Chicken and red fig tagine with almonds and raisins
It's been a while since I used my tagine, the Moroccan cooking vessel with a conical lid that collects the fragrant vapours and drips them down again. In this sense, it has something in common with our humble potjie (three-legged cast-iron pot).
But this recipe was conceived when I opened a packet in a cupboard and wondered what was in it. It was the dried red figs I'd bought in Calitzdorp, Klein Karoo, a few months ago. My mind went to the tagine on a dresser in the front dining room, then to chicken. A recipe was born.
But this needed more. More fruit. And nuts. In the end, I bought a 100g packet of pitted raisins, and some whole almonds. These would be toasted and scattered on top when serving.
But I was feeling adventurous, so I made my own harissa paste too. This is not necessarily Moroccan – more Tunisian, although it can generally be thought of as a north African condiment. It is made chiefly of red chillies and garlic, with seed spices such as cumin, coriander, fennel and sometimes caraway. A whole red pepper is the centrifuge of it, if you like, the background force that holds it all together, along with olive oil. Citrus, usually lemon, is sometimes added.
I left out the citrus, because I knew that I was not going to be using all of it – I only needed two tablespoons, in fact. The rest is now in the fridge. It consists of: a red pepper, 20 red chillies, 20 garlic cloves, one red onion, ground cumin, fennel and coriander seeds, and olive oil. The reason I honed it down to these is because it means I can add it to all sorts of curries. Or to stews for a bit of a kick. Citrus would get in the way of that, altering a curry's flavour profile.
It remains a traditional harissa paste however, because citrus and caraway aren't requisite ingredients in one.
But that's not the whole story. I also made a simple mix of ground spices – cumin, fennel, ginger, cayenne pepper, paprika, turmeric, coriander, black pepper – to rub onto the chicken portions before frying them at the start of the cooking process. And a cinnamon stick went in too.
To start with, I fried the chicken thighs in De Rustica Olive Estate's hand-harvested cold extracted medium extra virgin olive oil, which I keep near the stove and grab it at will when cooking. It comes in a one-litre cylindrical box with a tap, like a tall, round wine box. I see online that it retails for R310. Any 'evoo' today is an indulgence with a scary price, so I just use it sparingly. Sort of.
Finally, I toasted raw almonds in a dry pan to enliven them, and scattered them on top before serving, with some chopped coriander leaves.
Tony's chicken and dried red fig tagine with almonds and raisins
(Serves 4)
Ingredients
For the harissa:
1 heaped Tbsp each of these seeds: coriander, fennel and cumin
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 large red pepper, diced
20 garlic cloves, crushed, husks removed
20 red chillies, whole
100 ml olive oil
For the spice mix:
½ tsp each of ground cumin, fennel, ginger, cayenne pepper, paprika, turmeric, coriander, black pepper
For the tagine:
8 chicken thighs, skin on
All of the above spice mix
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
1 cinnamon stick
5 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2 cups chicken stock
2 Tbsp harissa paste
16 dried red figs, whole
100 g seeded raisins (not counting the 5 you munch before putting them in the pot)
Salt to taste
2 cups couscous
50 g roasted whole almonds, toasted
A small handful coriander leaves, finely chopped, for garnish
Method
Make your harissa paste:
Trim the red pepper and red onion and chop up roughly.
Trim the stems off the chillies.
Crush the garlic with the flat end of a heavy knife and discard the husks. Leave the cloves whole.
Add the seeds to a dry pan and toast over a moderate heat until they begin to smoke, then turn off the heat. Process them to a powder in a grinder or with mortar and pestle.
Put everything in a food processor, pour in the olive oil and blend until as fine as it will ever be. There will be a little texture at the end.
Mix your spices for the chicken: the ground cumin, fennel, ginger, cayenne pepper, paprika, turmeric, coriander and black pepper.
For the tagine:
Pat the chicken pieces dry. Rub the spice mix onto all sides of the chicken portions.
Heat olive oil in the tagine base on a moderate heat and, when hot, add the chicken thighs. Brown well on all sides.
Add the chopped red onion, cinnamon stick and garlic cloves.
Stir 2 Tbsp harissa paste into the chicken stock and pour it in.
Add (to the tagine) the dried red figs and raisins, salt to taste, bring to a boil, and reduce to a gentle simmer. Put the lid on, as always when cooking in a tagine.
Leave it to cook gently for about half an hour, for the chicken portions to be cooked all the way through.
