Rose Petal Chicken with Green Pistachio Arugula Couscous

Four weeks ago I started my new job at iStock, and I've been busy ever since. So far I like it a lot, given that I have been learning more than in the last five years (it feels like that anyway), and my coworkers are wonderful.
It's been a while since I had a full time job and two other jobs at the same time.
Actually I don't think I ever had that many jobs at the same time.
Aside from working at iStock I also work for the Cookbook Company once or twice a week and on a more irregular bases I contribute photos to the Calgary food and beverage magazine Culinaire.
My photo even made it onto the cover last month. Wohoo!

Both of my 'on-the-side' jobs help me get a great inside on the Calgary food scene (yes, Calgary has one too) and inspire and encourage me to be more willing to experiment in the kitchen.

The recipe I am posting today was prepared by one of the cooking school chefs at the Cookbook Company. As soon as I tried it I knew I had to try this myself at home.

It is soooooo good! And somewhat different.
A light middle eastern dish with lots of herbs and a subtle rose petal aroma that perfectly harmonises with all these beautiful spices.

Here is what you need for the green pistachio arugula couscous

1 cup couscous
3/4 cup boiling water
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1-2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
2 Tbsp butter / goose, duck, pork fat ... or both

Herb paste

1/3 cup chopped parsley
1 cup chopped cilantro
2 Tbsp chopped Tarragon
2 Tbsp chopped dill
2 Tbsp chopped mint
6 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup pistachios, lightly toasted and chopped
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1 fresh green chile finely sliced
1 cup arugula

Place the couscous in a large bowl and cover with the boiling water.
Cover and leave for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile fry the onion in olive oil and melted butter over medium heat until golden and soft.
Add the salt cumin, and mix well.

To make the herb paste, place all ingredients in a food processor and blitz until smooth.

To assemble the salad, add the herb paste to the couscous, mix it in and then add the remaining ingredients and gently combine.

Here is what you need for the chicken

Two to three small chickens (backbones cut out with scissors and flattened so they look sort of like a butterfly) or 8-10 chicken legs.

For the marinade

1 garlic clove, crushed to a paste with salt (using mortal and pestel)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cumin
3 Tbsp rosewater
1Tbsp lemon juice
Freshly ground pepper

For the sauce

3 Tbsp rose petal jam
1 small garlic clove, crushed to a paste with salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp olive oil
A squeeze of lemon juice
salt and ground black pepper
Roughly chopped slightly
toasted pistachios
dried rose petals for decoration

Directions:

Mix the marinade ingredients together and rub all over the chickens/chicken legs, place in a dish and marinade for 1-2 hours at room temperature or overnight in the fridge.

To make the sauce, mix the rose petal jam, garlic, cinnamon together in a bowl.

Add the olive oil and lemon juice and taste for seasoning.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 180°C.
If stored in the fridge, take the chicken out 30-60 minutes before cooking, in order to get room temperature.
Cook the chicken for 30 (legs) to 45 (whole chicken) minutes.
10-15 minutes before the time is up, brush the chicken skin with the sauce.

In the last 3-5 minutes throw on the broiler brush the chicken with the sauce one last time and give that chicken skin a nice tan and crisp.
Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Serving:

Place the couscous salad on a plate. Arrange the chicken on top of it, and sprinkle chopped pistachios and dried rose petals over it.


Notes: 

• If you can't find rose petal jam, use quince jelly or something similar instead and mix in 1-1.5 Tbsp rosewater. That's what I did. Careful with the rosewater, though. You don't want your chicken to taste like a perfume store.

• You could also throw the chicken on the barbecue. That adds some extra smoky charred flavors.

And: NONE OF OUR CHICKENS WERE HARMED FOR IT! (...yet)

"Poulet Vallée d'Auge" or Chicken legs with Calvados

Wil and I have been eating a lot of red meat in the past and with the end of my vegan week experiment I decided to bring more "healthy" variation in our culinary life's. Steak, roast beef and filet is great. 

But I'm slowly running out of ideas how to wrap them in a blogpost. That also counts for our mushroom picking madness. Therefore I looked through some cook books and food magazines 

and found this wonderful recipe in "Lust auf Genuss", 

a German magazine I've been posting a few recipes from already.

I also haven't cooked with Calvados before and you actually SET IT ON FIRE...

...sorry: you flambee it.

It turned out super-delicious and was something completely different from what I normally cook.

You'll need:

for 4 servings

2 shallots

5 sourish apples

5 Tbsp butter

4 chicken legs

salt, pepper

approx. 5cl (1.7oz)  Calvados

100ml (3.4oz) chicken stock

200ml (6.8oz) cidre

1 bouquet garni (2sprigs of thyme and parsley, such as 1 bay leave tied together)

1tsp sugar

200ml (6.8oz) cream

Directions:

Peel the shallots and quarter them. 

Divide one apple into eighth pieces and remove the core.      

Melt 3 Tbsp of butter in a casserole or deep pan.

Rinse the chicken legs, dry them and season them with pepper and salt. 

Sauté the legs in the butter from both sides until golden brown, then take them out and set aside.

Sauté the shallots and apple in the dripping, place the chicken legs on top of them and pour the Calvados over it. By using a long match or one of these longer lighters, carefully lid the Calvados on fire. While you flambé, slightly shake the casserole so that the all the calvados catches fire. 

As soon as the alcohol has dissolved and the fire has extinguished and deglaze with chicken stock and 100ml/3.4oz of cidre. Add bouquet garni, cover the casserole up and let stew for about 30 minutes. In the meantime cut the other apples in each 8 pieces and remove the cores. In a pan melt the 2 leftover Tbsp butter and sauté the apple slices in it, pour the sugar on top and lightly caramelize. Deglaze with the  other half of the cidre (100ml/3.4oz). Add the apples to chicken legs in the casserole.

Mix in the cream and bring to the boil shortly. 

Season to taste with pepper and salt and serve with bread and a glass of white wine.

This guy obviously knows how to use his legs, still...

PS: 

Next time I'll do this recipe again, I will add less cream. I had so much sauce and it was a little to creamy for me, which I think is unnecessary. Just add the cream step by step and decide yourself how much you want.

I will also remove the chicken legs before I add the cream and apples next time. They were just in the way when I wanted to mix everything together. And it looks nicer, too, when the legs aren't all covered in cream sauce...

The only downside to this recipe is that the skin of the legs isn't very crisp. If you have a broiler you probably could broil the legs on maximum heat for 5 minutes after cooking, before serving them with the sauce.

And, of course, you can replace the calvados and cidre with apple juice and not flambé the whole thing. But it certainly doesn't taste as good as with booze and it is far less fun.