Za Recipes

Well, that certainly would never happen if Nanny was still alive. She shunned all things not Italian unless it was Wonton Soup and Lo Mein. What can I say, she liked to stay true to her roots. I on the other hand am a little more adventurous. A year ago I went to Marakesh, a Moroccan restaurant for the first time. I really enjoyed it, the flavors were so different and the colors so vibrant. I thought about going back many times. Unfortunately, I am the only one in this two person household who had a desire to go back. I still wanted to get my fix so I searched high and low for a recipe that resembled my meal at Marakesh. I found a recipe at a blog called A Weight Lifted: Healthy Weight Loss Blog for Women Tired of Dieting. I wasnt looking for a specifically healthy recipe but if its healthy then why not? Right?

I made some changes and additions to the recipe so it would be closer to the meal I had at Marakesh. I think I need to improve on it slightly so it fits my taste a little more. I used this recipe as a guide and made the mistake of using the cooking time that was recommended but I forgot (silly me) that I cut the chicken smaller than the recipe stated because that is how I remembered it. Obviously, if you cut the chicken smaller its going to cook faster. Duh! I know this but I wasnt paying attention. The great thing is that once everything is sliced and diced this doesnt take a long time to make. I would absolutely consider it for a weeknight meal again. In the future I will leave out the zucchini. I love this vegetable in pastas and soups but it just didnt seem to pick up the flavors. A little too bland for me but there was zucchini in my dish at the restaurant. I also dont think I would use diced tomatoes. Maybe some tomato paste and chicken broth. Usually when I use diced tomatoes in a sauce they get very sweet. This didnt happen and the spices just didnt work for me. That could just be because my palate is not used to this. It doesnt mean that it didnt belong there.

A Tagine is a special clay pot with a cone shaped cover that is used in Moroccan cooking. Stew type meals that are cooked in these pots (like the meal I made) are also called Tagines. Now I dont have a traditional Tagine but I used my Le Creuset and it worked wonderfully. Any heavy pot with a tight fitting cover should work.

You can see the original recipe here but I will post it with all my changes and the proper cooking times for how I made it.

Tagine of Moroccan Recipes and Couscous

Adapted from aweightlifted.blogs.com

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 dash cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup butternut squash, cut into 1- inch pieces
1/2 cup sweet potato, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/2 cups diced canned tomatoes
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup zucchini, cut in 1-inch pieces
3 tablespoons raisins
1 box Near East Couscous, any flavor you like, prepared as instruced on box


Directions:

Saute onions in oil until softened. Add garlic and all seasonings, stirring constantly for about 1 minute. Add carrots, sweet potato, butternut squash, tomatoes and enough water to cover. (Next time I will try using chicken broth and tomato paste or sauce instead.) Bring to a boil, cover and reduce to simmering. Let veggies cook for 10-15 minutes or until tender. Add chicken, raisins and zucchini, stir and cover. Let cook for about 5 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and zucchini is tender.

Meanwhile, cook couscous according to package directions.

Serve chicken and veggies on top of couscous.

Last week we brought in the last of our peppers - and by the last, I mean most of the harvest we got this year; about a bushel in all. We kept our peppers going so long by covering them with a hoop-house once the weather got cool. Since its starting to dip down below 5°C at night, we decided it was time to bring them in. They had reached a stage where they were keeping, but not growing or ripening any more.

Two of the peppers that did very well for us were Doe Hill, the little round yellow one, and Jimmy Nardello, the long red one in the picture above.


Doe Hill

Until a few years ago this pepper seemed practically unknown around here. Its an heirloom variety from the Doe Hill area of Virginia, grown there since before 1900. It looks like a small, squat yellow bell pepper, but it isnt. Its more in the family of tomato or apple peppers: small, thick-walled peppers named for their slightly flattened spherical shape. It tastes somewhat like a yellow bell pepper too, being sweet and mild yet with a rich strong flavour. Thats when its ripe. It can be eaten green, like a green bell pepper too. Everyone who tried this pepper this summer liked it very much. Me too! Since it isnt actually a bell pepper, I can eat it without getting the indigestion that bell peppers always give me. This is an exciting discovery for me!

Their one flaw, that I can see, is a tendency to go from golden perfection to a sack of mush overnight. Dont pick them until you need them, if you can help it, and watch them carefully if you cant.

The plants are quite compact, not getting much above 24" in height, and they produce a lot of peppers. They start early, about 60 to 65 days from planting out, and keep going all season, especially if you keep them picked. As all other peppers in this climate, they must be started indoors at the end of February or beginning of March, and planted out in late May once the soil warms up. They are said to be disease resistant. We had no disease problems this year, so I cant comment. I will definitely grow these again next year, and more of them!

Jimmy Nardello:

Like Doe Hill, Jimmy Nardello peppers are an heirloom variety, although better documented. Seeds were brought to Connecticut by Angela Nardiello in 1887 from the town of Ruoti, east of Naples in Italy. Theres a very good article about their history here. Her son, Jimmy Nardello, eventually passed seed on to Seed Savers Exchange. Like Doe Hill, theyve been becoming more and more popular as they get saved and passed around.

In looks they could hardly be more different. They are a long, skinny pepper, turning from a medium green to a strong red when ripe. Their walls are thin, allowing them to dry easily and cook quickly. They are less sweet and more "peppery" than the Doe Hills, but they are in no way hot. If you read the history above, and the comments, youll see mention that they can be fried directly from the dry state.

They are said to ripen in 75 to 85 days from planting out, but in my experience these are a fair bit later than the Doe Hills. The odd one will ripen earlier, but the majority of the peppers on the plant - and there will be lots - will not ripen until just before frost. I suspect that Im at about the northern limit of their tolerance. Height of the plants is a little taller than the Doe Hills; somewhere between 24" and 30". Both of these varieties could reasonably be grown in large pots. I have had some difficulty in getting the Jimmy Nardello to germinate, using seed from 2 different sources. I now plant about twice as many as I want, on the assumption that many wont come up. They will also be pretty slow. The Doe Hill seem much more reliable, although my experience with them is more limited.