I have made chicken bastilla quite often but never with shrimps. Originally, I was thinking of a vegetarian version, then I thought shrimps would be a good idea. Bastilla is a Moroccan dish usually filled with meat or fish/seafood and wrapped in filo dough, topped with almonds and cinnamon.

The base is of the chicken bastilla, then the difference is that I didn’t use cinnamon nor sugar. I didn’t think it would go well with shrimps, beside I am not a fan of cinnamon. I made a layer of spinach with preserved lemons and kalamata olives, topped with shrimps, and I loved it. This became my favorite thing to make for the moment.

Ingredients for a bastilla (2 people)

For the shrimps mixture

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 medium yellow onion
• 1 tsp ginger, grated
• 1 lb shrimps, peeled and deveined
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tbs cilantro, chopped
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 1 saffron dose, dissolved in 2 tbs hot broth
• salt and pepper
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 4-6 sheets of whole wheat filo dough (or regular filo dough)
• butter, melted
• 2 tbs silvered almonds, toasted

For the spinach mixture

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 cups baby spinach
• 10-15 kalamata olives, chopped
• 2 small preserved lemon (or one large), rinsed and minced
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the shrimp mixture

Heat olive oil in a pan, add onions and cook a few minutes (do not brown) add ginger and cook a few extra minutes. Add shrimps, stir until they turn a little pink but not cooked. Add cumin, coriander, paprika, garlic, cilantro and saffron. Sir well and let it cook until the mixture is cooked and water evaporated. Add egg and cook well. Adjust with salt and pepper and remove from heat.

For the spinach

Heat olive oil in a pan. Add garlic and stir until fragrant. Add spinach, salt and pepper. Cook stirring until spinach is wilted. Squeeze excess water with your hands. Add lemon and olive and mix well.

In two round pans of about 10 cm diameter, coat bottom and sides of pan using a brush. Cut filo dough sheets lengthwise and place those 2 strips of dough at bottom of the pan in a way that the border of the dough shifts to one side. Brush with more butter. Proceed three more times. Sprinkle toasted almonds. Add the last layer of dough.

Place spinach at the bottom, spreading evenly. Add shrimp mixture and start covering the shrimps folding the filo dough edges on top of the shrimps. Brush with butter at each stage of the folding process. Brush again the last sheet of dough.

Sprinkle almonds on top and cook on a pre heated oven at 375F until golden brown.

This was a dish I made while I was in France…since my dad was in the hospital, my mom and I just cooked simple meals because by 1pm we needed to be at the hospital. Tagines are wonderful if you don’t have to much time to eat but still want to enjoy a healthy and flavorful meal. Clay pot cooking is one of my favorites, and as soon as you try it, you will have a difficult time going back to a regular-pan cooking. It preserves all the aromas of each ingredient and infuses all the flavors together.

Like in papillotes, you can cook anything you like in tagines, just be creative, with a little audacity, and you’ll get a fabulous dish. A couple of years ago, it was not as easy to find a tagine claypot, but nowadays, most stores carry them (at least in California);  tagines are becoming more trendy, simply because it has traveled outside borders and everyone has discovered their health benefits, and still keeping amazing aromas.

I have seen many types of couscous in France (in France we call the actual grain semoule, couscous being the Algerian dish, made with vegetables, meat and semoule) different kinds of whole grains, such as kamut, quinoa, spelt, etc…since my mom had diabetes, I tried to make dishes that were good for her, or at least that did not aggravate her diabetes. This quinoa couscous is a perfect grain to go with any tagine. Of course people who don’t like squid can use other ingredients such as shrimps, or white fish. I kept the couscous simple with no major strong flavors, to really enjoy the tagine broth, couscous being a minor addition in this meal, necessary but secondary.

Ingredients for 3

• 1 lb squid
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 1/2 leeks, cut in 1 inch pieces
• 1/2 lb fava bean, peeled
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tsp ras-el-hanout
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1 inch ginger, grated
• salt and pepper

For the quinoa couscous

• 140 g quinoa semolina
• 1 tbs olive oil
• vegetable broth
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• salt
• cracked pepper

Preparation

For the tagine

Heat olive oil in tagine and brown the onions. Add leeks and cook for about 5 minutes. Add squid, and all other ingredients except for the fava beans. Mix all ingredients well. Bring a pot of water to a boil, and cook fava beans for three minutes. Remove from heat, drain and peel fava beans. 10 minutes before end of cooking time, add fava beans to the tagine, cover and let it cook for another 10 minutes. Sprinkle with fennel leaves or mint and serve with couscous.

For the quinoa couscous

Proceed like for a regular wheat couscous. Bring vegetable broth to a boil. Coat couscous with olive oil using your fingers. Add broth to the couscous, cover and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Using a fork, separate the grains, add lemon juice and cracked pepper. Adjust with salt if necessary. For broth quantity, I cover the couscous with 5mm of extra broth above couscous.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2011/03/ocean-tagine-tagine-with-squid-fava-beans-and-leeks-and-simple-pepper-quinoa-couscous/feed/ 10 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2010/03/whos-in-for-okra-spicy-okra-green-beans-and-shrimp-stew/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=whos-in-for-okra-spicy-okra-green-beans-and-shrimp-stew http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2010/03/whos-in-for-okra-spicy-okra-green-beans-and-shrimp-stew/#comments Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:29:22 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=8729 Qui est pour le gombo? -  Gombos, haricots verts et crevettes épicées

What’s up with okra? My feeling is that very few people like it. Now, I have to admit that I never cooked okra before, and always ate it at my Indian friend’s house…I never was motivated to buy it and found other vegetables I was more attracted to, mostly because, anyone who is talking about okra doesn’t seem to like it, due to its sliminess, so I was not really convinced it was worth it.

