Squawkin' Moroccan

When I made this dish, my mind went to an old friend of mine, Pat in Montreal. Pat was a raconteur of sorts, telling womanizing stories, jokes and numerous funny stories. He was obviously talkative and also of Moroccan extraction.

Ergo, he got the moniker of being the Squawkin' Moroccan and this dish involves a chicken. You do the math!

I've been dyin' to make this Moroccan dish but I wanted to do it justice...serve it in a Tajine. A Tajine is an earthenware vessel that's also sometimes painted or glazed. it's used to cook in Moroccan and other North African cuisines.

The first time I tried a Tajine was at a Moroccan restaurant here in the city. The dish read to me like poetry and I was even assured (by the menu) that my Tajine dish would be presented in...a Tajine.

My anticipation of the dish flattened when it was served merely on a plate. I asked the waiter to comeback and take my dish and re-serve my dinner in a TAJINE, DAMMIT!

For those not in the know, Tajine is a term to also describe any recipe or dish that's cook in one. The recipes are numerous, ingredients plenty. What is a constant in all these Tajines is that a slow braise of the meal takes place. This is slow food people, embrace it!

As I'm not one to veer too much from a recipe when I first try it, the ingredients I used remained largely the same. I used coriander seeds rather than chopped fresh coriander as I have a Coriander-hatin' family. All apologies to those who love Coriander but it's sparsely used in mainland Greek cuisine and we are not so accustomed to it's floral pungency.

This dish comes courtesy of the Australian-produced show called Food Safari. The saffron adds brilliant colour to the dish, the potatoes thicken the sauce and the fresh ground cumin permeate the entire home.

This dish looks exotic, smells exotic, tastes exotic. I have never been to Morocco but after eating this dish, I'd like to!

Chicken Tagine With Preserved Lemons & Olives

2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
1/2 preserved lemon, rinsed and thinly sliced
2 onions, chopped
½ birds eye chilli
1 tbsp sweet paprika
1 tbsp ground cumin
salt
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander, stems and leaves
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads, soaked in a little water
1/2 cup olive oil
2 bay leaves, torn in half

1 whole chicken, size 10 or 12
1 tomato, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 large potatoes, cut into wedges
1 onion, sliced
1 tomato, sliced
150g pitted green olives
1 bunch fresh coriander, chopped
1 cup water
1 preserved lemon, cut into 6 segments.

1. Marinade: Process all ingredients together in a food processor until finely chopped and thoroughly combined. Leave for 30 minutes before using. Can be stored in the refrigerator for up to seven days.
2. Wash and dry the chicken and remove backbone, wing tips and any excess fat. Cut into pieces. Rub all over with ½ of the chermoula marinade and refrigerate overnight or for at least 2 hours.
3. Combine the tomato and onion with a little more chermoula and spread into the base of the tajine (this will prevent the chicken from burning on the bottom). Arrange chicken pieces in the centre of the tajine on top of tomato mixture. Coat potato wedges with chermoula and arrange around chicken. Top with onion slices, then tomato slices and olives in between the potato wedges.
4. Mix chopped coriander with remaining chermoula and water. Pour over mixture. Decorate top with preserved lemon wedges.
5. Cover tajine with lid and cook on a very low gas heat for 45 minutes. Do not stir or lift the lid during the cooking process.
   
6. Serve the Tajine directly to the table and impress your guests with a waft of fragrant steam when it’s time to serve with couscous and harissa.

Chermoula and Couscous

One of the goals I've staked out for myself was to go beyond my comfort zone and try some dishes from the other side of the Mediterranean - North Africa.

I've seen, heard, read (and now tasted) varying Chermoulas. It's a marinade used in cooking in the North African countries of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. After doing some research, I found that there's no real base recipe for Chermoula, other than it usually containing cumin, citrus and some heat. The rest is subject to interpretation and taste.

A Chermoula can be used to marinade anything...vegetables, chicken, lamb, beef and in this case, sea bass fillet.

I've taken the flavours that appealed to me today (my mood does change) and I applied it in this marinade. The next time I use a Chermoula, I'm sure I'll try another combination. I'm already diggin' this marinade's liberal allowance of interpretation.

While making this dish, I was reminded of the many times I had seen Jamie Oliver pound the Hell out of herbs & spices for his dishes. Until today, I used to just use pre-ground spices...until today.

