Chicken Tagine with Green Olives and Preserved Lemons
October 10, 2005 | Filed Under Poultry, African Cuisine | 1 Comment
I made a scrumptious Moroccan dish that Rick (Humphrey Bogart) in the movie Casablanca would have eaten and smacked his lips afterwards – Chicken tagine with green olives and preserved lemons, served alongside couscous with apricots. This is a recipe from Tyler Florence’s Food 911 show.
I’d seen the show over a month earlier and made the preserved lemons. A relatively simple procedure, I cut lemons, inserted Kosher salt in the cuts, squeeze the lemons into a glass jar. I had to fight the lemons to squeeze them into the jar. Luckily I won the fight, but not without squirting juice from the jar all over the kitchen and on my clothing. I added more salt to cover the lemons completely, and then put the lemons into the fridge for one month. I understand that the preserved lemon will keep for one year.
Preserved lemons
The meal was relatively easy to make once I completed the food preparation – I made a spice from scratch for the chicken – cinnamon, peppercorns, cumin, paprika, red pepper flakes and cloves. Note to self: Buy a spice grinder. Preparing the spice would have been much easier if I had a grinder.
I marinated the chicken overnight with the spices, garlic, ginger, cilantro, bay leaves, saffron and olive oil.
The easy part came when the chicken was first browned in olive oil. I loved the way the kitchen became filled with the aroma of the spices and the chicken. It smelled really good. Even my dogs become excited. They knew something good was cooking. Both kept hovering by the kitchen door and staring at me. They waited for some food to fall on the ground and their eyes would go from the stove to me and then back to the stove again.
I added the onions, preserved lemon, marinade, crushed olives, and chicken stock. Thirty minutes later the tagine was ready.
I flavored the couscous with chicken stock, dried apricots, scallions, fresh juice from an orange, extra virgin olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper. The couscous complimented the chicken tagine perfectly!
The specially prepared lemons brought out the flavor in the stew and the chicken. The couscous made an excellent paring with the juicy, flavored seasoned chicken covered in the juices from the stew.
I’m sure if Rick from Casablanca tasted my meal, he’d say, “Cook it again, Paz.”
Paz 
Chicken tagine with green olives and preserved lemons
Spaghetti with Seafood Tunisian Style
October 8, 2005 | Filed Under Pasta, Seafood, African Cuisine | Leave a Comment
Ya Rayi Our Rai is a blog by Farid Zadi with different contributors. It, along with his second blog Algerian Cuisine features enticing North African recipes.
Recently, I tried a recipe for Spaghetti with Seafood Tunisian Style by Anis Toumis. I’m happy to write that I did a decent job.
The ingredients include spaghetti, shrimp, cuttle fish, clams, tomatoes, green chilis, tomato paste, saffron, onions, garlic and a choice of parsley or cilantro.
I once made the comment about not being able to cook until I had all the ingredients that the recipe called for and Anis replied, “Think like a North African when you’re preparing North African dishes. We do not worry about [what] we do not have. We take care with what we do have.”
Well, this was the perfect time for me to follow Anis’ advice, as I didn’t have all the ingredients. With the Spaghetti with Seafood Tunisian Style recipe, I made a few ingredient substitutions and in some cases, omissions.
I don’t know what cuttle fish is and couldn’t find it. I meant to substitute it with another type of fish, but forgot to buy the fish and ended up leaving it out of my recipe, altogether. In any event, I was satisfied to include shrimp and clams alone in the meal.
I couldn’t find green chilis and ended up using cayenne pepper. I didn’t have anymore saffron because I’d used it, earlier, for my paella recipe. As a result, I substituted it with tumeric, instead.
The ingredients also include tabil spice mix – a blend of coriander, caraway, garlic and cayenne pepper. I couldn’t find caraway in the store. So, I left it out. What is caraway, anyway? I have to look it up and see what it looks like.
Following the instructions, I made my spaghetti (Angel Hair pasta) in a separate pot, and made the sauce in another. I sautéed the onions, which took a shorter time than the instructions to turn golden, and added the tomato paste, tomatoes, and spices. Then I added the shrimp and clams. In a short time my meal was prepared.
Angel Hair pasta
Onions, garlic, tomato paste, spices
My only problem was that none of the clams opened, indicating that they weren’t good. I ended up discarding them, unfortunately. As a result, my seafood ingredient was reduced to a list of one – the shrimps.
