Moroccan Delights

This past weekend my cousin and niece came down from Washington for the weekend and to have dinner with us on Saturday evening. I love having people over for dinner - it gives me a chance to try out new recipes on folks. Especially since cooking for six is easier than cooking for two (aunt, cousin, niece, sister, mom and I had dinner opposed to just mom and I).

There is a Moroccan restaurant in town that we've been to a few times that is just delicious. As I tend to be quite the Martha Stewart in the kitchen it usually only takes easting something once or twice to understand the flavor profile well enough. Then just give me a (close enough) recipe and bingo-bango...

I made an amazing Moroccan dinner for the family - Slow cooked chicken with apricots and a bastilla.

salad, couscous, apricot chicken, and chicken bastilla

I was actually really amazed at how simple all of it was to make. The apricot chicken was done in the crockpot and the bastilla was easy enough to time so that it'd be done the same time as the crockpot!

 

For the exact Apricot Chicken Recipe go to FoodandWine.com - I left out the olives and am not sure if it was the dried apricots I used or what but there wasn't enough sweetness to the chicken (not like the dish from the Moroccan restaurant in town).

Lots of ingredients but super easy to make

The Bastilla (also known as pastilla) I found off of an About.com page. Basically it's layer after layer of phyllo dough wrapped around ground meat and egg - then sprinkled with powdered sugar. The sweet/savory combination is wonderful. Instead of chopped onions I had a Sweet Onion Marmalade I used while cooking the chicken (I used ground chicken from the market and did not roast my own. This cut the cooking time from a few hours to 45-60min total including backing time).

Just out of the oven and topped with powdered sugar.

I had the apricot chicken on before the family arrived and about an hour before dinner was ready I had my four year old niece help me with the bastilla. She painted melted butter between each layer of phyllo - let me tell you she didn't hesitate to eat it once she remembered she helped make it!

 

I'm still amazed at how simple this and I do think I can make smaller versions for nights it's just mom and I.

 

If you try this at home let me know what you think. :)