Pounding your spices into a powder makes for a much more robust, flavoured spice. As an added tool, I think I'm going to splurge on a small coffee mill that I will exclusively use to grind spices.
I'm not writing off already ground spices but I'll augment my cooking with grinding my own too.

I'm convinced this dish's success was heightened by my labour in pounding these spices with a mortar and pestle. I've had one for years and now I can use it for than just making Melitzanosalata.

How would I describe this Chermoula Sea Bass? First, the flavour of the fish was still evident (good), a slight smokyness came through from the cumin and paprika, a touch of heat from the chili flakes & peppercorns and, the tang of the lemon rounded out what was to be a fabulous fish dish. Chermoula my love!

As seen in the photo, I also made a brilliant coloured couscous with Saffron. The recipe is quite basic and I wanted to keep it this way so as to not steal any flavours from the sea bass. This simple yet beautiful Saffron dish looked like a bed of golden caviar for my sexy Chermoula sea bass to lie on.

As for the shrimp, they were great too...they were like my savory dessert, to be eaten at the end!


Chermoula Sea Bass
(serves 4)

1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
6 whole black peppercorns
10 cumin seeds
2 cloves of garlic,
1/4 tsp chili flakes
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1 Tbsp. sweet paprika
1 medium onion, grated
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
Juice of 1/2 lemon
4 Tbsp. olive oil
4 skinless, sea bass fillets

Preheated 400F oven

Saffron Couscous

2 1/4 cups of water
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp saffron threads/powder
1 1/2 cups of uncooked couscous

1. Using your mortar and pestle, add the smashed garlic, cumin, black peppercorns, coriander seeds and coarse sea salt and pound the contents until it becomes a mash. Empty the contents into a bowl.
2. To the bowl, add the olive oil, lemon juice, grated onion, parsley and paprika and mix well.
3. Smear the Chermoula marinade all over your fish fillets. Place in a bag, seal and refrigerate for 1 hour. Return the fish to room temperature before baking on tray.
4. Treat your tray with cooking spray and season your fillets with salt and a sprinkle of more sweet paprika.
5. Drizzle with some olive oil and bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until the fish is just flaky.
6. Serve immediately with a lemon wedge.

Couscous

1. Combine water, butter, salt and saffron in medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Stir in couscous. Cover, remove from heat.
2. Let stand 5 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Fluff couscous with fork.
3. Add another pad of butter and adjust seasoning with sea salt.
4. Keep covered & warm until your main is ready to be served.
   

I Think I Love Harissa

One of the goals of my blog is to explore other cuisines, try new dishes and and always, share my experiences with you, my dedicated readers.

My focus is on Greek food but you've seen me branch out into other Mediterranean dishes but I've neglected the other side of the Mediterranean - North Africa.

There's a whole undiscovered culinary territory to be explored. However I will tread carefully, learn the "lay of the land" before getting into the heavy stuff.

I finally picked up Harissa. She's not some gal from the Sultan's Tent but it's a condiment, originally from Tunisia. Harissa is basically a hot pepper paste that's flavoured by cumin, garlic, salt and chillies.

From my early readings, this condiment is used in sauces, marinades and dressings. Here, I've played with Harissa in two different tomato salads.

We're in the middle of winter and I'm not goofing around with imported tomatoes. I found some decent hothouse plum tomatoes, no doubt from the Holland Landing greenhouses.

I halved the tomatoes, laid them out on a tray and I drizzled them with olive oil, coarse salt, cumin and coriander seeds and a sprinkle of sugar.

I roasted them in a pre-heated 350F oven for 45 minutes, turned off the oven and allowed the residual heat to finish off the tomatoes.

I have two warm tomato salads for you, both using Harissa paste in them. The first is a salad of Tunisian origins...sweet and savoury playing off each other.

The second is a fusion of Greek salad with an North African flare...a Harissa vinaigrette. Both salads have a little bit of heat but the sweet tomatoes balance the heat and smokyness of the Harissa and cumin.

I'm going to enjoy my North African journey!

Slow Roasted Tomato Salad a la Tunise

Dressing

1 tsp. Harissa paste
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. chopped coriander (cilantro)
Juice and zest of one orange
1 walnut, ground
4 Tbsp. of extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste

1. Combine all of the above ingredients and leave to stand at room temperature for the flavours to marry.

Harissa Vinaigrette

1 tsp. Harissa paste
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp. dried oregano
salt to taste

1. Combine the above ingredients in a jar and shake well to emulsify. Drizzle over your tomato salad.