Moroccan Tagine with harissa

In my quest to make two vegetarian meals each week, I’ve been turning to Vegetarian food for friends by Jane Noraika, to make dishes Mr. Man will eat without missing meat. I highly recommend this cookbook, especially if you have vegetarian friends and are looking for great entertaining recipes.

Last week I made a fabulous Spanakopita with blue cheese, which we quickly devoured and found ourselves wishing for more—not because we were still hungry, but because they were so damn good. For the second meal, I again turned to Jane’s book to make Moroccan Tagine with harissa and Couscous Fritters. The tagine is a little more time consuming than I’d like for a week night, but since I’m home all day, I can afford to spend more time every once in a while. And I was thrilled to use the coriander seeds we harvested from the garden last spring.

I had a little difficulty with the couscous fritters—mine were not as pretty as the pictures (every recipe is accompanied by a beautiful photograph by William Lingwood)—coming out more fritter-like in shape than the beautiful rounded disks in the book, but they were still delicious. Mr. Man liked them so much that he ate all the leftovers the next day. I couldn’t find the harissa sauce at the supermarket and decided to proceed without it; truthfully, the tagine is so flavorful that I didn’t really miss it, although I bet it adds a great kick to the dish and would have been wonderful drizzled over the fritters. Jane suggests finding it in French or North African gourmet stores if you don’t have time to make your own.

Chickpea Tagine
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 white onion, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
2 teaspoons coriander seeds, lightly toasted in a dry skillet and ground
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 red serrano chile, seeded and finely chopped
3 cups canned chopped tomatoes, about 28 oz.
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 oz. dried apricots, soaked overnight, drained and sliced
1/4 cup raisins, soaked overnight, about 1 oz.
1/2 cup black olives, such as Nicoise or Kalamata, pitted, about 3 oz.
1 large baking potato, cut into wedges
8 oz. carrots, thickly sliced, about 2 cups
1/2 small green cabbage, cored, and thinly sliced
2 1/2 cups chickpeas, about 1 lb., soaked overnight, drained, and cooked for 1-1 1/2 hours until tender
a large bunch of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
a large bunch of cilantro, finely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Serves 4

*I did not soak either the apricots or the raisins overnight and they were tender and flavorful.
**I used a large can of chickpeas instead of soaking and cooking dry.

Heat half the oil in a large saucepan. Add the red and white onions, turmeric, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and chile and cook gently for 10 minutes until the onions are softened and translucent. Stir in the tomatoes and tomato paste and cook for 10 minutes. Add the apricots, raisins, olives, potato, and carrots. Continue cooking slowly for about 45 minutes, until the carrots are tender.

Heat the remaining oil in a wok or skillet, add the cabbage and stir-fry until just starting to soften. Add to the saucepan, then add the cooked chickpeas and bring to a boil. Stir in the parsley and cilantro and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Harissa Sauce
3 large fresh red chiles
1 garlic clove
2 teaspoons coriander seeds, lightly toasted in a dry skillet and ground
1 teaspoon cumin seeds, lights roasted in a dry skillet and ground
¼ cup olive oil
1 teaspoon tomato paste
a pinch of salt

Put the chiles in a dry skillet and cook over gentle heat, until the skins begin to blacken and blister. Remove from the heat, let cool, then remove the seeds.

Put the chiles, garlic, coriander, cumin, olive oil, tomato paste, and salt in a blender and process until smooth. Use to taste in this recipe, then keep the remainder for another occasion. (It will keep, sealed in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks).

Couscous Fritters
⅓ cup couscous, about 4 oz.
a bunch of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
a small handful of fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
4 oz. feta cheese, cut into small cubes
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds, lightly toasted in a dry skillet and ground
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 eggs, 1 lightly beaten
¼ cup all-purpose flour, plus extra to coat
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 cups bread crumbs, made with stale white bread
safflower oil, for sautéing

Put the couscous in a bowl and cover with 1 cup cold water. Let soak for 10 minutes, then fluff it up with a fork. Stir in the parsley, mint, feta, cumin, coriander, turmeric, lemon juice, olive oil, the whole egg, and the salt and pepper. Mix well, then stir in the flour. Shape into 12-14 balls and press slight flat.

Put the beaten egg, extra flour, and bread crumbs onto 3 separate plates. Dip the balls first in the egg, then the flour, then the bread crumbs. Pour ½ inch oil into a skillet and heat until cube of bread will turn golden in 1 minute. Add the fritters in small batches, spacing them well apart in the pan, and cook for 3-4 minutes until golden on both sides. Drain on paper towels and keep them warm in a low oven while you cook the remainder. Serve the fritters next to the tagine with harissa sauce sprinkled over the top.