Before serving, toast the almonds and set aside, then make the couscous. Measure 2 cups of couscous and add to a bowl. Pour in the same quantity of hot (not boiling) water. Stir and leave it for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
Spoon the couscous onto plates, add the chicken, fruit and sauce from the tagine, scatter almonds over and sprinkle with coriander. DM
Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the Year award, in 2021 and 2023.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Maverick
13 hours ago
- Daily Maverick
Lekker Brekker Monday: Ratatouille scrambled eggs
Tomatoes, courgettes and onion are combined to make the base of a one-pan scramble. Ratatouille doesn't have to be as complex and 'cheffy' a thing as the plotline of the famous movie would demand. And Anton Ego isn't going to twitch his critical nose in disgust at the mere sight of this simple breakfast. And that's the point: it's easy and it's quick. And who has the time to spend an hour over making breakfast anyway. Ratatouille can have a number of ingredients in it but at its core it's about tomatoes, courgettes, onion and — if this weren't intended to be eaten at breakfast time — garlic. I generally leave garlic out of any breakfast recipe, for the obvious reason that we don't want to be breathing it over everyone we see that day who hasn't had garlic for breakfast. Leave garlic to lunch or dinner. But aubergine (brinjal) is often found in ratatouille too, and peppers (capsicum) can make an appearance. Fresh herbs are de rigueur, so I included parsley, but basil, thyme and/or oregano would all be welcome. I restricted it to the aforementioned tomato, onion and courgettes, otherwise this scramble would have been unwieldy. Tony's ratatouille scrambled eggs (Serves 2-4) Ingredients 6 XL eggs 4 Tbsp olive oil 1 medium white onion, sliced 4 small courgettes, sliced 3 ripe tomatoes, chopped ⅓ cup chopped parsley Salt and black pepper to taste Method Chop and slice your vegetables. Heat a little oil in a pan and sauté the onion until lightly golden. Remove to a side dish. Add more oil, heat, and add the sliced courgettes. Cook, stirring, until they have softened and taken on some colour. Add all the chopped tomatoes, season with salty and pepper, and continue to cook until it smells fragrant, 3 or 4 minutes, stirring. Add most of the parsley, return most of the onion to the pan, and stir to combine. Break the eggs into a bowl and whisk. Add the beaten egg and cook, stirring and scraping, until the eggs have cooked. Taste, adjust seasoning if needed, and serve, with the remaining bits of onion on top and some chopped parsley to garnish. DM Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the Year award, in 2021 and 2023.
Daily Maverick
3 days ago
- Daily Maverick
AirFryday: Cheesy stuffed mushrooms, air fryer style
There's a lovely bite to these mushrooms thanks to the red chillies in them, and they're deliciously cheesy too. Here's another mushroom recipe for the air fryer, not long after I shared this simpler one with you. The big brown fungi are in fine form right now, and when in season any fresh food is likely to be at its best, so take advantage. These are quite different though – this recipe is as much about the stuffing (and they really are stuffed, which I'll explain) as it is about the mushrooms themselves. Here's a tip: that little stem that stares at you when you turn a mushroom upside down is best removed. Its texture isn't nearly as nice as that of the cap, and – especially if you're going to stuff a mushroom – it gets in the way. So, just use a small, sharp knife to cut around the edge of it and pluck it out to be discarded. Another tip: don't just pack your ingredients in, one after the other. Chop and grate everything and put it all in a small(ish) bowl, mix it together with a fork (and season it as well in the process) and then spoon it into the mushroom. Pack it down firmly, using the pack of the spoon, and keep packing more stuffing in until it's all used up. If at this point the mushrooms are not yet full to the brim and you've run out of stuffing, grate extra cheese and pack it on until they're slightly convex at the top. Right? With an upwards curve, rather than down… a meniscus if you like. My stuffing mixture comprised a smallish red onion, grated cheese (I used a mixture of smoked Dutch cheese and Emmental, but any good melting cheese will do), chopped fresh parsley, 2 red chillies (that is, per four mushrooms), fresh garlic, salt and black pepper. I cooked them in the air fryer at just 160°C for 14 minutes, at which point they were beautifully browned on top. Tony's stuffed big brown mushrooms, air fryer style (Makes 4 stuffed mushrooms) Ingredients 4 big brown mushrooms 1 small red onion, finely chopped 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped ⅓ cup parsley, finely chopped 2 red chillies, seeded and finely chopped Salt to taste Black pepper to taste Olive oil spray 2 cups cheese, grated Method Cut the stems out of the mushroom and season the insides lightly with salt and black pepper. In a small bowl, mix all of the stuffing ingredients together, including the seasoning, and stir with a fork until properly combined. Spoon it evenly into the four mushrooms and pack it down tightly. Preheat the fryer to 160°C. Spray the bottom of the fryer with cooking oil spray. Spray some on top of the stuffed mushrooms too. Air fry at 160°C for 10 minutes, check to see if the top of the stuffing has browned to your liking, and continue cooking for 2 to 4 minutes more if you'd like them to brown some more. DM Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the Year award, in 2021 and 2023.
