Date Night

When I was in yoga teacher training several years ago, I had the opportunity during one of my fall classes to eat a Medjool date, and I immediately fell in love with their sweetness and gooey, slightly chewy texture. Sure, I'd had dates before--the prechopped, pebble-like kind Mum bought occasionally in a box to add to certain dessert recipes. But if you've had those kinds of dates before, Gentle Reader, and then have had the chance to eat a whole date that's fresh (or relatively close there to), you probably know what I mean when I say there's a world of difference.

Since that first Medjool date that fall (mad props to Mehtab, by the way), I find my hankering for dates increases come autumn. With the triple-digit hit losing its grip on us here in Tejas and cooler breezes greeting the boy and I when we walk to school each morning, you can be assured, Gentle Reader, that my thoughts have been turning to dates with a vengeance.

Fortunately for that hankering, I've been slowly making my way through Trail of Crumbs by Kim Sunée, founding food editor of Cottage Living and Korean adoptee. Sunée's memoir of her years in Europe and her quest for a sense of belonging, of place, of roots is quite a sensual affair: It offers a feast for the entire senses, so long as you can believe a book can inspire the imagination to do all that work. Other readers might find it to be an autobiography about a woman who often deals with issues in her life with cooking. Either way, Sunée offers some intriguing recipes that let the readers taste and reflect on her childhood in New Orleans, her time in various places in Europe (primarily in France), her adventures on other continents (including a return to Korea).

Among the recipes are an orange couscous salad and chicken thighs with cinnamon and dates. While the latter is pretty obviously a Moroccan dish (ladies and gentlemen, start your tagines!), the couscous I think of too as a North African dish (as well as a Middle Eastern dish), so in my mind the two seemed like a natural pairing even though the coucous recipe appeared at the end of the chapter preceding the one ending with the chicken with cinnamon and dates recipe. I later found proof that great minds think alike since the author recommends serving the chicken dish with couscous.

Main Dish: Chicken With Cinnamon and Dates
Here's the recipe as it appears in Trail of Crumbs. You can already guess, Gentle Reader, that I didn't follow it precisely.

1 t olive oil
2 sausage links (such as Merguez, spicy Italian pork or lamb), about 1/2 lb.
6-8 skinless chicken thighs
1 1/4 t NaCl, divided
1/4 t freshly ground black pepper
1 large onion, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, smashed and coarsely chopped
1 T freshly grated ginger
1 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground cumin
1/2 t hot paprika
1 1/2 C low-Na chicken broth or water
1/2 C fresh OJ
1/3 C golden raisins or currants
2-3 carrots, cut lengthwise and halved on the bias
1 large orange, cut into 8 wedges
12-15 dates (preferably Medjool), pitted or 12-15 large pitted prunes
2-3 T freshly chopped cilantro
Garnish: fresh cilantro, toasted almonds or pine nuts

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
   
2. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large ovenproof pan or Dutchie. (If you're using a tagine to bake in, a wide skillet will do.)
   
3. Cut the sausage links in halves or thirds, depending on length, removing casings if desired.
   
4. Add the sausage and chicken to the pot in one layer, then sprinkle with half of the NaCl and pepper. Let cook 5 min., then turn the meat over, season with the remaining NaCl and pepper and let cook 5 min. more. Remove the chicken and sausage to a plate or, if using a tagine, place them in the bottom of it.
   
5. Add the onion to the pot. (If brown bits are stuck to the bottom of the pot, add about 1 tablespoon of white wine, water or OJ and scrape off the bits.) Let the onion cook about 5 min, then add the garlic, ginger, cinnamon, cumin and paprika. Stir and let cook about 3 min.
   
6. Add the chicken broth and OJ, raisins and carrots, then stir. Pour this mixture over the chicken and sausage in the tagine, or add the meat back to the pot.
   
7. Add the orange wedges and dates, stir, then cover and bake for 1 hour 30 min. or until the chicken and carrots are fork tender. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning as needed.
   
8. Top with cilantro and serve with hot buttered couscous and harissa paste or coriander chutney. Garnish if desired.

Yield: 6-8 servings

While the book does not include nutritional info for each recipe, I doubt this one's going to clog your arteries or put another lump or two of cottage cheese on the backs of your thighs.

