I'm not sure I would call this week's Cookbook Adventure an actual "adventure" by any stretch... but it did allow me to use a book I've been meaning to use for approximately forever, and also forced me to track down and experience a new ingredient that I'd been wanting to start using, as well as providing me with a delicious dinner... so I'm not really complaining. The book was Modern Moroccan by Ghillie Basan (which, as you can see, has an absolutely gorgeous cover):
The Moroccan Chicken Pitas with Tomato and Cucumber Salad looked perfect for a summer day, and also appealed to me because they are essentially a Moroccan taco (where tomato salad stands in for pico de gallo, pitas stand in for tortillas, and tahini sauce stands in for... something else delicious). The tomato salad comes together from tomatoes, cucumber, scallions, mint, parsley, a bit of olive oil, and minced preserved lemons.
I actually drove out to a row of Armenian groceries in Watertown to find preserved lemons, only to discover that Russo's has carried them all along. You can certainly make your own, and I probably would if I still lived in California where lemons grow on trees (hee), but with the price of lemons out here relative to the price of preserved lemons from Russo's (Ingredient List: Lemons, Salt.), you're not going to be saving yourself any money and I don't think the quality would go up (which are the two reasons I find myself making things from scratch that you can buy in stores).
All of these ingredients are chopped, tossed into a big bowl, and combined...
See? Totally like a Moroccan pico de gallo... although, that could just be because I usually have Mexican food on the brain. The dressing combines tahini, lemon juice, crushed garlic, and enough water to thin to the right consistency.
This tasted way better than it had any business tasting. I've made little tahini sauces before, but I think the key here was using a lot of lemon juice. Good stuff. Other than grilling up a few chicken breasts, that's it on the filling. The only other ingredient is pitas, which I prefer to make from scratch whenever possible (using the recipe from Flatbreads and Flavors that I've posted here before), and I did that this time since I was feeling like a slacker for making such an easy dish... The starter...
Kneading...
Ready to rise...
Risen...
Rolled out...
Beginning to puff on the pizza stone...
I don't trust the structural integrity of pita pocket seams for stuffing (with the exception of the bleh mass-produced store-bought pitas... which I never buy, opting instead for locally-baked or at least smaller-production varieties...), so I tend to use them more as wraps than as pockets... (which also takes the pressure off of needing a 100% puffage rate on your homemade pitas...) I threw the pitas on a grill pan to get a little extra toasty, then topped them with tahini sauce, chicken, and tomato salad for the dish that I will always think of as Moroccan Chicken Tacos:
You can top with a bit more tahini sauce, as well, once you realize how delicious it is...
This was fairly perfect. It's light, fresh, healthy, summery, easy, and delicious. I've got a couple more elaborate dishes from this book in the ol' queue that I'll approach after picking up the proteins at Blood Farm. I'm currently on an emptying-out-the-freezer-of-meat-so-I-can-go-back-to-Blood-Farm kick. Last weekend took care of flank steak, this weekend took care of chicken breasts, and after next weekend clears out the skirt steak I think I'll be all set to go stock up again. Can't wait. In the meantime, this dish will be entering the regular summer rotation...
The Moroccan Chicken Pitas with Tomato and Cucumber Salad looked perfect for a summer day, and also appealed to me because they are essentially a Moroccan taco (where tomato salad stands in for pico de gallo, pitas stand in for tortillas, and tahini sauce stands in for... something else delicious). The tomato salad comes together from tomatoes, cucumber, scallions, mint, parsley, a bit of olive oil, and minced preserved lemons.
I actually drove out to a row of Armenian groceries in Watertown to find preserved lemons, only to discover that Russo's has carried them all along. You can certainly make your own, and I probably would if I still lived in California where lemons grow on trees (hee), but with the price of lemons out here relative to the price of preserved lemons from Russo's (Ingredient List: Lemons, Salt.), you're not going to be saving yourself any money and I don't think the quality would go up (which are the two reasons I find myself making things from scratch that you can buy in stores).
All of these ingredients are chopped, tossed into a big bowl, and combined...
See? Totally like a Moroccan pico de gallo... although, that could just be because I usually have Mexican food on the brain. The dressing combines tahini, lemon juice, crushed garlic, and enough water to thin to the right consistency.
This tasted way better than it had any business tasting. I've made little tahini sauces before, but I think the key here was using a lot of lemon juice. Good stuff. Other than grilling up a few chicken breasts, that's it on the filling. The only other ingredient is pitas, which I prefer to make from scratch whenever possible (using the recipe from Flatbreads and Flavors that I've posted here before), and I did that this time since I was feeling like a slacker for making such an easy dish... The starter...
Kneading...
Ready to rise...
Risen...
Rolled out...
Beginning to puff on the pizza stone...
I don't trust the structural integrity of pita pocket seams for stuffing (with the exception of the bleh mass-produced store-bought pitas... which I never buy, opting instead for locally-baked or at least smaller-production varieties...), so I tend to use them more as wraps than as pockets... (which also takes the pressure off of needing a 100% puffage rate on your homemade pitas...) I threw the pitas on a grill pan to get a little extra toasty, then topped them with tahini sauce, chicken, and tomato salad for the dish that I will always think of as Moroccan Chicken Tacos:
You can top with a bit more tahini sauce, as well, once you realize how delicious it is...
This was fairly perfect. It's light, fresh, healthy, summery, easy, and delicious. I've got a couple more elaborate dishes from this book in the ol' queue that I'll approach after picking up the proteins at Blood Farm. I'm currently on an emptying-out-the-freezer-of-meat-so-I-can-go-back-to-Blood-Farm kick. Last weekend took care of flank steak, this weekend took care of chicken breasts, and after next weekend clears out the skirt steak I think I'll be all set to go stock up again. Can't wait. In the meantime, this dish will be entering the regular summer rotation...
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