Lamb Tagine and Wild Mushroom Salad 2/1

In perusing my magazines for recipes I found a Lamb Apricot Olive Tagine Recipe in Real Simple that sounded really good.  Upon examination, even better - it was a slow cooker recipe!  I've been cutting down on the starches, especially when I eat late at night, so I thought perhaps I would pair it with a salad instead of the couscous.  I found a hearty salad in Bobby Flay's Bar American that was a Wild Mushroom Salad with Quinoa Goat Cheese and Caramelized Shallots.

The Slow cooker recipe was incredibly simple.  I bought stew lamb so it was precut and it was then just a matter of chopping some veggies and throwing it all together with some spices and setting the slow cooker to cook while we were gone for the day.  There was a fair amount of flavor to the dish... though I can't say I really caught the apricot part, the spices & veggies were good.  The lamb turned out a tad tough, I imagine it could have used some stirring or a bit more liquid throughout the day.

The Salad was a bit more labor intensive, but also had some really impressive flavors.  I ended up placing a bunch of the shallots over the greens and the mushrooms on top of that.  I somehow forgot to buy the goat cheese, but I did have a humbolt fog (an ash striped goat cheese) so I used that instead.

Eric also found a trick for reviving "stale" baguettes - wrap it in a wet paper towel and then in tin foil and place it in the oven at around 250 for 10 minutes or so.  Check after 10 minutes, the bread should soften right up!

Anyways, the salad was impressive, and actually could/should have stood on its own.

Verdict? Individually the recipes were good!  I loved the salad and might make it again.  It was a bit labor intensive for the result, but the flavors were awesome.  The lamb dish was good, I think I would try something else before doing this again though.  And ultimately, I'm sad to say the two dishes did not compliment eachother well.  I think I got a little too exotic in my ideas and with each having such strong flavor, it really needed to be beside something more bland.  Oh well!