Tagine Dream

I’ve fallen in love all over again - with Moroccan flavours.   

Our recent launch of Saffron Tagine Paste has inspired me so much; Phil and I had friends for dinner on Friday and and once again we turned to North African cuisine and flavours for inspiration. 

What’s even better is that I realised so many of My Secret Kitchen products could lend a helping.  

Our Moroccan Menu:

Moroccan Spiced Banana Soup with Duck & Fig Rolls

Featuring: Saffron Tagine Paste, Wild Garlic Secret Spices, Fig Pudding Pickle
This may sound a little crazy, but the combination of our tagine paste used in a base of onion, potato, carrot and chicken stock with a couple of ripe bananas give the soup a gorgeous spicy yet sweet flavour and velvety texture. The duck rolls are made with shredded cooked duck meat and our fig pudding pickle reduced with a pear and a touch of honey then rolled in phyllo pastry and shallow fried.

Saffron Marinated Chicken with Chermoula Couscous and Aubergine Tagine with preserved lemons

Featuring: Lemon & Chipotle Spiced Sea Salt, SmokedRapeseed Oil, Wild Garlic Secret Spices, Tapenade with Smoked Garlic, SaffronTagine Paste
This is a really simple dish that takes care of itself - chicken thighs marinated in a saffron spiced marinade with our wild garlic secret spices and then slow cooked to be extra tender. Couscous is always a dream to prepare - as long as it is well seasoned, here I made a chermoula dressing to add flavour.  The aubergine tagine used pre-roasted aubergines and our tapenade with smoked garlic, combined with our saffron tagine paste and finely chopped preserved lemons.  Seasoning with our Lemon & Chipotle Spiced Sea Salt completes each of the dishes.

Pistachio Ice Cream, Mango & Mint Sorbet & Ras El Hanout Caramel

Featuring: Mango Mojito Dessert Sauce, Maple Caramel Sauce
My favourite kitchen gadget has to be my ice cream maker.  For this dessert I prepared a pistachio ice cream - with a touch of maple caramel sauce as well as a mango and mint sorbet made with pink grapefruit.  The ras el hanout caramel was an interesting moroccan touch made by caramelising sugar and a little water, pouring onto a baking sheet and sprinkling over the ras el hanout seasoning and leaving to cool before breaking into pieces to garnish the dessert.

This month, our teams of consultants are testing out the soup with the duck and fig rolls at their team meetings - its a tough job but someone's got to do it!

Happy cooking,

Clare

x