I'm in love with african and middle eastern dishes. I admit that i bend them to my tastes, but this is the unfolding culinary frontier for me, and it seems to help make spanish, thai, indian, mexican, and even italian recipes make more sense.
here's what transpired tonight
chicken - 2 chopped chicken breasts, marinated in fresh coriander leaves, 2 tsp cumin powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tbspn honey, cracked black pepper and sea salt - later sauted with a bit of chicken stock
couscous - from 'Arabesque' by Greg & Lucy Malouf (just go and buy it, will you!) chopped, steamed sweet potato, currants, a tsp cinnamon and orange blossom water. to make the couscous really good (and scare vegetarians) I cook it in chicken stock.
peach salsa - (from the dangerous but completely essential "Big Flavours of the Hot Sun" by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby - IF I HAD ONE COOKBOOK THIS WOULD PROBABLY BE IT - and i only say probably because of my personality type...) two peaches halved and sliced thinly, 1 capsicum (red pepper) grilled, peeled and sliced, 1/2 cup orange juice, 1 tbps molasses (I used dark treacle), 1 tbsp lime juice, 2 tsp minced red chilli (they say 1 tbsp), salt and pepper (I left out the parsley...)
- walnut and pine nut thingy - I made this up. I fried about 1/2 cup of pine nuts, then briefly fried about 1 cup of chopped dates. mixed this with a peeled and diced orange, chopped 1/4 preserved lemon, a squirt of lemon juice, about 2 tbsp coconut, a bit of orange zest. I'm sure I put some honey in there too - maybe 2 tbsp... some olive oil to loosen it up.
really good and the kids said we ought to put this in the family cookbook (an ongoing project...)
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