Moroccan-ish Chicken - Sponsored Post

Recently, I've been very into the flavors of the Middle East and North Africa. Kabobs; dips made with eggplant, beans, walnuts, and/or peppers; harissa; tahini; halloumi; yogurt - it all has me drooling. One of my favorite flavorings from this region is preserved lemon, a powerful lemon flavor that is also quite salty. I've been buying jars of whole lemons for a few years now and recently tried a jar of preserved lemon puree, which is much easier to use and produces less waste. (Most recipes call for using only the rind and discarding the pulp.) A spoonful of it added to a savory dish adds strong lemon flavor without

the mess of zesting a fresh lemon. Of course the flavor of a preserved lemon has a bit of a fermented note that makes it somewhat different from the fresh fruit. But it's still unmistakably lemon.

Also recently, I've come into a selection of Follain Nothing But Fruit preserves, including a lovely three fruit marmalade, sent to me by their American distributor, Bewley Irish Imports. A sample spoonful made me think of preserved lemon, albeit sweet, not salty, and I thought it could be nice to combine the two to make a glaze for baked chicken. A little bit of harissa paste for spice, and it was a real winner. Three ingredients. Couldn't be simpler.

Spicy Glazed Lemon Chicken

2 T Follain NBF Irish Three Fruit Marmalade

1 t preserved lemon puree (I used Casablanca Market)

1 t harissa paste (I used Trader Joe's)

5-6 skin-on bone-in chicken thighs

Salt

Preheat oven to 375F.

Stir first three ingredients together to make a spicy, citrusy, sauce. Set aside.

Place chicken thighs skin-side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet and sprinkle with salt. Turn skin-side-up and salt the top. 

Bake 45 minutes; the internal temperature should be at least 165F, and the skin should be crisp with the fat mostly rendered. Remove thighs from oven.

Preheat broiler. Spread marmalade sauce over chicken and pop under broiler until sauce is bubbly and blackened in spots. 

Serves 3-6 people depending on your sides. I roasted baby potatoes tossed in olive oil and salt with the chicken and cooked some green beans. Olives make a good accompaniment, too. 

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Preserved Lemons

Let me tell you about one of my favorite ingredients. It's something that adds sunshine and happiness to any dish: preserved lemons. Yeah, regular fresh lemons can do much the same thing, but when you preserve a lemon, that is, pack it in salt and allow it to sit for a while, the lemon flavor seems more intense. And you can eat the whole thing. But maybe throw away the seeds.

So what to do with preserved lemons? A traditional North African condiment, found predominately in Moroccan cuisine, the lemons' flavor works beautifully with olives, lamb, chicken, and smoky harissa paste. I chop a bit up and put it in chicken salad, and I've stewed chicken thighs with tomatoes, roasted peppers, olives, and preserved lemons, too. Stir a little into mayo to make a nice topping for a lamb burger. You'll find several uses for preserved lemon in the Minxeats archives, for example in this swiss chard dish, this bean dip, and this chicken and fennel dish.

Preserved lemons even taste good in guacamole.

Making preserved lemons is the easiest thing ever. It just requires a bit of patience. Like six week's worth.

Preserved Lemons

Lemons (organic if you can find them; Meyer lemons are great)
Kosher Salt
Lemon juice
Jar large enough to hold lemons snugly

Cut the lemon nearly in half lengthwise, stopping about a half inch before you reach the other tip. Make another identical cut perpendicular to the first cut, so the lemon is nearly quartered. Holding it over the jar you're going to use, prise the four sections apart and pour kosher salt into the space between them. Close the lemon and place in the jar. Repeat with enough remaining lemons, squashing them as you put them in, that the jar is full and lemons are packed very snugly. Fill the remaining space with lemon juice and a couple spoons-full of salt. Cap the jar and shake it so the juice is evenly distributed.

Refrigerate, shaking every couple of days so any salt and juice that accumulate at the bottom is distributed through the lemons. I find it takes about a month to six weeks for the lemons to soften to the proper texture (they should feel cooked).

To use, cut off a the amount you need and rinse it (or not) before adding to your dish.

Yes, I started this post so long ago, we still had a Christmas-themed tablecloth on.

