In
my defence of tonight’s recipe, can I just say that chicken is an excellent source
of protein and far healthier than eating red meat all the time and is one of the most popular meats
consumed for a reason. Now, there’s
something that I thought I’d never have to do as a vegetarian – defending the
cooking of chicken! Tonight though, it was the turn of Chicken and couscous tagine and Dear Friend was over for dinner again
as she is the chicken expert.
I
started off by using my mini-chopper to chop up whole almonds. I then toasted
them on a high heat in a small frying pan for 2 minutes and you really need to
be careful that you keep tossing them throughout the 2 minutes; otherwise, they
burn. Using my large casserole dish, I added olive oil and put it on a high
heat before frying the seasoned diced chicken. Once it browned, I put the heat
down to medium-low, added some more olive oil, sliced onions, sliced garlic and
a cinnamon stick. I popped the lid on and let the onions soften for 8 minutes.
I didn’t have saffron so I skipped that part - way too much hassle to bundle two
kids into the car to go to the town for one thing! I then added chicken stock
and runny honey, brought it up to the boil and let it simmer for 25 minutes
with the lid on. I kept giving it a stir every so often until the 25 minutes were
up. The last part of the recipe required me to add couscous and cook for 3 minutes but I
probably let it cook for nearer 6 minutes until it was less soggy. To dish up, I
added in the toasted almonds and sprinkled with freshly chopped mint.
Dear
Husband gave the dish 7 out of 10 and Dear Friend gave it 9 out of 10 so an average of 8 marks. Dear
Husband didn’t like the almonds in it (by the way, he eats almonds all the time as a snack!); Dear Friend
wasn’t too keen on the mint but, in fairness, her taste buds are off the wall
at the minute due to pregnancy. I love mint in couscous though and one of the
recipes of Rachel’s I have made many, many times is the mint couscous from the Rachel’s Favourite Food cookbook. I know
I’ve mentioned before on this blog but that cookbook is my favourite Rachel
Allen cookbook. No matter whether it’s a
christening, birthday party or Dear Sister No.1’s annual barbeque, there are
recipes which I specifically make from that cookbook which are absolutely gorgeous!
They are Couscous with mint, Tomato
salsa, Guacamole and Homemade
lemonade. The couscous is perfect because it can be prepared in advance; it’s
so light and so tasty. Once you taste the tomato
salsa, you will never buy
shop-bought salsa again and I mean never!
It’s absolutely delicious. Please,
please, please make it! Team it up with a bag of tortilla chips, crème fraiche
and the guacamole and you will have the ultimate snack food to sit down to
watch a film to! And what can I say about the homemade lemonade?! I’m not big into fizzy drinks but this healthy
version of a fizzy drink is ten times nicer than anything that you can buy in a
shop! It really is the ultimate refreshing summer drink. I’m telling you, every
time I make these recipes, people swarm round and it all disappears so quickly.
There’s never any of it left. There are many other recipes out of that
particular cookbook which are well established in my kitchen so I can’t
recommend the book more highly!
But,
getting back to tonight’s dinner, the recipe has made The List although, when I
make it again, I know not to include the almonds (!) for Dear Husband or the
mint (!) for Dear Friend. And there I was thinking that cooking in my house couldn’t get any
more complicated than it already is…
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