members recipes

One of my favorite dishes I learned in a Arabian cooking class held by a very nice Syrian lady.

Ingredients
1 free range chicken, cut into pieces

250 g chickpeas, soaked in water over night, water discarded

1 little bulb (not clove!) of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

1 big onion, finely chopped

2 big tomatoes, peeled and diced

2 red chilis, finely chopped (optionally deseeded)

1 little bunch of fresh coriander

2 tbsp Harissa (optionally replace 1 tbsp by tomato puree)

150 ml tahini (sesame seed paste)

6 cloves, ground in a pestle and mortar

3 green cardamom capsules, ground in a pestle and mortar

1 tbsp Ras-El-Hanout (morrocan ground mixed spices)

olive oil, salt pepper,

250g Bulgur

salt, ghee

Method
Soak the tajine bottom in water for 30 min.
Rub the chicken pieces with Ras-El-Hanout, salt, pepper and a few drops of olive oil. Let it rest in the fridge.
Put the tajine bottom on your stove, rub some olive oil on it, very slowly bring to a medium heat.
Fry the onions until golden brown, add chili, garlic and coriander one after the other.
Add harissa, tomato cubes, chick peas, and 200 ml water. Season with salt, pepper, cloves and cardamom.
Cover with the tajine lid, fill cold water in the top cavity. Reduce heat and let simmer for 45 min.
In the meantime fry the chicken parts in a pan until the skin is crisp and the meat is nearly done.
Add to the tajine and cover again. Let simmer for another 30 min.
Add some water to the tahini to smoothen a bit if necessary (maybe too gooey to stir into the sauce) and stir into the tajine dish.
(Removing the chicken pieces at first may facilitate this, but you must not forget to add them again. ;) )
Let simmer with closed lid for another 15 min.
Wash the bulgur, fry in 2 tbsp of ghee and add some water and salt to cook the bulgur till tender. You may season the bulgur with oriental spices and add some currants and roasted almonds.