Join me in Morocco?

So I will be upfront with you.  I have never been to Morocco!  I just happen to fall in love with a simple clay cooking vessel called a  Tagine.  To learn more see my first post about the tagine Maiden Voyage: Tagine 

There are many unique parts to this tagine dish.  The first is Preserved lemon.  You can purchase them online here preserved lemons it is just as easy to make them.  All you need is lemons, a jar and some kosher salt.  I will post how to do this soon.  The next unique ingredent is harissa.  A fiery past made from dried acho chillies.  Don't worry folks I have this recipe for you along with some fun photos too!

Harissa

8 dried red chillies (ancho or New Mexico)

2 to 3 garlic cloves, chopped

1/2 teaspoon sea salt (or kosher salt)

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 cup olive oil

Put the chilies in a bowl and pour over enough water to cover them. Let them set for at least an hour.

Drain and squeeze out any excess water.

Using a motar and pestle, pound the chilies into a paste. Now I gotta be honest with y'all, this did not happen. I used a food processor for the chilies and the motar and pestle for the coriander.

  add the garlic and salt to this before placing into the food processor 

Beat in the cumin and coriander and bind with the olive oil

Store paste in a sealed jar in the fridge with a think layer of olive oil floating on top. It will keep for a month.  And let me tell you not a day longer!  

Okay so now what?  You have a jar of harissa what the heck do you do with it????

I chose an easy recipe from Tagine: Spicy stews from Morocco

Chicken tagine with harissa, artichokes and green grapes

4 chicken breasts cut into thick strips

2 table spoons olive oil

2 onions halved lengthwise and sliced with the grain 

1/2 preserved lemon cut into thin slices

1 teaspoon sugar

1-3 teaspoons of harissa paste (to your taste)

2 teaspoons tomato paste

1 1/4 cups chicken stock or water

1 13 oz jar of artichoke hearts

rinsed and halved

about 16 green grapes halved

one bunch cilantro leaves chopped

(this is the part that I wish I would not have listened to the recipe, way, way too much cilantro for me)

sea salt and ground pepper

for the marinade

2 garlic cloves crushed

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon of olive oil

First make the marinade, in a small bowl mix the garlic, turmeric, lemon juice and olive oil

cover and refrigerate for at least 1-2 hours or overnight

Heat the oil in the tagine.  Add the onions, preserved lemon and sugar

I cut up the lemon very small

saute for 2-3 minutes until slightly caramelized.  Toss in the marinated chicken, then add the harissa and tomato pastes. 

Next add the chicken stock and bring to a boil

Reduce heat and let cook gently for 15 minutes

 toss in the artichoke hearts and cover for for another 5 minutes

Add the grapes and some of the cilantro and season to taste with the salt and pepper

Sprinkle with some cilantro to serve.  

Add your favorite couscous and enjoy!

Viva Columbia!

Matthew Curtis Deuel, That would be my nephew.  He has transformed from a toddler who was afraid of his "Bumble Ball" to a fine young man who will be graduating Apollo High in a few days!  Wow! how fast they grow up and we become old. He has this amazing girlfriend, Alexx, who lives in South Beach FL. (I know rough life, she can leave her school, grab her board and be riding the waves after just crossing the street!) She came to visit Matt for Prom and brought her mother along, a wonderful woman named Connie from Columbia.


Connie wanted to prepare a traditional Columbian chicken dinner as a thank you for my sister and brother-in-law's hospitality.  So that she did.  Connie cooks a lot like my mom and grandma. No recipe or measurements just a little bit of this and a little more of that and the result is a wonderful, flavorful meal that I am not quite sure that I could ever replicate.  I took photos along the way to capture the recipe as best I could!  All I can say is WOW and yum!

Two lovely chickens

a little bit of all this

Fresh cilantro 

combine everything in a bowl, add the juice of a lemon and some white wine

rub mixture all over the bird, inside, outside and under the skin 

pop it in a 350 oven and cover for a bit, then take off the foil and let brown.  Connie said, let it cook till it's done.

The result is some melt in your mouth watering chicken made by a wonderful woman!

For dessert I made cherry cheese cake cupcakes!

Recipe coming soon in my next blog post!

A big thank you goes out to Connie for allowing me to take photos and share her Latin flair with all of you!!  

Maiden Voyage: Tagine, Chicken with Forty Garlic Cloves

One evening I went to a friend's home for dinner and had the best chicken ever! She brought it out in an odd cooking vessel that I had never seen before. Me, being an armature foodie who loves gadgets said, "I gotta get myself one of those". Oh btw one of those is a Tagine a Moroccan clay cooking pot. I did a bunch of research on tagines and I decided to make a trip to Sur La Table to purchase one. The clay pot that Sur La Table has is glazed throughout and later I learned that the inside dome should not be glazed because the unglazed dome will absorb both flavors and moisture and this is a good thing! A tagine must be seasoned. That one took a trip to the library to learn how! I brushed olive oil on the tagine and put it in a cold oven, set it to 300 and let the tagine bake for 2 hours. This will prevent it from cracking.

So now on to making something in this wacky clay pot!

1 whole chicken

or

3 pounds chicken pieces

1/2 lemon

salt and freshly ground pepper

2 bouquets garni (4 sprigs thyme, 2 bay leaves, 4 sprigs rosemary, 6 sage leaves)

1/2 cup olive oil

30 to 40 garlic cloves UN-PEELED (The unpeeled part because I did not read this and I spent 2o min peeling)

1 cup chicken broth as needed

Rub the lemon all over the chicken inside and out. Tuck one Bouquet Garni along with the lemon inside. Now heat the evoo in a skillet and saute the garli

c for a bit. Turn the whole chicken in the oil until lightly colored

Put the bird into the tagine and add the bouquet garni and cover with the lid. Pop it into a 350 degree oven for an hour check it after 30 to see if you need to add some broth.

Okay so I am not very good at reading directions... I did not

brown my chicken! (bad Becky, bad Becky) however it was an amazing chicken and The garlic cloves are wonderful spread on a whole wheat pita or bread of your choice.

a note about the sir la table tagine

So there is a major design flaw in this tagine.

When it's hot it is almost impossible to take the lid off! My brother-in-law made a modification that made all the difference! He added a wire to the top so I could have something to grab so I could get the lid off. I am not sure what Sir La Table was thinking with this one.