Passport & Plate - Nutty Harissa Chicken Stew
Ireland | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 5 photos
Ingredients
Harissa: dried red chillis, ground cumin, ground caraway seeds, smoked paprika, 2 garlic cloves, 2 tbsp tomato puree, 3 tbsp red wine vinegar, olive oil.
Stew: harissa from above, olive oil, 3-4 chicken breasts, 2 onions, 1 red pepper, mushrooms (if desired), 400g sweet potatoes cut into small chunks, tomatoes (chopped), 500 ml stock, juice of a lemon, 3 tbsp fresh coriander. Creme fraiche, mixed nuts, smoked paprika, cinnamon
How to prepare this recipeBlend all of the herbs and spices to make harissa paste. I used a spice grinder and then mixed this dry mix into the tomato puree, but you can use a pestle and mortar if you've got stronger arms than me!
Marinate the chicken in the harissa paste for at least two hours (leaving aside a little bit for later in the recipe), but overnight if possible.
While the chicken in marinating chop up some mixed nuts (pecans and cashews are my favourites) fry these in a little olive oil, paprika and cinnamon. Sometimes I'll add a little salt too. Once these are nice and toasted set them aside for later.
Fry the chicken in a little olive oil until browned and then set aside.
Fry the onions, mushrooms and peppers.
Add the rest of the harissa paste, add in sweet potatoes and stir until completely coated in the paste.
Add in the tomatoes and stock and bring to the boil.
Return the chicken to the pan and simmer.
Transfer all of this to a casserole dish and put it in the oven for 55 minutes to an hour at 180 degrees celcius.
Add the lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with rice, or in a bowl on it's own. Add a dollop of creme fraiche to the top and sprinkle with the toasted nuts.
This is so tasty when you swirl it into the sauce of the dish!
Super Easy! :D
The story behind this recipeIn the summer of 2013 I packed up all of my things and took off across the water. I left Cork with 10 of my friends and set off on a j1 to Ocean City, Maryland!
I have no brothers or sisters so at first I found it difficult to live with so many people! Our apartment was really small and it soon got very messy! I was constantly on everyone's backs forcing them to clean up!
The kitchen was the worst part of the house! It was never clean and with one fridge between all 11 of us, it was hard to manage at times! So I started eating out all the time, something I would never do back at home in Ireland!
Ocean City is a beach town so the food there is mostly fast food! Now I can't lie, I enjoyed sampling all of the fast food that was unique to Ocean City! They have some of the best fries, milkshakes and donuts that I've ever tasted, but after two weeks of eating junk food I started to feel ill! It was time for a change!
I started to research farmers markets in the area and found a great supermarket too! Our kitchen was still pretty disgusting (at one stage we had a LOT of ants!) so I preferred to cook a big one-pot meal and refrigerate my dinners for the week. That way I only had to deal with the kitchen once or twice in the week!
If there's one thing that us Irish can cook, then it's stew! I wanted to be a little more adventurous though as the local markets had amazing herbs and spices! I pretty much put in whatever was cheapest to buy at the time! It was my dish of the summer and the last dish I cooked in America before I left for Cork! I wrote it down to remember it for when I arrived home.
Now it's my go to dish for all ocassions! I've made it for dinner parties and girly nights in and while it doesn't look the most gourmet or refined, it is always tasty!
I'd love to travel and find a new and different go-to recipe, but finishing up my degree means that I haven't been able to save much money to get away! This trip would be such a huge opportunity for me!
