I had intended to publish this post a couple of days ago, but the last few days have been a bit rough, especially because one of our cats, Maya, who I’m looking after while my parents are away, has come down with pancreatitis and it took a while for us to finally come to that conclusion. Anyway, I’m glad to finally get back to what I like doing – cooking and writing. Around three weeks prior to cooking this recipe, I had prepared some preserved lemons (I will post the instructions for doing this) and was awaiting the outcome. To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure if I had ever actually had preserved lemons before, at least not intentionally, and I was intrigued about their texture and the impact they would have upon a dish.
So I searched for a recipe which not only included preserved lemons, but actually celebrated them and made them a predominant part of the recipe. Many recipes use only small amounts of preserved lemon rind in their recipes, or even use them as garnish on dishes such as Moussaka. This dish, which I found in Jamie Oliver’s Jamie Does..., one of the series of cookbooks that came with the Daily Telegraph recently, seemed the perfect recipe to cook, as not only did I want a dish that used preserved lemons as a primary ingredient, but I was also quite eager to cook a Moroccan dish. The recipe includes up to 3 whole preserved lemons, but I only used 2 because I didn’t want to go overboard on my first time with this ingredient. It was quite interesting dicing up the lemons in preparation for cooking – the flesh of the lemon was almost jelly-like and seemed translucent, and the rind was so wonderfully soft and tender.
Unfortunately I don’t have a tagine, but you can actually substitute a tagine with a heavy-based pot which is what I did and which proved to be adequate for the purposes of cooking this dish, although it would be interesting to cook the same dish using a tagine to see the difference, whether subtle or distinct. As for little tweaks on my own part, I didn’t actually use saffron, but rather a saffron substitute that provides the same effect, at least in terms of colour, and you can see from the photo that the substitute also provides that beautiful, rich yellow that comes from saffron. As I was slicing up the fennel, I was wondering whether it would impact upon my enjoyment of the dish. It’s the first time that I’ve used fennel in my own cooking, and I noticed the distinct aniseed scent which I’m absolutely no fan of. As it turned out, the chicken was beautiful and tender, but I must admit that I just wasn't a fan of the flavours coming out of the recipe. I think the combination of the preserved lemon, the fennel and the olives (which I usually like) provided for too tart a taste for my palate, whereas Asian cuisine, my favourite type of food, generally is sweeter. I’m sure people who prefer less sweetness in their food would love this recipe. Nevertheless, I’m going to cook plenty more Moroccan and North African recipes, and this was just part of my exploration of ingredients and cuisines that I’ve never cooked.
Recipe (serves 4):
1 whole chicken, divided into 4 pieces
Olive oil
1-2 large bulbs of fennel
2 onions, peeled and roughly chopped
Small bunch of fresh coriander
2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
2-3 preserved lemons, deseeded & chopped
80g black and green olives, stoned
A good pinch of saffron
500ml hot chicken stock
Couscous
Spice rub
1 heaped tsp coriander seeds, bashed up
1 tsp ground cumin
1 heaped tsp ground ginger
2 tbs olive oil
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
Mix all the spice rub ingredients together in a small bowl. Put the chicken pieces in a large bowl, massage them with the spice rub then cover with cling film and put into the fridge to marinate for a couple of hours or, even better, overnight.
Heat a generous lug of olive oil in a tagine or casserole-type pan and fry the chicken pieces over a medium heat, skin side down first, for about 5-10 mins or until golden brown.
While the chicken fries, chop each fennel bulb into 8 wedges and add these to the pan along with the onions, coriander stalks and garlic. Stir well and fry for a couple more minutes, then mix in the preserved lemons, olives and saffron. Pour in the hot stock, give everything a good stir, then cover with a lid or foil and simmer on a low heat for 1½ hours, or until the meat starts to fall away from the bone. Halfway through, have a check and give it a good stir. Add a splash of water if it looks dry.
After 1½ hours, stir gently. If it’s still a bit liquidy, leave it to thicken with the lid off for a bit more. Sprinkle with coriander leaves, and serve with a large bowl of steaming couscous.
Category: Moroccan
Source: “Jamie Does...” by Jamie Oliver
Rating: Two stars
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