Moroccan Chicken with Lemon and Olives

I discovered recently how much I love preserved lemons.  I had been meaning to make them for a while, but just didn't get around to it.  One day, I took the plunge.  I watched the following video on YouTube and took notes.



Then, I went to the store for a bag of organic lemons.  A little while later, I had this:

 

It sat on the counter for about a month.  Each day, I shook it 1-3 times a day.

 

Now...what to do with it...what to do???  How about the iconic dish of Morocco?  Yes, indeed.  I think this is one of my new favorite foods. 

 

Serves 8-10

 

4-6 cloves garlic (minced)

¼ t pepper

5 T olive oil

8-10 pieces chicken

1 onion (chopped)

2 t paprika

1 t cumin

1 T ginger

2 t turmeric

½ t cinnamon

1 t allspice

1 t cayenne

1 t coriander

1 cup green olives (about 14-16 large olives, sliced)

2 cups chicken broth

2 preserved lemons (cut into slices)

½ cup dried cranberries

Salt to taste

¼ cup cilantro (chopped)

¼ cup parsley (chopped)

Chop the chicken into chunks about 1 inch in size.  Mix the garlic, black pepper and 1 spoonful of oil and rub chicken.  Marinade overnight. 

Heat the remaining oil.  Fry the chicken on all sides until it begins to brown (5 min).  Add the spices and onion.  Cook 2-5 min.  Add the broth.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat.  Cover, but leave a crack for steam to escape.  Simmer over low heat for 20 min.  Add the olives, lemons, cranberries and salt to taste.  Remove chicken and set aside.

Bring sauce to a boil, stirring continually, until thickened.  Coat the chicken with the sauce, Mix in fresh parsley and cilantro and serve.

 

Cranberry-Curry Rice

1 ½ cups rice

2 cups chicken broth

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon finely chopped preserved lemon

1 onion, finely chopped

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling (optional)

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Cook rice and broth in the rice cooker.  In a small pan, sauté the onion, cranberries and lemon.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  The onion, cranberry and lemon mix will cook for about 5-10 min with occasional stirring to keep it from sticking and burning.  Once the rice is done, add the mix to the rice and stir. 

 

Club Soda and Psyllium Husk

 

I wanted to share this great idea that I first learned of from Shauna Ahern of Gluten Free Girl.  Her site has been my go-to resources for great inspirations in the gluten free cooking world.  I also have and love her latest cookbook: Gluten Free Girl and the Chef.  It has my well-loved gluten free pasta recipe.  Ok returning from that tangent, I was exploring how to make tasty gluten-free bread last summer (because most of it is horrid) and was exploring the black hole of making a gluten-free sourdough starter.  After several odd-tasting attempts at a sourdough boule, I set this attempt on my mental bookshelf for a later date.  However, in that process I learned about 2 new techniques that create an elastic gluten free dough with decent hole structure.  The first was to substitute club soda in place of water in the recipe and the second was to replace the xanthium gum and guar gum with psyllium husk.  Here is a video explaining why psyllium husk is such a good and cheap ingredient:

Bethany's Darn Good Salmon Pie

 

Both the crust and gluten free mix are taken from: Gluten-Free Baking by Rebecca Reilly (a book I really, really recommend)

Basic Gluten Free Mix

2 cups rice flour, 2/3 cup potato starch, 1/3 cup tapioca flour

Crust (gluten free)

1 cup Basic Gluten Free Mix

2 T rice four

1 ½ t sugar

½ t salt

6 T cold butter (I prefer salted)

1 large egg

1 T apple cider vinegar (you can’t taste it in the final crust)

Instructions

Mix the dry ingredients, cut in the butter using a fork or pastry cutter.  Once the butter is well incorporated, add the wet ingredients and mix with a fork.  Place the mixture on cling wrap and wrap up into a tight ball.  Place it in the refrigerator for at least 10 min.  While it is chilling, oil and lightly flour the pie pan. Remove the ball of dough and place onto floured parchment paper on top of a cutting board (for flipping the crust easily).  Roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin until it is about 1 inch wider than the pie pan all the way around (about a 2 inch wider diameter than the pie pan).  Place the pie pan upside down and centered over the dough circle.  Grip the underside of the cutting board and the pie pan and flip the whole assembly.  Remove the cutting board and parchment paper and carefully nudge the dough into the pan.  Pinch fold the edges or crimp with a fork.  Put the crust in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling. 

Pie
1 prepared crust

1 lb salmon (skin removed) and cut into thin slices

3 large red potatoes (unpeeled and thinly sliced)

1 medium onion (chopped)

1 bunch scallions (green onions)

2-3 T oil

2 large eggs

1-2 lemons (cut into thin half-circles)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350*.  Chop the onion and scallions and sauté on medium to medium high until golden and soft.  Put the mixture in a blender with 2 eggs, salt and pepper.  Set aside.  Assemble vertical layers of salmon and potato around the perimeter of the interior of the pie crust.  Fill in the center in the same fashion until all of the potato and salmon are used.  Evenly pour the onion and egg puree over the pie.  Cover the top with lemon slices.  Place in the oven for 60-70 minutes.  You can test for doneness by piercing a potato with a toothpick.  If it pierces easily, it is soft enough.  Serve with the custard sauce.

 

Custard sauce

4 eggs

2 cups of milk

¼ cup corn starch

Nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste

2 handfuls of parsley (chopped)

Grated parmesan cheese to taste

Instructions

In a double boiler or metal bowl placed over a pot of water, bring the water to a boil.  As the water is heating, put the eggs in the bowl or top pan and whisk with a fork.  Add the milk and corn starch and whisk constantly and strongly until the mixture starts to noticeably thicken.  This takes about 5 minutes after the water underneath starts to boil. Put the mixture in a blender and add the spices, parmesan and parsley.  Blend to a uniform mixture.  Serve.

Salad Dressing (this is super yummy with arugula, parmesan and bell pepper salad)

The recipe was taken from the cookbook Rosanna’s Bananas

2-3 cloves garlic (minced)

1/3 cup lemon juice (about 2 lemons)

2/3 cup olive oil

Instructions

Put all of the ingredients in a jar and shake vigorously before serving.