After seeing a beautiful picture of a okra and anchovy dish on Mary’s site, I changed my mind and attempted a little experiment. I loved Mary’s recipe, but obviously I will leave to her, the Asian techniques, recipes and flavors, since I am no expert in Asian cuisine, but will definitely try out her recipe once I find those tiny anchovies.

Okra is popular in Moroccan cuisine and West African lands, so I figured I would go that route, and spice it up in some tomato base, shrimps and add green beans to the mixture. It is indeed slimy so, you should know that before you prepare it and before you eat it, not everyone likes that particular texture.

If you want to decrease its sliminess you need to leave it whole and stir fry it quickly. In case you would prefer a vegan version, just substitute potatoes to the shrimps and it will be nonetheless delicious. Any rice or grain would be a perfect accompaniment, I served it with toasted walnut bread and garlic et c’était bien bon, and the whole dish was really delicious! Now you’ll certainly ask me what’s the greatness of cooking and eating that quite unappealing vegetable? To be quite honest, I like it, the mixture of the tomato base flavored with cumin and saffron, green beans and shrimps made it a delicious and light dish. I liked okra’s flavor, it reminds me of zucchini, so if you are not bothered by its texture, try it out. I am not picky as far as vegetables are concerned and there is not one I don’t eat.

You’ll have to see for yourself if you like it or not. For the sake of at least once cooking it and trying it out, I think it’s worth it. As the French say, Il ne faut as mourir bête! (you don’t want to die stupid, or maybe the word ignorant would be more accurate).

Ingredients for 3-4

• 3/4 lb okra
• 1/2 lb green beans
• 1 small yellow onion
• 5 medium sized tomatoes, peeled and seedless
• 1/2 cup vegetable broth
• 20 shrimps, deveined and shells removed
• 1 tbs ginger, grated
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• chili flakes
• saffron
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Cut the top part of each okra, cook in salted boiling water for about 5-10 minutes. Drain and set aside. Pre-cook beans the same way, they still need to remain firm.

Heat olive oil in a pot, brown onions with ginger, add garlic at the end to prevent it from burning. Add cumin, chili flakes and saffron, stir well to get the flavors out, then add tomatoes and broth.

Let the tomatoes cook and reduce (about 15 minutes) at medium heat.

Add okra and green beans, let it cook for about 10 minutes. Add shrimps, and let the stew cook for another 10 minutes.

Sprinkle with cilantro, and serve hot.

It looks like artichoke season is starting and you see them come out on the shelves, one of the largest producer being close to the Bay Area in Castroville (they claim to be the artichoke capital of the world, which is quite a big statement, but they certainly do produce a lot of them), we have in San Francisco, lots of beautiful artichokes, the babies, the medium, the large, you pick which one you want. I even planted some in the garden, but seems like it takes over 300 days for them to grow, so I cannot count on my own crops this year!

I had some fresh chick peas left from last week and I just wanted to use them in a tagine. They remain green and taste so good but cook very quickly so when using them in a dish, they only need to cook for 15 minutes or so, therefore add them at the end. I love tagines, I could eat them every day. The flavors of all the spices infusing with all those wonderful vegetables is a pure pleasure to cook (and to eat of course too). After 10 minutes of placing the tagine in the oven, the house starts to be filled with incredibly aromas. It’s like a pure perfume. Ca embaume.

As in the majority of my tagines, I used Ras el hanout which is a traditional mix of Moroccan spices and literally means “the roof of the grocery store” in arabic. A few common spices included in Ras el hanout are cardamom, mace, cloves, nutmeg, pepper, lavender, ginger, nigella, turmeric, etc..but so many more. It’s used in Middle Eastern cuisine to enhance many dishes such as couscous, meat dishes, etc…

The composition of Ras el hanout can vary from 24 to 21 spices but can go as far as 40 spices, so there are so many variations of Ras el hanout as there are cooks, manufacturers and tastes. I bought a big bag of spices in a Moroccan grocery store in France that will last me my lifetime, and that is a very nice blend, not one spice overpowering the mix, and a very well balanced combination. Unfortunately the manufacturer did not include the list of the spices he used, so I am afraid I won’t be able to know what has been used and to what quantity. In France we have a huge Arabic population, probably the biggest among all other European countries, which means a lot of stores with great products and very inexpensive.

Anyone who loves artichokes and spices, will really enjoy this dish, besides the beauty of tagines is that it might take you a while to clean the artichokes, and peel the potatoes, but then you just put it in the oven and cooks by itself, comme une grande fille!

Ingredients for 4

• 2 large potatoes, peeled and cut in big squares
• 8 medium size artichokes, trimmed
• 5 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 1 large red bell pepper, cut in big square
• 1 cup fresh chick peas
• 1.5 tbs Ras el hanout
• 1 preserved lemon, cut in 4 quarters
• 1/2 cup green olives, cut in halves
• chili powder
• salt and pepper

Preparation

In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients together except for the chick peas and using your hands mix well.

Place the vegetables in your tagine pot, cover and cook in a pre-heated oven at 390F for about one 1h30 min. Add chick peas 20 minutes before removing tagine from the oven. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve as a side dish or as a main dish, with a quinoa or couscous accompaniment.