Moroccan Night

The Hubster and I were invited, a few years ago, to join a newly-organized Supper Club. It's just us, three other couples and occasionally a "wild-card" couple.

Every month we rotate hosting and when you host, your reward for spending three days super deep-cleaning your house for inspection by your friends is that you get to pick...The Theme.

Damn, but I love a theme.

So yesterday the party came to our house and The Theme was Moroccan.

Why Moroccan? Why not? I have two great Moroccan stew recipes that appear in the regular rotation at Chez City and every time I prepare one for Hub I think, "Damn, this would make a good Supper Club" entree. (One is chicken-based, one is vegetarian).

It is the perfect Company Dish: One pot, minimum investment, highly flavorful and served with couscous. I'd cook camel hump if the recipe called for it to be plated on a bed of couscous.

Everyone took the Moroccan theme to heart - it was amazing. The Appetizer Couple brought a whole pineapple studded with shrimp - the presentation was spectacular. Accompanying the fruit-and-prawn sculpture were three African-themed dipping sauces.

Salad Couple brought a carrot dish they found at Marrakesh, a restaurant in Philadelphia.

Dessert Couple were the stars of the night - rose petal ice cream. OMG. It was exotic, beautiful, the texture of frozen silk and so sweet and subtly flavored. Heaven.

All-in-all, an amazing meal.

I don't remember where I originally found this recipe, but I've tweaked it enough over the years that I feel pretty confident in calling it my own.

Moroccan Chicken Stew Serves 4-6, depending on the size of the thighs

12 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs - Rinsed and Patted Dry

1 Large Eggplant, Cubed

Kosher Salt

1 14 oz. Can Chickpeas, Rinsed

2 Large Onions, Sliced or Frenched

6 Garlic Cloves, Minced

1 Tbsp. Sweet Paprika

1 Tbsp. Hot Paprika

2 tsps. Turmeric

2 tsps. Coriander

1 tsp. Cumin

1 tsp. Ginger

1 tsp. Fennel Seeds, Toasted

1 tsp. Black Pepper

1 Tbsp. Kosher Salt

2 tsps. Marjoram

1/4 Cup Fresh Minced Parsley

1 28 oz. Can Diced Tomatoes in Sauce

1/2 Cup Water

1/4 Cup Fresh Lemon Juice

Olive Oil, Preferably Spanish

1/2 Cup Blanched, Slivered Almonds - Toasted

Half of 1 Lemon

Cooked Couscous

Preheat Oven to 400, coat rimmed baking sheet with oil, toss eggplant with additional oil, spread eggplant on sheet and lightly salt. Bake for 10 minutes, stir, bake for an additional 15 minutes.

In your largest saute pan, heat 1/4 cup olive oil, add onion and garlic, cover and cook until soft and translucent - about 15 minutes.

Add paprikas, turmeric, coriander, cumin, fennel, ginger and salt and pepper. Cook until aromatic, 1-2 minutes.

Add undrained tomatoes, water and lemon juice, cover and bring to simmer.

Add chicken in one layer and cool on medium-low for 10 minutes. Turn chicken and cook for another 10 minutes.

Add baked eggplant, chickpeas, marjoram and parsley. Simmer for final 15 minutes.

Serve over couscous, top with almonds.

Roux-less Gumbo

And while I would love to say this is my idea...it's not. The original recipe came from the Neiman Marcus cookbook and...it's a keeper. Not cheap, but you can have a LOVELY dinner around this, with a salad, good bread and a special dessert.


Seafood Gumbo


28 ozs crushed tomatoes
8 strips bacon, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
14 ozs stewed tomatoes
8 ozs clam juice
1 cup dry white wine
1 T lemon juice
1 T fresh basil or 1 t dried
1 T cayenne
Bay leaves
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 T Worcestershire
Tabasco
1 t salt
1/2 pound cut okra (fresh or frozen)
1 pint oysters, rinsed and cut in half
1 lb scallops, cut in half if sea scallops
3/4 lb shrimp, shelled and deveined
1/2 lb crabmeat
10 ozs whole baby clams
1 T file


Thaw frozen ingredients. Cook bacon until crisp. Remove from the pot and set aside. Saute onion and garlic in bacon fat over medium heat until golden. Add green pepper, tomatoes, clam juice, wine, lemon juice, basil, cayenne, bay leaves, parsley, Worcestershire, Tabasco, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add reserved bacon, okra, oysters, scallops, shrimp, crabmeat and clams. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in file. Cover and let stand for 10 mintues. Remove bay leaves. Serve hot over rice, with French bread.

That artisan bread thing...

Remember I said I had brought home a copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day? Oh, people. This is SOOOO good. And I'm not going to share the recipe because that's...stealing. Just wrong. And even if I did (share the recipe) I couldn't began to share all the tips and recipes so you're just going to have to take my word for it...go buy this book.

You make the dough once a week. It sits in the refrigerator and when you want to make bread, you get a chunk of dough, let it rise for 40 minutes and have bread. REALLY, really good bread....like bread that you can't make too far ahead of time or there won't be any for supper. (We've done that twice.)

