It is 7 pm, I’m rushing home from the gym in the freezing Wisconsin winter darkness. I am starving and counting the minutes until I am supposed to have dinner ready. I love this. I thrive on this. Work hard, run hard and then make my kitchen smell like street corner in Marrakesh.  Tonight’s menu for a long overdue friend date: Lemon Chicken and Moroccan Spiced Couscous.

I have had the good fortune to travel to Marrakesh to taste a true Moroccan chicken tagine.  It is a beautiful marriage, the gentle tang of preserved lemon rinds, all hint of sour bite coerced out from its flesh through long hours of marination- joined by  briny green olives no larger than a Dhiram  infuse the chicken with the very essence of the country.

Ok, I digress (and fly back in my mind to the square where it is common place to carry a monkey around for company).  Returning to Monday’s dinner, it was , I suppose a bastardization of Moroccan cuisine. Yet, for a weekday supper it makes full use of cumin, couscous and cucumber— all things that, when combines, do a damn fine job of bringing a little of the Middle East to Madison.

The recipe easy: chop, boil, spice, sauté.  Have these spices on hand you’re good to go.  The carrots and the cucumber are wonderful in the couscous, but peppers, jicama, radishes or whatever other fresh crunchy vegetable you have will do the trick.

Lemon Chicken with Moroccan Spiced Couscous

For the Couscous
1 10 oz box whole wheat couscous
2 cloves garlic, minced and divided
1 teaspoons cumin
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup raisins
1 cucumber sliced the long way into quarters (so you have long strips) then diced.
1 big red bell pepper, seeded and cut into ½ inch cubes
1 big carrot, peeled, quartered the long way and cut diced up
¼ cup lemon juice

For the Chicken
4 chicken boneless skinless chicken breasts
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
1 lemon
Salt and pepper

1 package spinach or arugula (optional)

Place chicken breasts a large ziplock bag and add salt, cumin, lemon juice and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Allow the chicken to marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes or up to 3 hours in the fridge

Bring the chicken broth, spices, garlic and salt to a boil in a  large pot and add the couscous, stirring to break up clumps and remove from heat. toss the raisins across the top, cover and allow couscous to soften for about 10 minutes.  Transfer couscous to a large bowl and add vegetables. Season with the lemon juice, a dash of good olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Cover to keep warm and to soften the veggies.

Meanwhile, heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large heavy bottomed pan on medium heat until hot but not smoking.  Toss chicken in the pan and saute until done, about 6 minutes per side, or more depending on thickness. Allow chicken to rest for 5-10 minutes.

Scatter greens over each plate, top with couscous and finish with a perfectly charred chicken breast. for a little decadence, drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice. Eat and Enjoy.

This simple dinner tastes great on the way in and does good things for your health once it is there.  Very low fat, a good amount of fiber from the whole wheat and a straight shot of lean protein from the chicken. Cumin and turmeric can help aid digestion and tummy functions and just the mere scent of cinnamon may boost you brain function.  All parts of you body will love you after this meal.

Happy eating, stay warm.

Its been a long weekend of meat, grilling and more meat. I want to eat something as far away from barbecued ribs as possible. (Although the four our grill process produced a fantastic result, but I’ll get to that later). Its time for a light summer dish, fresh and roasted vegetables over fresh pasta. And as the days roll by, the tomatoes just keep getting sweeter. I made this first in the spring when English peas were in high season, so last night I adapted it to the ingredients available this weekend at the farmers market.

Raw and Roasted Veggie Pasta

Fusilli Pasta
Bell Peppers
Zucchini
Summer Squash
Sweet peas or shelling peas
Tomatoes (separated in to two batches)
Basil
Italian Parsley
Olive oil, Salt, Pepper, crushed red pepper

Back in the spring, sitting in Erica’s tiny hot kitchen, we spent a lazy hour speaking in accents, sipping our wine and chopping vegetables. Recounting the story the next day, my mother insisted I pass along the recipe. I think recipes in their original form are fun, and so I included my email via blackberry from aboard the El heading downtown.  The bolded words are ingredients updated for the current season.

I can’t recall the pasta’s name exactly, but I want to say Fusilli, anyway, something short and twisty.

Roast the peppers, Zucchini, Summer Squash and tomatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper. While that is happening, boil water for pasta. Shell or chop in pieces and blanch snap peas. Chop up raw tomatoes and reserve. Julliene basil, chop parsley.

When pasta and roast veg are done, toss the veg and the pan juices with the hot pasta. Add peas, fresh tomatoes and herbs. Top with a dash of olive oil, ricotta salata, crushed pepper flakes ( if you want ) and of course, salt and pepper!

Its clearly a throw together meal. But it has some serious health and history value. And on a detox week, whats better than that.

