn fish sauce

1 tin tomatoes

10 green olives

2 cups chicken stock

1 carrot, chopped

2 potatoes, chopped

coriander to garnish

Directions:

Brown shanks in casserole. Set aside. Reduce heat, add onion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until onion is translucent. Add garlic and ginger, cook for another minute, then add spices and cook for another 2 minutes. Add fish sauce, chopped tomatoes, sugar, olives, stock and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, add carrot and potatoes and stick into preheated 160 C oven for 2 hours.

serve with steamed rice or couscous.