Fresh tomatoes, shrimp and clams (which never opened)
However, this did not take away from the success of my dish. I garnished it with cilantro and it tasted delicious. Best of all, I liked the spices, which I think made the difference in the recipe.
This is a meal that I plan on making again. Perhaps, the next time around, I’ll find all the ingredients and my clams will open up. If not, that’s okay, too. It’s good to think like a North African when preparing North African dishes.
Paz
White Fish with Lemon Vinaigrette
October 5, 2005 | Filed Under Seafood | Leave a Comment
Last night, I made a fish dish from Giada’s show, Everyday Italian — Tilapia fish, covered with cannellini beans, mixed with radicchio and fish broth; lemon vinaigrette drizzeled over the talapia.
The vinaigrette consisted of fresh lemon juice, Italian parsley leaves, garlic, finely grated lemon zest, extra virgin oil, salt and pepper – just the right finishing touch.
The tilapia fish was tasty and flaky. The cannellini beans, soft and melted in my mouth.
Everything about this dish was perfect. Well almost.
The radicchio tasted bitter. Very bitter. Is that the way radicchio is supposed to taste or was it spoiled? Yuck!
I liked the dish and tried again. This time, I used a different kind of beans (I don’t remember which) since I didn’t have cannellini available. Unfortunately, I had the same problem with the radicchio. Again, it tasted bitter — so bitter that it was inedible. I will try the recipe again, but I will not use radicchio. It’s official. I do not like it radicchio.
Paz
White Fish with Lemon Vinaigrette
8 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 shallots, thinly sliced
1 large head radicchio (about 12 ounces), coarsely chopped
1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1/3 cup fish broth
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 (5 to 6-ounce) whitefish fillets, such as tilapia
All-purpose flour, for dredging
Lemon Vinaigrette, recipe follows
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and saute until tender, about 2 minutes. Add the radicchio and saute until wilted, about 5 minutes. Add the beans and broth, and cook until the beans are heated through, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Season the radicchio mixture, to taste, with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a 14-inch (or 2 smaller) nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the fillets with salt and pepper. Dredge the fillets in flour to coat completely. Shake off the excess flour and fry 3 fillets in each pan until they are golden brown and just cooked through, about 3 minutes per side.
Spoon the radicchio mixture over the center of the plates. Top with the fillets. Drizzle the vinaigrette over and serve immediately.
Lemon Vinaigrette:
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup lightly packed fresh Italian parsley leaves
2 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Blend the lemon juice, parsley, garlic, lemon zest, salt, and pepper in a blender. With the machine running, gradually blend in the oil. Season the vinaigrette, to taste, with more salt and pepper.
Cantaloupe Salad
October 4, 2005 | Filed Under Salads | Leave a Comment
Here’s a special salad from Dave Lieberman’s cooking show — Cantaloupe, drizzled with honey, juices from grated ginger and garnished with freshly torn mint to cool the tastebuds and body. You have to try this just once!
Paz
Cantaloupe Salad
½ cantaloupe, sliced into wedges
1 Tbs Honey
1 piece fresh ginger (1 inch), peeled and finely grated into a small bowl
Small handful fresh mint, leaves torn
Arrange slices of cantaloupe on a serving platter; drizzle the honey over the fruit; drizzle the juice of one piece freshly peeled, grated ginger over the cantaloupe; and top with freshly torn mint and serve.
Paz’s Ultimate Paella
October 2, 2005 | Filed Under Rice, Seafood, Spanish Cuisine | Leave a Comment
After watching Tyler Florence on his food show called Tyler’s Ultimate, I decided to go for it and try his Ultimate Paella recipe.
His food show is interesting. He picks a themed ingredient or food and travels around the world to find out the history of the food and how it’s made it that part of the world. Then he returns home, to the U.S., and makes the dish with his own spin on the recipe.
In the episode of The Ultimate Paella, Tyler first traveled to Spain to watch the preparation of authentic Valencia paella (Paella Valenciana). I found the main ingredients very different to what I’m used to eating – snails, rabbit, and something else I don’t remember. The man from Valencia said that the locals there don’t use seafood because they are farmers and use meats around them.
