Now, back to cooking. For today’s post, I’m offering a recipe that is perfect for these cold days we’ve been having here in the DC area. This recipe is hearty, filling, and spicy. I guarantee this dish will warm you up. Now, I’ve told you about my tagine before but just in case you don’t remember, it’s a Moroccan earthenware slow cooker. As a kitchen appliance, it’s so pretty. It’s so pretty, I wasn’t sure I’d ever use it. And at first, I was having a hard time with the tagine, that is until my mom and I came across the cookbook Tagines & Couscous.

My mom and I were shopping at a Lecruest outlet store when I spotted the book. The lady who worked in the shop raved about it! She said it was so user friendly and they had made plenty of amazing dishes for their classes and taste tests. We were sold. Literally. Both us got a copy. Now I make this recipe (well, below is my adaptation of it) all the time. Honestly, I make this recipe almost every other week.

I have found some of the ingredients in the book hard to find (like rose water), but, when I really can’t find them, I’ve powered through with the recipe and it has still come out delicious. Also, please don’t be afraid of how many spices this recipe calls for. It’s an investment at first, but I’ve found them to be worthwhile and useful for other recipes. Additionally, If you don’t have a tagine, try this out with a dutch oven.

Finally, I heartily suggest making couscous as a side. You can find couscous in the same aisle as other grains. It’s such a great complement to this dish because it’s buttery and subtle and helps to balance the spiciness of the dish. And believe me, this dish does have some kick.

Ingredients: 

3 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

3-4 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp turmeric

1-2 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 tbsp honey

2 cups carrots, cut diagonally into 2″ pieces

1 lb lean beef, cut into cubes (I use what Trader Joe’s packages as stew meat)

1 14oz cans of chickpeas, rinsed and drained (you can use up to 2 cans if you love chickpeas)

sea salt

chopped cilantro (optional, for garnish)

Directions:

1. If using a tagine, put the your heat diffuser over the burner. Put the bottom of the tagine on top. Pour in the oil and heat over medium-high until warm.

2. Add the onion and garlic. Saute until soft, about 5 minutes.

3. Add the turmeric, cumin seeds, cinnamon, cayenne, black pepper, and honey. Stir to coat the onions and garlic. Let the spices toast a bit, just for 1 minute.

4. Add the carrots. Saute for 4-5 minutes. Make sure they get coated with the spices.

5. Stir in the beef. Saute for about 3 minutes. Make sure you get the beef coated and it has started to brown. It’s ok if it’s 50% brown and 50% pink.

I’m sorry this picture is a little blurry, but I wanted you to see you don’t have to completely cook the meat.

6. Pour in enough water so everything is 50% covered. Bring the water to a boil. Place the cover on the tagine, and turn the heat to low.

7. Let everything simmer in the tagine for 40 minutes.

8. Add the drained chickpeas to the tagine. Stir everything together so the chickpeas also get some seasoning. Cook for 15-20 minutes.

9. Turn off the heat. Make sure the vegetables are tender and the meat is cooked through. You should have a nice stew-like meal swimming in some spicy broth. Season with salt, if desired. Garnish with cilantro, if you’re  using it. Serve over a bed of couscous.

Messy Level: I give this one three spoons because it is undercover messy. Yes, everything is in one pot and that makes it pretty clean. But turmeric is a sneaky nemesis! It makes the liquid yellow and everything that liquid touches will be dyed yellow. If you have cheap counter tops, like I do, you might end up with some stains so please be careful!

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I love all kind of books, not just food books. I like biographies, historical fiction, and fantasy books aimed at adolescents (like Harry Potter and the Hunger Games). But, food writing can be such great fun. Food writing transports me to new places, gives me inspiration for future posts, and pushes me to try something new at restaurants. Food stories make me feel hungry, excited, and eager to jump in the kitchen.

So, for fellow readers out there, I want to share with you 5 food-related books that have had an impact on me. Also, I want to actually, physically, share a book with one of you, through the first-ever cooking is messy giveaway! I’m giving away one copy of Jacques Pepin’s book Essential Pepin. This book is huge with tons of recipes and clear instructions. My favorite part is that it comes with a DVD where Jacques Pepin shows you a variety of techniques, like flipping an omelet and killing a lobster. He’s awesome, adorable, has a great French accent, and is fun to watch. I love this book, and I’m giving it away only because I have two copies. If you want a peak inside, two recipes I’ve made from the book are french onion soup and steak in a spicy soy sauce.

Anyway, to enter for the book all you have to do is write a comment and share with me the title of a book you love. It can be any kind of book, not just a cookbook or food memoir. Unfortunately, this giveaway is open to just to those in the U.S. I will mail the cookbook via US Postal service.  The winner will be selected on January 29, randomly using random.org. I will contact the winner via email and the winner will have 48 hours to respond before another winner is chosen in their place. If only one person enters, then yay, you win!

Full disclosure: some links in this post will be affiliate links. That means if you were to make a purchase, I would get a small percentage of the sales price. I’m recommending these books though because I love them!

And now, here’s my list of books I love…

Mariel’s 5 Books to Read:

 A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle. This is an excellent memoir about Mayle and his wife’s move to a small home in Provence. I read this when I was on my gap-year between high school and college and I felt transported. I hadn’t traveled much yet, I couldn’t legally drink wine, and I wasn’t much of an adventurous eater – but I wanted to be and do all of those things. I fell in love with the idea of immersing yourself in a new culture through food. The book is not just about food, but the way Mayle describes his meals and wine makes France came alive in decadent and absorbing detail.

  Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. I’m crazy about this book and I recommend it to everyone. Kingsolver and her family spend a year striving to live locally and eat with the seasons. Her husband and oldest daughter also contribute chapters to the book. What I love about the book is that it really got me thinking about how I could incorporate local and seasonal food into my diet. I can’t commit myself to being 100% sustainable, but this book helped me think about what I could do and why it is important.  Also I love the recipes! Zucchini chocolate chip cookies! Eggs over chard! And the mozzarella I made  was inspired by her recipe. Most importantly, if you’re not interested in eating locally and seasonally don’t worry – this book has a great narrative and can be pretty funny (there’s a great story about how the family tries to force their turkeys to mate).

  Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. I’ll be honest, if you’re not interested in where your food comes from, then this is not the book for you. Foer became a father and asked himself if eating meat was the best choice for his family. He goes on a quest to see what’s going on with our food production. I enjoyed that he talked to all different types of people from large meat producers to renegade activists who try to free baby poultry. Also, it was just fascinating learning about all the different types of food industry people and to compare their very different and strong-held beliefs. The book didn’t turn  me into a vegan, but it stuck with me and it has changed some of my grocery shopping habits.

The Art of Eating In by Cathy Erway. In New York, where there are tons of amazing restaurants and Erway decided to go a year without them. I read this when I first moved to New York and was a poor grad student so I liked the idea that I could create delicious meals at home. I also loved how it wasn’t just about home cooking. She explored the non-restaurant food scene which is more elaborate, secretive, and cool than I would have thought. Super clubs? Cook-off competitions? Who knew?! It makes the food scene feel exciting and complex. She also has a great blog, noteatingoutinny.com.

  Heat by Bill Buford. Buford thrusts himself in the restaurant world, taking on every job he’s allowed to at Mario Batali’s restaurant Babbo. The work is challenging, overwhelming, and seemingly exhilarating. Buford paints a “work hard, play hard” picture for what life is like at Babbo. What’s awesome is the Buford gets so engrossed in the Italian cooking and culture at Babbo that he briefly moves to Tuscany and becomes a butcher’s apprentice. The story is crazy, fast-paced, and a delight.

Don’t forgot, share a book title in the comments and you could win the giveaway.

All book cover pictures in the list are from goodreads.com

The post 5 Food Books I Love and a Giveaway! appeared first on Cooking is Messy.

But this is a great recipe to talk about on a sick day because it’s the ultimate comfort food. Ryan and I first made it during a cooking class at Sur La Table which focused on Jacques Pepin. I had never been to a cooking class before and I thought everything we made would be too complicated and I’d never be able to make it again at home. Not so! This recipe blew us away in class and we made it many times throughout the winter. It’s rich, thick, and delicious which makes it perfect for sick days, freezing winter evenings, and according Jacques Pepin, it’s good after a night of heavy drinking. This recipe comes from “Essential Pepin” by Jacques Pepin. It takes about an hour to finish, but it’s pretty straightforward. It’s not the prettiest recipe because it look rather lumpy. It also comes out thicker than a regular soup, but it’s hearty and amazing.

Another thing that I’d like to pass on is  a way to cut onions. Our instructor taught us this in class and I’ve found it really handy. For this recipe you’ll need long strips on onions. First, cut the onion from end to end, NOT across the equator. Peel off the onion skins. For strips, cut both tips off the ends. Then cut the onion along the lines you see on the onion. This means you are NOT cutting straight up and down, but on a diagonal following the grain of the onion. Hope these pictures help make sense of what I wrote.

If you’re dicing the onion, again cut the onion from end to end. Next cut off the non-hairy end of the onion. Then, like above, cut along the onion along the long lines on the onion. The “hairy end” of the onion will hold the strips all together. Now, cut horizontally up the onion until you get to the “hairy end.” Now you’ll have nice small squares of onion.

On to the recipe.

Ingredients: 

15-20 slices of baguette, cut about 1/4 inch thick

3 tbsp butter

4 cups of onion cut in thin strips (about 4 medium onions)

6-8 cups chicken broth (you can use more or less broth depending on the size of your casserole dish)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground pepper

2 cups grated Gruyere cheese (feel free to use more! I love cheese and sometimes use up to 3 cups)

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup of port

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°

2. Arrange the slices of bread on a cookie sheet. Toast in the oven for 8-10 minutes, or until they are light golden brown on the edges. Remove from oven and set aside

3. Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Cook the onions in the butter for about 20 minutes, or until the onions start to turn a bit brown in places.

4. Add the stock, salt, and pepper. Bring to boil and cook for 20 minutes.

5.  Arrange 1/2 the toast on the bottom of a casserole dish. I use a 2.5 quart dish, but have also used my Dutch Oven with success. The bigger the dish the more stock you can use. Smaller dish means some stock doesn’t make it into the final product.

6. Layer 1/2 onions on top of the toast

7. Layer 1/3 cheese on top of the onions.

8. Repeat the layers so in total you have two layers of bread, onion, and cheese.

9. Pour the stock into the casserole. Leave about an inch on the top because the soup will rise in the oven.

10. Sprinkle the last 1/3 of cheese on top of the soup mixture.

11. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a nice cheesey crust forms on top.

12. While the soup is baking, whisk the egg yolks and port in a bowl.

13. Remove the soup from the oven. Make a hole in the middle of the soup mixture and pour in the egg and port mix. Stir everything so the port mixture is well incorporated. The heat of the soup will cook the egg.

14. Turn off the oven and serve!

Messy Level: High. Prior to documenting this for the blog I would have thought this was a fairly mess-free recipe, and if you’re more meticulous than me you might keep your kitchen clean. But for me, after chopping four onions I had onion skins all over the kitchen. I shredded the cheese in the food processor and some fell out so I had cheese on the floor. But my worst mistake was that in my excitement for this dish, I over filled the casserole. It cooked over a lot which led to burned stock remnants at the bottom of my oven. Needless to say, that’s no fun. So, be more careful than me!

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