Culinary Fool

When the ingredients for Paper Chef were announced on Friday, I was torn between sweet and savory and then decided to do a bit of both using one part of the recipe two ways. 

The ingredients for this round are:  buttermilk, Medjool dates, honey and eggs. 

I started with the savory dish.  As is usual for me, many different substitutions would work and, in fact, adjusting the seasoning to your particular tastes is recommended.  This is a fragrant and hearty dish.  As an alternative, instead of topping with the biscuit add cooked rice to the dish about 15 minutes before removing it from the oven.  I opted to make a single serving but if I had been making a larger quantity I would have used my traditional tagine instead of a casserole.  Either will work fine, though. 

Moroccan Spiced Chicken Cobbler
Serves 1

½ cup Chicken Stock
1 tsp Saffron, crumbled
2 Star Anise
½ tsp Coriander Seeds
1 tsp Honey
¼ cup Medjool Dates, pitted and halved or quartered
1 apricot, sliced or ¼ cup dried apricots halved
1 small dried hot chili

½ Yellow Onion, chopped into 1” pieces
1 large Garlic clove, chopped
2 or 3 young Sweet Onions, root end trimmed and green end trimmed to 6”
1 Chicken Breast, cut into several large pieces
¼ cup Flour
½ tsp Ras el Hanout
½ tsp Indian Garam Masala
¼ tsp cinnamon

Olive oil for sautéing
Salt and Pepper to season

Topping
1 cup Flour
1 ½ tsp Baking Powder
¼ tsp Salt

¼ cup cold Butter, cubed

¼ cup Buttermilk
1 Egg, lightly beaten
1 tbsp Honey

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Heat Chicken Stock almost to a boil. While it is heating, crumble Saffron into a small casserole. Add Star Anise, Coriander Seeds and 1 tsp Honey to the casserole. When Chicken Stock is heated, pour over spices in casserole and let sit while you continue with preparations.

Mix Flour, Ras el Hanout, Garam Masala, Cinnamon and Salt and Pepper, in shallow dish. Dredge chicken in flour and set aside.

Add about 1 tbsp Olive Oil to a sauté pan and heat until almost smoking. Add chopped Onion, garlic, and young Sweet Onions. Sauté until just starting to turn color. Add additional oil, if needed and then add Chicken and brown on all sides.

Add the Medjool Dates, Apricots and Chile to the casserole. Add the Chicken, chopped Onions and Garlic to the casserole. Cover the casserole, place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Continue sautéing the young Onions until tender and completely caramelized, then set aside.

While Chicken is baking make the topping. In small bowl mix together the Flour, Salt and Baking Powder. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Mix together the milk, egg and honey. Add all at once to the flour and mix until mixture just comes together.

When the Chicken has baked for 30 minutes, remove the cover and drop several tablespoons of the topping batter over the top. Return to the oven and cook an additional 30 minutes until topping is golden brown.

Scoop some of the Chicken mixture and topping into a shallow bowl, add the reserved young Onions and serve. (You should also look for a remove the chili.)

If you have extra topping scoop into large mounds on parchment covered baking sheet. Bake at 400°F for 20 minutes until biscuits are browned. Use for shortcake or as a dinner biscuit.

Next – a little dessert!  I had so much fruit left after making the Market Stall Tart that I wanted to use as much as possible.  I actually could have added some of the blueberries to the chicken dish, but didn’t think about it until just now! :-)  Instead, I decided to use the biscuits I’d made from the leftover topping as the core of the dessert.  Now, I could have added dates to this mixture to satisfy the entire set of required ingredients, and some people might like that combination, but it didn’t appeal to me.  So technically, on its own, this dessert doesn’t make the cut – but it could have… :-)

Berry Shortcake
Serves 2

2 Biscuits from recipe above
2 cups mixed berries or fruits – I used strawberries (from my yard!), blueberries, raspberries & kiwi
1/2 cup yogurt (plain or flavored)
1 tsp honey

Split the biscuits in half.  Place the bottom halves on plates.  Top each with 1 cup of the mixed berries.  Place top half of biscuit on the fruit. 

Mix the yogurt and honey until blended.  Drizzle over the shortcake.  Garnish with fresh mint.  (Which I cut from the yard and then forgot to add – dang it!)