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Sweet’n’Spicy Chicken Tagine

Dinner is served!

ByBilalBham | On March 05,17 | 2 Comments

I haven’t made a tagine for a while and felt inspired after hearing from my sister from another mister, Hanane. Hanane and I have been friends for about a decade and have become family, with me visiting them and her and her mother visiting us. On my visit to Morocco, I knew I didn’t want to come home without a tagine, and so Hanane and her family helped me get an excellent one for pennies from the Atlas Mountains! Whilst we were visiting Marrakech, we stopped by a road seller selling tagines of all sizes, and I got one for about 50p!

During my time with Hanane and her family, both over in Morocco and here in England, they cooked some wonderful tagines for me, and my mother and I also cooked our slightly spicier versions, and I must say, mum is quite fond of using the tagine!

I wanted to cook something healthy, spicy (not too spicy), sweet, filling, rich in protein and healthy carbs, and this is what came to me! My Sweet’n’Spicy Chicken Tagine! It was a lot tastier than I thought it would be and it looks like I will be cooking it again for mum and I!

If you don’t have a tagine, then a casserole dish should do the job too!

INGREDIENTS

3 chicken breasts

1 red onion

1 white onion

1 regular onion

1 spring onion

3 cloves garlic

1 cm ginger

1 cm turmeric

1 red chilli

1 green chilli

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

3 sweet peppers

20 pitted dates

1 teaspoon dried coriander

Salt and pepper to taste

A pinch of saffron

6 tablespoons olive oil

RECIPE

Chop up the garlic, ginger, and turmeric, move to a bowl and add 3 tablespoons olive oil, saffron, dried coriander, salt and pepper.
Clean the chicken breasts, coat them with the mix in the bowl and leave to marinate in the fridge whilst you prepare the rest of the tagine (you can leave it anywhere from 30 minutes to overnight to really get the flavour infusion).
Slice the onions and sweet potatoes, and wash the chillies and peppers.
In the tagine, add 3 tablespoons of olive oil, and the red, white, normal and spring onions, covering the bottom and side of the tagine.
Cover with the tagine lid and cook on a raised bracket on low to medium heat for about 10 minutes, until the onions begin to caramelise.
Place the chicken over the onions, cover and leave to cook for 10 minutes.
Turn the chicken and leave to cook for another 10 minutes.
Turn the chicken again and add the chillies, peppers and dates across the chicken and sides, and leave to cook for 5 minutes.
Add the sweet potatoes on top and leave to cook for another 10 minutes.
Sweet’n’Spicy Chicken Tagine is served! (If you wish, garnish with fresh coriander, parsley, basil or even mint!).

Sweet'n'Spicy Chicken Tagine is served! — Sweet’n’Spicy Chicken Tagine is served!

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Eating time: 15 minutes

Serves 2 to 4 people – mum loved hers!

Let me know how you get on and please feel free to provide feedback 🙂

Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch, Snack, Teatime

Super Soya Yoghurt

ByBilalBham | On April 04,15 | 0 Comment

When one is on the type of restricted diet that I am because of my acid reflux, IBS, and lactose intolerance, and leads a very active lifestyle encompassing my quest for a 6-pack where I attend the gym 5 times a week and dance salsa several evenings a week, one has the absolute need for highly nutritious food for needs to replace the forbidden food! I can’t have dairy so milk and Greek Yoghurt are out! I can’t have refined carbs so cereals, bread, rice and pasta are also out!

But I am a man! I need fibre! I need sugar! I need roughage! And I don’t want to have to reduce myself to raw carrot and sugar snap peas all the time (I do enjoy them but come on, every single day?!) for a snack when I want and need something filling!

Enter my Super Soya Yoghurt! I created this initially with porridge but after speaking to my PT who suggested removing the oats and dairy, I decided to switch to simply using soya (which he disagrees with!). This dish takes about 10 minutes to put together because I have all of the ingredients in separate tubs (yes, I am THAT particular!) and packs a serious nutritional punch encompassing all of what we need! We have a plethora of vitamins, minerals, healthy carbohydrates/sugars, fibre and protein, that’s what makes this yoghurt super!

I tend to have this has a small meal when I don’t want to have cooked food, usually late afternoon or evening, and with a cup of Spicy Masala Chai, it definitely hits the spot!

My collection of Dried Fruit, Nuts, Seeds, Spices!

INGREDIENTS

250 mL Soya Yoghurt

Natural Forever Bee Honey

Dried Fruits

1 teaspoon Dried Cranberries

1 teaspoon Pitted Dates

1 teaspoon Banana Chips

1 teaspoon Apricots Whole Pitted

1 teaspoon California Seedless Raisins

1 teaspoon Sultanas

1 teaspoon Currants

1 teaspoon Dried Blueberries

4 Prunes Whole Pitted

4 Sun Dried Mango

4 Dried Apple Rings

4 Diced Pineapple pieces

8 Diced Papaya pieces

Nuts

4 Whole Cashew Nuts

4 Brazil Nuts

4 Walnut Halves

4 Pecan Halves

8 Macadamias

8 Hazelnut Kernels

4 Almonds

Seeds

1 teaspoon Pine Kernels

1 teaspoon Pumpkin Seeds

1 teaspoon Sunflower Kernels Hulled

1 teaspoon Brown Linseed

Spices

Sprinkle of ground Cinnamon

Sprinkle of ground Nutmeg

INSTRUCTIONS

Add all the dried fruit, nuts and seeds in a bowl.
Pour in the soya yogurt.
Squeeze on the natural bee honey.
Sprinkle the ground cinnamon and nutmeg on top.
Mix it up and dig in!

Preparation time 10 minutes

Eating time 10-15 minutes

Let me know how you get on and please feel free to provide feedback 🙂

Breakfast, Snack, Teatime

Spicy Masala Chai

ByBilalBham | On March 18,15 | 0 Comment

If you go to an Indian (or any Asian subcontinent) household you won’t simply be offered tea, but a choice of “English or Indian/Desi tea”!

What is the difference you may ask? Well, English tea is what we are accustomed to here in the UK: boil water, add to the kettle/mug with teabag, add milk, sweeten to taste, and voila!

Indian tea on the other hand requires a bit more than just hot water! First of all we use spices to help create that familiar scentsational aroma and up the antioxidants…. and then, depending how milky you like it, you can have 100% milk, 50-50 milk and water or 100% water and add some milk at the end. As you may know, I am lactose intolerant so use alternative non-dairy milk, and use sweetener from the stevia plant instead of sugar because it’s healthier!

You can purchase a quick and cheap version of this on the high street in coffee chains. On of them calls their version of it “Chai Tea Latte”, Chai means tea and latte is Italian for milk, so they are advertising “Tea Tea Milk”! Urgh! One of my pedantic gripes!

Here is how we make Indian tea in our home which serves 2 people.

INGREDIENTS

3 mugs of soya milk/almond/hazelnut/coconut milk

Stevia according to desired sweetness

4 small cinnamon sticks

4 cardamom seeds

8 whole black pepper

8 clove seeds

Small shaving of nutmeg seed

2 tea bags/4 spoons of loose tea (tea bags are easier to clean up!)

INSTRUCTIONS

1) On 3/4 heat, add all ingredients into a saucepan.

2) Stir until your tea to ensure good mixing – the darker your the, the stronger it will be!

3) Let the tea cook for about 5 mins.

4) Bring your tea to the boil a couple of times by increasing and then decreasing the heat, all the time ensuring you continue to stir – make sure you don’t let your tea overflow!

5) Breakfast or teatime, your Spicy Masala Chai is served!

Let me know how you get on and please feel free to provide feedback 🙂