It’s a roasted chicken I made with the help of a few various and sundry vegetables. I used drumsticks, which was cheap & delicious, but it should work for any combination of chicken parts. For me it was mostly a way to use up the extra vegetables I had lying around before they went bad (pretty much any veggies will do), and with some good olive oil and a few herbs & spices I think it turned out quite well.

gotta eat em sooner or later...

Roasted Chicken & Vegetables

You will need:

Between half and a whole chicken, quartered, or drumsticks
Generous bunch of parsley & cilantro, chopped roughly
3 garlic cloves, sliced
1 large onion, sliced
3-4 potatoes, sliced
At least 1-2 other vegetables: I used yellow squash, but I suppose you could use carrots, celery, any other root vegetables in any combination.
Olive oil
Rosemary, thyme, and oregano
Salt, pepper, cumin

the better to marinate you with my dear

The process is fairly simple: toss all the ingredients together (be sure to use a generous amount of olive oil, at least 1/4 cup to coat all the ingredients well and mix everything up, including herbs and spices) in a heavy baking pan or dish and bake at 375 degrees F until the meat is cooked through. Cooking time will vary depending on what type of meat you’re cooking; for me it took about 40 minutes, but use a thermometer to be sure.

the more (colors) the merrier

It helps to open the oven and stir things up a bit about halfway through to make sure everything is sufficiently coated in olive oil, which will help make the meat more flavorful. Great eaten straight out of the dish with fresh bread or served on plates with a side salad.

with all the meaty content you could want

one-dish wonder

I have been saving this recipe for a while now. It’s a pretty legendary family recipe, so it feels like it merits a worthy occasion. One came upon me almost spontaneously this weekend: the combination of a snowy winter night, the start of the year and a new semester, and a happy confluence of dear friends, old and new, suddenly somehow made it the right time for manicotti. With a few bottles of Chianti, a simple salad and some hot rolls, this makes a perfect, deceptively simple dinner you can throw together as a prelude to a night out.

need i say more?

Manicotti for a Winter’s Eve

You will need:

For crepes:
2 eggs
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2/3 cup milk and 2/3 cup water (I had soy milk and buttermilk and opted to substitute buttermilk instead, which worked out great)
1 cup flour

For the filling:
1 lb. ricotta
2 eggs
8 oz. shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1 tsp. parsley, chopped finely
Pinches of salt and pepper
1-3 cups of tomato sauce, depending on the size of your dish (My grandmother suggests Bertolli Basil sauce as the preferred sauce of America’s Test Kitchen, and after using it a few times I concur…unless you want to make your own tomato sauce from scratch - which is fun, but completely unnecessary)

wet & dry

First make your crepes: beat the eggs, milk, water, and butter, and gradually add in the flour. Let batter sit, refrigerated, for an hour or so, and then make crepes in a pan or griddle brushed with butter (I ended up needing about 8-10 for the dish) and set aside (you can do this the day before; stacked, covered, crepes can keep in the fridge for about 24 hours).

heart-shaped crepe, made with love

Mix together the ricotta, eggs, half the mozzarella, half the parmesan, and the parsley. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Place about a tablespoon of the filling on each crepe, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper, and roll tightly.

mix mix mix

In a large baking dish, cover the bottom with a layer of tomato sauce and stack the filled crepes, seam side down, on top. Add enough sauce to cover the crepes and fill in the gaps between them, and add any leftover ricotta filling you might have. Top with the rest of the cheeses. Cover lightly with foil.

Bake for at least 40 minutes or until the cheese on top is starting to brown. Serve as you would a lasagna.

Variants include adding a bit of cilantro, adding spices to your sauce, or including mushrooms and meatballs in the mix.

grand finale

A special thanks & shout-out to my incredible grandmother Alice (who is probably reading about this on her iPad right now) for this amazing recipe. I know it will be a favorite of mine for many years to come!

a new new year's tradition?

You know it’s going to be a great year when it kicks off with not one but two fabulous dinner parties featuring home-cooked Eritrean/Ethiopian food. After the first such party I just had to ask the hostess of the first dinner for the spinach recipe (which may have been my favorite dish, probably because spinach is my favorite vegetable, as the one spinach vendor in the Moroccan province of Taroudant will tell you) so that I could make it at the second dinner a week later. At this point I’ve fed this to about a dozen people and I think the consensus is that it’s about the tastiest spinach dish we have ever witnessed.

Dibora’s Eritrean Spinach

Credit obviously goes to the enormously talented (and generous, for sharing her recipes) hostess of that first party, Dibora, who also happens to be an incredible yoga teacher whose classes get me through the week.