Benefit 1: Taking advantage of the season! The riper the tomato, the higher level antioxidants in its flesh = the more cancer-lickin’, heart helping properties within. And let’s face it, those tomatoes we Minnesotans get in January are simply not ripe nor tasty.

Benefit 2: All these veggies are full of vitamins, especially A, and C. Dig in to fortify your eyesight,  boost your immune system and even keep your babymaking parts healthy.

Benefit 3: You get to experience Ricotta Salata cheese, the more complicated step brother of regular ricotta. Ricotta, meaning “recooked” is made from the left over whey from producing a cheese like provolone. That whey is collected  and recooked to form a smoother, creamier version of American cottage cheese. Ricotta salata, salata meaning “salted” is first salted then compressed to form a drier, firmer cheese. Its similar to feta in texture. Check back with me later this week, I am going to try to make my own!

Staring into the teeth of 2010, I of course will not be making any foolish New Years Resolutions that involve giving up chocolate cake, a good steak or (god forbid) my beloved carbohydrates. But here is what I am looking to achieve.  And you dear reader have to keep me honest.

1. The only dietary tweak of ‘10 will be a true effort to pay attention to my cholesterol.  Yep, my number is SUPER high.  Think 75-year-old-overweight-male-smoker, and that’s me.  I will try to think when I’m eating. I’ll let you know how that goes…..(do I have to limit my cheese intake?)

2. I am taking a class called “Plant People Interactions.”  Most people take it as a science distribution credit if they are not “science minded” kids.  What to many is a joke class, Plant-People is my nirvana.  There is a unit called “Legumes.”

Ok, so the second isn’t really a resolution, but it feeds into the real one…

3.  I resolve to post every single week, incorporating ways to be heart healthy with my knew plant knowledge and of course keeping it tasty, well fed and fully imbibed.

All my love and I’ll be back at you shortly,

Ellie

PS:  Did you know that a turnip is not a tuber like a potato but actually the root?

December tastes good with Jameson and Ginger Ale, a first course of cheeses and bread and this beautiful Rosemary Chicken with Tomatoes and Beans.

Rosmary Chicken Photo by Justin Evidon

What are you getting from this combination of deliciousness (besides the possibility of a hangover?)

Skinless chicken breasts and navy beans are healthy, low calorie ways to take in some protein; the tomatoes help stave off colds (and cancer) with anti-oxidants and vitamins A and C;  and rosemary tastes great and helps immune system stimulation and increased focus!

Thank you to the Daily Northwestern for their interest in this blog and a BIG BIG thanks to all the NU people reading!  If you like, take a look at my interview in the Weekly Section of Wednesday’s paper.

Coming soon to I’d Rather Be Eating….

Eating adventures over two epic nights at The Publican in Chicago,
an owners dinner at Quince in Evanston
and a locavorian feast at Harvest in Madison, WI

Keep eating everyone!

For ten or twelve blocks, street vendors fill the road, people mill about and the beat of 7 stages of jazz music pulses through every vein, ever heart and every soul.  Everyone feels the urge to dance, and some (myself most definately included) actually get groovy on the pavement.

The jazz was excellent, but of of course I was captivated by the variety of culinary melodies, harmonies and symphonies that came in the form of the Indian bread naan cooked in a tandoor oven (a “melody”), fresh shucked oysters with butter (harmony) or the prefect afternoon sushi sampler at Yoshi’s Jazz Club.

Naan is the generic name for (delicious) bread from India and other south Asian countries.  It is quite old, the first recorded mention dates back to 1300 AD.  Traditionally, naan is stuck to the side of the Tandoor oven like in this picture, though it can be made in your oven at home.   Tandoori food gets its name from the tandoor oven and is more a method of cooking than anything else. The naan is ready to eat when it is just about to jump into the hot coals that have imparted their delicious smokey flavor into the bread.

Don’t they just look delicious?? I think the aphrodisiac effect of the oyster is increased with sultry tenor sax in the background….

Ooh, if that doesn’t make your mouth water you must be missing a gene (no I’m just kidding). From the left clockwise: Unagi (eel), whitefish, maguro (tuna), Hamachi (yellowtail), salmon, scallop and shrimp.  Addmitedly, I might be wrong about the hamachi and whitefish, maybe it is the other way around.  Scallop sushi is the most devinly soft and silky thing I have ever had on my tongue, it is like biting into the way a good pillow feels on your tired head: comforting, welcome, and almost sinfully perfect.

The expanse of cultural food at even the more commercial stands was refreshing in and of itself.  It made me love San Francisco even more: Mexico borders Hawaii bordering texas alongside the neighboring United Kingdom. Oh, and across the street? Vietnam, Puerto Rico and New York.  Quite excellent.