Moroccan Chicken

The original recipe does this in a tagine, with a whole chicken. For ease of eating I boned and portioned the chicken prior to marinating/cooking, but next time will only use thigh meat. The breasts get too dry being cooked for so long. The rest is good.

Marinate your chicken in a puree of:

• turmeric
• ginger
• cumin
• coriander
• garlic
• onion 
• preserved lemon 

(Don't bother to salt it as the lemons will do the job)

Add

• pureed onion and chicken liver. 
• more chopped onion
• rough diced aubergine
• some chicken stock. 

Cook in a moderate oven for at least an hour. Serve with cardamom rice and Moorish Crunch Salad. The pic is not mine, as you can guess by the fact that the bird is whole. Mine is eaten. Oh and the original recipe had olives in it but I gave up on that one for the kids.

Moorish Crunch Salad

Nice one to have with the Moroccan chicken (next post).

Slice up:

• Apples 
• Carrots 
• Radishes (I couldn't find them so used 'crunchy combo' sprouting beans, was good) 

Add and toss with:

• raisins
• parsley and mint
• tahini and sherry dressing 

Sprinkle with:

• Sesame seeds. 

The pic is from the original cutting (from the 90s) but I'll take one of my own next time I make it. Hopefully. Everyone liked this one... apart from Flash who wouldn't get past the notion of having apple in a salad.

Moroccan Lamb Filo Parcels

Three layers each of filo pastry, with cooked Moroccan-style lamb mince, fried with onion and pine nuts inside. Served with a mixed salad and a yoghurt and mint sauce.

This was the first time I made this (no pics yet) and I think it needs work. The original recipe said to add the onions in AFTER the mince, which I don't think went well at all. The spices need to be quite heavy, and I think a vegetable component like aubergine/spinach inside will do well to break up the heaviness of the lamb. I am thinking of making the filling fatter, and possibly putting in a small layer of Panko at the bottom, as in a strudle, to soak up excess fat.

Further updates when tried.