Moroccan Braised Chicken with Apricots and Citrus Couscous

MOROCCAN braised chicken with APRICOTS // ORANGE ZEST couscous 

Each week I revisit my list of travel-inspired dishes I want to recreate to post on the blog with some witty/inspired story behind them.  It includes Basque salted cod pintxos, Turkish simit, Peruvian lomo saltado, and French pork rillettes smeared across a tartine and topped with little gherkins, to name a few.  The beautiful images of food are paired with even prettier pictures I dig off of my external hard drive, exporting all the readers to a different place and time (like 2009, or something) where life is always simple and food is always good.

And then I just make another Moroccan dish instead.

While I actually have been to Morocco (truly one of my favorite places and I break a little inside thinking I might never see it again), I never had a dish like this when I was there.  But, instead of this being a dish tied to rosy memories of exotic locations, it's tied to one of those memories which triggers a visceral nose-scrunching embarrassment - the surprise party for my 30th birthday that I handled poorly, to say the least.  While the birthday girl was not very gracious, the food was delicious and I'm glad I walked away with this recipe to make 6+ months later.

I guess Moroccan is a frequent go-to cuisine for me because it combines the hearty warmth of dishes like a Mexican posole or Thai noodle with the flavor profile of the Middle East.  In general, anything that combines braising and warming spices is a win for me.  In many ways this dish is perfect for fall in that it combines braised, tender meat with citrus and spices you might find in Western seasonal meals.  It's also a quicker, less spice-intensive version of a North African tagine, and probably would be fantastic with the addition of Moroccan preserved lemons.  If you've just been looking to take your side dish game up a notch, the orange zest couscous is a good one to add to your repertoire.  

Italian Wedding Soup

We got home Sunday evening from a weekend in Michigan to attend a wedding of some old college friends.  Three days ago I probably wouldn't have used the phrase "old college friends," but now I do so endearingly.  I hadn't realized that three years or so have passed since I last saw their faces, and it was a treat to confirm that everyone had satisfyingly both changed/not changed at all.  New careers, new babies, new homes; same warmth, same humor, same good characters.  I hope to see them again soon.

Stopped in Ann Arbor on the way home for an extra dose of nostalgia.  Everything had satisfyingly both changed/not changed at all.  Even the ugliest building on campus now struck me as mid-century modern in its unchanged-ness.  So it goes.  Happily.

Here's an Italian Wedding Soup in honor of the new bride and groom. 

Grilled Mahi Mahi

GRILLED MAHI MAHI 

& COUSCOUS SALAD

 
My morning began at 6:30AM with a punchy conversation about "The White Death" (also known as, milk).  That is, in fact, what one of our health teachers calls it.  How we got on the topic of milk escapes me, but it evolved into a conversation about how no food is safe anymore.  One coworker would make a claim about a new dietary change aimed at removing some genetically modified, chemically purified, saturated fat injected foodstuff, only to be lectured about why that cereal/yogurt/Quorn/seitan is simply worse than whatever we were stuffing our faces with before.  

I'd like to think I avoid a lot of fear-inducing ingredients in processed foods, because I don't really eat much processed food, but I know that's probably not true.  There just seems to be no winning, and we all have to pick our battles.  If it isn't what you're putting in your body, then its the repercussions of the global market driving up prices of staple diet crops among the impoverished, or the environmental sustainability of fisheries.

We seemingly have two options:

1. Give up and absolve ourselves of any responsibility to our bodies, humanity, or the environment.
2. Quit eating.

I am not suggesting either.  So what I am suggesting, instead, is that you set aside all the dietary, political, economic, and environmental concerns you may or may not have about eating fish, and make this grilled mahi mahi. 

Cous Cous Salad

A light dinner for when you need some good old carbohydrates.

Cous cous cooks in a 2:1 ratio of liquid to solid.  Most brands I buy soak up all of this liquid once you bring it a boil, add the pearls, and simmer on very low heat while covered.  Some are strange and cook more like pasta that has to be strained, so whatever the box says goes.  I like to cook mine in stock and a little salt and pepper for more flavor.  Personally, I much prefer pearl/Israeli/Lebanese cous cous, but whatever works.  You could substitute it for quinoa, as well.