Moroccan Whatotto?

I have this fantastic recipe in this equally fantastic recipe book at home called Ethnidelicious that features a dish and an outline of various cuisines around the world. I highly recommend this lovely book. It has some great travel tips too.

I digress… The recipe I worked from is for a Moroccan cousotto with fish. The first time I made this dish I made it with chicken which worked wonderfully. I have since done it a couple of times with fish and either way it makes for a great meal full of flavours. Since I can longer have gluten I have substituted the couscous with quinoa with excellent success.

Quinoa is a South American grain that is truly a super-food. This website is a great source of info on quinoa which I genuinely encourage you to read. It’s health benefits really are outstanding and there is also quinoa flour and quinoa pasta. I have yet to source flour in Sydney but Alfalfa House in Enmore has a variety of quinoa and quinoa pasta. The grain comes in red, black and golden. I’m on a mission to make a wonderful colourful salad of sorts that uses all three.

Great quinoa website

So, from Moroccan Cousotto with fish to Moroccan Quinotto with chicken.

1 chicken breast diced
1 spanish onion sliced into thin rings
2 tbs dates
2 tbs cashews
1 red and 1 green capsicum sliced into rings
1 tomato, blanched, skin and seeds removed
1 cup of chicken stock
2 tablespoons chopped italian parsley

Fry half an onion in heavy based pan on medium/high heat for approx 8 minutes until crisp and golden then set aside. Fry dates until plump and soft and add to onion. Fry cashews until starting to toast and add to onion and dates and set aside.

Sautee other half of onion until soft. Add in sliced capsicum and cook for about 10 minutes until soft. Add tomato, stock and chicken and simmer covered until chicken is done. Fish can be used instead of chicken and fish stock instead of chicken stock at this stage. The recipe asks for swordfish but I prefer to use a more sustainable fish such as ling.

Meanwhile put 1 cup of quinoa with just over 1 cup of water in rice cooker and cook as you would rice. Couscous can also be used at this stage. You can use vegetable stock if you want more flavour but this dish does have plenty.

Gently mix quinoa into bowl with chicken and vegetable mixture. Top with parsley, reserved fried onion rings, dates and cashews then serve.