Tagine Chicken with Apricots and Almonds

It is Saturday night and I've been a horrible friend. I had plans with my friend Lindsay to cook a soup and bake vanilla lavender short bread cookies, but alas, it is 10pm and I am in bed (migraine stricken all day), having bailed on her. Hopefully she forgives me (Lindsay, maybe I'll surprise you and bring those shortbread cookies to your Raiders game tomorrow).

I am finally coming out of the migraine cloud (thanks to the Sumatriptan I am prescribed) and I am also starting to gain my appetite back. I am so ready for fall food it is not even funny. Fall reminds me of Sacramento when I was a kid - it was such a magical time. It rained often, but mostly, I remember the color of the leaves in the City of Trees. I literally was the child jumping in leaf piles that I raked and it was my sweet prize for all my hard work. Getting filthy dirty but also having the small satisfaction of the perfect crunch of the dried leaves under my feet.

Fall reminds me of baking pumpkin pies at my mom's tiny East Sacramento house (the starter house that we had when my parents broke up). I was so proud of what I had accomplished! As I got dressed in my dress, tights, and Mary Janes, I couldn't contain my excitement to proudly bring these pies to my Dad's house to be enjoyed by all. As we were walking out the door, I tripped, and one of the pies flew out of my hands and fell on the carpet, completely upside down. As I panicked and started to spiral, my mom picked it up and said in her Mrs. Doubtfire voice, "No one will knoooooow!" We checked it out, brushed it off, and kept it our little secret. As we served both pies, we weren't sure which one was the dropped pie and which one was the clean one, so we giggled all the way through dessert.

Fall also brings me great sadness. It is now when my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. Fall is when my stepdad Paul was diagnosed with cancer for a second time, and finally, a third time which ultimately led to his death. It is this weekend a year ago that he was brought into the hospital and isn't something I realized until this very moment. I miss him so much and cry at the most random times about him, but I know he's at home with us in Oakland and I think of him every time I cook in my Mom's kitchen.

Ah. Home. Home is a complex word to me, because I have my Dad's home in Sacramento, my Mother's house in Oakland, my apartment in San Francisco, home at my grandparent's apartment in New York City, and home in a theoretical sense in Oregon, where I went to school. I'm in the process of redoing my apartment to feel more like "home", and am working with one of my sister's best friends, Isa, to help me out. Holler at Isa for being a badass interior decorator. Hit me up if you're looking for someone! The final product I want to have is just to have the home feeling - having my setup be less of a glorified dorm room and more of an adult like situation. I'm 27 and paying a ridiculous amount of money for my studio apartment, and I might as well have pride in where I spend my down time in. I travel a lot for work and I think it will help with my sanity to come home and feel relaxed and at peace.

While thinking about work, home, my apartment, fall, I had movies filmed during fall flash in my mind - Father of the Bride, Good Will Hunting, Dead Poet's Society... I threw on Good Will Hunting and starting looking for recipes. I landed on potato leek soup, which I will post this week, but for right now I want to post a throwback recipe I cooked with my mom a few weeks back. It will be another ode to Paul Parkman - father, reader, writer, opera aficionado, wine lover, but most of all - a chef.

Ras El Hanout Spice Blend Ingredients:
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon cardamom powder
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ginger

Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix. Save leftovers for later!

Chicken Tagine Ingredients:

2 tablespoons Ras El Hanout Spice Blend
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
2 medium onions
5 chicken thighs (thigh + drumstick)
1 can of diced tomatoes
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup of water
1 cup dried apricots, chopped
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Directions:

1. Peel and cut onion. Set aside.

2. Chop apricot halves and set aside.

3. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of the Ras El Hanout blend on each side of each chicken piece.

4. Heat 1 tablespoon sunflower oil and saute onions 10 minutes in sauce pan until soft and translucent. Mix 2 tablespoon Ras El Hanout with onions. Put in the bottom of the tagine (or any large pot or dutch oven will do).

5. Heat 1 tablespoon sunflower oil in saute pan that you cooked the onions in and brown chicken skin side down for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Turn chicken over and cook 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Put chicken on top of the onions in your tagine.

6. Pour tomatoes into tagine.

7. Pour vegetable broth into tagine.

8. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt into tagine.

9. Turn heat to medium and bring to boil.

10. Turn temperature to medium low and simmer 20 minutes.

11. While tagine cooks, make apricot glaze. Combine water, chopped apricots, cinnamon and honey. Bring to a boil and then turn down to summer. Cook 15 minutes.

12. Add apricot glaze to tagine and cook another 25 minutes.

13. Turn off tagine and let sit 10 minutes or until ready to serve.

14. Garnish with toasted almonds.