tandoori chicken and couscous

The weather has been getting cooler. Some days are beautiful and sunny while others are kind of gloomy and rainy.

I think Autumn is almost here. At the market, they have started bringing in the chestnuts and pears.

Not sure why I was craving tandoori chicken, but I was.

The last time I made this, there was a slight "problem" in the kitchen.

This time around everything went okay, except that my lack of counter space made for balancing things here and there.

I bought chicken breasts with the skins on this time and marinated them lunch. (since they should marinate for about 4 hours)

The market had an awesome sale on chicken, 48 yen for 100 grams, so I only paid 172 yen (about US$1.72) for 358 grams.

Then at about 15:00 (snack time), I flipped them over in the marinade.

Previously, the pieces I had were smaller with no skin, so I cooked them for only 10 minutes then under the broiler for 17.

Since the pieces I had this time had the skin on them and were thicker, I put them into a 350F (180C) oven (skin side up) for 30 minutes then under the broiler for about 5 minutes.

The skin came out so crisp (of course I had to eat the one I had for dinner!), the meat was very moist.

I also made some carrot salad and couscous with dried fig, cranberries, apricots and nuts (pine nuts, pecan & cashew). I also roasted some red bell pepper and onion. Since I had some cucumber to use up, I cut it up and added it to the plate.

Not the most aesthetic plate, overall it was kind of labor intensive, it was a tasty dinner, which made it all worth it, plus we have leftovers so I don't have to cook tomorrow.

couscous salad

Here is one of the salads that we've been eating...a pasta type salad made with Trader Joe's Harvest Grain Blend.

The blend has couscous, orzo, quinoa & lentils.

I have only been to Trader Joe's once, on a trip to Las Vegas and loved their selection of chocolates and dried fruits.

My mom received this blend from our neighbor. Since she didn't know how to cook or serve this, she let my Aunty and me split it up.

I made some macadamia basil pesto then tossed it with the cooked grains, tomatoes, cucumber, some parsley, pepper and some parmesan cheese.

Chilled, it was delicious.

kefta and couscous

I love the internet. I love blogging. I love how I can get so much information from a machine that hooks me up to the world and to people, some that I have met and most that I haven't. My world of food has opened up so much since I have started blogging. I am also grateful that I don't have to work 9 to 5, this gives me a lot of time to experiment in the kitchen as well as explore outside the kitchen (Thanks Satoshi!). The other day, I read Mamatouille's post. If you haven't checked out her blog, you should, she has a lot of great ideas for saving time and money, especially if you have little ones to feed. Mamatouille got the kefta recipe from Kayotic Kitchen(link no longer works). I bookmarked it and debated as to what I should pair this dish with. I flipped through Ellie Krieger's "The Food You Crave" (hope you aren't getting tired of this book) and found a recipe for "Herbed Couscous Timbale with Dried Fruit and Nuts"....perfect! and the only ingredients I needed to buy were ground beef and a lemon for the kefta. I subbed most of the ingredients for the couscous, for one, I didn't have fresh basil, so I threw some dried into the stock. For the stock, I used a bouillon cube. Also, the recipe called for red bell pepper but I used both green and red. I didn't have pine nuts nor dried currants, so I used mac nuts and dried cranberries. The only ingredient I didn't sub was the dried apricots and couscous (though the original calls for couscous that is preferably whole wheat). For the kefta I followed the recipe as best I could, I didn't have a whole chili pepper, so I used the dried sliced chili that I had and I didn't add the salt. The reason I chose this couscous recipe was because it used the zest of the lemon, and the kefta used the juice of the lemon. While poaching the kefta in the sauce, I scooped out as much oil that came out as possible. I made this on a weekday but wouldn't recommend this for working moms/dads, it does take some time to put together. I guess if you made this ahead then you could reheat it for a weekday. The lemon flavor and moroccan spices are delicious together. Today is the First Day of Spring and the Vernal Equinox also known as Shunbun no hi, which means that it is a holiday here. Hope you have a great weekend!