I have been a bit uninspired in the kitchen of late (yes, it happens to us all). I’ve been cooking, just nothing terribly interesting.
However, I did have this one in my drafts folder, and thought it worthy of a post. I love Moroccan food, and we even lugged a tagine home from Morocco in our carry-on luggage! So, I gave the tagine a soak overnight and we made this dish the following day: Chicken tagine with preserved lemon and green olives.
Serve with cous cous.
A note about preserved lemons – we used lemons preserved by J’s sister. I have yet to preserve my own (limited pantry space at the moment – once we move and summer arrives stay tuned for some serious jamming and preserving!), however I understand it is incredibly easy. Here’s an easy recipe from Poh’s Kitchen.
Just over a year ago J and I spent 4 months travelling around Europe. For 4 magical days we explored the hot, dusty, noisy, overwhelming souks and sights of Morocco. We attended a famous cooking class in Marrakech, we bought spices from the spice vendors in the souks and we purchased a clay tagine from a very persuasive old man! The tagine has been used a few times, and this was our most recent adventure with it.
This recipe was courtesy of the latest Marie-Claire, and it produces a slow-cooked lamb shank that is deliciously tender and falling off the bone. I don’t think the sauce was quite as effective when halved, so next time I would probably do a full amount of sauce, even if only using 2 lamb shanks. For that reason, I’ve reproduced the ingredients for the full recipe.
The slow-cooking caramelises the onions in the lamb juices and spices and produces a sweet sauce to accompany the shanks. It is very Moroccan in this way, as Moroccan food seems to favour the sweet-savory combination. The figs and walnuts are added in the last hour, and the figs become plump with the sauce, which is quite a lovely effect. However, I did feel the walnuts became a bit lost, so I would recommend adding some at the end for extra texture.
I served this dish with cous-cous cooked in stock and with a carmelised onion, cinnamon and sugar topping, however in hindsight I think it was too much sweetness for the dish. J suggested that the dish would be better accompanied by mashed potatoes, and I have to agree. For that reason, I haven’t put up the cous-cous recipe, although you’re obviously welcome to use your own discretion.
I’m sure you’ll see a trend over the next few weeks for hearty, warming winter dishes. In my opinion, slow-cooking when the mercury drops is one of life’s great pleasures!
Details
20 min
150 min
2 h, 50 min
Ingredients
- 2 Lamb shanks, fat trimmed
- 1 tbsp Olive oil, extra for brushing
- 2 large Onions, each sliced into 4 inch discs then peeled
- 1 tsp Ground ginger
- 1 tsp Ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp Ground coriander
- 1 tsp Ground cumin
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- 4 strips Orange peel (avoid white pith)
- 2 Cinnamon sticks
- 500 mls Water
- pinch Saffron
- 10 Semi-dried figs
- handful Walnut halves
Directions
- Preheat oven to 180*.
- Season lamb shanks with salt and pepper.
- In a large dutch oven, heat olive oil over a medium heat.
- Lightly brown the lamb shanks all over.
- Remove the dutch oven from the heat and take the lamb out and put to one side.
- Layer the onions across the bottom of the dutch oven. Place the shanks on top. They will not be resting on the base of the dutch oven.
- Sprinkle the ground spices and sugar over the lamb shanks and onion.
- Tuck the orange peel and cinnamon sticks around the lamb.
- Pour the water into the dutch oven. Season with salt and pepper, then sprinkle in the saffron.
- Cover the dutch oven and bring to the boil on the stove.
- Once boiling, put the dutch oven into the pre-heated oven.
- Leave for 1.5hrs to cook.
- Remove from oven, add the figs and walnuts. You may need to add a bit more water at this point too.
- Continue cooking in the oven for another hour. The figs will absorb the juices and get plump. The sauce will get sticky - it's worth keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn't burn.
- Serve with your side of choice - I would suggest mashed potatoes.
Unfortunately I can’t take credit for this recipe - this comes for the blog “For the love of cooking” and as she says, she has been perfecting it for 12 years now. I have to say, it’s a pretty great recipe.
Of course, I can’t seem to follow a recipe exactly, so here are my changes. Instead of stew meat I used beef mince. I used a whole red capsicum and a whole green one for both flavour and colour. I omitted the garlic powder as I don’t have any. I omitted the can of green chillies and instead added zucchini. I just used a small tub of tomato paste instead of tomato sauce. And I used 2 tins of kidney beans instead of other beans. If you’re a vegetarian, just omit the beef – I’ve made it several times without and it’s still lovely.
To serve, I added natural yoghurt, grated cheddar, sliced spring onions, and avocado mixed with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Usually I would serve with rice, but I had leftover cous-cous to use up. I topped with a healthy serve of corn chips for crunch.
This recipe makes at least 4 large man-sized serves, so we divided up the remain and froze it for a meal at a later date. I recommed you start this recipe early in the day so the flavours of the chilli have time to blend and develop. As the smells waft through the house it will be very difficult to resist scooping up a portion early but I promise it is worth the wait!
It’s getting pretty cold down here in the Southern hemisphere, and in such weather I am drawn to soups and stews and other such comfort food. Growing up, I had a period of time where for medical reasons I couldn’t eat much more than soup. I have memories of my late Nana making pumpkin soup for me, which I would slurp down with some bread well soaked in soup.
