Tangier-Style Harira

Making this is a procedure. You need to start a day in advance, and actually making it requires two large pots (or one large pot and one large bowl) plus a big chunk of counter space. The results are so worth it, though! It's extremely delicious and makes a huge batch.

The original recipe uses dried chickpeas; we used tinned cooked chickpeas to slightly reduce the effort required. We also tweaked the proportions a bit, in particular adding more meat than called for (and I think it could have taken even more without issues).

Ingredients

• A whole lot of marrow bones
• ¼C pasta flour
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 1-2 lbs cubed boneless lamb, beef, or pork
• Olive oil
• ¾C chopped onion
• 1 large tin cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1½tsp La Kama spice mix (below)
• 1/16 tsp crushed saffron threads
• 3 qt chicken stock
• ⅓C finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• ⅓C finely chopped celery leaves
• ⅓C finely chopped cilantro
• ¾C short-grain rice
• 1½C peeled and crushed tomatoes
• 1 tsp sugar

Procedure

1. The day before:
1. Cover the marrow bones in saltwater and put them in the fridge.
2. Combine the flour and lemon juice with ½C lukewarm water, partially cover, and leave in a warm place to ferment overnight.
2. Drain the marrow bones. Put them and the diced meat in a large pot, cover, and steam over medium heat, adding a few spoonfuls of water if needed, until the bones and meat no longer look raw, ~10 minutes.
3. Add the oil and onions and cook, stirring, for ~5 minutes.
4. Cover with 6C water and bring to a hard boil, then skim to remove impurities.
5. Add the chickpeas, spices, saffron, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring back to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to simmer for 1h.
6. Remove from the heat and fish out the marrow bones. Extract the marrow and pulp it with the back of a spoon; discard the bones.
7. Combine the marrow, chicken stock, more pepper, the parsley, celery leaves, rice, and half the cilantro in another pot (or in the same pot after buffering the contents of the first in a large bowl). Bring to a boil and cook for 20 minutes.
8. Add the tomatoes, sugar, and flour/lemon mixture and continue cooking, uncovered, for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
9. Combine the contents of the two pots and garnish with the remaining cilantro.

La Kama Spice Mix

• 1 tsp each ground ginger, ground turmeric, and ground white pepper
• ½ tsp each ground cinnamon and, optionally, cubeb pepper
• a pinch of nutmeg

Pasta with spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, and feta

This was a staple when we were in university; it comes together quickly and easily, is inexpensive and delicious, and fridges well.

I think this originated as Hazan's Aglio e Olio recipe, and we just kept adding things to it over the years until we ended up with this.

All amounts are approximate; this recipe will tolerate a great deal of variation.

Ingredients

• 500g store-bought dried pasta (something compact, like fusilli, works well here)
• 4-6 garlic cloves, chopped
• a bunch of hot pepper flakes
• 125mL sundried tomatoes in oil, chopped
• (optional) thinly sliced chicken strips
• 300g frozen chopped spinach
• 250g feta cheese, chopped or crumbled
• fresh parmesan and/or romano to taste

Procedure

1. Boil the water for the pasta; cook al dente.
2. While the pasta is cooking, heat some oil in a deep skillet (or a shallow one, but then you'll need a separate bowl to toss the pasta in) -- the oil from the sundried tomatoes works well, if there's enough of it.
3. Add the garlic cloves, hot pepper flakes, and tomato and cook until fragrant, 30-60 seconds.
4. Add the chicken, if using, and cook until cooked through (or until thawed, if using frozen cooked chicken strips)
5. Add the spinach and cover until it has thawed, then uncover and stir until most of the liquid has cooked off.
6. Add the feta and any other cheeses you are using.
7. Toss with pasta.
8. Eat.

Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Seeds

Via wholefully, a recipe for sweet roasted pumpkin seeds. The recipe is written "per half cup of seeds", and I've reproduced it as such here, but in practice the pie pumpkins we were using yielded perhaps ¾C of seeds, so we just doubled the recipe; this worked out very well.

Ingredients

• ½C pumpkin seeds, cleaned and dried
• 1tsp olive oil
• ½tsp ground cinnamon
• 1tbsp brown sugar
• a pinch of salt

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 300°F.
2. Toss seeds with oil.
3. Combine dry ingredients, then toss seeds with those, too.
4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lay out the seeds on it.
5. Bake for ~30 minutes, turning every 10 or so, until delicious.

Pumpkin pie is a fall favourite. Growing up, we usually made it from tinned pumpkin puree (i.e. not tinned pie filling, just pumpkin); last week we made one "actually from scratch" starting with a pie pumpkin. The results are indistinguishable; the former is easier, the latter gives you a bowl of pumpkin seeds you can roast as a side effect.

The recipe we worked from last week calls for a mix of white and brown sugar and (as is typical) evaporated milk; we used all brown sugar and, for lactose-friendliness, coconut milk.

We also had more pumpkin than it calls for, so we added an extra egg and an extra 100mL of coconut milk (neatly using up an entire tin), but the recipe is fairly tolerant of variation.

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

• 1 pie pumpkin or 1 ~500mL tin of pumpkin puree
• 1 large egg
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
• 300mL evaporated milk or coconut milk
• Pie crust

Directions

1. Roll out the crust and install it in the pie plate.
2. Add the weights (in parchment paper) and blind-bake at 400°F for 15 minutes. Remove the weights, brush all over with egg whites, and bake for another 5 minutes. Remove and let cool.
3. If using a pie pumpkin, prepare it: cut it in half and scoop out the seeds, brush with oil, and roast at 375°F until tender. Peel off the skin and lightly mash the flesh into a bowl.
   If using a tin of pumpkin puree, simply empty it into a bowl.
4. Add the egg, egg yolks, sugar, flour, salt, spices, and milk. Mix well.¹
5. Pour the filling into the pie crust. Bake at 325°F until just set, ~1 hour. Remove from the oven and let cool.
6. Eat plain or with whipped cream.

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¹ If using a pie pumpkin, the mix will probably be somewhat stringy. Put it through a blender (or use an immersion blender) to fix this. If using tinned puree, simply mixing it with a spoon should be sufficient. ^Back

Pork Chops with Cherry Tomatoes and Balsamic Reduction

Ingredients

• 4 (~250g) bone-in rib pork chops, trimmed
• salt and pepper
• 30mL canola oil
• 1 shallot, sliced thin
• 375g cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 100mL balsamic vinegar
• 30mL butter
• 64g blue cheese, crumbled
• 64mL chopped fresh basil

Procedure

1. Season pork chops with salt and pepper.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook pork until well browned and cooked through, ~4 minutes/side; remove to plate.
3. Add shallot to skillet and cook until soft, ~1 minute.
4. Add tomatoes and cook until they too start to soften, ~1 minute.
5. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, ~30 seconds.
6. Deglaze pan with vinegar and cook until it thickens and becomes syrupy, ~2 minutes.
7. Pour accumulated juices from plate back into skillet. Remove from heat.
8. Whisk in butter and season with salt and pepper to taste.
9. Pour over pork chops, top with blue cheese and basil, and serve.