Magical Melting Moroccan Chickpea and Chicken Tagine

'Come to my door at any hour, 

Even if your eyes

Are frightened by my light. 

My heart and arms are open

And need no rest -

They will always welcome you

Come in my dear - from that harsh world'

Hafiz

Got guests? If your a chickpea lover and want to try something new and delicious. exotic and extremely tasty... (and also have no will to chop any vegetables other than perhaps one or two onions)... then check this delicious dish out. Simple. tasty. Moroccan. (supposedly). I loved it. I hope you will to!

For me there is nothing more special than having guests at home. Some how, all of that love, and gentleness, the effort, and energy, the chitter chatter and laughter, the getting to know each other and bonding with those that you have loved for so long already - it warms my soul. 

There's a beauty in it; looking across the table at smaller conversations that erupt effortlessly around the aromas and vibrations of the background music, the reflections on the walls of the candle's lit (there are always candles) - knowing that we all look deeper into each other and leave the catastrophic disarray of dishes behind. Every step of preparation... however rushed or premeditated.. comes together... it is beautiful.. there are blessings.. and I can feel them. Sometimes its like the universe conspired to make them happen. Old friends. New friends. Special friends. We can be soft with one another here. Hugs, embraces, smiles, your guard is down. And the food, well the food, just brings it all together.  

My only visit to Morocco, when I was 16 included a visit to Chefchaouen where the streets and houses are all painted blue, the markets are bustling with hustlers and the restaurants and tea shops are overflowing with laughter, warmth and exotic colours that radiate through their guests and transport them to a place where they are not just any guest... they are the guest of honor; free from worries, and tomorrow's laundry and filled with dreams and possibilities. 

So, back to my reality ;) On this one occasion we had guests that I had not yet met, and so had no clue what they would like. But who wouldn't like Morrocco? Everyone, in their own way likes to be a guest of honour, candles, spices (not too hot though)... So. I had chickpeas.. I had bulgur (also known as burgul).. chicken, and not much else! After having had the amazing hummus recipe, I was hungry to try out some new chickpea recipes and explore their flavour. After much searching (because I don't have couscous and still don't know how to cook it.. although I promise I will learn).. I found this one by Mark Bittman. The interesting combination of dates, bulgur chicken and my newfound love spice cumin, all rolled into one.. I had to try it...

The only thing I didn't do was read the recipe properly, so when I served my guests their plates... I realised that there were hardly any chickpeas left! (there is the possibility that I kind of freaked out when preparing, so I may have cooked it for an hour or so longer than I should have...) So I wasn't really sure how to make them believe that this is a chickpea Tagine! 'well, whatever it is.... it's delicious!' was the response! Hence the name.. the Magicaly Melting Chickpea ;)

The dish is delicious. Both the chicken and the chickpeas have to be melt in your mouth to make this dish good, so if you find the chickpeas crunchy or the chicken a little tough... my advice is to bung it all in the pressure cooker a little longer while you amuse your guests with some mint tea and chitter chatter :) 

Sultana's Tips!

 My adaptations to the recipe as I find it the easiest way to remember that; we don't always have everything at hand, everything can be done slightly differently, and there are some things, that just can never be left out

My advise with this recipe would be to cook the chickpeas put the chickpeas for the whole hour an a half - 2 hours... not 3 hours like I did! if you would like them to keep their shape.. other wise.. expect absolutely delicious Magically Melting Chickpea Tagine with Chicken and bulgur Rice.. 

You may also choose to cook the Bulgur rice separately... I have tried both, and equally as delicious. I find that Bulgur has a very delicate taste anyway which is a nice contrast to the stew. I have also had this recipe with Bulgur at all... just with home made bread and home made yoghurt balls.. also extremely delicious!

So.. this recipe called for thighs... I did not have thighs.. I had little wings and random bits of chicken. I have to say it made everything a little more hands on! (Its quite difficult to be dainty with a chicken wing).. so.. think carefully before choosing your parts ;)

Finally, I would say that I got very comfortable with this recipe too early on.. on my second try, I started experimenting with left over roast vegetables.. chucking them in with the chickpeas.. swapping real tomatoes for tomatoe puree when desperate etc... I would say... don't do that.. at least not at the beginning.. (Its a lesson for myself really!) this recipe is perfect because of the balance everything has.. don't try and change it!

Without further - a do ....

Happy Cooking!

