Recipe: Couscous Azindessi

This is my contribution to Global Table's Cook Along for Benin.  I also made a lemon flan, which was yummy, but kind of fell flat... so I won't share that recipe unless someone really wants it..

This chicken dish, with couscous, in a delicious tomato-peanut sauce, is wonderful.  I served it with some steamed spinach with a little black cumin seeds thrown in.

Couscous Azindessi (from Benin)

3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp chicken boullion powder
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, fat removed
1 can stewed tomatoes, drained.
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 1/3 c chicken broth
3 Tbsp peanut oil
4 Tbsp smooth peanut butter
1 tsp salt
1 c couscous
1/2 c dry-roasted peanuts, crushed
4 green onions, thinly sliced, for garnish

 
Mix the garlic, crushed bouillon cube, ground ginger, and pepper. Coat the Chicken
with this mixture. Set aside.

In a blender, combine the tomato, onion, and 1 c of the chicken broth. Blend until fairly smooth. Set aside.

In a saute pan over medium-high heat, warm 2 Tbsp of the oil. Cook the chicken, turning with tongs until browned on all sides.

Add the tomato-onion-broth mixture. Cook, covered, until the sauce comes to a low boil, about 5 minutes. Stir in peanut butter. Reduce heat to medium. Continue cooking, covered, until the Chicken is tender, 20 to 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the oven to 325  F. Pour the couscous into a 9-13 inch baking dish. In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, bring the remaining 1 1/3 cups chicken broth, the salt, and the remaining oil to a boil. (I boiled in a jar in the microwave). Pour over the couscous. Stir once. Cover tightly with foil and bake until the couscous is tender, 12 to 15 minutes.   Remove it from the oven, and fluff it with a fork.

Stir in the peanuts. Mound the couscous in the center of a warm shallow serving platter. Surround with the chicken and top with the peanut sauce. Garnish with the chopped green onions and serve.

Recipe: Egg & Cheese Pie

This week, Global Table is visiting Belize.  To participate in the Cook-Along, I found this interesting recipe for Egg & Cheese Pie.

I mean, sure, I could have made Rice & Beans, or Beans & Rice, or something with fish or shellfish (check out this recipe!  If I thought anyone in my family would eat it besides me, I would have made it...)  I wanted to make something that I thought people would eat, and something different and interesting, and having all the ingredients on hand was definitely a bonus!

Verdict:  It's delicious!  It's interesting!  It was easy and quick!

And I think it would have been better with curry powder.  Or onions.  And I modified it slightly to make it a little healthier.  I bet that people in Belize are not using fat free evaporated milk.

Still - it was a winner.  I served it with mashed sweet potato and carrot, sweetened with a little honey and brown sugar, and that was wonderful.  I recommend that combination whole heartedly.

Belizean Egg & Cheese Pie

6 hard boiled eggs
1/2 c shredded cheese (I used parmesan - something with more bite would be delicious)
1 Tbsp butter
3/4 c fat free evaporated milk
1/4 tsp pepper
1 Tbsp flour
1 c bread crumbs

Hard boil the eggs (add eggs to water, bring to a boil, put cover on, remove from heat, let sit for 10 minutes).  Make white sauce by melting butter in a sauce pan, stirring in flour and cooking for a couple of minutes, stirring in evaporated milk, and then the cheese, stirring until thickened.
Cut eggs into slices. Put alternate layers of eggs, sauce and bread crumbs in a pie plate. Sprinkle top with a little more cheese.  Bake 15-25 minutes at 350 F.

Then, you eat it all up.

Recipe: Belgian Raisin Breakfast Bread

As part of Global Table's Cook-Along, I went in search of a recipe from Belgium that wasn't waffles or beer or stew.

I also wanted to use up some of the whey strained from my Crockpot yogurt.

I found this fantastic raisin bread.

It's completely lovely and not super sweet like a lot of raisin bread.  It didn't have any cinnamon in it (my husband asked for cinnamon in the next batch), but we put some cinnamon sugar on top of it.  I made the dough in my bread machine, but it could be done by hand.

My mother and sister asked for this recipe.  I will be making it again.  With cinnamon in it. 

Belgian Raisin Breakfast Bread

2 c whole wheat flour
3/4 c milk (or whey)
2 egg yolks
4 Tbsp butter (melted)
2 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 c raisins

Combine ingredients except for raisins in bread machine in the order specified by your machine.  Set on dough setting, adding more flour or more whey to get a non-sticky dough that sticks together.  Near the end of the cycle, add in the raisins (my machine beeps when it's time to add things that you want to stay more or less whole).

After the dough cycle is done, press the dough into a rectangle. To form a loaf, make sure the surface of the dough is free of any excess flour, then stretch the dough into a rough rectangle. Fold in the short ends of the dough until it is approximately the length of the pan, then fold the far long edge over to the middle. Fold over the other long side and compress to form a tight cylinder. Place the dough in the pan, seam side down. Cover with buttered plastic wrap. Allow the loaf to rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

When the loaf is almost doubled, set a rack in the middle level of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees.  When the loaf has completely risen, place in the oven and bake until it is deep golden and the internal temperature is about 200 degrees, about 30 minutes.