Daily Maverick
6 days ago
- Daily Maverick
Souper Tuesday: Italian wedding soup
There's something special about this dish, despite its apparent simplicity. And no, you don't consume this at Italian weddings. Names can be misleading: this soup has nothing whatsoever to do with weddings – not even Italian ones. The only marriage in an Italian wedding soup is between the vegetables, meatballs and pasta it contains. 'Italian wedding soup' is a translation of minestra maritata (soup marriage), but it's the sofrito, the Italian equivalent of France's mirepoix (onion, celery, carrots), that are spliced with meatballs and small pasta in a broth, that make the marriage work. So it's a rather saucy ménage à trois, rather than a conventional marriage. But, for me, the two elements that make this dish special are the tiny meatballs you make by hand, and the parmesan that brings everything together at the end. They are the factors that create an impact of flavour that is not quite there until these ingredients are added. Suddenly, everything changes. The meatballs aren't your standard frikkadel. They're small, made from about 1 teaspoon of a minced meat mixture. And they're made of both beef mince and a kind of pork mince. This can be simple minced/ground pork, or Italian sausage. I interpreted this in my own way, using a chunk of pepper salami that I happened to have in the fridge and which I shredded as finely as I could. It's bound with an egg. So my version will be peppier than most, unless you use a milder salami or other Italian sausage instead. Recipes tend to call for a mild Italian sausage. But what's wrong with a bit of extra flavour? There's also parmesan in the meatballs, as well as breadcrumbs (I used panko), parsley, garlic and oregano. Baby spinach, or escarole (a green leaf in the chicory family), is another ingredient, although I had to swap this out with another green leaf as there was none in my local shops. When you see that I used basil instead, understand please that my small-town life means I sometimes have to compromise. So just get down to Woolies or Checkers and grab some baby spinach instead. The carrier for the soup is chicken stock. You can make your own (recipe below) or use liquid stock dissolved in water. The pasta is meant to be acini de pepe (tiny pasta shaped like grape seeds, hence the name acini, plural of acino, meaning grape), though orzo (pasta resembling rice) is often substituted. I added a strip of hard old parmesan rind to the soup, though this is not usually found in traditional recipes for this broth. Regarding the pasta: here we go again, I thought, as I scanned the pasta sections of three local supermarkets: no small pasta at all. So I boxed clever: I did find some capelli d'angelo (angelhair pasta), which I chopped up. That's a first in my kitchen but it worked out really well. I loved the fine strips of this pasta in my soup bowl. Seasoning the soup with salt is important, and do it to taste. It is meant to be fairly salty, but don't go too far. Tony's Italian wedding soup (Serves 4 generously) Ingredients For the chicken stock: 1 chicken carcass, chopped up 1 large onion, roughly chopped 2 carrots, roughly chopped 2 celery stalks, roughly chopped 3 leeks, roughly chopped 4 cloves Handful of parsley, chopped 3 thyme sprigs 1 scant tsp black peppercorns 1 tsp salt 4 litres cold water Method: Add all ingredients to a large stock pot, cover with cold water, bring to a boil, reduce to a brisk simmer and cook for 2-3 hours until you have about 2 litres of stock. Strain into a jug or bowl and discard the solids. For the meatballs: 1 jumbo egg 250 g lean minced beef 250 g Italian sausage, very finely chopped (or minced/ground pork) 3 heaped T panko crumbs 3 heaped T finely chopped parsley 3 heaped T finely grated Parmesan 3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped 1 tsp dried oregano 1 tsp coarse salt 1 tsp black pepper A drop or two of olive oil for forming the meatballs For the soup: 3 T extra virgin olive oil 1 large white onion, finely chopped 3 medium carrots, diced 2 celery stalks, diced 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 2 litres chicken stock, or dissolve 8 sachets of liquid chicken stock in 2 litres water A strip of old Parmesan rind 2 cups finely grated parmesan Salt and black pepper to taste 100 g small pasta such as acini de pepe or orzo 100 g baby spinach leaves (or about 16 basil leaves, torn) More parmesan, finely grated, to serve Method For the meatballs: In a large bowl, beat the egg lightly and add the minced beef, very finely chopped salami or other Italian sausage (or ground pork), panko crumbs, chopped parsley, finely grated parmesan (Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano or other hard parmesan cheese), dried oregano and garlic, and season with salt and black pepper. Mix the mixture lightly with clean hands. Pour a drop of olive oil into your palm, rub your palms together, take up small amounts (about a teaspoonful) of the mixture and form them into balls. Put them on a plate. The mixture made exactly 40 little meatballs for me. Add olive oil to a heavy frying pan on a moderate heat. Fry the meatballs in batches on all sides, for 3 to 4 minutes per batch. Shake the pan to keep rolling them around. Drain on a plate lined with kitchen paper. For the soup: Chop the onion, carrots and celery and cook gently in olive oil, stirring now and then, for 8 to 10 minutes. Add the chopped garlic, season with salt and black pepper, and cook gently for a minute or two more. Add the chicken stock and parmesan rind to the soup, bring it to a simmer, and cook gently for about 10 minutes. Stir in the 2 cups finely grated parmesan. Add the pasta and cook gently until just tender (al dente). Turn off the heat. Add the baby spinach leaves to wilt in the soup immediately before serving. Or tear basil leaves into small pieces and stir into the soup. Serve in wide bowls (to show off the meatballs and other small bits and pieces) sprinkled with finely grated Parmesan. DM