The Faudie's Futzings

• I didn't use sausage in part because I don't like organ meats and also because I'm not familiar with or know for sure I don't like the sausages Sunée recommends.
  
• I used three boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead of thighs. I didn't weigh them, but I aimed to use about a pound since the recipe needs about a pound of meat.
  
• I have no idea if the paprika I bought from the bulk spices at Central Markup is hot. It's not the Spanish variety that the store has, and what I'd read about the heat varieties of paprika earlier this summer has completely slipped my mind.
  
• While I did have fresh oranges in my house specifically for this and the couscous recipes, I didn't squeeze one of 'em to yield the fresh OJ for this recipe. No, I whipped out one of the little cans of unsweetened OJ I bought the other day at HEB.
  
• Golden raisins rock. Giant--big as a baby's head--golden raisins that have soaked in a stew of cinnamon rock harder. That's all I'm going to say.
  
• I sprinkled probably about a tablespoon of freshly chopped cilantro atop all the ingredients in Chive before baking. The boy has that aversion to cilantro after all, and I suspected getting him to eat this dish would be hard enough without it being covered with the stuff.
  
• Speaking of baking, I only had Chive in the oven for 45 minutes, and the chicken came out melt-at-the-touch-of-the-tines tender. Based on my relatively limited experience with and knowledge of edible chicken parts, I could understand the need for thighs to bake longer.

This recipe tastes a lot like the Acapulco chicken I've made a few times in the pressure cooker, and it should since the ingredients are pretty similar. However, Chive produced far more tender meat while my Fagor tends to slightly overcook the chicken, leaving it a bit dry and tough. While Chive did a fabulous job, I wouldn't mind adding a tagine to my collection of pots and pans. Those things just look cool, plus they remind me of the chimeneas I saw quite frequently when the husband and I lived in Santa Fe (although many of those, I'm sure, were only for decorative purposes--I doubt you could buy a chimenea from Jackalope's that was actually fire-worthy).

Side Dish: Orange Couscous Salad
I've never had couscous before, but I knew it was somewhat related to rice, and I love rice. The boys love rice. How could I go wrong?

And no, Gentle Reader, that last line was not a setup for an anecdote about how awful couscous is or how royally I mucked up this recipe. The Faudie had pretty astonishing success with this one, even though she very loosely followed it.

1 C water
10 oz. medium-grain couscous
1/4 C extra-virgin olive oil
1 t NaCl
1/2 t pepper
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
2 oranges
2 T freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 T freshly chopped mint leaves
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 C golden raisins, currants or chopped dates

1. Bring the water to a boil.
   
2. Pour the couscous in a large bowl, then pour the boiling water over it. Stir, cover the bowl with plastic and let the couscous steam 5 min. or until it is tender. Fluff with a fork.
   
3. Stir in the olive oil, NaCl, pepper and onion, then let the couscous cool slightly.
   
4. Zest both oranges. Juice on of them into the couscous. remove the pith from the second one and chop it. Add the zest and chopped orange to the couscous.
   
5. Stir in the parsley, mint, cucumber and raisins, then cover and chill in the 'fridge 1 hour. (Store the couscous in the 'fridge up to 2 days.)
   
6. Taste and rectify the seasoning by adding more NaCl and pepper, olive oil and juice before serving.

Yield: About 4 1/2 cups

The Faudie's Futzings

• I'm not well-versed in couscous, so I just bought 10 ounces of whole wheat couscous from Bulk Foods Playland at Central Markup. It didn't require any more time to cook, but I did use 1 1/2 cups of water per the label.
  
• I used maybe a fifth of a cup of olive oil. My fear of fats reared its ugly head as I was measuring out the oil, and I just couldn't commit to the full quarter-cup called for by the recipe.
  
• In addition to the juice I squeezed from one of the oranges, I threw in what was left from the little 6-ounce can of unsweetened OJ I tapped for the tagine meal.
  
• I omitted the red onion (even though I had it sliced and ready to go), parsley (didn't have any), mint (didn't have any) and cucumber (don't like it). I'd planned originally to replace the parsley I didn't have with cilantro I did have, but in the end I didn't, partly because I knew if I added it, I'd be risking giving the boy even more ammunition to reject the dish and partly because, well, I doubted cilantro's compatibility with orange. I know it works really well with lime, but with orange? I'm not yet convinced. Maybe next time.
  