Next, Tyler went to Miami, Florida to watch two guys make their version of paella –Cuban style (Paella Cubana), in which they included chorizo sausage and lots of seafood.
Finally Tyler came home, to New York City, to make his version of paella, which he called The Ultimate Paella.
When I first made the paella, I mentioned it to my friend Nancy. She’s lived over 20 years in Spain and told me that paella is very much a traditional Sunday family meal in Spain. There are different varieties of paella. The best is made along the Eastern coast of Spain, from Valencia to Alicante, a rice-growing region.
She enjoys a paella mixto (mixed paella), which is made with chicken and seafood like shrimps, clams, mussels and calamari. Recently, she tried arroz negro (black rice), which she said is delicious. Apparently squid is a part of the ingredients and its ink gives the rice a black color. Interesting. I think I’d like to try it.
Nancy also told me that there is a type of paella, which consists mostly of vegetables, including green beans and “habas,” which are like lima beans. A more liquidly and soupy paella version, called “arroz caldoso” is very good, Nancy said. She and her husband have their favorite paella places, which they like to frequent. Sometimes a few scoops of paella are given to the patron when he or she has a beer or wine.
I can’t wait to try some paella in Spain, but until then I plan on making some at home. So far, I’ve made it twice.
My paella came out okay for a first timer. I enjoyed the taste of the clams, shrimp, chicken and chorizo sausage, but I had a problem with the way the rice cooked. The recipe calls for short-grained rice, but I used a long grain Jasmine rice because that’s what I had in the house. Nancy confirmed that it’s important to use short-grained rice for paella.
The more I cook, the more I discover that the proper pots and pans make a big difference in the outcome of the food. The first time I made the paella, I used a deep pot to make it and realized that the rice would have cooked better in a large paella pan or a wide shallow (none of which I had.).
When I visit Spain, I plan on buying a nice authentic paella pan, but in the meantime, I decided to buy one from Amazon.com. The second time I made my paella, I used the paella pan and I cooked with short-grained rice. While the pan has served its purpose for making paella, it is a cheap, but it will do for now.
Nevertheless, my paella tasted even better the second time around, and so I dedicate this post and my meal to my two friends in Spain — Nancy and Tattum.
Paz
THE ULTIMATE PAELLA
Spice Mix for chicken, recipe follows
1 (3-pound) frying chicken, cut into 10 pieces
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 Spanish chorizo sausages, thickly sliced
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 Spanish onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
Bunch flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped, reserve some for garnish
1 (15-ounce) can whole tomatoes, drained and hand-crushed
4 cups short grain Spanish rice
6 cups water, warm
Generous pinch saffron threads
1 dozen littleneck clams, scrubbed
1 pound jumbo shrimp, peeled and de-veined
2 lobster tails
1/2 cup sweet peas, frozen and thawed
Lemon wedges, for serving
Special equipment:
Large paella pan or wide shallow skillet
Rub the spice mix all over the chicken and marinate chicken for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
Heat oil in a paella pan over medium-high heat. Saute the chorizo until browned, remove and reserve. Add chicken skin-side down and brown on all sides, turning with tongs. Add salt and freshly ground pepper. Remove from pan and reserve.
In the same pan, make a sofrito by sauteing the onions, garlic, and parsley. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes on a medium heat. Then, add tomatoes and cook until the mixture caramelizes a bit and the flavors meld. Fold in the rice and stir-fry to coat the grains. Pour in water and simmer for 10 minutes, gently moving the pan around so the rice cooks evenly and absorbs the liquid. Add chicken, chorizo, and saffron. Add the clams and shrimp, tucking them into the rice. The shrimp will take about 8 minutes to cook. Give the paella a good shake and let it simmer, without stirring, until the rice is al dente, for about 15 minutes. During the last 5 minutes of cooking, when the rice is filling the pan, add the lobster tails. When the paella is cooked and the rice looks fluffy and moist, turn the heat up for 40 seconds until you can smell the rice toast at the bottom, then it’s perfect.
Cook’s note: The ideal paella has a toasted rice bottom called socarrat.
Remove from heat and rest for 5 minutes. Garnish with peas, parsley and lemon wedges.
Spice Mix for chicken:
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
2 teaspoons dried oregano
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Combine ingredients in a small bowl. Rub the spice mixture all over the chicken; marinate for 1 hour, covered