You will need:

1 large onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 bags of frozen spinach (medium to large-ish bags; these are usually pre-chopped)*
2 jalapeños, chopped (wear gloves or don’t touch your eyes don’t touch your eyes don’t touch your eyes)
Olive oil & butter
Salt & pepper

never a bad way to start a dish

Heat up the onions on medium-low heat in the oil and butter, stirring occasionally, till they become translucent and start to brown.

Next, add the garlic and stir in. Make sure the heat is low enough that the garlic doesn’t burn.

Next add in the jalapeños. Dibora suggests cooking them for just a minute before adding the spinach and I concur…

and now for the good stuff

Next go ahead and add in all that spinach, plus some more olive oil and salt and pepper to taste (I found it takes a good amount of salt to make sure all that green goodness is sufficiently seasoned, but add it bit by bit as you stir). Cook, stirring pretty frequently, till everything is cooked, mixed, seasoned and delicious – this will probably take a good 15-20 minutes, depending on your stove and your pan.

at last

You can serve with rice or couscous or (if you are lucky enough to have it around) injera, the traditional flatbread of Eritrea and Ethiopia. Last night I served it with couscous cooked with a bit of butter, oil and salt, and it was lovely.

*n.b. this much spinach will serve upwards of 5 people; for four people or fewer, one bag of spinach will probably do, but then again, if you throw in both bags you can always enjoy the leftovers…

It did involve some classic moments such as this one:

arrogant bastard

and this:

stone IPA

aaand the best:

new year's tagine + sister act with the best brother in the world

…but now I’m back in DC post a wintry (well, not so wintry – let’s say an almost-too-sunny) Carolina-San Francisco tour and with no meat in the fridge and a vegetarian houseguest on the way I finally have an excuse to revive the blog and an old favorite recipe at the same time with a chickpea tagine.

You will need:

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 onion, sliced thinly
3 garlic cloves, chopped roughly
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
2-3 small potatoes or 1 large, diced
2 tomatoes, quartered
2 zucchinis, diced (or a zuke and a yellow squash)
2 slices of preserved lemon (if you have it, otherwise substitute regular lemon)
Generous bunch of cilantro, chopped
Salt, pepper, ras al hanut (if you have it), cumin, paprika, turmeric and cinnamon (generous pinches all around, according to your taste)

To serve:
Plain yogurt
Harissa (North African hot sauce…if you can’t find it, you can substitute your favorite hot sauce)

You can also serve with a drizzle of harissa oil, if you can locate some (for those lucky enough to be in the NC mountains, you can find some here)

the more colors the merrier

To prepare:

In a tagine or large saucepan, saute onion in oil/butter on low heat till onions are translucent.

Add garlic, chickpeas, potato, tomato, and not quite enough veggie stock or water to cover everything; add the spices and then let cook, covered, 15 minutes, on medium heat.

red, yellow, new

Add zucchini, cilantro, and lemon; adjust seasonings to taste; lower heat to medium low and cook uncovered for about fifteen minutes; then turn down heat and cook, uncovered, till most liquid has boiled off and the potatoes are done (in the last 20-25 minutes or so, monitoring the potatoes is the key to cooking everything to the right consistency: when the potatoes are done, so is everything else. Tasting potatoes is also a great opportunity to test the spices and adjust. I usually end up adding more cinnamon at this stage).

threw in some yellow squash for good measure...

Garnish with a bit of fresh cilantro and a sprinkle of pepper; serve with harissa and plain yogurt. You may want to remove your slices of lemon to make sure an unsuspecting guest doesn’t accidentally eat it…

all together now

Filed under: Food, Moroccan, Photos, Tagine, Vegetarian ]]> http://imiksimik.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/chickpea-tagine-revisited/feed/ 0 anny IMG_0302 IMG_0562 IMG_0573 IMG_0649 IMG_0653 IMG_0661 IMG_0670 http://imiksimik.wordpress.com/2011/11/23/add-a-kick-to-your-cranberry/ http://imiksimik.wordpress.com/2011/11/23/add-a-kick-to-your-cranberry/#comments Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:07:54 +0000 anny http://imiksimik.wordpress.com/?p=1273 ]]> Just in time for Thanksgiving, I’m reposting one of my favorite recipes (enough friends have asked for the recipe in the past week or so that I figure my laziness is justified). In short, if you’re looking for something a little different to play the role of cranberry this Thanksgiving, try this pomegranate-cranberry chutney.

