Last weekend we decided to have a house ‘Tagine-off:’ Chicken vs Fish. I took on the Chicken dish, Ollie the Fish, with Rakhi coming on board to take care of the bejewelled couscous and yoghurt dressing.
Round 1: Preparation for the Chicken Tagine, all elements assembled. A beautiful Organic Chicken courtesy of the Stocks Farm boys at the Stoke Newington Farmers Market, accompanied by various ingredients: Onions, Garlic, Ginger, Preserved Lemons, Green Olives, Fresh Chervil and Coriander, Turmeric and Raz el Hanout spice.
Round 2: Marinading the Chicken. I cut the Chicken cut into pieces, combined it with most other ingredients, and left it to sit for several hours.
Round 3: After roughly two hours of gentle stove-top Tagine cooking, here was the result. A deliciously tender, falling-off-the-bone Chicken Olive & Lemon Tagine.
Ollie gets to work on the Fish Tagine, massaging the marinade into chunks of Grey Mullet, freshly bought from the Stoke Newington Market fishmonger.
The finished fish Tagine, with precooked Green Peppers and a rich Tomato Sauce. Needless to say, there were no losers in this contest.
