lamb tagine

After what I feel was a pretty damn decent representation of Ethiopian food, here we have what I think is maybe a bit of a misnomer. Not that this isn’t good, of course. It’s just…that there is no tagine involved. Like tandoori chicken with no tandoori. What other foods are named after their cooking vessel? Casserole. I don’t know. Aside from that, and maybe aside from the sweet potato, this is still a nice, long-cooked dish with lovely spices and tender meat. I didn’t take a lot of liberties. Though, I had also told myself that the next time I was to make Moroccan food I was going to have made preserved lemon. I didn’t. And I made this anyway. I’m such a let down. Lamb tagine…Moroccan lamb? Sure, whatever. Just make it.
I just realized that I thought I had only posted two African recipes in my blog’s existence. How incredibly embarrassing to admit that it was because I sometimes forget to think of Morocco when I think of Africa. I’m a bad person. Egypt, too. I don’t even know much how to differentiate Egyptian food from other Middle Eastern cuisines. I would like to be more cultured! Maybe that area should get their shit together so I can go visit and eat their food. Idiots. Oh and visit the Egyptian pyramids. Ohhhhh man do I want to do that. I used to be obsessed with Ancient Egypt. I had a Learn to Write in Hieroglyphics! set when I was in elementary school. Pretty, pretty, prettyyyyy cool.

shakshouka with lamb meatballs

I had wanted to wait to make this until I found merguez. There are actually some promising locations that I’d like to scout out at some point, but none of them are particularly close by and the other day I was feeling frazzled about what to make and I couldn’t think of anything else but this, so I just decided to make do without driving all the way across the city. I was also briefly obsessed with trying to make this one Maharashtran Curry recipe. I just knew that if I settled on making that, that I’d spend hours hopping from one Indian grocery to the next in the vain hopes of finding obscure spices. Then I’d come home, headachey, crabby, having wasted all of my good daylight for taking pictures, and then still have nothing to show for it. I’ll just have to casually stop by if ever I’m in any of those ethnic, uh, sections of Denver. I’m sure they’re very nice. I have eaten at a few Ethiopian places to maybe know otherwise. (But OMGOMGOMG I love Ethiopian food.)
You know what else I love? Getting my hours at work cut, and finding out about it by being flippantly handed a new printed-out schedule as the last item at a staff meeting. “Oh by the way, here are some new hours, thanks everyone back to work.” New hours, what like we’re open longer? Open on weekends? What? Oh. OH. I see. WTFFFFFFFFFFFFF What boss does that?? THE WORST ONE. It’s like out of an office-based comedy. Except it’s real. I know you’re not supposed to compromise yourself on the interwebs but I hope any future employer (hello? hi!) would sympathize with me. Seriously, anyone want to hire me? I’m very nice. And I can cook. For you if you’re nice, too. I will also try extra hard not to talk about politics.

moroccan pork skewers + grilled eggplant and leeks

Phew. I hate and love being busy. I can’t even remember what happened the last couple weeks. It’s a big blur of “oh crap it’s 11:30pm, I only completed 2 out of 9 to-dos, and I NEED 8 HOURS OF SLEEP TO FUNCTION”. But I haven’t been eating frozen meals or anything. In fact, I have quite the queue of recipes to post. I can’t give up eating at least a couple fun new meals each week, even if I feel pressed for time. And besides, I pretty much only buy what’s on sale, and since that changes from week to week, it’s just begging for me to try out different stuff.

I found this easy recipe in my favorite little tapas cookbook. I got it years ago on clearance at Marshalls. I was skeptical, but for $2 or whatever, who cares. But it’s great! Everything I’ve made from it has been super good. Plus, they have recipes for all sorts of meat parts. Oh, that reminds me! I got a 1960s cookbook at a used bookstore. It was published by the magazine Sunset and its theme is recipes of the world. But the reason I bought it? Because it’s from the 1960s and the ingredients reflect that. Pretty excited to make something from it.

moroccan roasted chicken with dates

Another near dinner disaster! Weeknight dinners are always a little shaky – I usually get home when I’m ready to eat, having just come from the gym. So when I embark on a full on recipe (and not just a “throw all the leftovers in the fridge in a pan” kind of dinner) at that stage of hunger I can get a little frazzled and crabby. Throw in the fact that I cooked this on a Tuesday and you’ve got danger written all over it. You see, Tuesday is Biggest Loser night. I do not have a DVR and even if I did, I would still insist on watching my two hours of gluttonous, product-placement laden, gloriously lard-esque TV during air time. It’s a routine and I look forward to it every week.

It’s just when Tuesdays correspond to when something in the fridge needs to be cooked that night, or when there are simply no leftovers to chuck in a pan that it becomes like the Perfect Storm. Hungry, frazzled, and about 20 minutes to get all the prep work done before BL comes on. That was last night. Then to top it off, the chicken took a lot longer than I anticipated so I didn’t end up eating until after my show, at 9pm. But boyyyy did this hit the spot!

moroccan eggplant + lentil and couscous salad

Moroccan Eggplant + Lentil and Couscous Salad

 

Ahhhh I love eggplant. My ability to easily eat a whole one in a single setting somewhat offsets the cheapness of them, but still, worth it!

This meal is very easy to make and while I don’t want you to mess with the eggplant recipe too much (oh, it’s so perfect!), the lentil salad is yours to play around with. Use some fresh veggies that you have leftover, or use what looks good at the grocery store. You can serve both of these salad-type dishes cold, hot, warm, or room temperature. Or you can mix and match. Pita makes a fun accompaniment to the eggplant if you’re making just that. With both it might be starch overkill.