The Real Tagine

I got a tagine for my birthday along with a nice assortment of Moroccan spices! Something magical happens when you cook in a clay pot. I seasoned my new tagine by putting in ¼ cup olive oil, a chopped onion, a couple of chopped carrots, two cloves of garlic, and two bay leaves, filling with water, and baking it in the oven for 45 minutes. You’d think it would just smell like a simple soup base but the scent that wafted into my kitchen was indescribably heavenly.

For my first real meal, I made a dish from Made in Morocco that I’ve had my eye on for quite awhile: tagine of chicken with lemons and olives. The lemons in this recipe are preserved lemons. I considered making my own preserved lemons as it is rather easy, but it does take a month and I didn’t want to wait that long, so I ordered some from Zamouri Spices. The preserved lemons are very salty (even after washing off the excess salt) and very lemony but the sourness is replaced with an exotic perfuminess.

I used two teaspoons of my new La Kama spice mix instead of the one teaspoon each of turmeric and ginger the original recipe calls for. According to the Zamouri Spices website, La Kama is a warm and aromatic spice blend created especially for chicken tagine dishes and contains black pepper, cilantro, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, ginger, mustard, nutmeg, salt, turmeric.
The chicken is so tender it falls off the bone and the warm spices combined with the salty lemons and olives are just lovely together. You could make this dish in a regular Dutch oven and use either just the turmeric and ginger or create your own spice mix based on the ingredients of La Kama. I wouldn’t substitute regular lemons but you could omit the preserved lemons and still have a very tasty dish.
Tagine of Chicken with Preserved Lemons and Olives (4 to 6 servings)

• 3 onions, peeled and sliced
• 4 chicken legs, cut into separate drumsticks and thighs
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 tsp. La Kama spice mix
• 1 ½ cups chicken stock
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 preserved lemons, quartered and rinsed
• 1 cup kalamata olives
• ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

1. Place onions in the base of a tagine or Dutch oven. Arrange chicken portions on the bed of onions, drizzle with olive oil and dust with spices. Pour over stock and season well with salt and pepper.
2. Cover the pan and bring the liquid to a boil then turn down the heat and simmer 1 ½ hours until the chicken is cooked.
3. Add the preserved lemons, olives, and parsley and cook for 10 minutes more. Skim any excess fat from the surface before serving.

Lemon Roasted Asparagus

Spring is slowly coming to New England. We are starting to get occasional sunny days that don’t require you to bundle up before going out. And spring means asparagus. Roasting is one of my favorite ways to prepare vegetables. I thought I’d up the sunshiny quotient on roasted asparagus by adding a little lemon zest to them to roast in the citrus flavor. Easy and delicious!

Lemon Roasted Asparagus (6 servings)

• 2 lbs. asparagus, ends trimmed off
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• zest of 1 lemon
• Kosher salt to taste

1. Preheat oven to 425°.
2. Put asparagus on a foil-lined baking sheet. Drizzle oil and lemon zest over the asparagus and toss to coat. Season with the salt.
3. Roast 10 minutes. Turn asparagus and roast another 10 minutes.