Friday, October 15, 2010

Yellow





Lots of yellow going on today.. it first began with a bit of turmeric root I picked up at the local chinese supermarket.

Have been holding onto it for a while but couldn't quite figure out what to do with it other than throw it in some soup while I had a cold last week to hopefully extract some of benefits and help with a speedy recovery.

Here is a family favourite recipe I grew up with, to be perfectly honest I didn't enjoy it as a child, something about it was too sweet and I'm a savoury person all the way but now having grown up I can really appreciate it. Not exactly sure of the origins of the dish but it was a recipe that my fathers Iraqi cousin had taught my mother who has made it ever since and it's known as "Dajaj Maghrebi" to us "Moroccan Chicken" but I'm unsure of it's authenticity in Moroccan cuisine, never the less it is delicious!

- Started out by caramelizing some onions as you see below (note all the yellow leaves covering my deck this morning, beautiful! )




- To the onions I've added some raisins and a bit of broth to moisten, seasoning it and adding a bit of sugar. Setting aside this mixture on a plate.

- Turned the heat up in the pot and covered the bottom with a good amount of salt, and added the chicken pieces when it was hot. The chicken browned while I kept an eye on it flipping it once and then adding broth and turmeric root, salt, black pepper and letting it simmer with the lid on.

*** If you don't have turmeric use ground turmeric spice, it is what we traditionally use anyway but since I had the root on hand I thought I'd give it a try. Also if you're using the root wear gloves when cutting/peeling because it stains the fingers badly.

- Prepared a baking dish and placed the pieces of chicken in a flat layer then spooned the delicious onion mixture on top of the pieces and poured in some broth. Add some finely minced preserved lemon to this if you wish, I did.

- Baked this on 375 until chicken was fully cooked, throughout the baking process you can baste it with the broth on the bottom.

- Once it was out of the oven I threw a bit of butter cubes into the small amount of sauce/broth in the bottom and mixed it until it was glossy then spooned the pieces of chicken over a bed of couscous.

As you see above the way we served it was without the parsley but I decided to garnish it with some parsley too and I found the flavours very complementary!

What a great Autumn dish!

7 comments:

Jennifer said...

I make something very similar and it is one of my favorite dishes! Your's looks amazing!

Anonymous said...

This is one of my favorite tagines, quicker to cook than most, tasty and few ingredients. I had it a couple times in Morocco and have made it at home too. Patti

tammy said...

Does it tell anywhere how much chicken you use? I am unable to find it. Also, I cannot find amounts of any of the ingredients. May I hear from you? Thank you. Tammy

tammy said...

I can't find any amounts for the chicken or the ingredients. What am I missing? Thank you.

Amatullah said...

Tammy,you can use whatever part of the chicken you prefer. If you want to make legs (whole, bone in, then that's nice and tasty) Caramelize a couple of onions, so slice thinly and cook in oil on medium low until it looks like the picture, then add a handful of raisins (4 large onions, 1/4 cup raisins)
A dash of salt, turmeric and a bit of stock. Then bake it all after browning the chicken as instructed and layering it in a pan with onion/raisin mixture on top.

tammy said...

The first time I use a recipe I like to have amounts to go by. Then I can adjust as needed. I wasn't worried about which parts of the chicken to use, but mainly the amounts to use for the ingredients. 1/4 tsp of turmeric? 1/2 tsp of turmeric. Ok, you say now a dash. I will try that. Thank you for taking the time to respond. Tammy

Amatullah said...

Tammy, 1/2 tsp is good.