“Chutney” sounds intimidating, but it’s not. I promise. All the ingredients are at your local grocery store. Pectin sounds weird, I know, but it’s just magic powder that makes a jam-like substance of whatever you stir it into, and your grocery store has it. It’s yummy with turkey but you can also serve it with cheese or cream cheese & crackers for this weekend’s more hors d’oeuvre-y moments.

This particular recipe is the perfect one to remind me of the many, many people connected to it (from friends in Morocco to my godmother to the family and friends and family friends I’ve made it for and with) and so it’s the perfect way to give thanks to you all this year. Sending my love to everyone from chilly rainy DC! Thank you all for giving me much too much to be thankful for.

pomegranates: mighty tempting

Pomegranate-Cranberry Chutney (originally posted here)

Seeds from 2 regular sized pomegranate or 1 very large pomegranate (again, see here for tips on removing seeds without going crazy. If pomegranates are nowhere to be found, you can substitute diced apples OR a half cup of pomegranate juice, and throw in some extra dried cranberries for good measure)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/8 cup lemon juice
1 inch of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped (if this is confusing, think about a thumb-sized piece of ginger)
1/2 tsp ground ginger
3/4 cup dried cranberries
Half of a small red onion, chopped very finely
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 ounce fruit pectin (I find this is usually half of a standard sized packet)

Place the vinegar, lemon juice, cranberries, onion, ginger, spices, honey, and pomegranate seeds in a large pan. Measure 1 1/2 cups of sugar and set it aside.

Next, pour the pectin into the pan, stir everything together, and place on high heat.

As soon as the liquid reaches a boil, add all the sugar, all at once, and stir continually at a rolling boil for about 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and continue stirring for 5-10 more minutes.

Let cool and refrigerate.

eid al-shukr sa3eed

I made a chicken along those lines a few days ago. But I photographed the whole thing in the hopes of launching it out there into the world. For seriously the best Moroccan chicken that has ever emerged from my little kitchen, read on.

Best Chicken Yet with Lemons and Olives

You will need:

3-4 chicken drumsticks (I know this is totally cheating because the meat is so tasty, but my excuse is that I have a small tagine and these are the only pieces that fit)
2 onions, sliced thinly
1 tomato, cut into slices
Large handful of green olives
1 preserved lemon, cut into large slices
Salt, pepper, cumin, ginger, paprika, yellow food coloring (you laugh but it makes a difference)
Olive oil

First warm up a generous amount of olive oil in your tagine (when I use mine over a gas burner I use a metal diffuser). Add the onions, cover, and let them stew for several minutes.

Next add pretty much everything else: tomatoes first, then half the olives and lemon, then the chicken, then the spices (a generous dusting of each. The important thing is that the spices look nice. If they don’t you need more…see the first photo in this post). Cover and let it cook, stirring things up periodically (every 20-30 minutes; most important thing is to flip the chicken so it gets cooked through) until it’s done. The meat will be falling off the bone. 5-10 minutes before it’s done throw in the rest of the lemon and olives.

I added absolutely no water to this: the tomatoes really help add some liquid and the juices from the chicken will take care of the rest. In fact I had to crack the lid and even drain some of the liquid because the cooking process generated so much (delicious) broth.

Eat with flatbread (preferably freshly baked by your co-chef…).

sweet tart honeycream on the bottom...

French Kiss & Italian Honey Parfait

So this is a combination of two recipes – one is a heavily adapted version of Julia Child’s classic French Chocolate Mousse. I use an adaptation of David Lebovitz’s adaptation of Julia Child’s original (package of butter: $2.99. David Lebovitz’s comment that the recipe just isn’t as good when you cut down on the amount of butter: um, priceless).

The other is infinitely simpler and just as wonderful: a lemon honey cream recipe from Piano, Piano, Pieno, a cookbook I feature here allll the time because I love it so much. One of its guiding principles is that the best recipes have four ingredients or fewer, and that’s what makes this one so beautiful. See:

For the mousse, you’ll need:

6 ounces dark chocolate, chopped or in chips
6 ounces unsalted butter
1/4 cup espresso
4 large eggs, separated
2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons water
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
(plus a handheld electric mixer unless you are as vain about your triceps as I was at 20 and prefer to whip your eggs by hand)

And for the honeycream:

1 cup cream
1/3 cup of your favorite honey
1/4 cup of lemon juice
A generous sprinkling of crushed star anise

See what I mean?

dark espresso chocolate in the middle

So, the steps:

The honeycream, as you may have guessed, is easy. Bring honey and cream just to boil in a small saucepan. Stir in lemon juice and remove from heat. Stir to combine. Add a little crushed star anise. Pour into containers and let cool. Chill and serve cold (it can hang out in the fridge for a day or two before serving).

