Day 6- Roast Chicken Breasts with Garbanzo Beans, Tomatoes and Paprika

Greetings on day six! It seems that everyday something goes wrong in the kitchen. This time, it was the fava beans that I bought to make the Egyptian Ful. I bought fresh ones and didn't think anything of it until I shelled one of them and found a beautiful green bean. Egyptian ful is brown! Turns out I needed dried fava beans with the outer shell still attached.

Oh well, it's vacation so I go with the flow! I switched days six and seven and made the Roast Chicken Breasts with Garbanzo beans, Tomatoes and Paprika from Epicurious. This was a really quick and easy recipe. Also not very exotic so for all of those picky eaters out there ;-)

The ingredients minus the chicken

I started by making the spice mixture. The recipe calls for smoked paprika, but I didn't have any of that so I used a mixture of hot and sweet. The paprika plus garlic, cumin and oil. Some of the mixture gets added to some plain yogurt to make the sauce, some gets rubbed onto the chicken and the rest is mixed in with the chickpeas (garbanzo beans) and tomatoes.

a little cilantro makes the mixture very pretty!

Roast the chicken with the tomato mixture and top with cilantro and yogurt sauce. Bon Appetite! 

The verdict- Mohamed and I were mixed on this one. He thought it was one of the best so far (tied with the Cod dish) while I wasn't super impressed. It was good. Definitely hearty and I could eat chickpeas all day long. I also really liked the yogurt sauce with the chicken. Generally though, it didn't seem all that flavorful. I'm convinced I did something wrong as the reviews for this recipe are all extremely positive. Maybe using the smoked paprika would have made a big difference? You should try it out for yourself!

Up for tomorrow is the Ful Medames. For real this time!

Day 5- T'fina Pkaila (Beef Rib and Meatball Stew)

This Tunisian dish struck my fancy as soon as I laid my eyes on it. Individually I love all of the ingredients (meatballs, white beans, spinach), so together it must be magic! It did appear a little bit of a meat overload though and being that I feed only 3 people, I decided to make it without the ribs.

Meatball ingredients

You start with the meatballs. These were fairly similar to the ones I usually make, but without garlic and with cinnamon and an egg. I'm not very good at mincing, so my onion was probably a bit larger than the ideal.

Mixed, molded and ready to go

You brown the meatballs on all sides for a few minutes and then put them aside to start the soup. (This is when I got a much anticipated Skype phone call from my friend Rebecca! My happy distraction means you have fewer photos- sorry!) The soup starts as anything delicious does, with garlic and onion sizzling in olive oil. This is one of my favorite smells. Soooo good! At that point if you were adding the ribs, you'd do so.

As I was skipping the ribs, I just added the beef stock and the meatballs. This also made the dish much quicker to make- no need to let the ribs simmer for 60 minutes! After the meatballs are fully cooked, you add the spinach and white beans along with some salt and pepper as needed. 

The verdict- Delicious. I absolutely loved the spinach, white bean, meatball combination. As one reviewer said, the meatballs are HEAVILY spiced. I can still taste the pepper on my tongue and I at 45 mins ago. If you're not into strong flavor, I'd cut the cumin and black pepper down by a third. Skipping the ribs was also a bonus as the rest of the recipe was quick! Perfect soup for a cold evening. Mohamed approved as well giving it a score of 7/10. The only recipe so far that's scored better was day two's Roasted Cod on Garlic Croutons!

If you'd like to try it out, find the recipe on Saveur here- T'fina Pkaila

For day six we're going Egyptian! I at Ful Medames almost everyday while I was doing my TEFL course in Alexandria. They're cheap and delicious! We'll be eating ours sandwich style in a pita topped with cucumber/tomato salad. Oops! Another case of me buying the wrong thing. Fresh fava beans do not equal dried ones (apparently). Check for this on Thursday instead.

photo by CIA/Keith Ferris for Epicurious

Day 4- Fettucine with Sausage, Sage and Crispy Garlic

(the camera lens was fogged up- eek)

Those of you following the challenge may be startled by the last-minute recipe change. Day four was supposed to be T'fina Pkaila and don't worry, it's not out. Do to circumstances outside of my control (ok, that's a lie) I was not able to get any spinach today. Spinach is readily available in Rabat, I just somehow picked the three places where it wasn't and then was too lazy to keep looking.

So instead, I did tomorrow's meal today. It's another one from Epicurious and this one came HIGHLY recommend by my colleague and friend Sarah who is doing her own challenge. This Fettuccine with Sausage, Sage and Crispy Garlic looks delicious. 

I was anxious to get started so I did all of the prep first and that was really the longest part of the whole recipe. Removing the casings from the sausage was gross. Especially because the turkey sausage that I got was spiced. Lots of weird things in the mix- the imagination goes a bit wild. Then of course thinly slicing garlic is always a treat!

fairly simple ingredients once again!

The first step was frying the garlic to a light crisp. I made my first mistake (oops) of the recipe here. I misread and fried them in just a tablespoon of butter. It seemed to take an oddly long time to get them lightly browned. It was until a few steps later that I wondered what I was supposed to do with the oil called for by the recipe. Turns out I was supposed to fry the garlic in a tablespoon of butter AND a half cup of oil.

crispy garlic slices- would have been crispier with oil!

After removing the garlic, you add the chopped sage and then finally the sausage. Since my sausage was spiced, it was a little bit difficult to tell when it was "browned." It never browned, it just stayed red!

is it brown yet?

After the sausage mixture is ready, it's time to mix with the fettuccine! I didn't find any fettuccine, so I went with tagliatelle instead. I think the fettuccine would have been better- the tagliatelle is a bit too thin. Top with crunchy garlic and cheese and your done! The recipe calls for Asiago, I used parmesan. 

The verdict- It gets better as you eat! When I first tried it, I wasn't very impressed. As some reviewers said, the noodles are a bit dry and I really couldn't taste the sage very much. After we started eating though, I found that I couldn't stop! The parmesan really makes the dish. Mohamed thought it was great as well and couldn't stop picking at the bowl even after we finished.  I think I will make this again, but next time with more sage and maybe some pasta water to make it more saucy.

Tomorrow will DEFINITELY be T'fina Pkaila (Beef rib and Meatball stew) from Saveur.