Day 12- Lamb Chops with Poached Quince and Balsamic Pan Sauce

Doesn't this one just sound fabulous? As soon as I saw the name I knew I had to make it. Quince is an odd fruit and something I'd never heard of before coming to Morocco. The first time I had it was in a tajine made by my first host mom. The tajine was simple- onions, beef, quince and an absolutely divine sauce. I couldn't get enough!

That said, quince isn't exactly an easy fruit to deal with. It's basically a bigger, lumpier, harder version of an apple. I tried to make a tajine with it once, but made the mistake of not cooking the quince first in water. It ended up being hard and not very tasty.

the ingredients- I doubled the quince and made extra sauce

For this lamb chop recipe, I started by simmering the sliced quince with some thyme in apple juice and sugar.

When the quince was nearly ready, I started work with the lamb chops. Simple enough, I just sprinkled with salt and pepper and cooked for around 3 minutes per side in some vegetable oil.

my first lamb chops!

When the quince is nice and soft, you separate them from the juice and set aside. I put the quince and the cooked lamb chops in the oven to keep warm while I made the pan sauce.

For the sauce, you boil the apple juice from the quince until it reduces. Then you remove the juice from the heat and add balsamic vinegar, butter, rosemary and oregano.  I didn't have any fresh herbs, so I added a reduced amount of the dried version. Then before serving, I strained out the herbs.

A-MA-ZING

Finally, just put the dish together. We were eating it Moroccan style (on one plate with bread). I wish I'd taken some photos of it arranged nicely on individual plates. It would have looked so much nicer. Oh well, here it is!

The verdict- Holy Amazing. This is hands down my favorite dish so far on the challenge. Absolutely everything was perfect. The meat was tender, the quince was incredibly soft and sweet and the sauce was just insanely good. Mohamed liked it as well, but did comment that it was VERY sweet. It's true, this is a sweet dish. If sweetness isn't quite your thing, I'd recommend reducing the sugar by half or removing it all together. Also, with the original recipe each person would only have a few slices of the quince, so the sweetness would be better balanced by the lamb chops. 

I highly recommend this dish! Find the entire recipe on Epicurious here: Lamb Chops with Poached Quince and Balsamic Pan Sauce.

For tomorrow, it's more chicken and chickpeas. A great combination, I can't wait to try this recipe for Chicken and Chickpea Stew.

photo by Kana Okada for Epicurious

Day 11- Tofu Aloo Gobi (Cauliflower and Potato Curry)

Minus the tofu! Not that I wouldn't include it, but I don't think I've ever seen tofu in Morocco...a country of meat eaters.

I originally had a butternut squash lasagna recipe on tap for today. The recipe still sounds super delicious, but after reading the comments left by reviewers it just seemed like more work than I was ready to handle after the busy holiday weekend filled with cooking.

So, I've decided to go quick, easy and vegetarian for this evening. And this Tofu Aloo Gobi recipe from Epicurious has no reviews! So I had no idea what to expect. 

Since I don't have any tofu, I'm increasing the amount of veggies in the recipe. I also don't have any dry mustard. The dish started as most good ones do, with garlic browning in olive oil. 

Next the potatoes are added with some water. Then the cauliflower and the spices. Finally, tomatoes and peas! The recipe had this entire recipe cooking for a total of 20 minutes. I left mine to cook significantly longer than that as after the 20 minutes were up, the cauliflower was still raw!

At first taste, this was really quite bland. I added some more of the spices hoping to help it out, but there wasn't too much improvement. I also added additional water to help in the cooking process and to create a little bit of sauce. 

The verdict: Unfortunately, this was really bland and completely un-exciting. Maybe the tofu and dry mustard is just too important to leave out, but it didn't have any of the thick, creaminess that usually makes curries so yummy. If you dig veggies, try it out! It wasn't bad, just nothing to write home about.

Tomorrow is day 12 and I hope to be back to my old self! Today's photo documentation was totally lacking and the recipe itself was boring. Boooo. I am really excited for tomorrow though. We'll be having Lamb Chops with Poached Quince and Balsamic Pan Sauce. This looks DELICIOUS and has wonderful reviews. And how exciting to be making my first lamb chops! See you then.

Photo by Brian Leatart for Epicurious

Day 10- Whole Fish Baked in Sea Salt

And Merry Christmas!

Christmas morning is always such a wonderful, relaxing time. Everyone in jammies, sitting together and drinking some delicious hot drink. Thanks to the wonder of Skype I was able to see join in as my family in Michigan did just that. I even got to watch them open their presents! Almost as good as being there. Almost.

Mohamed and I had a nice morning as well. For breakfast I made an Egg and Potato Breakfast Scramble. I found this recipe via my new love- Pinterest. We also enjoyed steaming hot mugs of homemade Chai Latte. All this time in Morocco I've been going without- who knew I could have been making it all along! You just need cardamon pods, cloves, ginger and a black tea bag.

Christmas breakfast- scramble and chai!

After breakfast we leisurely opened our stockings from each other and each found some delightful treats.

When we were feeling about ready for lunch, we started the main recipe of the day. It's another one from Epicurious- Whole fish baked in sea salt. I ate a fish baked in sea salt when I was in Egypt, so I was particularly excited about this.

Our whole fish!

I apparently didn't communicate well with the fishmonger as we discovered in trying to work with the fish that it still had scales and a spine! Luckily, Mohamed is extremely helpful in this department. He got rid of the scales and even figured out how to remove the spine so that we'd have space to stuff the fish.

For the filling, you start by toasting coriander, black pepper and fennel seeds, then crushing them up. You also thinly slice a lemon a few leeks. Stuff all of this into the fish!

spices toasting

Lemons and leeks

Stuff it all in!

Mohamed even closed it with string. He's so good.

Then you prepare a mixture of egg whites, water and salt to coat the fish with. I think this is the part I screwed up (can't get through a dish without doing something wrong!). I used the amount of egg whites and water that they called for, but less salt. So, the mixture was too liquid-y.  Anyway, you coat the fish in the salt on the baking tray.

coated with salt and ready to bake

We cooked it for longer than the recipe called for, but the salt didn't form the crust that it should have. I'm guessing due to too much liquid in the salt mixture. You're supposed to just break the crust and brush it off. We had to sort of scrape it and it still left too much salt on the fish. It tasted great on the inside though!

The verdict: This was yummy, but next time I'll reduce the amount of spices on the inside as it was a bit overpowering. I'll also be sure to get the ratio correct on the salt coating! Overall though, this was really easy and quick to make. And fish is something we don't eat enough of, so this is a pretty low hassle way to add more to our diet. It also made a memorable Christmas lunch.  

If interested, find the recipe here: Whole fish baked in sea salt. Hope all of you have a great holiday.

On deck for tomorrow (five days to go!)- TBD. I had a recipe planned, but now it just seems like too much work. I'll be on the hunt for something great!