Do These Feathers Make Me Look Fat?

My Ameraucana, Matilda, hasn’t laid an egg in over a week and she’s not broody. I was beginning to get worried, fearing she might be egg bound (even though she isn't showing any of the signs), when I noticed that her tail feathers are gone and that there are numerous feathers on the ground of the coop. Is there some aggression going on that I don't know about? I haven't witnessed any, and she doesn't seem to be fearful of the other hens. She is skittish though and won't let me touch her—Tilly is the one I can always count on to let me pick her up—and she's not "taking the position" or squatting when I approach her.

Seems my beautiful girl has begun her first molt. Chickens molt once a year and, unfortunately, most stop laying until the molt is almost complete. Winter doesn’t seem like a very good time to shed your feathers to me, but I trust the natural order of things. I will certainly miss her lovely blue eggs for the next 6 weeks or so.

I'll post more pictures as she goes through the process.

You can clearly see her missing tail feathers in comparison to the others girls

An Uninspired Cook

I know it’s been a while, but was surprised to see it’s been almost a month since I posted last. A lot has been happening: the holidays (how long can I use that as an excuse?), painting, trying to live within our new, reduced budget. I’m told “don’t spend anything!” Okay, I get it, we need to rethink how we, um… live.

One of the conditions to giving up my job was that we would eat out much, much less—quite a sacrifice as Atlanta has many wonderful farm-to-table restaurants—and I would cook much, much more. I’ve been doing fairly well in keeping up my end, having dinner ready most nights (what a domestic goddess I’ve become), but I’m uninspired. I need to make delicious, nutritious meals, with whole grains, healthy meats (at least two vegetarian meals a week), and fresh, seasonal, locally-grown produce. AND, in a relatively short amount of time; I don’t have hours to spend in the kitchen—I’ve become a fan of the crock pot, but there are only so many things you can cook that way. Add to that, that I’m an irregular grocery shopper, and you see my dilemma. Lucky for me, Mr. Man will eat just about anything; I’m the picky one.

I usually decide what I'm making for dinner in the morning based on what I have on hand. Thank god for the freezer full of beef. At around 5:00pm I can hear the girls calling from the chicken coop. They know that I’ll be on my way to the compost shortly, and I always give them whatever scraps they’ll eat—tonight its carrot peel, a little celery, and a little potato as I'm making Lentil Potato Soup with sausage. The recipe calls for chorizo, but I don’t have any so I'm using brats instead—fully cooking them before adding to the soup and throwing in a few handfuls of spinach during the last few minutes of cooking.


Note: While the overall flavor of the soup is good, the brats aren’t the right fit. It definitely needs a sausage with more spice to it. The addition of spinach was good, adding beautiful color and flavor to the soup. I'll definitely try this again, but will have to plan ahead to have chorizo on hand.

Cold Weather Chickens

The chickens seem to be tolerating the colder weather. They are as eager as ever to leave the coop in the mornings—especially if it has rained the night before. At night they huddle together on the perch sharing body heat, and puff out their feathers to create pockets of warm air and increase insulation. Last week when the temperature dropped into the 20’s their water fount froze but there was no notable difference in the hens’ behavior. Most mornings find them on the perch in the coop calling to be let out and that particular morning was no different. They didn’t seem to feel the cold at all.

The first question from visitors to the coop is often “what will you do with the chickens in the winter?” I’ve consulted a few books on the subject, the best being Fresh-Air Poultry Houses by Dr. Prince T. Woods, and, even though some authors suggest a heat lamp for the henhouse when temperatures are below freezing, the consensus seems to be that the hens can tolerate the cold pretty well, especially in a climate such as ours. Their down feathers provide great insulation, and the benefits from the fresh air outweigh the risk of exposure to the cold.

We’re actually more worried in the summer when temperature can soar into the high 90’s; chickens are much less tolerant of the heat than they are the cold. Our henhouse is very well ventilated with an open ceiling (except for the hardware cloth) and several ventilation holes on the sides. Of course, the coop is totally ventilated with only hardware cloth for walls and the hens have free access to the run everyday.

We are still getting 3-4 eggs daily from our 4 hens, so we don’t feel the need to extend their day by adding a light to the henhouse. We probably won’t install a heat lamp either as our days are rarely, if ever, below freezing, and we can always buy a heated poultry fount to keep them in fresh water.