The Magical Melting Moroccan Chickpea and Chicken Tagine

2 cups cooked or canned chickpeas, drained, with liquid reserved

2 cups bean-cooking liquid, stock, or water, or more as needed

Salt and black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 bone-in chicken thighs

1 large onion, chopped

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon minced ginger (powder is fine)

1 tablespoon cumin

11⁄2 teaspoons coriander

11⁄2 teaspoons cinnamon

1⁄2 cup raisins, chopped dates, or currants

1 cup chopped tomatoes (canned are fine; include their juice)

1⁄2 cup bulgur

1⁄2 cup chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

If you have dried chickpeas start here:


1. Put 125g Chickpeas in a bowl and cover with 1 1/2 inch water, leave to rest overnight
2. In the morning, put the chickpeas, Bay leaves and 1 crushed garlic in a pan. For every cup of chickpeas, add 1 cup of water. Boil for 1 1/2 hours in a normal pan, or for 45 minutes in a pressure cooker on full heat until chickpeas are tender

If your chick pea's are cooked or tinned start here:

3.  Put the chickpeas and the liquid in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Adjust the heat so the mixture barely bubbles.

4. Meanwhile, put the oil in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and add it to the skillet. Cook, turning and rotating as necessary, until it’s brown on both sides, 10 to 15 minutes. 

5. Add the chicken to the pot of beans.

6. Turn the heat down to medium in the frying pan, leaving in the fat...  and add the onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft, 5 to 10 minutes. 

7. Add the garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, raisins, and tomato; cook and stir just long enough to loosen any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. 

8. Transfer the mixture to the chick peas and adjust the heat so the mixture returns to a gentle bubble.

9. Cover the pot and cook, checking occasionally to make sure the mixture is bubbling gently, for 20 to 30 minutes. 

10. Stir the bulgur into the bottom of the pot; it should be covered with about 1 inch of liquid. If not, add more water. 

11. Cover and cook until the chicken is tender and the bulgur is done, another 10 to 15 minutes. 

12. Serve each chicken thigh  (or as many wings as you want) with a big spoonful of the chickpea mixture and garnish with a selection of parsley, home-made yoghurt balls, home-made crusty bread with oregano.

Beware... Some... if not all of your chickpeas will Magically Melt and disappear!

Serve it up with Love!

Introduction to being a Dervish: Lentil Soup

'Boil me some more 

Hit me with the skimming spoon 

I can't do this myself!' 

Rumi

To deny Lentils their rightful place.. could let us enter a theological debate akin to the dispute of sibling rivalry between Jacob and Esau (Genesis 25:34).... I mean.. lentils pre-date pottery! They solve the entire chicken egg situation...   (which I will blog about later.. but just to highlight that Chickens natural habitat is the Jungle. Very few places on earth are Jungle. and More recently, very few Jungles have chickens)... I digress!! For some, lentils are symbolic for the cyclical nature of life, we could call this Karma, for others, lentils are stable food that provide the body with just what it needs... 

There isn't a food more Dervish than Lentils.... full of goodness and simplicity.... and maybe its the reason that Esau was able to bring himself to sit, and eat from Jacob's Lentil Stew..

Even in the Quran (2:61) the people of Moses demanded that Moses call upon his Lord 'to bring forth for us from the earth its green herbs and its cucumbers and its garlic and its lentils and its onions'

'فَادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ يُخْرِجْ لَنَا مِمَّا تُنبِتُ الأَرْضُ مِن بَقْلِهَا وَقِثَّآئِهَا وَفُومِهَا وَعَدَسِهَا وَبَصَلِهَا'

So.. really... Lentils are kind of epic.... and have been in demand for some time now! Even the Great Saint and spiritual Master, Sheikh Nazim Al Haqqani, was ordered into seclusion and he recounted that 'I was in seclusion for forty days ... doing sulook, spiritual discipline... Everyday that one brought me what I needed. He brought bread with lentil soup'  (Sheikh Nazim, 2011). 

Pretty much everywhere I have travelled, Lentil Soup has existed, call it Dahl, lentejas, Paripu, Linsen.. and actually I remember one year.... growing up, as a lesson to us all (huge family with lots of siblings) my parents fed us Lentils for 6 months straight. Partly due to financial reasons, partly because it was so easy to cook (I now realise!)... however, I am almost thirty... and it has taken this long for me to even consider learning how to cook them...

