Day 13: Tagine

I wouldn't, at a guess, have though that Kingston-upon-Thames would immediately be associated in general with North African food. But interrupting a shopping trip (where I was practically forced at gun point to buy this bag) for lunch, we happened upon a lovely market just off Eden Street, where a rather gruff man sold me a wonderful wrap stuffed with marinated Moroccan chicken and a surprisingly moreish salad. Taken together with a mint tea that was literally hot water and green leaves, and served in a pretty glass mug, I was transported back to a trip to Damascus where I remember eating baba ghanoush and falafel for about 50p a serving, revelling in the simplicity of good food made simply, lovingly and incredibly cheaply.

In honour of our Moroccan lunch we decided to make chicken tagine, and though I'd never attempted to cook such a dish before, I was salivating at the prospect.  Who can resist slow-cooked, aromatic meat, richly spiced with ginger and harissa and doused in thickened, honeyed tomato sauce and garnished with chickpeas and served with zingy couscous?  Anyone with a moderately stocked spice rack and a few vegetables on hand can make this with modest expense, and I feel the results were so successful that I'd like to share the recipe here. I wouldn't dare try to undercut the professionals to produce an authoritative recipe with ingredients and methods and so on, so I've stuck, Nigella-style, to prose, but if you try it, do let me know what you think.

First of all, you need to marinate your meat. We used chicken thighs, skin and bone retained, and covered with a combination of olive oil, harissa, ground ginger, crushed cumin seeds, cinnamon, paprika and ground coriander (I would imagine you could substitue certain spices with whatever you have in the cupboard, but I feel at least the harissa, whilst the most obscure, is probably the most important).  Once suitably bathed, we browned the thighs on a hot heat in a decent pan, and set aside.

Next up, the sauce. As with most dishes, it seemed appropriate to first chop a couple of red onions and garlic cloves and soften in the same pan used for the chicken, with more spices chucked in for good measure.  Then add a good dose of tomato paste, a tin of tomatoes, a tin of chickpeas and a few spoonfuls of set honey. Fill the empty tin of tomatoes with water and throw in, then return the chicken thighs to the pan.  A quick season and you can put a lid on, reduce the heat to low and simmer for as long as you can stand to wait. We waited an hour or so, I reckon you could get away with thirty minutes, but as seems to be the case with all tomato sauces, the longer you wait the better.

Then it's a case of finding suitable side dishes.  We plumped unoriginally for couscous - cooked in boiling chicken stock and seasoned with lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper.  We didn't have any flatbread to hand, but white pitta, brushed with oil and griddled on a hot pan (and rubbed with a cut garlic glove if you're so inclined) made a suitable substitute.

Weekends are made for experimenting in the kitchen, and with a bit of inspiration and a couple of Google searches, we ended up with a recipe that worked and was uniquely ours.  I'm inspired now to push on to other global cuisines - if they work out, I'll share them here. Happy eating!