Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.

Marinate the lamb – up to 48 hours before you cook the tagine, marinate the lamb. Add the oil to the spices and mix well.

Stir in the lamb. Cover and marinate, ideally for 48 hours, in the fridge.

Now make the tagine – preheat oven to Fan Oven 130°C /150°C/300°F/Gas 2

Pour the warm water over the saffron and set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a casserole dish, over a moderate heat, and cook the finely chopped onions for 10 minutes, stirring from time to time.

Add the finely chopped garlic and ginger for the final 2 minutes of cooking. (I chop everything in my food processor.)

As the onions cook, heat half of the remaining oil in a separate frying pan and brown the lamb in batches, adding more oil as necessary. Set aside.

Add half the stock to the frying pan you cooked the lamb in, to deglaze the pan.

When the onions, garlic and ginger are soft and lightly caramelised, add the remaining stock to the casserole dish and deglaze.

Add the lamb, the stock from the frying pan, the tomatoes, dates, sultanas, saffron and water and seasoning to the casserole and bring to a gentle simmer.

Transfer to a preheated oven and cook on low for 3 – 3½ hours or until the lamb is ‘fall-apart’ tender.

At the same time, scatter the pistachios onto a baking tray and cook in the oven, alongside the lamb, for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Serve sprinkled with the chopped, fresh mint, chopped pistachios, couscous or rice, and I like some yoghurt or labneh on the side as well.