A culinary trip to Morocco

I found a great book while I was wondering around my local library called Tagine: Spicy Stews from Morocco by Ghillie Basan. Since I had some chicken already at home, I checked the cupboards, picked up the remaining ingredients and started to get rolling.

There are a lot of tagines in this book--meat, fish, and chicken--as well as a few complementing side dishes.

I served this with plain couscous and a green salad as suggested. It was wonderful!

I decided to make the tagine listed on page 37: Spicy chicken tagine with apricots, rosemary and ginger.

NOTE: my alterations are noted in the recipe below.

2 tbsp olive oil with a pat of butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp dried rosemary
1 tbsp red pepper flakes
1.5 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 cinnamon stick
3 chicken leg quarters, cut into pieces (6 pieces of chicken)
3/4 cup dried apricots
2 tbsp honey
1 can (28 oz.) plum tomatoes with juice
sea salt and ground black pepper
small bunch of green basil leaves
buttery couscous

Heat the oil and butter in a tagine or heavy casserole dish (I used my cast iron skillet). Stir in onion, rosemary, ginger, red pepper flakes, and saute until onion begins to soften. Stir in the cinnamon stick.

Add chicken pieces and brown on both sides. Toss in apricots with the honey and stir in plum tomatoes with juice. (Add water if needed--cover the base of tagine and submerge apricots). Bring liquid to boil, then reduce heat. Cover with lid and cook gently for 35-40 minutes.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Shred the larger basil leaves and leave the small ones intact. Sprinkle them over the chicken and serve immediately.

Buttery couscous (from p.60 of same book)

1.5 cups couscous, rinsed and drained
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 3/4 cup warm water
2 tbsp olive oil
2 pats butter in small pieces

I put my couscous in a 2 quart glass dish with water and oil. Microwave on high with lid on for four minutes to boiling. Leave couscous sit for at least 10-15 minutes. Add butter to top and serve with tagine when complete.