Harissa and Yogurt Chicken with Persian-spiced Pilaf

Sometimes you’re in the mood for Indian food or Italian food or Chinese food. The other day, I was in the mood for Donna Hay food. I’m not sure that even makes sense to me, but I’ll attempt to explain it. Donna Hay recipes are always full of interesting flavors, and the preparations are never too fussy. That was the kind of meal I wanted to make for dinner. In her book, Off the Shelf, there’s a dish called Persian-spiced pilaf with harissa-seared beef, and there’s another one called harissa and yogurt baked chicken. I swapped the chicken for the beef, and that was my dinner plan. You can buy harissa in a jar, but I almost always seem to have some that I’ve made in the refrigerator. I started making it a couple of years ago and figured out it’s a perfect condiment for baked sweet potato fries which is why I usually have some on hand. I make the version from Sunday Suppers at Lucques, and it’s smoky and just spicy enough. So, the chicken was marinated in a mixture of yogurt, harissa, cumin, and mint, and that was sure to be a good thing. The Persian-spiced pilaf brought cinnamon, cardamom, and saffron to the meal, and the spice aromas filled the kitchen and lingered through the house.

Although this recipe doesn’t require the chicken to be marinated in advance, I always feel like chicken for any dish should be seasoned several hours or the day before cooking. But, I forgot this time. I mixed the marinade as suggested with cornstarch, yogurt, harissa, shredded mint, and cumin, and spread it over the chicken pieces. It sat while the oven pre-heated. There was no need to worry since these were big flavors, and they found their way into the chicken without any problems. As the chicken roasted, the pilaf was made with basmati rice steamed in vegetable stock with a cinnamon stick, three green cardamom pods, and a pinch of saffron. You know you’re in for a good meal when it smells as good as this one did as it cooked.

This delivered exactly what I was craving both in terms of preparing it and eating it. The yogurt kept the chicken tender, the spices worked their magic, and my work in making the meal mostly involved sitting down with a book while the chicken roasted and the rice steamed. And, when are you not in the mood for a meal like that?

Quinoa Salad with Dried Iranian Lime

It was last June when I first learned about dried limes. There was a story in the NY Times about their use in cuisine from Iran and Iraq, exactly how they’re used both whole and ground, and their unique, complex flavor of citrus with a slight funky edge. I immediately called Phoenicia, our nearby Middle Eastern market, learned they did have dried limes for sale, and ran straight there to get them. Dried limes are just that, whole, dehydrated, sun-dried limes. You should wash them before using them. Then, you can either pierce them and drop them whole into soups or beans as they cook, or you can chop them and then grind them in a spice grinder or coffee mill. If you grind the chopped pieces, you should shake the ground lime through a sieve to remove any large, hard bits. I tried two of the recipes from the NY Times article, the lentil salad and the broiled shrimp, but I never got around to mentioning them here. I recall that for the lentil dish, the dried limes were pierced and placed in the pot with the lentils while they cooked. The flavor they imparted was very subtle, and if I hadn’t known I’d used the dried limes I don’t think I would have picked out their flavor in the dish. For the shrimp, a paste was made with ground dried lime, other spices, and olive oil, and that paste was used as a rub on the shrimp. In that dish, the flavor from the limes was present, interesting, and enjoyable. I intended to try that again and grill the shrimp rather than broil it, but I just never got to it. All of this explains why I was so eager to try this quinoa salad from the book Plenty. I already had dried limes in my pantry, and I couldn’t wait to use them again.

There are a several great-looking mixed grain salads in that book. Here, quinoa, wild rice, and basmati rice were mixed with roasted chunks of sweet potato, herbs, sliced green onions, and feta. I had just received sweet potatoes and green onions from Farmhouse Delivery, so I was set. I bought Canadian Lake wild rice, which is a long variety that requires about 55 minutes to cook. I cooked it in a large saucepan with plenty of extra water, and added the basmati rice after about 15 minutes of simmering. When the two grains were cooked, they were drained and placed in a large mixing bowl. Meanwhile, sweet potatoes were peeled, chopped into cubes and roasted with a coating of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. For the last 10 minutes of roasting time, the quinoa was cooked in simmering water, and then it was drained and added to the rices. Dried limes were chopped, ground, and sieved, and two tablespoons were used in the salad. Last, olive oil was heated in a small skillet, sliced garlic was added followed by chopped sage and oregano, and I was lucky to still have some sage and oregano in my herb garden after our cold spell. The oil with garlic and herbs was poured over the grain mixture followed by the roasted sweet potatoes and the oil left on the baking sheet, the sliced green onion, a little lemon juice, some shredded mint, the ground dried lime, and cubes of feta. Everything was carefully mixed so as not to break up the sweet potato or feta.

This was such a pleasant mix of nutty, chewy grains, and the garlic, onion, and herbs hit all the right flavor notes. The dried lime with its concentrated citrus was well-matched with the sweet potato and feta. You could easily add more of one thing or less of another here, but I wouldn’t change a thing next time I make this. It was a meal of a salad, and since it makes a nice, large quantity, it will be several meals. I’m already looking forward to the next one for lunch.