Food | A Moroccan Thank You Meal {Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemon, Green Olives & Thyme}

We've had a lot of help with our house, and feel incredibly lucky to have such handy, and generous, friends and family.

I cooked up this Tagine as a Thank You to my Big Bro. To be honest, it's the very least I can do, he's been an absolute gem at Kitchen Fitting and saved us a small fortune.

Good job this little Tagine turned out to be very tasty indeed then!

I got this recipe from a book called Tagines & Couscous by Ghillie Basan. I contacted her Publisher Ryland, Peters & Small to see if I could share the recipe with you guys and I can, woop!

Here's what you'll need:

- 8-10 Chicken Thighs or 4 Whole Legs
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil plus a knob of Butter
- 2 Preserved Lemons (I used these ones), cut into strips
- 175g Pitted Green Olives
- 1-2 tsps of dried Thyme or Oregano
- Cous Cous or Quinoa to Serve

For the Marinade:

1 Onion, grated
3 Garlic cloves, crushed
25g fresh Ginger, peeled and grated
Small bunch of fresh Coriander, finely chopped
A pinch of Saffron threads
Freshly squeezed juice of 1 Lemon
3-4 tbsps Olive Oil
Sea Salt & freshly ground Black Pepper


Start by preparing your Marinade. Mix together all your ingredients in a bowl.

Place your Chicken in a shallow dish and rub the marinade into the skin. Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

When you're ready to cook, heat the olive oil and the butter in a heavy-based casserole.

Remove the chicken pieces from the marinade and brown them in the oil.

Pour in the leftover marinade, and add enough water to come half-way up the sides of the chicken pieces.

Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for about 45 minutes, turning the chicken from time to time.

Add the preserved lemons, olives and half the dried thyme to the tagine.

At this point the recipe says to cover and simmer for a further 15-20 minutes.

I transferred mine to an actual "tagine" and popped it in a pre-heated 180 degree oven to finish the cooking time. I think if you bothered to schlepp a Tagine all the way back from Marrakech you should probably use it.

Nope, not a bone of contention between Dan and I at all. Who would make their boyfriend a) haggle for said tagine b) realise you wanted to buy another tagine as a gift, and ask him to haggle some more and c) carry said tagines across a very hot and dusty souk back to our hotel, only to be very rarely used?? Nope not me, absolutely not.

Anyway, I digress....

However you decide to finish the cooking, when you're done season to taste with salt and pepper and sprinkle the remaining thyme over the top.

The recipe says to serve with Ghillie's Plain, Buttery Couscous, but I'm trying to be wheat and gluten free for the most part so I served ours with Quinoa and Spinach and a flourish of fresh coriander on top!

I can't say enough good things about this recipe. The chicken was so tender, it literally fell off the bone and the tagine itself tasted heavenly. I loved the freshness of the flavours and the combination was just perfection.

I think the Thank-You Tagine, went down well!

Please note that this is absolutely not a sponsored post. It's just a really great recipe from a fabulous book. I'm excited to try some more! x

Tagines and Couscous by Ghillie Basan is published by Ryland Peters & Small and is available from rylandpeters.com

Food | Cookie Love

Mmmmmm cookies......where do I start? What's not to love about a delicious, home-made, soft and chewy cookie?!

I cooked up a batch recently, and they are incredibly easy to make. Still warm from the oven and dunked in a glass of cold milk, and it's just one of the happiest, yummiest moments ever.

Before I weird you out and you fear that I'm turning into the actual cookie monster, here's how you get the cookie deliciousness in your life.

Find this recipe on-line here.

Beat together your sugar and butter in a bowl.

 Combine your eggs and vanilla essence, and add to the mixture. Stir.

In a separate bowl combine your dry ingredients, flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Mix into your wet ingredients.

And now comes the best bit - you add your chocolate! The recipe calls for 335g of plain chocolate chips. I went for the same volume of chocolate but couldn't stick with just plain....

......so I added white chocolate chips.....

.....and Smarties too. Oooopsy.

Here's what your delicious bowl of cookie dough looks like.

Before you eat all the unbaked cookie dough, drop a dessert spoon amount onto a non-stick baking tray and pop in a pre-heated oven (190 degrees) for 8-10 mins. Make sure you leave plenty of space around your cookies, these guys will spread out.

Cook in batches until all your mixture is gone, one way or another ; )

Aaaaaand, dunk!

Food | A Naughty Little Chocolate Brownie

Paul Hollywood has a lot to answer for, not only has he helped revive the baking fever that is sweeping our nation, but he is also responsible for the recipe for these rather naughty chocolate brownies.