• I didn't refrigerate the couscous at any time. I planned from the beginning to serve this as a warm side dish, not as a salad. Now that I've eaten couscous, I can see its possibility as a cold dish, but I didn't want to try it for the first time cold. Maybe next time.

Since I'd never had couscous before, I had no idea what to expect when I removed the plastic lid from the bowl after the 5 minutes of steaming were up. I thought perhaps the finished couscous would be granular like rice, but it was more like one big idli in that bowl. Nifty! Of course, that makes sense since couscous--or at least some varieties of it--is more like semolina.

Dinner Date
As I'd suspected, the orange couscous and chicken with cinnamon and dates were the perfect pairing. Because the chicken has some tasty cinnamony sauce, the couscous absorbs some of it and the cinnamony flavor when served on the same plate with the chicken--and if you've ever doubted that cinnamon and orange aren't a winning combination, think again!

And yes, the boy did reject both the couscous and the chicken. His rejecting the chicken was a bit of a shocker because I really, really figured he'd at least eat the chicken. But no. Oh well, more for his father and me!

Speaking of more, we had a lot of couscous left over, and I'm looking forward to leftovers. I might even try a bit of it cold.

Date Night Includes Dessert, Naturally
Okay, the date-rific dessert we enjoyed with this meal, oatmeal-date bars, I actually made Tuesday, but they fit the theme, so I'm blogging about them now. Like it or lump it, Gentle Reader.

I'd made these bars before, not long after I first reclaimed my kitchen. I enjoyed the results tremendously but unfortunately had failed to write down the recipe or note where I'd found it. Luckily, I happened upon it again in the Weight Watchers' Quick & Easy Menus recipe magazine before I sold it at Half-Price Books! Here it is:

Oatmeal-Date Bars1 1/2 C chopped dates
3/4 C water
2 1/2 T lemon juice
1/3 C stick margarine, softened
2/3 C firmly packed brown sugar
1 t vanilla extract
1 C regular oats
3/4 C all-purpose flour
1/4 C whole wheat flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/8 t NaCl

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Prep a 9" square baking pan with cooking spray.
   
2. Combine the dates, water and lemon juice in a medium saucepan and bring them to a boil. Reduce the heat and let simmer, uncovered, for 5 min. or until thick, stirring frequently. Remove heat.
   
3. Cream the margarine, then gradually add the brown sugar, beating at medium speed with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat well.
   
4. In a medium bowl, combine the oats, flours, baking and salt. Stir well, then add the mixture to the creamed ingredients, stirring until teh mixture resembles coarse meal.
   
5. Press 2 cups of the oat mixture into the baking pan, then bake for 5 minutes or until the crust is puffy.
   
6. Spread the date mixture over the crust, then sprinkle the remaining oat mixture on top.
   
7. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden, then remove and let cool on a wire rack.

Yield: 16 bars (one bar is one serving)

Nutritional Info
Calories: 159
Fat: 4.3 g
Saturated fat: 0.8 g
Protein: 2 g
Carbs: 29.7 g
Fiber: 2.3 g
Na: 92 mg

The Faudie's Futzings

• Stick margarine? Try Promise.
  
• Instead of regular 'ol brown sugar, you know already, Gentle Reader, that I went for the Splenda brown sugar blend.
  
• While I appreciate that the recipe calls for whole wheat flour, I didn't follow it and use all-purpose flour. I got out the King Arthur white whole wheat flour because I know it and whole wheat flour work well with oats.
  
• I don't have a 9" baking square. I have two 8" ones, but a 9"? Nope. And it's probably better that I used one of my 8" jobbers because I have the worst luck with pressing oat-flour-butter crusts: The stuff sticks to my fingers and not the pan, and I end up with an uneven crust. But I did a good job getting the crust fairly even, and I (well, Lumpy) did a great job with the initial baking time. Check out the goldness and puffiness:

The only problem with this recipe is that it doesn't make too many bars. Okay, yeah, 16 is a lot of bars theoretically, but I love dates and I love these date bars, so they're gone too soon. Wah!

Speaking of being gone too soon, if you haven't left by now, Gentle Reader, congrats on getting all the way through this excessively long post! I'm now at the end, so go have yourself a date night!