Tajine of chicken and prunes

When I got up this morning at 7:00, I looked out the bedroom window and saw thick fog hanging in the still air out over the vineyard. It was warm yesterday — the temperature hit 26.5ºC, about 80ºF, and weather reports say it will hit 30ºC today, or 86ºF. Good. We haven't had any hot weather since July.

Now at 9:00 a.m. the sun is shining brightly, the fog has burned off, and the sky is blue. It's beautiful. And what are our plans for the day? We need to saw some logs down to the size that will fit into our new woodstove so that we will be able to have nice fires when the weather turns cold and rainy in November.

Meanwhile, a few days ago I mentioned that I was going to make a tajine of chicken with prunes and almonds over the weekend. I did, on Saturday. Here's how it turned out.

Tajine de poulet aux pruneaux et courgettes

I decided to serve it with boiled potatoes rather than rice, because I was planning to make a rice pilaf with okra the next day. Besides, I had a sack of red potatoes in the cellar that needed to be used. This dish would also be good served with couscous grain.

I love to cook with prunes. At one company I worked for in Silicon Valley, there was a woman named Ellen (hi, Ellen!) whose family had been in the plum-growing business in California. We often traded recipes, and all of us in our workgroup joked about the marketing decision to call California prunes "dried plums" because prunes have an image problem in the U.S.

Americans think prunes are food for old people. Did you know that in France they are considered a fine delicacy, and in Japan they are considered a miracle food? Many of the prunes sold in France these days come from California, but the best French ones come from the town of Agen in southwest France, not too far from Bordeaux. In French, plums are called prunes and prunes are called pruneaux.

I love to cook rabbit, lamb, pork, and poultry with prunes. Plum jam is my favorite confiture. Later today, I'm planning to drive ten miles south from Saint-Aignan to pick plums in a friend's orchard. If I get enough, I'll make jam.

The recipe or idea for a tajine of chicken with prunes was mine, and then I found this recipe on the 1001 Délices web site. Here's my translation.


Tajine of chicken with plums, zucchini, and almonds

Ingredients:
8 chicken drumsticks
1 bowl of prunes (dried plums)
1 cup of whole almonds
1 tbs. of honey
3 zucchini (courgettes)
4 tbs. ras-el-hanout spice mixture*
1 tbs. lemon zest
2 large onions

Instructions:
Brown the chicken in a little oil. Add the onions cut into rings. Then add the ras-el-hanout spice mixture* and stir everything together so that the spices coat the chicken pieces.

Add the water, the prunes, the lemon zest, the almonds, and the honey. Let it cook on very low heat for 40 minutes.

Then add the zucchini cut into fairly thick rounds. Let it simmer for another 25 minutes to make sure the zucchini is cooked.

Serve with couscous grain or with boiled potatoes.

* Ras-el-hanout (sometimes spelled raz-el-hanout) is a
blend of various spices, sometimes up to 25 of them.
The ras-el-hanout I have is made of ground turmeric,
cumin, ginger, nutmeg, coriander, and cardamom. You
could easily make your own, or use curry powder.

Here's a list of my modifications and some pictures:

The recipe calls for 8 chicken drumsticks but I had and used a whole chicken cut into 6 pieces. Walt likes the chicken breast, and so do I. I left the thigh/drumstick sections whole, and they made a second meal for us as leftovers. It was really better the second time around, by the way.

The recipe calls for two large onions, but I had four small ones. In general, French onions are smaller than American ones. You could use shallots, and I think it would also be good with some garlic in it.

The recipe calls for 4 tbs. of the spice mixture, and that's what I put in. I think it was too much. Half the amount would have been plenty, in my opinion. (And I wouldn't have wasted so much ras-el-hanout, which is hard to find.) I also added a dash of cayenne pepper and a pinch of cinnamon to the spice mixture I had.

I had one monster yellow crookneck squash from the garden, so I used that instead of zucchini. I peeled it, cut it in half the long way, and scraped out the seeds with a spoon. I cut the squash flesh into fairly thick sticks.

I didn't pit the prunes because I wanted them to remain whole and not melt into the sauce. Just tell your guests or family that the pits are still in the prunes. The recipe calls for a very vague quantity of prunes. Use as many as you want. The more the better... within reason.

And you might notice that I forgot to put in the almonds. I had planned to toast them in the oven and add them at the last minute so they would be toasty and crispy. We were already eating when Walt said: "I thought this was going to have almonds in it." Next time maybe I won't forget them.

Next time, also, I will use less spice and I will serve the tajine with couscous grain. And I think I'll make it with lamb instead of chicken.