The taste of travel

Inspired by my virtual (mis)adventure, new dishes are being tried.

As I mentioned yesterday, I decided to make a recipe from Morocco – Morrocan chicken with olives and preserved lemons – to bring a bit of reality to my crazy virtual Africa trek.

I should qualify some factors.

I like chicken, but generally don’t cook bone-in chicken. And I don’t usually braise chicken. But I’ll give it a go. And I’ll be aware that the white meat – which I like best generally – will tend to cook faster and dry out sooner, if not timed accordingly.

And I like olives. I didn’t forever, but then when I was in Italy I found I liked their green olives. And when I was in Greece I discovered a love for kalamata olives. So now olives are pretty much a-okay with me.

And I’ve never had preserved lemons but I like lemon so… worth a try.

Most of the seasonings are either completely new to me, or combined in ways I would not think of.

Outcomes:

The smell while it’s cooking is delightful. Oh my goodness. (Later it will linger in the air and have a residual scent that I affiliate with Indian food – similar spice palate – and I’m not a fan of Indian cuisine in general. So that is slightly less of a win.)

The white meat chicken is a little blander and a little drier, as expected.

But the sauce is really good on it. The dark meat is fine.

And it all gets better as everything gets to know each other in the days to come.

I don’t love the preserved lemons. I think I would maybe leave them larger and filter them out at the end so that they can do whatever they are doing in the recipe but aren’t encountered later.

And couscous may be traditional – and maybe I just need a better recipe for it so I will try again – but rice carried me over just fine.

I will definitely eat the rest of this, yum, and I would try this again. I’ll look at different variations also.

And, since I’ll be in North Africa (virtually) for a while longer (and Africa as a whole for years to come), I will be looking for some other recipes to try out.

Suggestions, please!

Happy birthday Miss Em! 🎂🎈

9 Nov 2020