Moroccan Chicken Stew a la Chignecto
Serves 3
Ingredients:
1 10- or 15-oz can of chicken, broken into small pieces
1 cup brine-cured (Spanish Queen) green olives, sliced
3 oz tomato paste
1 1/2 Tbsp Moroccan Tajine spice blend (a blend of cumin, pepper, cayenne, paprika, cinnamon, etc.)
1-2 cubes of chicken bullion (we used 3, and it was too salty)
2/3 of a head of cauliflower (fresh)
1 lemon
1 cup dry couscous
At home:
Dehydrate the chicken and olives according to the instructions of your food dehydrator. Dehydrate the tomato paste to make a tomato leather, and cut or tear it into small pieces. Combine the chicken, olives, tomato leather, spices and bullion in a zip-loc bag. Store the dry couscous in a separate bag. Pack the cauliflower and lemon as convenient.
On the trail:
- Cover the dry ingredients in a covered pot with about an inch of water and let sit until the ingredients have begun to rehydrate and soften (maybe an hour, but if you have less time you'll just have to cook for longer). Break up the tomato leather with a spoon as much as possible. If you are still on the trail an hour before dinner time, you could just add water to the zip-loc bag and let it soak in your pack for a while.
- When you are starting to get hungry, bring 1 cup of water to a boil. Stir in the couscous and let it sit covered for about 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
- While the couscous water is coming to a boil, cut the fresh cauliflower into small florets. Slice the lemon, cut the rind off the slices, and separate into segments. The remaining round ends of the lemon can be squeezed into the pot for their juice, and any juice resulting from the slicing should be reserved and added as well. Add the cauliflower and lemon segments to the pot, and once the couscous pot has been removed from the stove, simmer the stew for about 10 minutes until the cauliflower is tender and the tomato leather has fully rehydrated to create a sauce. Serve over couscous.
The recipe format is stolen from "Lipsmackin' Backpacking" by Tim and Christine Conners, although I don't have the dry weight and nutritional information available. Even with the cauliflower, it didn't do too bad with respect to pack weight, and was probably one of our healthier meals on the trip (no butter, no oil, no cheese!).
1 comment:
There was this family camped out right next to us at the fairly-crowded campground in cinque terre. They were, I believe, French. They were standoffish, at least, and seemed to speak French. Also - it rained that night, the first night we had it rain on us in Italy. We ran around like crazy getting everything inside. Each night after that, we hardened our campsite against possible rain. But this french dude just kept on sleeping, with his head sticking half-out of his tent. As far as I could tell, his face got rained on and his sleeping bag wet. Weird.
Anyway, I saw and smelled these french folks making something with cumin-curry-pepper smells, and cauliflower. This is roughly what I imagined they were making, refined after a few versions that Chrissy gave feedback on.
I absolutely loved the trail food. On the trail, having extra-spicy food is a MUST. You spend too long just walking around and chewing on trail mix. My goal for most meals is to make things pop-pop-pop. I knew when I put it together, for example, that it might be a bit too salty, but I thought, better too salty than bland. Still and all, too salty. Next time 1 or 2 bullion cubes, and some actual salt to taste.
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