Tonight's Menu

The mother-in-law is in town to help with the kid, so in order to maintain my good husband credentials in her eyes, I'm making dinner tonight. The theme is Moroccan:

Chicken with Almonds, Apricots & Raisins
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a tagine. Brown four pieces of chicken evenly, then move them to a plate. Put a chopped onion and two crushed cloves of garlic in the tagine, cook until softened, add a teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Add a large pinch of crushed saffron threads, 1/3 cup of blanched almonds, 2/3 cup dried apricots, 3 tablespoons of raisins and 2 1/2 cups chicken stock. Heat until the chicken stock starts to bubble, put the chicken back in, and cover tightly. Cook on low heat for an about an hour. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Rice with Tomatoes, Avocado & Black Olives
In a saucepan, saute a chopped onion and two crushed garlic cloves with two tablespoons olive oil, about one minute. Add 1 1/8 cup basmati rice and stir for two minutes. Add two cups vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Cover the pan and simmer gently about 12 minutes, or until the rice is tender.

In a separate frying pan, heat two tablespoons olive oil. Add one tomato, seeded and diced, 2 large green onions, chopped, 2 tablespoons chopped parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer about 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat and stir in 1/3 cup pitted black olives and one diced avocado.

Fluff up the rice with a fork and stir in the tomato mixture.

Carrot Salad with Cinnamon, Lemon & Honey
Put one pound of grated carrots and 1/3 cup raisins in a serving bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together 6 tablespoons olive oil, juice from one lemon, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 tablespoon honey, and salt and pepper to taste. Pour the dressing over the carrots and raisins. Scatter lightly toasted, sliced almonds over the carrots as a garnish, and serve.

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For Christmas the wife got me a tagine and a Moroccan recipe book. I've been having fun experimenting with it since, and it turns out Moroccan food is stunningly easy. My one complaint is that the recipe book seems to think my tagine is about twice as big as it really is, so I've spilled quite a bit. I either need a bigger tagine, or a crock pot with the tagine just as a decorative serving dish.