So get thee to a book store. I promise, you'll be glad you did.

A Black&Tan, Irish Cream, raw eggs and who wants to live forever anyway?

For some reason, I agreed to cook Irish for some friends tomorrow night. They don't have kids. Their house is clean. They know where the Bundt pan is. Why the HELL I agreed to this, I can't remember.

My Some-Timers is getting worse...I make mistakes typing I never made before. And this morning I'm standing in front of the beers in the grocery store and my mind...went blank. A Black & Tan. I know the black is Guinness stout. The tan part? I was clueless. A liquor rep showed up but that wasn't his product and he didn't know, either. The check-out girl didn't know. My friend I called didn't know. The store manager I grew up with didn't know. I need more educated friends. Or a better class of drunks. So I bought the Guinness and came home and looked it up and, for all practical purposes, it's pale ale. There were a couple of discussions about the difference in a Black & Tan and a Half&Half, but for my purposes we'll stick with whichever pale ale is on the shelves when I have to go back tomorrow. If we're lucky, it'll be Bass.

The directions seem to depend on where you are when you order the drink. In Ireland, it seems both beers are just poured into the glass. To layer them, there is actually a Black&Tan spoon...to make your own you bend a spoon bowl back. But the light beer goes in first...poured heartily so as to build a nice head. Then the dark beer is poured over the spoon, onto the edge of the glass so as to "float" this layer over the bottom layer.

I think I'll let everyone get pretty far into the bottle tomorrow night and then set them to pouring. If I drink more than they do (that's a joke), I may bring out the spoons, some needle-nose pliers and this picture. This ought to be interesting.

THEN, there's the Irish Cream. Why didn't I buy Bailey's? I can't remember. But at eight o'clock this morning I'm in the kitchen making Irish Cream and the recipe wants me to combine the first four ingredients, heat them, beat an egg yolk and stir in one-fourth of the hot mixture, then stir the egg mixture into the rest of the hot mixture and cook for two minutes, stirring constantly.

Good Lord. It's just salmonella. The whiskey and rum will kill it. (They do in eggnog because I've ALWAYS made it that way.) So I just put everything in a jar and shook it really well and put it in the refrigerator. I'll serve it in little chocolate tasting cups and everyone will be so impressed and if they get sick well, it was probably the Black&Tan.

Which brings us to another thing. I don't like Irish whiskey. So I'm using bourbon. From Kentucky. I think most of the people in Kentucky got there from Ireland so...I'm not too far off the mark. The Maker's Mark.

Anyway, here's what I ended up with for Irish Cream. I need to remember to go by and pick up some chocolate milk for the kids so they'll stay out of this.

Living Dangerously Irish Cream
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup whole milk
1 can Eagle Brand
1 tablespoon instant coffee
1 egg yolk
1 cup Kentucky bourbon
1/3 cup gold rum
2 tablespoons chocolate syrup
1 tablespoon Madagascar bourbon vanilla

Beat the egg well, put all ingredients in a jar and shake well. I'm guessing the Irish were too poor to have nutmeg (I know MY branch was), but I think I'll grind a dusting over each serving.

Flourless chocolate torte (and I don't DO sweets!)

Well, in the phone conversations over the morning we have this hodgepodge of a dinner on track. I guess. But there's no dessert THAT I KNOW OF so...here. Too, too easy and this is a groaner. Which is why I'm sharing the recipe because NO. I won't make you six for a fundraiser because BEEN THERE! DONE THAT!

Flourless Chocolate Torte

11 tablespoons butter
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1-1/2 cups ground pecans
3/4 cup cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 ounces dark chocolate chips
1 cup whipping cream
2 teaspoons Madagascar vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour an eight-inch springform pan. Or cake pan. Melt butter and remove from heat. Stir in pecans, sugar, cocoa, salt and one teaspoon vanilla. Add eggs and beat well. Pour into pan and bake 25 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove and cool completely. Melt chocolate chips. Whip cream, fold in melted chocolate and one teaspoon vanilla. Top the torte with the whipped cream. If you have a dark chocolate candy bar somewhere in the house, either use a vegetable peeler or a grater and shave chocolate onto the top of the torte. That overkill thing, you know. Keep refrigerated.

Be careful with the pecans if you're grinding them yourself...you can end up with pecan butter. Better is to buy "pecan meal" which is not only exactly what you need but costs about 1/4 of pecan halves.

You can go onto eBay and buy these...pans. They are called well, I don't know what they're called but the pan is an Ekco Baker's Secret. It says Duncan Hines/Tiara Desserts. The edges are fluted and the center is raised, so when you invert the torte the entire center is sunken and then you fill it in with the chocolate whipped cream. This works.

This keeps well...when The Child From The Defective Gene Pool got married I made 14 of these. Ahead of time. Then the caterer filled them with the whipped cream come serving time and they actually ended up saving us...THE WEDDING CAKE DIDN'T SHOW UP, and the fact that we had a dessert table saved the night. That and my lovely talented friend of The Construction Company because as soon as we realized what had happened he raided the freezer at Winn Dixie, created a cake out of thin air and fresh flowers, and no one knew but us!