A day at the beach

Snow brought disruption to Brighton. But with disruption arrives opportunity, the opportunity to start the weekend early.   Dear readers, I am enjoying a four day weekend due to snow disruption.  After an afternoon at the beach I decided to use up lots of ingredients from my fridge that need eating and make a Moroccan inspired one pot dish with boiled eggs.

Hannah's Challenge 

Ingredients:
1x onion
8 cloves of garlic
tablespoon grated ginger
1x red chilli
2x tomatoes
tomato puree
2x teaspoons cumin
1x teaspoon harissa paste
1x tablespoon of apple and walnut chutney (this chutney is horrible, far to sweet to eat alone)
cinnamon stick
4x cardamom pods
handful olives
2x carrots
broccoli
cabbage
tin borlotti beans
2x eggs hard boiled
handful coriander 

1.Soften the onions in oil, add salt so that they don't fry but soften.  Then add garlic, grated ginger and chilli. Cook for two minutes before adding cumin, fry for 1 min more and then add harissa paste and chutney.

2. Peel the tomatoes (place them in boiling water to do this)  Add the tomatoes and tomato puree to the mixture and 1/4 pint of veg stock. (I left this to simmer for about 1 hour) Add olives, cinnamon stick and cardamom.

3. Add the carrots and cook for 15 minutes and then add other vegetables and more stock if needed.

4. Boil eggs for about six minutes, peel and cut in half

5. Add beans and eggs to the vegetables cook for further 20 minutes.

6. Sprinkle with coriander and serve

I served this with couscous flavoured with saffron and argon oil (both from Morocco) and we drank a lovely glass of mulled cider. Happy times.

Marking Category	Hannah	Alan
Presentation	1.5	2
Innovation	3.5	3
Quality of egg	2	4
Taste	3.5	3.75
Total	10.5	12.75

Comments:

Hannah- I did not get the eggs right.  They were supposed to be hard boiled but they were still a little soft. I felt that the eggs seemed like a bit of an add on rather than being in harmony with the rest of the dish.  If I was to make this again I would crack the eggs into the pan and poach them on top of the stew or place it all into the oven to bake like a traditional tajine.  I feel that this would make the eggs feel like more of a cohesive part of the recipe.  This was a lovely warming recipe perfect food for a snow day.

Alan- I was not disappointed with the quality of the egg.  I thought it was a lovely soft boiled egg.  I thought that the flavour of the egg complimented the sweet, spicy, aromatic flavours of the tajine