Chickpea Tagine

On a recent sister/mother outing, a few of us got to try Moroccan food. It was a first for me and oh-so-delicious! Now that I'm back home, I've tried my hang at a chickpea tagine that I found online at Vegetarian Times. Naturally I modified mine a little, but I stuck surprisingly close to the recipe. It was easy to make and DELICIOUS. I will definitely be making it again!

Chickpea Tagine

1 lb dried chickpeas (can substitute 2 cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced (about 1 tbsp)

3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into thin rounds

1/4 cup raisins

1 heaping tsp ground turmeric

1 heaping tsp ground cinnamon

1 heaping tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp honey

2 cups water

1/2 cup plain Greek-style yogurt

3 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley

1. Cook dried chickpeas using the method of your choice. My preference is either cooking them in a slow cooker on high for 4-5 hours or on low for 7-8 hours OR using the fast soak method and cooking on the stove top until tender. Once cooked, drain the chickpeas and set aside.

2. Heat oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. Add onions and garlic, and saute 2-3 minutes or until onion slices are soft. Stir in chickpeas, carrots, raisins, spices, honey, and water. Cover and simmer 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

3. Garnish with parsley and serve with a dollop of Greek yogurt. 

Optional: serve with a flat bread such as naan or with rice. 

Enjoy!

Rosemary

Plum BBQ Sauce

So, it appears to be about 3 years since anyone used this. I'm tempted to see how long it would be before anyone notices that this is being posted, but I guess we'll see about that.

Last night was the Pioneer Day celebration here in our neck of the woods, and I was asked to smoke some pork shoulder for the event. Now, anyone who has had my pork knows I'm pretty proud of it, so I took the challenge to do 45 lbs of it on my grill. But of course, that was too easy to do on it's own, so I decided to make a BBQ sauce to go with it. But, it couldn't be just any BBQ sauce. Oh, no. I had to come up with something new, because I'm apparently insane.

In this insanity, I remembered the bags of aging plums we had in the fridge that needed used (we had gone picking a week or so ago) and thought, "Those would probably make a pretty good BBQ base." So I started cutting up plums. And pitting them. Tons. Of. Plums. They were pretty small, so to get as much as I needed took a good 10 minutes.

But then the fun started. I pureed the plums down to a smooth mix, then started throwing in whatever I wanted. "Oh, look. We have some frozen chipotle peppers. In they go. How about some honey from my Christmas present? That smells good." And so it went. I blended it all together, poured it into a saucepan, and cooked it down until it was nice and thick and sticky.

And thus was born my new go to BBQ sauce. Not too sweet, with a nice acid kick and a slow burn on the back of the throat.

The only thing is, I didn't write anything down. Grr. I did my best to try and remember what I did, but I'm not sure what I got wrong, so if you make this, remember you might have to adjust as you go.

So, enjoy.

Plum bbq sauce

All quantities approximate

2 1/2 cups fresh plums, halved

1cup ketchup 

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 

Chipotle pepper canned in adobo (1/4 can)

1/4 cup molasses

1 cup unpacked brown sugar

2 tbs honey

1 tbs red pepper flakes

1 tbs (heaping) each onion/garlic powder

Salt

1/2 cup cocoa powder 

Purée plums with chipotle peppers

Add in everything else and blend all ingredients until smooth

Transfer to sauce pan and cook until thick/desired consistency 

Happy Eats!

Mint