Christophe Noel
Expedition Leader
I was in culinary school in France at the time I took a 4 week mountain bike trip around N. Africa. I later modified a recipe for a dutch oven that reminded me of the tagine meals I had near the Atlas mountains. I just found the recipe yesterday. She's a good. Chicken or lamb. Tweaked for camping.
Pre-trip prep:
Mix together the following seasonings - cinnamon, turmeric, cumin seeds, corriander seeds, red chili flakes, ground ginger, black pepper (all in roughly 1/2 tablespoon measurements. Easy on the tumeric as it stains. Easy on the ginger. Heavy on the chili flakes.) Place in a warm skillet and allow to "bloom" for 60 seconds. Grind to a fine powder in a spice grinder.
Prepare 8-10 chicken thighs or 3 lamb shanks. Rub the meat with a healthy dose of the spice mixture. It all needs to be extremely well coated. Make more rub if needed. Place in a zip lock bag and regrigerate for up to 48 hours.
Day of trip:
In a hot dutch oven or pan, place the meat in a shallow dose of olive oil. Brown slightly. Add one whole onion chopped in large chunks. Let the onion get slightly translucent. Add 8 oz of chicken stock and deglaze the pan a touch. Add 1 can of stewed tomatoes. If you have fresh okra that goes very well in this dish.
Cover and let simmer for 35-45 minutes. Lamb shanks will take longer.
Serve on cous cous. Or...If you're camp lazy like me, cook the whole mess with an extra 8 oz of chicken stock and just before you remove the whole deal from the heat, toss the cous cous in and let it cook in the stewy broth for a couple minutes.
If you really go Moroccan, you can let it cool and eat with one hand right out of the pot. Dishes? Who needs dishes?
Bon appetit! I hope it takes you to Ourzazate or some other far away place like it always does for me.
Christophe
Pre-trip prep:
Mix together the following seasonings - cinnamon, turmeric, cumin seeds, corriander seeds, red chili flakes, ground ginger, black pepper (all in roughly 1/2 tablespoon measurements. Easy on the tumeric as it stains. Easy on the ginger. Heavy on the chili flakes.) Place in a warm skillet and allow to "bloom" for 60 seconds. Grind to a fine powder in a spice grinder.
Prepare 8-10 chicken thighs or 3 lamb shanks. Rub the meat with a healthy dose of the spice mixture. It all needs to be extremely well coated. Make more rub if needed. Place in a zip lock bag and regrigerate for up to 48 hours.
Day of trip:
In a hot dutch oven or pan, place the meat in a shallow dose of olive oil. Brown slightly. Add one whole onion chopped in large chunks. Let the onion get slightly translucent. Add 8 oz of chicken stock and deglaze the pan a touch. Add 1 can of stewed tomatoes. If you have fresh okra that goes very well in this dish.
Cover and let simmer for 35-45 minutes. Lamb shanks will take longer.
Serve on cous cous. Or...If you're camp lazy like me, cook the whole mess with an extra 8 oz of chicken stock and just before you remove the whole deal from the heat, toss the cous cous in and let it cook in the stewy broth for a couple minutes.
If you really go Moroccan, you can let it cool and eat with one hand right out of the pot. Dishes? Who needs dishes?
Bon appetit! I hope it takes you to Ourzazate or some other far away place like it always does for me.
Christophe
Last edited:
