Moroccan Eggplant

First off - I highly recommend you get past the downright awful looking little side picture.  The end result of actually making this neat little side dish will surely wow you. I will start this post by admitting that I am not a huge eggplant fan myself. I think that it's the texture mainly. The sponginess of the whole thing kind of weirds me out. I decided that I needed to broaden the Giles' vegetable palate this week though and thought that I'd check out a few of the cookbooks. This came up and I thought I'd give it a whirl. I was looking for something fun to serve up beside this Moroccan Chicken dish. The eggplant looks really greasy and gross but it's actually really sweet and tangy and syrupy like. Yummmmmmm. Nice to try something a little different every now and then!  Bon appétit!

(Serves 4 to 6 as a side)

Ingredients:
2 small eggplants (about 1 1/2 lbs.)
2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, pressed or very finely chopped
4 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1 small spoonful harissa, or 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon ginger
salt

Directions:
1. Peel the eggplants, and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices. Brush both sides of the slices with olive oil.

2. Heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium to medium high-heat. Fry the eggplant, turning once, until golden brown. Set aside.

3. Remove the pan from the heat, and allow the pan to cool for a minute or two. Add the olive oil and the garlic, and leave the garlic to soften. When the aroma of the garlic has been released, add the honey, lemon juice, harissa, spices and salt to taste. Stir to blend.

4. Return the eggplant to the pan, and bring the sauce to a simmer over medium heat. Cook the eggplant for about 10 minutes, or until the egpplant is tender and the sauce has a syrup-like consistency. Add a little water during the cooking if you feel it's necessary, but not so much that the eggplant will overcook while the liquids reduce.

Serve at room temperature.

Moroccan Spiced Chicken

I love, love, love playing around with spice mixtures. I also love it when I can find a recipe that uses cardamom. Who doesn`t love getting out the mortar and pestle?  This recipe uses an absolute plethora of moroccanish spices and the end result is so yummy. I am home recovering from another round of back surgery and have my mum looking after me. It was a lot of fun to make this dish together. We paired it with some super tangy Moroccan eggplant (recipe to follow!). Yum. We altered this recipe a tad so that you have some left-over marinade to serve with the chicken as ours ended up being a little dry. Enjoy! Bon appétit!

Ingredients:
1 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
Juice of 1 lime
3 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Directions:
1. Place Greek yogurt, lime juice, honey, turmeric, ginger, cumin, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, cardamom, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl and mix until well combined. Reserve about a 1/4 cup of marinade to serve with your chicken later on. Spread remainder of marinade evenly over chicken breasts in a shallow dish and refrigerate for an hour.

2. Heat oven to 350˚F. Heat a nonstick grill pan over medium high heat. Spray with nonstick cooking spray and sear chicken for 2 minutes per side or until browned. Place chicken in a large rectangular dish and bake with your leftover marinade at 350˚F for 8 to 10 minutes or until cooked through and no longer pink in the center. Makes 4 servings.