Tagine cooking demo

I've been a bit busy and forgot to post this from Saturday's cooking demonstration at D.A. Niels.  Both are so yummy.  The chicken recipe is adapted from Paula Wolfert's The Food of Morocco as I used apricots instead of prunes.  Such a great cookbook.  An invaluable resource, actually.

The eggs in the second dish are placed whole, on top of the vegetables in the tagine.  They cook whole and are remarkably creamy in texture and not rubbery. 

Chicken Tajine with Apricots and almonds

1 chicken – (3 1/2 lbs) (or, your favourite pieces)
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 cup cut dried apricots
1-2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 large yellow onions, halved and thinly sliced lengthwise
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground ginger
1 cup whole blanched almonds
vegetable oil for frying

Rub all the chicken pieces with salt, pepper and cumin. Let stand for one hour.
Place onions in a wide shallow casserole with turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste, 1/4 cup water, cover and steam for 15 minutes.

Brown the almonds in 4-5 tbs oil in a large skillet and drain on paper towels. Brown the chicken evenly on all sides in the oil and transfer to the steamed onions. Cover with parchment paper and cook in tajine on the lowest heat for about 1 1/4 hours.

Discard the parchment paper. Add the apricots and bring to a gentle boil. Remove from the heat. Serve with almonds sprinkled on top.

Zucchini Tajine with whole eggs

2 onions, thinly sliced

4 medium zucchini, sliced on the bias

1 medium sweet potato, cubed

1 tbs good tomato paste

2 tbs Ras el Hanout

salt, to taste

splash rose water or orange blossom water

4-8 whole eggs

olive oil

Place all ingredients except for eggs mixed together in a tagine with ½ cup water.  Place whole eggs on top of vegetables.  Slowly simmer until zucchini is soft, about 20-30 minutes.  Remove egg and shell and place on plate of zucchini for service.

Enjoy!

Optional, green olives, black olives,