Last week, when I was feeling in need of a little comfort, I decided to try my hand at some pumpkin soup. To make it into a heartier meal, I decided to serve it with parmesan and rosemary scones. The results was a filling, warming, comforting meal on a cold Tuesday night.
I basically followed this recipe for pumpkin soup on Taste.com.au, with three changes. Firstly, I used celery instead of leek. Secondly, I used a sweet potato instead of a white potato and finally I used natural yoghurt instead of cream, as I prefer the tang of yoghurt (plus it’s far healthier!).
For the scones I found a recipe on the blog “Where’s the Beef?”, and followed it exactly. However, it made a lot of scones, more than we could eat in one sitting, so it might be worth halving the recipe.
This recipe is adapted from one of my favourite cookbooks – Amanda Hesser’s “Cooking for Mr Latte”. She calls it “Single Girl Salmon” and it is an example of how easy and satisfying it can be to cook yourself real meals – even if you’re only cooking for one. This one is on high rotation in our kitchen, because it’s quick, easy and tastes deliciously decadent with a glass of wine. The beauty of it is that it’s actually rather healthy! I actually credit this dish with my newly discovered taste for lentils – particularly puy lentils, the tiny little green lentils from France.
To me, this is the ultimate in comfort food – hearty and filling whilst still being healthy. It requires some thought and time in the kitchen, but certainly not hours – you can have it on the table in under 1 hr. It’s beautiful with a glass of wine (white is my preference), and even if you’re dining alone, you can take the time to enjoy this fabulous meal. Just because you are on your own for dinner, you don’t need to vegetate on the coach, scooping up icecream with potato chips, straight from the tub. You deserve a fresh, fragrant and soul-satisfying meal!
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup Puy lentils (French green lentils)
- 1 clove Garlic
- 1 Bay leaf
- pinch Sea salt
- pinch Black pepper
- 2 tbsps Olive oil
- 1 tbsp White wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice
- 1 large Shallot, chopped
- pinch Sugar
- Salmon fillet, cut from centre
- 1 tsp Parsley, chopped
- Lemon wedge
Directions
- Rinse lentils. Add to a small saucepan, together with the garlic clove (just crushed with the flat of your knife) and bay leaf.
- Cover with water up to about 2-3cm above the lentils. Put the lid on, slightly askew to allow the steam to escape.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat so its is at a simmer.
- Cook until the lentils are just tender, about 15-20 minutes.
- Drain the lentils and put in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
- Pour in 1tbs of olive oil, vinegar and lemon juice. Gently stir through the lentils, so the seasonings blend well.
- Taste the lentils - you want them to be quite tangy. Add more lemon juice if needed.
- Place a small frypan over a medium heat. Add 1 tbs of olive oil and add the chopped shallots. Add a pinch of sugar and stir the shallots while they cook. The shallots should end up soft and caramelized. Transfer to a plate.
- Place the frypan back on the stove over a medium-high heat. Season the salmon with salt.
- Cook the salmon skin-side down in the pan. Cook according to taste - I like my salmon quite well done, even though that isn't terribly fashionable! After a few minutes, flip over and cook on the other side.
- To serve, spoon the lentils onto the plates. Lay your salmon on top and then sprinkle on the shallots.
- Garnish with parsley and a squeeze of lemon.
I first had this recipe at my future in-laws’ house and I was hooked from the start. This is great example of simple, good quality ingredients coming together to make a comforting and healthy meal. We got a huge bunch of silverbeet in our FoodConnect box this week, so immediately this is what I decided to make. I used PasturePerfectPork bacon, which is one of the only bacon’s I’ve been able to find without nitrates (other than naturally occuring vegetable nitrates) and free-range eggs from D & J’s garden!
I love this dish served with a few steamed potatoes and tomatoes dressed in olive oil, a dash of sugar and chives. I also love eating it for lunch the next day!
Ingredients
- 1 bunch Silverbeet
- 1 Onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves Garlic, chopped
- 2 Bacon rashers, chopped
- 155 grams Feta cheese, crumbled
- 250 grams Cottage cheese
- 2 tbsps Parsley, chopped
- Salt and pepper
- 4 Eggs
- 6 Sheets filo pastry
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 180*.
- Wash silverbeet, trim stalks and chop leaves roughly. Cook in the microwave in two batches for two minutes each, or steam on the stove until tender.
- Place in a colander to cool. Once cool squeeze out as much excess moisture as possible with your hands.
- Cook onion, garlic and bacon in the microwave for 2 minutes (obviously you can do this in a frypan if you prefer).
- Combine the silverbeet, onion mixture and all remaining ingredients, other than the pastry, in a bowl.
- Grease a pie plate or pastry dish with a spray of olive oil. Line the dish with 3 layers of filo, folded over if necessary. If you can get the filo sheets apart, you can spray in between the layers for extra crispyness.
- Spoon the mixture into the dish and top with the remaining sheets of pastry (spraying in between if you wish). Spray the top of the pastry with a bit more olive oil.
- Bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Serve warm from the oven or at room temperature.
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I have been a bit uninspired in the kitchen of late (yes, it happens to us all). I’ve been cooking, just nothing terribly interesting.
18.08.10 | 
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