A new kitchen and Moroccan-ish chicken

I'd like to make the case against the shared kitchen-living room. They're rubbish. We've just spent a year and a half with one, and it has really affected how adventurous I've been with my cooking, how often we have people round, and how often this gets updated. The TV was always on, there wasn't enough space, the dining table was shoved in a corner, and it just doesn't work for someone who loves cooking.

Thankfully, now we have moved. Now we have a slightly dark, small kitchen, but it has a GAS HOB, a door I can close to have my own space, and a radio with 6music constantly on. It's bloody brilliant. I have already spent lots of time in there pottering away, while Joe has the other room to himself to watch films/play his playstation and we're both happy. Sad isn't it?

So, on to the food. We had some friends round last night for some eating, drinking, and catching up. I wanted to make something that wouldn't be too much faff, wouldn't have me stuck in the kitchen while they were here and was a little bit different. So I decided to make up a recipe for Moroccan chicken, and make some houmous and baba ganoush to go with it. It was a success – I'd bought about four extra pieces of chicken thinking it might be nice in a sandwich the next day and it was all eaten.

I apologise for the terrible photos. Frankly, I'd been drinking.

As usual, I'm not one for writing up other peoples recipes, so here are a couple of links for the houmous and baba ganoush recipes I used. I made these in the morning before my friends arrived.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2029/homemade-houmous – I'd use slightly less tahini than this recipe suggests

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/sep/25/how-to-make-perfect-baba-ganoush (by the way, this column is brilliant, you should read it)

Making baba ganoush also means I got to do this: (which is fun)

Moroccan-ish Chicken:

(serves four very hungry/greedy people)

Ingredients:

12 chicken drumsticks and thighs, ideally on the bone and with skin, but 

we had a bit of a mixture

1 x preserved lemon (or two, if they're little)

2 big tablespoons harissa

2 tablespoons honey

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

a good slug of olive oil

teaspoon of cumin

salt and pepper

- To prepare the preserved lemon, scoop out the flesh from inside into a big bowl (big enough for all your chicken). Slice the rind and add that too.

- Mix everything else except the chicken together, adding enough oil to make sure it's not too thick – it should be the consistency of double cream

- Put the chicken in and mix well. Cover it in cling film and leave it in the fridge for a few hours.

- When you're ready to cook, preheat your oven to 180 degrees, and lay the chicken pieces out in one layer. I needed two trays. Pour over any remaining marinade. Cook for 30 – 40 minutes until the skin has blackened a bit and it's cooked through.

For something So easy, this was really tasty. Definitely worth doing. I think the marinade would probably work really well with a whole roast chicken too.

I served it with a load of olives, some steamed green beans, cous cous mixed with pomegranate seeds, and toasted pitta breads.

We then had brownies with raspberries and ice cream, so here's a picture of that too: