North African Chicken Couscous

From 177milk Street

I modified some of the ingredients and scaled it back to a large single serving or for 2 serving dish.

• Curry powder mix in place of ground tumeric
• White onion instead of red onion
• Dried Japanese chili pods instead of Jalapenos
• Sambal instead of Harissa

This technic allows you to steam the couscous  while the meal is cooking.

Didn’t get any pictures of the process here’s the result

Very tasty meal.

 

Chicken Curry

From Food 52 Meera Sodha’s Mum’s Chicken Curry

• A spicy chicken dish , I scaled the recipe in half and used 2 chicken thighs , bone in with the skin.
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter and 1/2 tablespoon oil (canola, olive etc.)
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 , 1 and 3/4 inch cinnamon stick
• 1 large onion finely diced
• 1, 1 and 1/4 inch ginger root, peeled and grated
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 fresh chilis, green
• salt
• 3 or 4  oz strained tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoon yogurt, plain whole milk
• 1 lb or so chicken, the thighs are had were large so two we close to 1 lb
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons ground almonds
• 1 teaspoon garam masala

No surprises here, this is  similar to a braised dish and no marination or browning of the chicken is required. As always if you measure and prep the ingredients, the recipe goes easy.

I found these plastic sheets for cutting at the local Job lot, inexpensive and easy to clean plus the diced ingredients can be funnelled right into the pan. Cumin seeds are on the order list, none in stock so I used ground cumin for the saute step.

So in the butter and oil sputter the cumin seeds and cinnamon. Add all the onion and cook till very golden, low medium heat, 10 to 12 minutes. Pound up the chilis and ginger and garlic in a pestle to a course paste, very fragrant ! Add it to the onion mixture. cook for additional 2 minutes.

Now add the paste just cook the following a few minutes layering the ingredients.

Now go with the tomato paste , ground cumin, turmeric, salt to preference and whisk in the yoghurt, cook till heated through.  Add the chicken.

Lid the pan and slow simmer about 30 minutes or until the chicken pieces are done. Finish with the final addition of the ground nuts and garam masala. Flat breads or rice is a good side.

Tomato is the dominate flavor with a spicy finish not too hot. The curry is rather thick and towards the end of the recipe before the chicken was added, I added additional water. Its may be due to the fact or store bought yogurt is thick with no liquid.

I would probably go with more ginger and garlic, but with these many individual flavors additions, it also depends on the quality and freshness of the spices and herbs utilized that could affect the ratio and your preferences.

sweet and sour sauce

What could be easier to make, with a simply recipe for a favorite dish.

(from a Kitchen Aid mixer cook book)

in a sauce pan, add,

1/3 cup juice, pineapple or other sweet juice

1/3 cup vinegar, plain white works good, or apple cider etc.

1/3 cup catsup (tomato)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (I use slivered garlic to taste)

bring to a boil and…

in a small bowl or mug, a 1/3 cup cold water and  mix into a paste 2 tablespoons corn starch

add the cornstarch paste to the pan cook until thick and translucent.

sweet & sour sauce

Aa you can see this is just a basic recipe, add what you like kick it up with some heat (hot pepper flakes etc.

that was just the sauce, we are not done yet !

the rice is easy 5-10-15 !

boil rice in double amount of water/rice with a bit of salt. (plain white rice, other varieties may require different timings)

BOIL : uncovered for 5 MINUTES

SIMMER : covered for 10 MINUTES

REST: covered for 15 MINUTES

sounds like a long time, but it’s a fool proof method, other using a stepped power level method in a microwave.

boiling rice 5 minutes

simmer covered 10 minutes

rest, off heat, covered 15 minutes

fluff up the rice

plate up the rice

add the beef and fresh fruit…

add the sweet and sour sauce

enjoy