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)

Yesterday's motivational purchases.

These books are so inspiring. I cannot wait to cook, preserve and plan day trips out of these!

Wine bottling and bread making!

Miserable weather outside. But Thursday mornings could be worse.

Wil made bread with our sourdough this morning with 80%rye and 20% wheat flour. And now he is bottling our crabapple wine, while I'm lazy, erm, getting ready for work...

Spring anticipated Grilled Vegetable Terrine

It really has to turn spring now! I even made a mediterranean vegetable terrine the other day to lure spring over. I may be a little too optimistic, given that I now live in a country where winter lasts until the end of April. But I had way too much braised beef and meat stews in the last couple of months, and now I'm craving something less hearty and savory but fresh and healthy.
I found this recipe in one of my mediterranean cookbooks and instantly fell in love.

You'll see, the to-do list for this dish is long. Vegetable dishes usually require a little bit more work.
But it's actually quite easy to prepare, once you figured it out. The result not only looks impressive and tastes delicious, it'll definitely add more color and fancy to your spring/summer buffet.

Ok, I try to keep it as short as possible, also because I accidentally erased my first draft, which was really, really long....

Here is what you need:

2 red peppers (quartered and seeded)

2 yellow peppers (quartered and seeded)

2 zucchini (sliced lengthwise)

1 eggplant (sliced lengthwise)

1 red onion (cut in rings)

1 garlic clove (finely chopped)

75g raisins

1 tbsp balsamico vinegar

1 tbsp white wine or red wine vinegar

2-3 tsp tomato paste

400-500ml tomato juice

4-5 tsp powdered gelatine

basil leaves

salt, pepper

olive oil

Directions:

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Place the peppers on the baking sheet, skin side up, put them on the upper rack of your oven, turn on the broiler and broil them until their skin has turned black. You'll will only be able to easily peel the skin off the flesh with your fingers, once it has burnt completely. just make sure to let the peppers cool down for a few minutes before you start peeling, otherwise you'll burn your fingers.

Sprinkle salt over the egg plant slices and let them sit for a bout 20-30 minutes. The salt draws out the excess water of the eggplant which otherwise makes it mushy and unappetizing. 

Once enough water has been "sweated out" pat slices dry with paper towel.

Just like the peppers, place the egg plant slices on a parchment paper covered baking sheet, brush the upper sides with some olive oil and broil until golden brown.

Then do the same thing with the zucchini slices.

In a pan heat up 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add onion rings and garlic and sauté until onions are translucent.

Add tomato paste and both vinegars, and cook for about five minutes.

Slightly grease a bread pan (or even better: a terrine pan) with some vegetable oil. Line with plastic wrap and allow the plastic wrap to hang over the edge of the pan. 

In a saucepan heat up the tomato juice. Add the gelatine and stir until dissolved.

Cover the bottom of the bread pan with a thin layer of the tomato juice.

Now start layering the vegetable slices and onion-raisin mix.

It doesn't really matter in which order you place the vegetables in the pan. But it'll probably be best to start off and finish with the peppers and have the onion-raisin mix be in the middle.

Make sure to always pour a little bit of the tomato juice on top of each new layer. You can also press each layer down with your hands so that the juice spreads evenly and gets in every corner of the pan.

In between season with salt and pepper.

After you have placed the last vegetable layer on top of the others pour the remaining tomato juice over it. 

Chill in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or overnight, until gelatine has set.

By pressing a big plate on the top of the bread pan, turn the terrine upside down. 

Remove the pan and the plastic wrap.

Decorate with basil leaves and serve!

Notes:

I served my terrine with a yoghurt sauce I quickly made the next day. I just mixed yoghurt with some heavy cream, stirred in some finely grated cucumber and chopped mint, and seasoned with salt, pepper and a bit of sugar.

PS:
There will definitely be more terrine in the future. Next time probably with some meat in it, as well.

PPS:
Now that our chickens have turned into awkward teenagers and we had to put them into their coop, we decided to get our second batch of cuteness for the brooding box...

Of Chicks And Chickens!

We picked up 14 chicks today.
They need to be kept in a brooding box under a red heat lamp for a couple of weeks in order to grow big and strong before we can bring them into their coop.

This is very exciting, and we are at the same time both terrified and then again confident about being chicken farmers.

Lots of group-snuggling

On the one hand it seems quite easy and uncomplicated.
On the other hand it feels like a huge responsibility.

Wil wiping little Welsummer's chick-butt.

We are complete chicken virgins and there are so many things you need to consider and watch out for: You need to provide them with the right temperature, food and mineral/vitamins and keep away parasites and predators such as hawks and owls or coyotes and weasels.

No, it's not dead. That's how they sleep. Scared the shit out of us...

For our first set of chickens we chose dual-purpose birds, means they are good for eggs AND meat. Among them are big black Australorps, beautiful French Marans, grey and funny looking Ameraucanas and one copper-brown Welsummer.

from left to right: Marans, Welsummer, Ameraucana, Australorp rooster

Our focus will be on eggs for now. I don't even know if I will ever be able to kill a chicken myself. Unfortunately at that young stage (they are only a few days old) it's hard to tell which ones are roosters and which ones are chickens. Too many roosters = Coq Au Vin for us, even though that sounds quite delicious... Well, let's not think about this right now. They are way too cute!

Our little special-needs Marans "Limpie"

In five to eight weeks we will hopefully be able to "harvest" our first eggs.
And these eggs will be the most beautiful eggs in the world! Ameraucanas are known for their blue-greenish eggs, Marans and Welsummer lay dark chocolate brown ones, while Australorps' eggs are "only" ordinary pastel brown.

proud dad.

I'm sure they all will be delicious (the eggs!), and I will keep you updated on how it goes!