Day 15- Pumpkin Soup with Honey and Cloves

Greetings on the last day of the challenge! It's been a long, but very tiring 15 days. Thanks to everyone who's checked out my culinary adventure and left comments. Now on to the last meal- Pumpkin Soup with Honey and Cloves.

the yummy ingredients

Soups are such an excellent dinner option over here. Traditionally lunch is the biggest meal in Morocco, so dinner doesn't have to be a big deal. Soups are warm, filling and delicious! For this soup, I started it as I usually do- in the morning. That's another thing I love about soups. I can start it as I'm making lunch and not be in a hurry in the evening.

I started by cooking the carrots and onion in butter. The recipe called for celery, but I don't have any over here and I don't really like it anyway. I upped the onion and carrot a bit to make up for the lost volume.

Once the carrots and onions were soft, I added the chicken stock (from cubes....sorry), pumpkin and whole cloves. This mixture simmered for about a half hour until the pumpkin was soft.

After the chunky soup cooled, I pureed it in two batches using my sweet blender (I love that thing). I ruined my first blender by not waiting until the soup cooled. Turns out heat cracks the plastic- oops! In the end I returned the soup to heat and added the honey and cream (creme fraiche!)

The creme fraiche is a bit runnier than the heavy cream they recommend, so I couldn't do a very nice decorative swirl, but it still looks pretty good I think.

The verdict: Great soup! The flavor from the cloves was subtle, but noticeable and the honey added a lovely sweet touch. I generally make my pumpkin/carrot soups with ginger, but this was a nice change of pace! If you like soups, by all means try this one. Mohamed agreed- a solidly yummy soup!

Check out the full recipe here: Pumpkin Soup with Honey and Cloves from Epicurious

So now that the challenge is over, what's next on Teresa's Pieces? That's a great question. I learned a few things from this process- 1) It's fun to be a regular blogger and 2) It's awesome to try new food! So, while it won't be on a daily basis I hope to continue posting recipes from time to time. Maybe I'll even add a few of my own. So stay tuned!

See you all next year ;-)

Day 14- Martha Stewart's Mac and Cheese

The reviewers of this recipe claim that Martha's Mac and Cheese is hands down the best mac and cheese you can make. Well, of course I had to put it to the test!

 Of course, substitutions had to be made. The selection of cheeses here in Morocco leaves a lot to be desired. No cheddar or any kind (ok, ONCE I found a cheddar, but it was not very good and I only saw it the one time). In place of cheddar I used Edam (red ball). It's the most common cheese here and it's not too bad. I also used parmesan in place of the gruyere as Mohamed didn't really like it. (We had it  on day 8).

First you prepare the croutons that will go on top. Tear up some quality white bread- I used a baguette which didn't yield much once I removed the crust. Next time I'd double it because those croutons were good!

Then I melted some butter and tossed it with the bread. This gets set aside until just before baking.

The next step is the cheese sauce which is only slightly more complicated than the croutons. In one pan, you heat the milk. In another melt more butter. After the butter's melted, you add some flour and cook it up for about a minute.

When the butter/flour mixture is ready, you add the hot milk and continuously whisk the mixture until it thickens and starts to bubble.

Once the milk mixture has thickened, the fun begins! That's when you add most of the cheese as well as salt, pepper, cayenne and nutmeg. I even ground my own nutmeg for the first time. It's true, I've learned a lot over these 14 days ;-). When the cheese sauces is all mixed up, you set it aside and make your macaroni. Instructions say to cook the macaroni until it's *almost* done as it will cook further in the oven.

Assembly begins once the noodles are cooked. Combine the macaroni with the cheese sauce and then dump it all into the casserole dish. Mmmmmm cheesy goodness!

On the top, I added the rest of the two cheeses as well as those croutons that I made earlier. If (let's be real- When) I make this again, I'll double up those croutons because they were excellent.

Twenty minutes in the oven and it's done! My oven is not the greatest- notice 2/3rds of the croutons are darker than the others. It is piping hot when it comes out, so try to restrain yourself and give it 5 minutes to set before digging in. (Good luck, I didn't make it!)

For an appetizer I made steamed artichokes. I had these for the first time a few weeks ago and my friend Sarah's house and they are yummy! Dipped in a garlic butter sauce of course...

The verdict: hot, creamy, cheesy deliciousness! Even with my cheese substitutions this was so comforting and good. I can only imagine if I had cheddar! This was also a HUGE hit with the boys. Mohamed gave it a 10/10. If you remember, prior to today there was only one 8/10 given (day 2) so this was serious. Mohamed also had seconds which he hasn't done in quite some time. Even Mohamed's brother finished his bowl! Abdelmalik is a chronic leaver of food...

So it's true, Martha really does make the best Mac and Cheese. At least that's one mystery solved. Find the complete recipe here- Martha Stewart's Mac and Cheese.

Tomorrow is the last day of the challenge! (Booooo Hissssss) I know, it's sad, but I'm ready for a vacation from my vacation cooking challenge. The last recipe is a soup that I'm very excited about- also from Epicurious- Pumpkin Soup with Honey and Cloves. I can't believe it's day 15 and this is my first soup! Hope it's good. See you all tomorrow.

Day 13- Chicken and Chickpea Stew

Wow, day 13! You've probably noticed that my posts have been a little bit lacking. I'm getting tired! 15 straight days of planning, shopping, cooking and documenting seems completely reasonable before you've started, but wow am I ready for a break!

But that's part of the challenge, I suppose. Plowing through and making it happen one dish at a time. I've now got a whole new appreciation for all of you usual food bloggers out there!

Anyways, to the dinner at hand. Even though I did a chicken and chickpea dish last week, I couldn't help but try this Chicken and Chickpea Stew recipe from SELF Magazine via Epicurious.

Coming from SELF magazine you know it's going to be healthy. Just look at those lovely ingredients! The only thing I didn't have was whole wheat couscous. You can buy it here, but my husband doesn't have it in his shop and I didn't feel like a trip to the grocery store.

The recipe also calls for boneless chicken breasts, but I decided to use some chicken that we had in the freezer. So, I cooked them in some olive oil for a few minutes on each side. Then I removed the chicken and added the onions, garlic and spices (sorry, no photo). These cooked for a while and then I added the chicken back in along with the rest of the ingredients.

Chickpeas, tomatoes and zucchini make this a very colorful dish! This is very close to the 7 vegetable couscous that we eat almost every week here in Morocco. This is just cooked for less time and is missing some of the veggies.

To my husbands dismay, I even cooked the couscous per the instructions in the recipe- instantly! Even though a most of the couscous here is instant, a majority of Moroccan ladies still slave over theirs for at least 3 hours every Friday. 

Put the chicken and sauce on the couscous and you're done! Here I've served it the Moroccan way. In the recipe the couscous is eaten on the side. Whatever floats your boat I suppose.

The verdict: This was solidly good, but not fantastic. It got really excellent reviews on Epicurious, but I'm guessing it's because most of those people haven't had traditional Moroccan couscous ;-) Prepared this way it was easy, quick and healthy. What more can you ask for? 

Tomorrow I'm 98% sure that I'll be making Martha Stewart's Macaroni and Cheese. There's no photo with this recipe, but I'm sure you all know what this stuff looks like. Reviews claim that this is the BEST MACARONI AND CHEESE EVER! We'll see if that's true.