The mousse, as you may have guessed, is a little more complicated.

Melt the chocolate, butter, and coffee in a double boiler situation. Stir till smooth and remove from heat.

Fill a very large bowl with ice water.

Beat the egg yolks with 2/3 cup sugar and the 2 T water for several minutes, till the mixture is thick and looks like mayonnaise.

Then place the egg yolks onto the ice water and keep beating till thick; gently mix in the chocolate mixture.

Beat the egg whites with the salt until they start to hold a shape; then whip in the tablespoon of sugar, then, a few minutes later, the vanilla. Continue to whip the eggs till they form peaks but not stiff peaks. Just gentle peaks: Appalachian peaks. Moyen Atlas, not Haute Atlas.

Then you gently stir 1/3 of the egg whites into the yolk-chocolate mixture, and then fold in the rest.

I used to hate this direction “fold.” What do you mean, “fold?” I would say to my cookbooks. The only thing harder than folding egg whites is folding fitted sheets. It’s the sort of thing you just can’t learn from a written recipe; you have to learn from watching. Which is why I love the internet, where videos like this great demonstration of folding egg whites exist like magic!

I serve these layered in champagne flutes. If the spirit moves and the fridge provides I like to top it all with a bit of whipped cream.

and whipped cream on top

as usual: lots going on

I picked up this recipe last week in Morocco, but it’s hard to believe I’d never jotted it down before. I’d like to call it something like Jama3iyya Chicken* because it’s a recipe I’ve seen most at large meetings, trainings, or visits in the spaces of Moroccan community associations (jama3iyyat). It’s similar to your Moroccan chicken tagine, but pared down a bit, so if you have to cook for 40 people, and not in a fancy-wedding kind of way but in a working-lunch kind of way, you can do it and still serve your chicken in a tasty zesty sauce.

Jama3iyya Chicken

Adapted from the ladies in Idoukais

You’ll need:

However much chicken you need to feed however many people you’ve got
2-3 onions per chicken, sliced thinly
2-3 tomatoes per chicken, diced
Salt
Pepper
Oil
Fake yellow food coloring (actually this is important)
Ginger
Cumin
Cilantro, chopped
Green olives
A goodly amount of olive oil

chicken in action

Throw all of these things together in a pot. Cover everything with imik n waman (literally “a little water,” but really add enough so that the liquid comes halfway up the chicken but no more).

Cover and cook “till it’s done.” I’d use a meat thermometer to be safe but they say an hour or so, turning the chicken and adding water as needed.

Seriously.

That’s it.

You can now go feed the multitudes! Seriously, I’ve seen this done in enormous pots that fit many and multiple chickens. It always comes out beautifully.

i think the magic is in the yellow food coloring.

*The 3 is internet-code for the ᶜayn, an Arabic letter that you make by saying an “a” then squeezing the muscles in your throat. This is satisfying to do and I recommend it.

eat it up

The recipe is very simple, too, obeying the rule that the best recipes are often those with fewer than five ingredients…

Sweet Moroccan Carrot Salad

Adapted from the recipe of Zahara Ait Ben Hmad

You’ll need:

4 carrots, washed and peeled and grated finely
1-2 apples, washed and peeled and grated coarsely
A dab of sugar or honey, to taste
A splash of water

Combine all ingredients and mix, adjusting for sweetness. Best to let it sit for a while before serving, as the juice from the apples will mix in better this way (if you have juicy enough apples, you will need very little water and sugar for this one).

this salad is grate!!!

the players.

Second in the series from Shahiya’s 101 Lebanese Recipes app (see the first one here): a lovely zesty salad (this one is for Angelique: sorry it has taken me so long to post this!) that fits nicely anywhere in your meal. It’s light enough to be a starter but so refreshing that it actually is a nice little palate-cleanser at the end of a meal, too.

arugula-gugulama

My version is significantly adapted from the original, so if you’re looking for authentic Lebanese salatet rocca w zaatar, head to Shahiya. Otherwise, read on…

Arugula and Thyme Salad

You will need:

A bunch of fresh arugula, cleaned, stems removed
A bunch of mixed greens of your choice
Several sprigs of fresh time, without stems (easiest way to do this: pinch the stem near the top with thumb and forefinger of one hand, and use the other thumb & forefinger to slide the little leaves off by pushing them down, against the direction they grow. Once you get the hang of this it will become like therapy to you.)
1 small onion, sliced thinly
Generous dash of paprika
3 T lemon juice
1 T of your favorite vinegar (I used basil vinegar but any will do)
2 T olive oil
1 T walnut oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Mix together the lemon juice, vinegar, oils, paprika, salt and pepper to make your dressing.

like so

Next pour this over your onion slices and let them soak for at least 15-20 minutes. It will flash-pickle the onion to take the bite off just a bit.

