Chicken tagine

I have issues with sweet things in hot savoury food. I don't like apple sauce with my pork and I definitely don't like pineapple on a pizza, it's just wrong. I think tagines are the exception to the rule, I've had some amazing lamb tagines with prunes and lovely ones with chicken and dried apricots. However, if I'm making my own I am still more likely to make one stuffed full of olives instead.

So this is a distinctly savoury chicken tagine, full of spices and lemon and the only bit of sweetness comes from a dollop of honey. Pretty much tailored exactly to my tastes.

This was made to serve four, or as we're having a friend over, three, and a couple of night shift break times next week. I'm sure it's totally normal to eat tagine at 2.30 am.

Ingredients (it looks a lot, but it's really easy):

Four chicken legs separated into thighs and drumsticks
a tablespoon of flour (seasoned with half a teaspoon of paprika and some salt and pepper)
Spices: a teaspoon of ground cumin, ½ teaspoon of turmeric, 4 cardamom pods (cracked with the back of a knife) a cinnamon stick
four cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
about three centimetres of fresh ginger,  peeled and grated
two onions, sliced
ten green pitted olives
a tin of chickpeas
a squidge of honey
a lemon
an aubergine chopped, quartered and sliced

First, put your seasoned flour in a freezer bag with your chicken pieces and give them a good shake. Heat up some oil in a pan, then brown it thoroughly all over in a very big pan, before putting it to one side.

Fry your onions for five minutes on a medium heat until they start to colour a little, then add your spices, garlic and ginger and fry for another few minutes before adding your aubergine, chickpeas and olives.

 Add the juice of the lemon and the zest...

A note on the lemon: all the recipes I read called for preserved lemons. I think that's a bit of a niche ingredient. I have a small kitchen, and don't have the space to keep lots of things like that. Instead, I used a potato peeler to take the zest off a normal unwaxed lemon in a couple of really big chunks then halved it and juiced it. It might not be authentic, but it worked for me.

Put your chicken back in the pan and add water... probably about three quarters of a pint. Cover it, turn the heat right down and leave to simmer for a good hour. It's very forgiving, you can leave it until you've had a gin and tonic and a bit of a catch up with a friend and it'll be grand. 

I served it with cous cous. Cook it according to the packet instructions. I then stirred through some toasted pine nuts and a big a slosh of extra virgin olive oil. More authentic would be toasted almonds. But I didn't have any.

We followed up with strawberries and cream, with a bit of dark chocolate grated over the top. Scottish strawberries. Awesome.

(A few things about the blog: I finally have a fancy new smartphone so have taken the pictures for this one using Instagram. What do you think? Everyone uses instagram these days, so I'm not sure if it's actually become a bit boring... still the food looks nice. Also, I've decided to write this one in a more conventional recipe type format than my usual ramblings. Feedback welcome.)

Monday roast.

The thing about shift work is that your weekend is not necessarily at the weekend. This week, my weekend falls on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. And, after a few days of sandwiches, leftovers etc. at work I want proper food.

So today I have slept in, mooched about, and made a roast. Well, it gave me something to do while the football's on.

Still, it would be over the top to do full on roast potatoes, roast veg and Yorkshire pudding. It's supposed to be June after all. So here it is; belly pork, cooked simply, with steamed greens and new potatoes.

I have done a belly pork blog before, but I really don't think you can go wrong with it as a cut of meat, and that was a much heavier wintry dish.

First: Get your butcher to score the skin of the meat, because it's a right faff to do it yourself. Pour some boiling water over the skin of the meat then dry it with some kitchen roll and leave it out to dry out for about twenty minutes, while you put your oven on to preheat to it's very very highest heat. 

Then season the underside, and rub lots of salt, pepper and thyme leaves into the skin, particularly in the scores. Now shove in the oven for half an hour, before turning the heat down to about 180 degrees. Leave it in there for an hour.

Boil your new potatoes in well salted water, and steam some asparagus, broccoli and spinach to go with it. Toss the veg in a little extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and plenty of salt and pepper.

To make a light gravy (jus? Or maybe a reduction?) Take the pork out of the oven and put it on one side to rest. Pour away all of the fat, then stick the pan over a high heat and add a small glass of white wine. Start scraping up the tasty bits from the bottom and let it simmer away the alcohol for a few minutes. Then add half a pint of vegetable stock. Turn the heat down and reduce for about five – ten minutes while the meat rests then serve. 

Must remember to take more than one picture of the finished dish for blog purposes.

Whilst making this I mostly listened to: Match commentary. 

Now if you don't mind, t'other half has taken a few days off to enjoy my non-weekend weekend with me, so we're off to the pub.