Moroccan Lamb Stew with Israeli Couscous

There's getting to be a bit of a back-log of recipes in my browser's tabs. I don't want to close them because I need to blog how we made something, but I put it off until I forget what I did.

In this case, I decided the recipe was too good to let it meet that fate. Also, it was kind of made up as recipes go, so it went really well. This recipe makes about enough for two hungry people with limited amounts of self-control.

Ingredients

• 1 lb lamb stew meat (probably lamb shoulder? Cut to 1.5" cubes) - beef or similar would work as well.
• 3 smallish carrots with their greens (or you can use some parsley instead if you don't have the carrot greens? Or just leave that out); Carrots peeled and sliced, greens chopped and set aside.
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1.5 tsp ras-el-hanout (look it up - it's a moroccan spice blend. We made our own a long time ago so I can't say exactly what we put in it, but it's stuff like cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, and clove - sort of sweet-and-savory)
• 1 c beef broth
• 1/4 c dry white wine (we actually used vermouth)
• 1 c Israeli couscous
• about 1/4 c dried apricots, quartered
• about 1/4 c raisins
• olive oil, salt

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. In a large sautee pan or dutch oven, heat oil until quite hot and then add the lamb and sear it a bit. After about 5 minutes of this (when you get sick of it?) add the onion and carrots. Cook for another 5 minutes. At this point, stuff will probably be sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add the thyme, garlic, beef stock, vermouth, a couple extra tbsp of olive oil, and the ras-el-hanout. Bring to a boil, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the pot. Reduce to a simmer and cover, then put in the oven for 90 minutes.

When that's done, remove the pot from the oven. Using a slotted spoon, remove the lamb, carrots, and as many onions as you care about and set aside. You should have quite a bit of beef/lamb broth left over in the pan. Add the couscous, apricots, raisins, and carrot greens and probably a little water. Proceed to cook the couscous kind of like you would risotto - add water when it's looking dry until it's pretty close to cooked through. When it's very close, re-add the lamb/carrot mixture and mix. Cover and leave on the warm burner for about 10 minutes to let the couscous finish cooking through. Salt to taste.

Thoughts: For serious, my only regret is that we had just one pound of lamb so there are no leftovers.

Disaster Index: 1/10

B'Stilla

We went off the beaten path for this one, I guess. B'stilla is a chicken almond filo (or phyllo) pie from Morocco. Some recipes incorporate apricots. When I saw the recipe, I was reminded of a dish they serve at Medcaf in Madison, WI, that they call "chicken apricot pie". I think theirs is the same IDEA, but maybe different execution. Nevertheless, this was really delicious. We have some tweaks for next time, though.

This recipe makes TWO small pie-sized dishes.

Ingredients

• Ras El Hanout
• 1/2 tsp aniseed
• 1 tsp fennel
• 8 allspice berries (or, I guess, like 1/2 tsp)
• seeds from 8 cardamom pods
• 8 whole cloves
• 15 black peppercorns
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• pinch of red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp dried ground ginger
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• Almond Sugar (seriously)
• 1/2c almonds
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• Apricot Compote
• 8oz dried apricots
• water
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• Filling
• Filo dough
• 2 smallish onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3/4 tsp grated ginger (fresh)
• 1/2 tsp black pepper (or to taste)
• 2 tsp Ras El Hanout
• 2c chicken stock
• 1.5-2 lbs chicken thighs
• 1c bulgur (Could maybe use rice in place of it? Or maybe even oatmeal?)
• olive oil
• salt

So first grind together that huge list of spices to make the Ras El Hanout. You'll be left with quite a lot. If you can figure out how to get the right mixture but with less extra left over, by all means. But it's REALLY interesting, so I'm sure we'll use it in other stuff. It might be good in a bechamel.

Now, do the compote. This takes forever, so you can do it ahead of time. Chop the apricots finely and throw them in a sauce pan with water to cover (generously) and the lemon juice. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer until they're really soft and you basically have jam. It takes like 30-45 minutes. You will probably have to add water part way through a couple times.

NEXT, throw the onions and garlic in a stock pot with some olive oil. Cook until onions are translucent, then add the ginger, pepper, ras el hanout, stock, and chicken thighs. Bring to a boil, stirring, and then reduce to a simmer and cover until the chicken is very tender. Remove the chicken and shred using two forks (or whatever you want, I guess), then return to the pot with the bulgur. (Now would be a good time to set the Filo out to thaw!) Bring BACK to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, then turn off and leave covered for another 10 minutes or so. Use your judgement on this one.

While that's sitting, preheat the oven to 425. Grind the almonds with the sugar and cinnamon. Take about three sheets of filo and lay them across a pie tin. Brush the bottom with olive oil, then sprinkle with 1/4 of the almond mixture. On top of it, add 1/2 the chicken mixture. Then another 1/4 the almond mixture. Top with 1/2 the apricot compote, then fold the filo over to form a top crust. Or just use more sheets of filo. Brush those with olive oil (generously). Repeat the process with a SECOND pie tin. You could probably actually do this whole thing in a 9x13 casserole pan and do a couple layers of filo, etc. ANYWAY, bake the suckers for 20 minutes, until the filo is browned. Enjoy! IT TOOK LONG ENOUGH.

Thoughts: This was really delicious, but incredibly time consuming. Or I'm just grumpy because I'm cutting back on my caffeine this week. But next time we thought maybe more layers of filo and stuff. Claire thought a little more salt in the chicken. What else? Parsley. Probably a lot of that could go in here. Claire thought maybe incorporate pieces of dried apricot when you do the chicken, rather than doing apricot jam like we did. I think that is probably wise.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - despite our minor complaints, this really killed it. We accidentally AN ENTIRE PIE IN ONE SITTING. So.