Once that’s done mix everything together, making sure thyme is distributed evenly and the dressing is coating everything. You can chill first or serve immediately.

and then eat the leftovers for lunch the next day

My favorite sandwich of late arose, like a beautiful sandwich-shaped phoenix, from the ashes of a dinner party and an overzealous trip to the farmer’s market that left me with lots of leftover Moroccan chicken, blackberry & lemon thyme jam, and fresh spicy arugula. Perfect.

you guessed it.

Leftover Chicken and Arugula Sandwich

All you need is:

Some nice sliced bread
Lots of leftover chicken (cleared of bones and grizzled bits)
A sweet spread, like a jam, jelly, or chutney (mmm I love me some chutney)
Some fresh greens – arugula adds a nice kick, but use whatever you’ve got (pile them sooooo high and you’ll basically be eating a salad except that it will taste instead like chicken. everybody wins!)

assemble, and

enjoy

Full disclosure: I was given a copy of said app to review. There is a free version, however, with a little over a dozen recipes available, in addition to the $3 version with the full 101 recipes. Either way it is nice to have a set of great, portable, always-with-you Lebanese classics…the app version of these being especially handy in a small kitchen or while you’re in the store trying to figure out what ingredients to buy for dinner. Shahiya itself is even better – a great one-stop shop for recipes from Iran to North Africa.

But I digress…

warm, comfort, spice

Shorbet Eama (Tomato soup with meatballs), from Shahiya.com’s Cook Lebanese: 101 Recipes app

You will need:

1/2 cup rice
1/2 cup vermicelli
2 T vegetable oil
1/2 small can tomato paste, dissolved in a small bowl of water

For the meatballs/kefta:
About a pound of ground beef, lamb, or goat
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
Pinch of nutmeg
Pinch of black pepper
1/2 T salt
1/4 cup oil for frying

kefta = meatballs = delish

To make:

First make the meatballs. This is much easier than you probably think. You mix together all the meatball ingredients, sans oil (use your hands. Do it.) and then you run it through a food processor. Then you make it into small meatballs.

Next, fry these in the oil till they’re brown and set them aside. Like so:

yummy

and:

even yummier

Next: boil about a liter of water, the tomato paste, the rice and vermicelli and the meatballs. Simmer until the rice is cooked through, adjust spices, and serve hot.

I have been cooking, just not blogging. But photographs have been taken. They are coming. Soon. In addition to cooking and taking pictures I have been writing, swimming, looking for pirates, reorganizing my closet, reviewing films, and some other things. I will soon take a break from all this mess to start sharing recipes again.

In the meantime, I was reminded last week of the particular delights of the Moroccan cappuccino. In Morocco, “cappuccino,” a friend and I discovered, is actually code for a qahwa nos-nos (that is, half steamed milk and half espresso) with an unjustifiable amount of good whipped cream on top and also chocolate syrup. They are delightful. And challenging.

fortunately i am always up for this particular challenge

If only cappuccinos in the U.S. were this exciting.

window seat

Hammadi’s is definitely a restaurant built for tourists, but I visited on the recommendation of several locals and was happy I tried it. Despite the elaborate setting – room after room of bright ponges (cushion-y benches lining the walls of a room) decorated with bright local fabrics and some pretty fantastic late colonial-era tourist kitsch – the menu is fairly straightforward and competitively priced (plus if you’re lucky, free mint tea at the end of the meal).

best olives, hands down: just enough spice and plenty of lemon

The pastilla, while good, won’t knock you over (like some pastilla, ahem at Agadir ahem). The chicken tagine is tasty and served with honestly the best olives I have tasted in my entire life (though no guarantees – on a return visit the magical olives weren’t there. I think the smaller the group, perhaps, the better the olives). The best item on the menu might be the lamb tagine, which is served with plenty of honey-sweet sesame-bedecked prunes that constitute dessert on their own.

The best part about Hammadi’s, other than the atmosphere (which includes, btw, a traditional Moroccan musical group playing Andalusian style music periodically, a nice touch), is undoubtedly the people-watching. My personal favorite was a family of tourists so sunburned that they matched the red decor: priceless. The service is pleasant and fast and they were obliging enough to write out separate checks for every one of our large group, which meant an evening happily bereft of restaurant-check-math, which I hate.

The location is excellent as well: right there against the wall of the medina and just below the kasbah.

2 Rue Italia, Tangiers

For a complete set of photos see here.