Moroccan Chicken & Tenderstem® Tagine Cooked With Cous Cous

This time as part of the Tenderstem challenge we were off to Morroco, with the prospect of cooking with my tagine I couldn't wait.


"It's not going to be uber spicy is it " ~ said J the mild mannered teen.

The changes I made to their recipe were as follows I actually cooked it with the cous couss in it and I swapped out the chick peas for Barlotti beans and no harissa paste.

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
800g chicken thighs, or a combination of thighs & drumsticks
2 carrots, chopped
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
500ml chicken stock
1 tin chickpeas, drained & rinsed
2 tsp runny honey
300g Tenderstem®, each stem cut in half

To serve:
Harissa paste (optional)
Generous handful coriander leaf, chopped
Steamed couscous

Method

The sweet and mild spicing of a Moroccan tagine is a really appealing way to introduce children to spices. Serve with fiery harissa on the side to spice things up a bit.

1. Add the oil to a flameproof casserole or large saucepan and set over a medium heat. Fry the chicken pieces on both sides until golden, doing this in batches if necessary to avoid overcrowding the pan. Once the chicken is all browned, return it all to the pan along with any juices. Toss in the carrots, onions and garlic along with the cumin, cinnamon and ginger and fry for a further couple of minutes, stirring well to coat the meat with the spices. Season with a little salt and pepper to taste.

2. Pour over the stock and add the chickpeas and honey, stirring thoroughly and bring up to a steady simmer. Turn down the heat, cover with a lid and cook gently for around an hour to an hour and a quarter, or until the chicken is tender.

3. Once the chicken is cooked, stir through the Tenderstem®, re-cover and simmer for a further 10 minutes, or until its just tender but with plenty of bite. Scatter over the coriander and serve with plenty of couscous to soak up the juice

"The spice was a little overwhelming but I liked the broccoli and chicken" ~ said J the teen now searching for the ice cream.

This is not a dish we would usually cook , but I can see how to tweak it in the future to suit my fussy teen all the more. Having the amount of spices helped the teen cous cous needs flavouring.

Gallery My View Right Now

This is always my view , admitly I have to step out my front door but it's 2 minutes away! I have ponies and horses trotting down my road , tractors and combine harvesters.

I'm very lucky I have one half of me in suburbia and the other half in the country. Instead of the sound of cars , I have the sound of sheep , chickens , horses and Shetland ponies and dogs as there is a rescue sanctuary nearby as well.

I 'm surrounded by lanes , that is why you are always seeing me photographing them. Despite having photographed the same scenes before , it doesn't matter to me as each picture is unique , the sky , the season , the mood the company.

So many combinations collide to result in the pictures I take , please do enjoy my Instagram if you wish.

Morrissey Goes to The Shops

Morrissey.

I mean who's have thought Morrissey would have got me going of a morning ?


I am , not one for listening to music on the move, in fact the last tune I listened to as I amble alone the country lane to Grammar school was "November Spawned a Monster" which is obviously a Morrisey track in fact that might have been the last tune I listened to on my walkman before it broke.

So the other morning whilst listening to the incredibly fashionable radio 2 ,  where the folks of the 80's go to wallow in memories and power slides  awwwh. My ears pricked up to the sounds of the new album , love him , hate him , opinions left right centre I know what I like and today it was this.

Being late to the Morrissey party sums me up , I am unique have never done things by halves so me walking to the shops gently humming the Spanish undertones of "World politics is none your business"

Now where are my IPhone headphones ?

Strawberries And Cream Fridge Cake

Usually I buy flapjacks or other assorted cakes not all the time but on occasion as a treat but more and more recently I have been making my own cakes and there assorted tray bakes. And a fridge cake in particular is great to make with children as it doesn't require any baking. The only question is one square or two ? where do you stop as it quite addictive  making you nibble furiously. You can use any combination of chocolate but milk chocolate on its own may be too sweet, I 've yet to meet a fridge cake I didn't take to. And in a nostalgic twist to your school days why not add rice crisps instead of digestive and for the ultimate adult edition add booze.

Ingredients

• 250g/8oz digestive biscuits
• 300g/10z of chocolate (I did an equal  milk and a dash of dark that was lurking in my cupboard.)
• 100g/3½oz unsalted butter
• 150g/5oz golden syrup  (though certainly reduce according to taste)
• 100g/3½oz mini marshmallows.
• A punnet to strawberries stalks removed and chopped ( save for topping )
  
  

Method

1. Use cling film to line a square shaped tin, a brownie tin is ideal for this.

2. Place the biscuits in a bag and tie then furiously bash.
3. Melt chocolate, butter and golden syrup together in a heatproof pool over a ban Marie stirring occasionally.
4. Take the bowl from the heat and this is where you add your ingredients for  this recipe it contains the biscuits and mini marshmallows.
   
   Spoon the mixture into the tin. Level the surface by pressing it down with the back of a spoon.Press the chopped strawberries into the mixture.
5. Leave to cool, then put the chocolate mixture in the fridge for 1-2 hours to set.

Turn out the cake and peel off the cling film. Cut the cake into 12 squares and enjoy!

Serve with cream or eat with your fingers or go posh and eat with a cake fork.

Mortica Moggy Mafia

A cat that most aloof of pets, you tickle it belly as it ensnares you in a grasp of loving pain  ,yet despite this little nuances with we keep faith with our furry friends, reading yesterday about a cat that held a family captive in America, I can quite quite believe this, I am unsure of what spooked or triggered the cats behaviour but I hope they either welcome her back with counselling or the cats finds another family.

I am thinking of a cat on a doctors couch as well ...

Once when go to picking a cat at a  shelter, I saw a cat that was hugging the fencing , we didn't choose that cat as I couldn't quite face hauling it off the light fitting, instead we choose a big big black fluffy cat who was a powderpuff on legs and so purry and cute . We quite simply had to have her , my husband went to pick her her she was  yet unnamed , The alarm bells didn't trigger of in my husbands head when they asked him to step out off the room to box the cat up.

It still didn't register when he was bringing the cat home that the box was shaking round like it was possessed. So upon open the box out leaped a hissing bowl of fury a very very angry powder puff, we really did try make "Mortica" the devil  feel at home but herding a cat with a broom is not the way to go and drawing short straws at night to see who would go lion taming at feeding time.

It was neither far to "Mortica" the devil  or to us so we arranged for Mortica the devil to go to live on a farm this is not the  muggy mafia and us issuing "Mortica" with the feline equivalent of concrete paw boots  but more simply she deserved better.

Sadly we have pictures of Mortica   the devil ....


Mortica   the devil was so named after the Adams family.

This is Jack


*Names have be change to protect the innocent