Friday. 18/09/2015. 'Chicken and Date Tagine with Cauliflower Couscous.'

Those recipes are taken from 'Good Food' September 2015 issue. Page 114. But said to be adapted from 'In the mood for Healthy Food' by Jo Pratt. 
















This dish delivered on flavour but also on the variety of textures from the fluffy couscous, to the crunchy flaked almond passing by the fleshy yet almost melting in the mouth dates. 

Although I do like the vibrant cuisine of North Africa, I am not particularly fond of dates but one can only admit that they are good for you. The tradition of breaking a fast with a date indicates a fruit full of significance about its wholesomeness nutrition wise. 

The spices in the recipe lift that tagine to a straight pleasure singing in your palate. The cocktail of garlic, ginger, cloves, saffron, turmeric, cinnamon, cayenne pepper comes together within the juice of an entire lemon. 

I like saffron, however it can be quite expensive when on a budget. So I decided to start growing it and we received our bulbs of 'Crocus Sativus' recently. The beautiful, orange/red, fire like strands in that crocus are Saffron. They are only three strands within a beautiful purple flower. This is why they are so precious. It's a nice project that we are undertaking for our personal culinary use to have what we love on our table. It's economical but also enjoyable because those flowers are so beautiful. I can't wait to see them blossom in the pots.

They are trends and phases and you know what I mean, when you see something going like a new craze. Being addicted to food magazines, I couldn't help but notice the amount of recipes, months after months, using that humble vegetable, the Cauliflower, which used it in novel ways. Of course I had to try one for myself in order to understand what was that new fad all about.

Turning a Cauliflower into couscous was a novelty to me and a fun one to do. The operation doesn't involve pulling your hairs out but just blitzing the Cauli into a food processor. Nothing arduous so far, then just treat it like couscous in a frying pan within a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, then just add the lemon juice and coriander: Bob is your Uncle. Easy peasy.  Now, I must say, the texture was light, the taste well rounded,and it was not like I ever had cauliflower before. Verdict: I will have it again.

Beside it counterbalanced well the slight heaviness of the dates to bring that dish to a truly enjoyable level.





 We rated the dinner as a 4 stars and it will come back however with our date with the dates over, it will have less dates in it next time. We are going to slash the amount by half from the 300g to 150g to suit our taste better.