So last week's (yes, I am late posting this!) meal was from Algeria- Algerian Chicken with Couscous. Frankly, I wondered just how this would taste, as turnips are not exactly on my list of favorite vegetables. In addition, there were a LOT (I mean...A LOT!!!!) of vegetables in the dish that we had chosen. So much, in fact, that I did not even bother looking for a side dish, as we certainly would ingest at least one serving of fruits and vegetables from this dish. Actually, looking at the recipe again, I was thoroughly convinced we would receive one serving of vegetables per spoonful. I'm exaggerating, of course, but only slightly.
After re-examining the recipe prior to cooking, one thing jumped out. This dish would require a bit of preparation before hand. Namely, I spent about 20 minutes chopping and slicing my way through the onion, pepper, cauliflower, rutabaga (No turnips in season, so we settled on a straight up swap), chicken, and so on. I of course separated it into bowls, depending on when it would be required in the recipe:
Next came the actual cooking. Frankly, I was not expecting much. I had concerns as to how the mixture of cumin, cayenne, and cinnamon would taste. The answers came shortly after I started cooking, when I added said spices into the mixture. WOW! The smell wafting up from the frying pan was just short of heaven. The cumin and cinnamon combined into a smell that set off the ole dinner bell in the temporal lobe of my brain.
The result? Well, judge for yourself:
All I can say for sure is that the combination of spices, chicken, couscous, and vegetables provides an amazing array of flavors and textures that satisfied two very skeptical palettes. This dish is definitely on our "to do" list again.
One word of caution- the recipe states that this meal serves 4. I think they are mistaken, unless all 4 individuals are NFL linemen, and they bring their 4 brothers. It is an understatement to say this meal makes a lot.
Next Up: Andorra
No comments:
Post a Comment