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Chicken Maraq

Chicken Maraq recipe from Oman

Our fictional trip around The World for £4 or less took us to Oman last night. This was one of our favourite recipes so far, with a new ingredient for us - Black Limes! These are dry preserved Limes which I found in the local Halal Continental shop. We only actually needed 2 but ended up with 500g. I can see these sneaking into all sorts of dishes. They really pack a citrus punch!
 
Ingredients:-
 
½ a small Chicken cut into portions – Drummer, thigh, wing, breast cubed etc.
A large knob of Butter or Margarine
1 Onion, chopped
2 cloves of Garlic, minced
Omani Spices (See below)
¼ of a tube of Tomato Paste
3 large Tomatoes, chopped
2 Black Limes, cut in half
1250 ml of Chicken Stock (We had our own in the fridge from the Chicken carcass Sue rended down a while ago – But Stock cubes are cool)
3 medium Potatoes, peeled and cubed
 
Omani Spices 
 
Ingredients:-
 
1 handful of chopped Coriander
Cumin
Cinamon
Black Pepper
Cloves
Turmeric
½ tsp of each dried ingredient.
 
Method:-
 
(1) Fry the Onion in the Butter / Margarine until golden and softened.
(2) Add the Chicken pieces and cook for a further 5 minutes.
(3) Add the Garlic, Omani Spices, Tomato Paste, chopped Tomatoes and Black Limes.
(4) Add the Chicken Stock and stir for 2 minutes.
(5) Add more water if the sauce seem too thick, but you are aiming for quite a thick sauce.
(6) Bring to the boil them simmer for 15 minutes.
(7) Add the Potato and simmer for a further 20 minutes until the Potato is softened but not breaking down.
 
We enjoyed ours with hand made Gluten free flat breads (Recipe Here), Turmeric Rice and a sprinkling of chopped Coriander to add a bit of colour. 
 

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Chamin for Shabbat recipe, eat well on universal credit

I’ll not bother to type this recipe out in full, you can find it here if you are interested. https://www.chabad.org/recipes/recipe_cdo/aid/3561592/jewish/Chamin-for-Shabbat.htm/fbclid/IwAR1dqCYX3hnYfs1AmV48VzdRTdJZyVAVEx5nUOZRuVtPbo8PSF0__HXZ-7A

Part of the issue is that although the recipe looked interesting, we didn’t read it to the end before embarking on cooking it! The sentence we missed was “ Drop the meat patties in as it boils, cover, and place on a hot plate on low heat until Sabbath lunch. “ In other words, to avoid as much work on the Sabbath as possible, this recipe requires a very long and slow cooking process……

We should have known better really as we both commented that some of the processes seemed a bit odd. But trustingly we cracked on…..

We started this on Sunday and eventually ate it yesterday.

But, and it’s a big but…..

Whoever took the photograph clearly realised they had the same problem as we encountered. When it is finally cooked what you are left with is the least photogenic brown stew with meatballs loitering under the surface. Even the Kidney Beans had given up the ghost and disintegrated. They clearly corrected this in a similar way as us to rescue the photograph. We’re guessing that they added a tin of Kidney Beans and fresh chopped Tomatoes right at the end of the cooking process.

We resorted to adding a tin of Kidney Beans, various chopped herbs and the zest of a Lemon to try to brighten it a bit and add texture. However whatever limited flavours this dish could once have had, had effectively cooked out.

It was OK, but certainly not an outstanding success and certain not worth the extended cooking time. But you can’t win them all I guess…...

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