Lemony coucous with chermoula mushrooms

Like the spices sumac and za’atar that have recently begun to appear in the food columns of lifestyle magazines, it was only a matter of time that chermoula would make its appearance too, as either a dressing or a sauce. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with chermoula, Chermoula is a thick, powerful green herby paste. It is often made with a mixture of herbs namely coriander, cumin, lemon juice, olive oil, pickled lemons, garlic and salt. Its roots can be found in North Africa. Chermoula is used as marinade in Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian cooking to coat either fish or seafood. You will find a number of recipes on the world wide web and cookbooks, but there is no fixed way of making chermoula. Everyone seems to make it according to their palette and each recipe seems to use different spices, but the two main ingredients that are constant are fresh coriander and garlic.
I flew from my parents nest in the mid 1990s for college and then eventually university. Although my mother had successfully instilled every domestic goddess skill there was to learn into me from a very early age, I was never sold on the idea of being 'a good housewife' or even remotely interested in being in the kitchen. In fact, I actively rebelled against these assumed gender roles and subsequently viewed such skills as a chore and a way to keep women in the house.

The only reason I found my way to the kitchen and more importantly the cooker, was the fact that I really missed my mothers cooking, the associated aromas, as well as certain flavours: fresh, herby, spicy, earthy, sour, zingy and so on. Whilst at Uni, I was always hankering for bold flavours to make my tongue feel alive and looking for ways to satisfy this urge and thus my interest in cooking was reignited, first for myself and then for others. It was around this time, that I also discovered the adventurous and experimental cook in me, and the hanging out at cookbook section and shops with vaguely kitchen related things became more than a habit.
All of this is way of saying how I first came across chermoula. I was introduced to it by Nadine Abensur, not literally of course but via the book Cranks Fast Food. I made it from scratch and served it with oven baked sweet potato chips. Oh my goodness - it was really flavourful – one I recommend especially if you love coriander. Chermoula is so versatile that it can be used to coat vegetables or even grains. This recipe is adapted from the chef Paul Gayler. Here the ‘chermoula’ gives mushrooms a tantalizing aroma as they cook. Now my husband is no fan of couscous, but this is the second couscous dish he has declared 'Delicious'.

Lemon Couscous and chermoula mushrooms
Serves 4
Ingredients
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 generous teaspoon dried chilli flakes
200g - 300g chestnut mushrooms, halved
1 tablespoon harissa paste (for a harissa recipe follow this link)
400g can tomatoes, chopped
Small handful of fresh coriander, minced
200g couscous
250ml vegetable stock, boiling
Juice of ½ lemon or to taste
1 tablespoon Lemon pepper (see below for recipe)
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
Place the couscous in a bowl with the vegetable stock and lemon juice, and cover. Leave for 5 minutes until the couscous has swollen. Fluff it up with a fork, cover again and leave for 5 more minutes. Add the lemon pepper, season to taste with salt and pepper and keep warm
Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onion and garlic over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add the cumin and chilli and cook for a few seconds before adding the mushrooms and harissa. Fry for a couple of minutes, then add the tomatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 8 – 10 minutes. Stir in the chopped coriander. Serve with lemon couscous topped with the chermoula mushrooms.

When finely ground (unlike this one), dried lemon zest is a useful ingredient for flavouring grains and perking up other bland food.
Making Lemon pepper
Preheat the oven to gas mark 1. Peel 2 lemons with a potato peeler.

Spread the peel out on a clean baking sheet and bake for 1 hour until the skins are dried and shrivelled. Leave to cool.

When cool, place the peel in a coffee grinder and grind to a fine powder. Store the lemon pepper in an airtight container for up to 1 month. Slightly adapted from Paul Gaylers Vegetarian Cookbook.

North African influenced Vegetarian meatballs

Over the past few days we have had potato in all its guises: as crisps, jacket potatoes, chips, boiled and roasted. Yesterday D was like no more potatoes, no more potatoes for the next few days please, hence the previous pasta dish, and today’s dish of North African influenced Vegetarian meatballs in tomato sauce which was served with cous cous, but it would be equally good with potato wedges.
I know it doesn’t look that great in the dish, but it does taste good. This is one recipe, I would make if my brothers came up, they would appreciate it and feel like they are getting something that looks like meat, even if it does not taste of it.

North African influenced vegetarian meatballs in tomato sauce
Serves 4
For the vegetarian meatballs
Makes about 20 balls
Ingredients
170g light TVP mince
375ml stock made with 1 tablespoon of bouillon powder
1 medium onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp vegetable or olive oil
75g Manitoba flour or vital wheat gluten
1 tablespoon of dried mint
Salt and pepper to taste
1 generous teaspoon of freshly ground cumin
Coriander or mint for garnish

Additional oil for frying

Method
Begin by reconstituting the TVP mince by pouring the stock over the granules, then covering tightly with plate and letting it sit for 10 minutes.

In a large pan, saute the onions and garlic in oil over gentle heat until translucent and soft. About 10-15 minutes. Then add mint and cumin and cook for a few minutes.

Remove from heat mix in the flour and seasoning. Let sit until cool enough to handle.

With your hands, form balls about 1 ½ inches in diameter. Use a lot of pressure when forming your balls.Lightly fry them in a small amount of oil, rolling them around in the pan to brown on all sides. Set aside until you are ready to use them with your dish.

For the tomato sauce
2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
2 onions, minced
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
100g fresh coriander leaves, minced
Salt and pepper to taste

Optional: 6 – 8 eggs. Omit eggs for vegans.

To make the sauce: in a large saucepan over low heat, combine all the ingredients. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Transfer the sauce to an ovenproof dish.

Preheat oven to gas mark 400.

Add meatballs to tomato sauce.

If using, break the eggs over them, try not to break the yolks. Bake for 8 – 10 minutes until the eggs are set and the yolks are still runny.

Garnish with coriander or mint and serve immediately.

Adapted from: Vegetarian Table: North African; and Just the Food blog

Roasted cauliflower with dukkah

This is the only image I have of a cauliflower snowball that I grew last year. I was so proud of it, it was the only one that I managed to harvest before it started to bolt. Is that the right term?Anyway, I still have some seeds left over from last year, so intend to grow them again, along with Igloo. Its a good small variety for a small family; or two hungry people.
Dukkah which originated in ancient Egypt is a dry dip made with a mixture of nuts and spices. I often make more than I need, as it is hard to reduce the quantities in this recipe. I tend to use dukkah mainly for snacks such as dipping crusty bread, first in good olive oil and then in dukkah. Very moreish. I have also used it over roasted potatoes and wedges.

Here I have used it to spice up a bland cauliflower. I simply parboiled the cauliflower florets till they were al dente, drained them and then lightly coated them with olive oil and the dukkah and then baked it in the oven till golden.

Dukkah (makes about 2 cups)
Ingredients
1/2 cup of each: sesame seeds; sunflower seeds; and pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup of each: cumin seeds; and coriander seeds
2 teaspoons of sea salt
1 tablespoon of paprika or to taste
Method
Heat the oven to gas mark 6.

First put the sesame, sunflower and pumpkin seeds into roast for 5 minutes, then add the cumin and coriander seeds and roast for a further 5 minutes, or until you can smell the aromas. Keep an eye on the oven, you don't want to overdo it.

Leave to cool, then grind with salt, paprika in a food processor. You may have to do this in batches. Thew final mixture should be grainy, not an oily powder.

Store in an airtight kilner jar in a cool cupboard. It should last up to three months.