So when my wonderful Dervish of a husband suggested Lentils as a substitute for my meat crazy, steak hungry diet... which also coincidently, at times was reflected in my nervous, angry, stressed out demeanour.. the first stage was sulking... the second was research... and the the third was some serious action :)

In terms of research, I always start with 'the best... e.g. lentil soup' or in this case... 'the 10 best ways to cook lentils'... the Guardian no less was my saviour and more specifically Nathan Williams (2013). However, Sarah Britton (2009) may claim the copyright of this soup... and its' name! (I promise I am trying not to get involved!!). As you all may be aware I lost my recipe book, and 'Four Corners' was the only bit that I remembered from the first ever Lentil Stew that I made for my husband.. appropriately named due to how far and wide Lentils are enjoyed... and now I realise, that stew or soup, the recipes are exactly the same... all you change is the quantity of water.... 

Both delicious and simple. The stew and the soup. The Britton and the Williams. Chicken and Egg. Here we go!

Tips!

My adaptations to the recipe as I find it the easiest way to remember that we dont always have everything at hand, everything can be done slightly differently, and there are some things, that just can never be left out!

- This is a great to make to use left overs from the Mexican tortila party you had the night before.. onions, lemons, tomatoes, salt, beans all come together deliciously here!

-  Instead of coconut oil or ghee, I used olive oil, I am italian, I cant help it!

- Onions chopped fine or coarse; it doesn't matter, I once used roasted onions

- If you can choose to use a garlic crusher, or buy one, do! They are a time-saving marvel, I once thought these were a luxury in a kitchen, I now know these are absolutely essential!

- I almost always have to exchange fresh ginger for powered as fresh ginger is  not available to hand.. this recipe is still delicious with 1 tbsp of ground ginger 

- Cumin as a spice is God sent... it helps reduce any indigestion the lentils might give you... I now stock this very well in my cupboard and use as a garnish on many things too

- A tin of tomatoes is jut as good as fresh tomatoes in this recipe.. and at an extreme push, when I have had neither, 1 tbsp of tomato paste has cheekily replaced the fresh product 

- Although lemons do grow where I live, they only grow in winter, so, an alternative could be vinegar (vinegar and lentils is common in some German cooking), or alternatively, bottled lemon juice... however it is to note that lemons are an essential part of this soup!

-  In addition to the suggested garnishes I have made some delicious homemade yogurt balls that also garnish this really well... the recipe will be coming soon!

- For the stew recipe, I have suggested a rice of your own... and included this in the steps the original recipe called for brown rice.. however I have had this stew with basmati, bulgur, and brown and they are all delicious... need some tips on simple easy rice recipes? Click Here

Enjoy!

Four corners Lentil Stew Or Soup!

Serves 4

- 2 tbsp coconut oil or ghee 

- 1 large onion or a couple of leeks chopped
- 1 tsp salt
- 5 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp minced fresh ginger
- 1 tbsp ground cumin 
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- Four large tomatoes, chopped
- 1 lemon, sliced into rounds 
- 700ml stock for the stew (4 cups) and 1 litre for the soup (around 5 cups)
- 1 cup red lentils (or between 150g and 185g)
- Chopped coriander, spring onions or parsley to garnish
- Salt to taste
- A rice of your choice, bulgar, basmati or brown

Instructions:

1 Begin preparing your rice and put it to broil

2 Meanwhile, heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium-high heat. 

3 Add the onion and salt, then cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, or until soft and translucent. 

4 Add the garlic, ginger, cumin and cayenne, and cook for 1 minute until fragrant. 

5 Stir in the tomatoes, three lemon slices, the stock and the lentils. 

6 If making stew, remove the rice from the heat, cover it to rest for 10 minutes, then fluff it with a fork.

7 Bring the lentils to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes, until tender.

8 Squeeze the remaining lemon slices over the stew or and season.

9 Serve the stew over the sesame rice

9 Sprinkle the soup or stew with the garnish - Parsley, coriander or my homemade yoghurt balls!

 Let me know how it was!!

http://www.jewishjournal.com/torah_portion/article/lentil_soup_20081126/

http://www.mynewroots.org/site/2009/10/reader-request-my-favorite-recipe-four-corners-lentil-soup-2/

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/legumes-and-legume-products/4338/2

http://www.sufismus-online.de/SeclusionAtAbdulQadirJilani

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jan/11/the-10-best-lentil-recipes

http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/BerteShopWeb/viewProduct.do?ISBN=9781579655327