Roasted Chick Peas

I've been addicted to Pinterest lately and run across pictures of food that I have to try. These roasted chick peas really appealed to me but even more so after I went to a local taco restaurant called Taco Asylum and they have these most wonderful roasted chick peas on one of my favorite tacos; the wild mushroom taco.
I wanted crunchy roasted chick peas so my recipe is adapted from this one  I mixed the canned ones in some olive oil, salt, balsamic vinegar and chervil to taste.  I roasted them at 450 for 15 min, then 400 for 10 min, and 300 for 15 more min. I'm no pro. I just didn't want them to burn but I wanted them crunchy. They are a great snack

Recipe: A Twist on Pot Pie, Make it Moroccan

Moroccan Chicken Pot Pie

With kids doing something each night, life has become so stressful. So organization and prep is the key to decreasing my stress. I’m trying to be so organized these days and plan meals that I can make ahead or at least do the prep work for ahead of time. One dish meals are best for my sanity.

On Sundays I plan the meals and shop by Monday for the week. This past week, I roasted 2 chickens. On Monday we ate roasted chicken for dinner and had leftovers. I used that meat for this dish below and I still have the meat from the other roasted chicken that I put in the freezer for something next week. I haven’t decided what yet.

Here is a recipe I found in the Bon Appetit, Dec. 2007 issue and it sounded pretty interesting. I did make some changes because the original recipe had cumin and my husband can’t eat cumin. Also I wanted more color and texture in the dish and a little kick so I added the Tapatio sauce, apricots, marjoram, and artichokes. The pot pie was a huge hit with my family much to my huge relief. So I can now put it in my bag of tricks for another time.

On to the recipe for Moroccan Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds skinless boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon marjoram
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
11/2 teaspoons of Tapatio or Tabasco hot sauce
1 lemon
3 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup of quartered artichoke hearts (I use frozen from Trader Joes)
1 cup imported green olives, pitted, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup golden raisins
1/3 cup chopped dried apricots
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 cup low-salt chicken broth
1 refrigerated pie crust (half of 15-ounce package)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425°F. Mix chicken cubes with paprika, marjoram, and cinnamon in large bowl to coat. Sprinkle chicken generously with salt and pepper. Cut lemon in half; remove seeds. Using small spoon, scoop out enough pulp and juice from between membranes to measure 2 tablespoons. Add to chicken mixture. Add Tapatio sauce; stir to blend.
Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, olives, apricots, artichokes and raisins. Sauté until onion is almost tender, about 4 minutes. Add chicken mixture and stir 1 minute. Sprinkle flour over; stir 1 minute. Add broth and bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Transfer filling to 9-inch-diameter deep-dish glass pie dish.
Place pie crust over dish and seal dough edges to rim of dish. Using small paring knife, cut several slits in pie crust. Bake pot pie until crust is golden brown and juices are bubbling thickly, about 20 minutes.

Source: Mostly the Bon Appetit Dec. 2007 recipe with some substitutions

Coca Mallorquina

3 years ago my husband’s mother passed away. Prior to that we would go to their home many weekends and eat Cuban food prepared by both my mother-in-law and my father-in-law as they shared the kitchen. Since her passing, we really haven’t eaten much Cuban food and my father-in-law seemed not interested in cooking much, even for himself.

For several years, my husband has wanted his father to come to our home and teach us how to make one of the family’s favorite dishes, Coca Mallorcin. It’s a Spanish pizza but my father in law (Nestor) says that you can’t get his version anywhere, even if you spent $100. He says that in Spain, they don’t put enough stuff on the pizza and his version is the best. After eating his version last night, I would have to agree hands down that it is the greatest pizza ever eaten.

I believe one reason Nestor hasn’t made it sooner was because of the time the dough takes to make as well as just his loss of interest in cooking. I had a solution to get him over here and not worry about the dough this time. Thanks to Trader Joe’s and their refrigerated pizza dough, our first problem was solved. Next time we can make the dough from scratch. The next issue I hoped would resolve once he got started.

Our day started at 3 pm with slowly chopping and preparing the ingredients for the dough and at the same time listening to stories of Nestor’s younger years in Cuba as well him sharing his tricks and tips on how to make these cocas different and even venturing into the next time he comes over other dishes he will share with us. He was truly in his element and I hadn’t seen joy like that from him in a long time.

So, on to the recipe:

We made 3 pizzas

Preheat oven to 400

2 bunches of swiss chard

3 prepared pizza doughs

Spanish chorizo sliced (or a hot dried sausage such as Boar’s Head Apprezzese)

1 lb uncooked, peeled shrimp

¼ cup capers

½ cup sliced green olives

1 onion sliced

3 tomatoes sliced

5 cloves garlic minced

Olive oil

Salt

Flour for rolling dough

1. roll out dough to fit onto cookie sheet or pizza pan
2. brush the dough lightly with olive oil
3. salt the dough (we added quite a bit)

4. start adding ingredients starting with ¾ of the swiss chard and end with the remaining swiss chard
5. drizzle olive oil on the pizza
6. bake at 400 until dough is cooked on edges. Swiss chard should be a bit crispy and shrimp should be pink (about 12-15 min)

And of course don't forget a good bottle of Spanish Rioja. We drank Marques de Riscal Reserva 2003. Chin-chin.