When I get a brownie craving, nothing but the most chocolatey, cakey, gooey brownie will do, and more often that not I'm left wanting by anything shop bought. 

Luckily this time, I had all the ingredients to knock up a batch of Mr. Hollywood's Chocolate Brownies with Dried Cranberries. And they definitely did not disappoint. Easy to make and outrageously chocolatey, they verge on extremely naughty indeed.

First of all you melt your butter and chocolate over some simmering water.

Keep an eye on it! It doesn't take long before it resembles Willy Wonka's Chocolate River and makes you want to dive right in.

In a separate bowl, with an electric hand-held whisk, beat together your eggs and sugar until the mixture is pale and fluffy.

Next add your chocolate mixture to your eggs and sugar.

I love the marbling effect as you combine the two.

Sift in your flour, baking powder and cocoa powder. Gently fold in.

Then add your cranberries and nuts (I used roughly chopped pecans instead of walnuts). Fold in,

Pour your mixture in a lined baking tin. The recipe asks for a 20cm square tin but I didn't have one so used this rectangular one which was about 17.5cm x 26cm, it worked out great.

Pop your tin in a pre-heated 180C oven and bake for 25-30 minutes. You know it's done when it look like this, nicely crusted on top but still soft and gooey in the middle.

I'm going off on a tangent here but I love any recipe which means I get to use an electric hand-held whisk. This one is my Mum's original from the 70's. It's kind of heavy and clunky but works like a dream and I'm totally attached to it!

Retro and I love it.

Reminiscing over kitchen equipment from the 70's over, I sliced up my brownies and piled 'em high.

Finish with a wee dusting of icing sugar, if you wish.

Chocolate Heaven.

NB. My batch only yielded 12 not 16.... which means I probably should have sliced them smaller. However,  I'm a greedy little piglet and chose not to. C'est la vie.

Food | A Cheesy Dilemma

Whilst a four-tier cake made of cheese was lots of fun on Saturday, come today, we have a mountain of cheese to get through. As someone who hates wasting food (I once cried just emptying out the fridge), it's somewhat concerning.

I've already given away some cheesy goody-bags and someone mentioned freezing the rest but I'm not so keen on that idea. Maybe it's a throwback from my time in France but the French don't even like cheese to be kept chilled, let alone frozen (mon dieu!), and I can't help but feel they know a thing or two about cheese, non?

So, here's the plan. I'm going to be busy making a lot of cheese-based dishes!

I started last night with a simple Broccoli and Blue Cheese Soup. So far, so good. And then this evening I made this lovely looking Cheese, Leek and Tomato Tart.

I adapted this recipe.

You will need:

1 packet of ready-rolled short crust pastry
1 onion
1 large leek
A knob of butter
1 tbsp garlic olive oil
284ml pot of double cream
250g mixed cheese (I used cheddar, brie and barkham blue)
1 tomato
Sprinkling of thyme

A 23cm tart tin with a loose base. I got mine from TK Maxx for £5, and they had a big selection. I think when it comes to tarts/quiches etc. size matters, otherwise they don't set properly etc.

Preheat your oven to 180C (I have a fan oven).

First job is to prep your pastry case. I thought I was being clever buying pre-rolled pastry but when I got it out of the packet it wasn't quite big enough for the tin. Grab your closest wine bottle (or rolling pin) and roll it out a bit more so that you have enough pastry to hang over the side of the tin.

Next you need to bake your case "blind". Stick some greaseproof paper over your pastry and fill with baking beans, or you can use dried beans/lentils, anything to weigh it down a bit.

Pop it on a baking sheet (it means your not messing about with the loose base of your tart tin), and bake in the oven for 15 mins. Take out the paper and beans and then bake for a further 10 mins.

Voila!

Whilst your pastry case is cooking, slice your onion and leek into circles, and pop in a frying pan over a medium heat with the butter and garlic olive oil. Cook for 10 minutes until golden.

 Chop your cheese into small pieces and thinly slice your tomato. Whisk your eggs and cream together and season with salt and pepper.

Now it's time to layer up your filling! First the cheese...

....then the leek and onion mixture....

....before carefully pouring over your eggs and cream, and topping with sliced tomatoes.

Turn down the oven to 160C, give your tart a sprinkling of dried thyme for luck and bake in the oven for 40 minutes.

Serve with a glass of crisp, white wine and a spinach salad for a truly yummy summer supper.

My other cheese based plans involve the following:

- A cheese and caramelized red onion tart
- Chicken wings with a blue cheese dip
- Broad bean soup with goats cheese crostini
- Ploughman's lunch

Any other summer cheese recipe ideas for the barkham blue and brie greatly appreciated! x