Preserved Lemon Guacamole

2 ripe avocados
1/8 of a preserved lemon, rinsed lightly and minced
3 scallions, finely chopped

Cut the avocados in half, remove the pit, and scoop the flesh into a bowl. Add the preserved lemon and scallions and mash with a fork until the desired texture. You shouldn't need to add salt, as the lemon is quite salty.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Moroccan Chili and Pumpkin Cornbread

Mentally going through the contents of our small but over-stuffed freezer (Lap cheong, Mexican chorizo, chicken apple sausage, chicken stock, linguica, gumbo, precooked Italian sausage, salmon filet, ice cream, hot dogs, some weird Asian pork sausage, andouille...yes, I realize that is probably an abnormal amount of sausage to have at one time) I realized we had about a pound of ground lamb. At first I thought I'd make a meatloaf (that's a lie...my first thought was merguez, which of course is a type of sausage), but then I realized that chili would be a lot easier. And for some reason, "ground lamb" is now synonymous with "Moroccan" cuisine in my brain, so I wanted to make sure the chili had a nice North African touch. That was easy enough to achieve with some harissa and cinnamon.

I like to serve cornbread with my chili, and had recently seen a recipe for pumpkin cornbread on Photograzing. The recipe called for half a cup of brown sugar, plus molasses and spices, which I thought would make the dish more like a quickbread than a good accompaniment for a savory dish, so I cut back on the sugar and omitted the rest. The result was rather dry and crumbly, so I'm thinking the molasses helped a bit with the moisture content. It tasted fine, however, crumbled into the chili, which was pretty darn good.

Moroccan Chili

2 lb ground lamb
1 cup sliced onions
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons harissa
2 cans fire-roasted diced tomatoes
1 roasted red pepper, diced
1 Tablespoon tomato paste
2 cups beef stock
1 Tablespoon honey, or to taste
salt
1/4 cup green olives, chopped
3 scallions, white and green parts, chopped
cilantro

Brown lamb in a dutch oven over medium-high heat, using a wooden spoon to break it into bits. When meat is cooked through and browned, remove to a bowl. Discard any excessive fat left in the pot, leaving behind about a tablespoon or so. Add onions and season with a pinch of salt. Cook over medium heat until onions turn translucent; return meat to pot. Stir in next six ingredients, cooking until the mixture becomes fragrant. Add tomatoes, red pepper, tomato paste, and stock. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for about an hour. At that point, raise the heat and reduce the liquid until it is no longer soupy. Taste for seasoning and add salt and honey.

Ladle into bowls and garnish with chopped olives, scallions, and cilantro. Serve with pumpkin cornbread.

Pumpkin Cornbread, adapted from Sweetpea's Kitchen

1 cup flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup cornmeal
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease an 8" square pan.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, brown sugar, and cornmeal. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the eggs, pumpkin, and oil. Stir until just combined. Pour batter into prepared pan, smoothing the top. Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Foodie Book Review - Orchards in the Oasis

Orchards in the Oasis: Travels, Food and Memories
by Josceline Dimbleby
Quadrille Publishing Ltd. (currently available only in the UK)

Foodie memoirs are one of my favorite reads. I particularly love them if they have an exotic setting as they let this avid armchair traveler experience foreign lands merely by turning a page. Because of this, I jumped at the opportunity to read and review Josceline Dimbleby's memoir, Orchards in the Oasis, in which she paints charming portraits of the many countries she's visited over her lifetime. Her reminiscences of trips to Peru and to Burma, to Morocco and Damascus, bring the sights and sounds - and flavors - of these countries to life.

One of my favorite chapters is the one on Persia, entitled The Road to Yazd. In it her descriptions of the country - still under the rule of the Shah - make it seem downright welcoming to Western visitors. She even gets to visit a rather sacred and off-limits Zoroastrian "Tower of Silence" where the people of this faith disposed of their dead, even into modern times.

Even the not-so-exotic passages in the book, detailing time spent in the Southwest of England and in London, are nonetheless full of engaging charm. I want to visit these places of which she speaks, and particularly to taste the food she's eaten. And I can. Blessed with a fine palate as well as a good memory, Dimbleby has been able to create interpretations of dishes she enjoyed during her travels and has included the recipes in the book, accompanied by gorgeous color photographs. The ones I find most interesting are her Crispy Pigeon Pie, inspired by Moroccan bstilla, and a Peruvian Beef in Chilli and Chocolate Sauce.

Overall, I enjoyed the journey on which I traveled with Ms Dimbleby, not without a little jealousy at her many excursions to countries I'll likely never visit on my own. And I plan to try at least a few of the recipes...maybe this weekend.