Ninja Foodi: Moroccan Beef Stew

The recipe ratio is adapted from the April 2020 issue of Men's Health, which calls for lamb stew meat, and this recipe substitutes beef for lamb. While I really enjoy grilled lamb for the occasional treat, lamb meat is price prohibitive at nearly $12/lb at my local grocery store w/ a butcher counter. And, after wondering what made this beef stew "Moroccan", I added some dried apricots and raisins it as well. While it is peculiar that there's no added salt, there is salt in some of the canned goods used to make the stew. For the green olives, I am using green castelvetrano olives. At my local grocery store chain, it sells under the HemisFares label in a 4.2 oz glass jar. It has a radically different taste and texture than the generic brand canned green olives that one would use in a salad or cocktail.

TheFoodening Blog - Moroccan Beef Stew

Ingredients

1 lb beef stew meat, cubed
1 15-oz can organic garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 15-oz can organic diced tomatoes
4 organic carrots, diced
4 oz pitted green olives, drained and rinsed
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
7 dried apricot slices
2 tbsp raisins
1 cinnamon stick
2 tsp Better than Bouillon Beef Flavor + 2 cups of water
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander

Directions

Having a Ninja Foodi means that I can start with a lack of planning and preparation to make most beef-based recipes. I imagine that if I had fresh stew meat on hand, I would skip this step and go straight to browning the meat in the Foodi on its sauté setting. In the event that you are starting from frozen beef stew meat. Here's what you do:

In the Foodi, add to the cooking pot, 1 lb frozen stew meat plus 1 cup of water. Pressure cook on high for 1 minute and quick release. This is my half cooked and still raw but thawed method.

Remove the lid and add the rest of the ingredients.

Pressure cook for 25 minutes on high with a natural release.

Once you remove the lid, discard the cinnamon stick. Serve hot.

Moroccan Couscous Salad

I thought the prep for this salad was very similar to a quinoa salad, where the couscous is cooked and fresh diced vegetables are added to it, then served up warm or chilled. It's very easy to do. The longest prep time of the recipe is chopping the vegetables. This ingredient ratio is adapted from the Bon Apetit magazine. I served this with the Moroccan Roasted Chicken.

Ingredients

2 c low-sodium, organic chicken broth
8 oz Israeli couscous
1 large red pepper, seeded and diced
1 large carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
1/2 English cucumber, unpeeled and diced
1 tbsp ground ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cumin
grated lemon peel from 1 lemon
juice of 1 medium lemon (2-3 tbsp)

Directions

1. In a 2 or 3 quart pot (with a lid), bring broth and spices to a boil. Add couscous, stir, and turn off heat. Cover with a lid and let it sit for 15-20 minutes, until all the liquid has been absorbed. Fluff with a fork.

2. Add vegetables, lemon juice, and lemon peel to the pot and stir to combine. Transfer couscous salad to a serving dish. Serve warm or chilled.

Moroccan Roasted Chicken

This, like many in the cuisine, is a multi-step process which involves a fair amount of time for the ingredients to marinate. This batch marinated for a few days in the refrigerator; though it could probably be used as early as the next day. The lemon-onion chutney sauce that goes with it is probably better when eaten in a very hot and dry climate. At 50 degrees F and damp in the Pacific NW in late May, the sauce was far too salty. The original recipe calls for a whole chicken and has a much longer cooking time.

Ingredients for Marinade

8 chicken bone-in, skin-on thighs
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in a resealable plastic bag or food-safe container. Gently rub the spices with the oil into the chicken. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Line a shallow baking pan with a Silpat mat that will fit inside. Evenly space chicken pieces on the pan. A lot of fat will render out of the chicken skin, but don't worry, this will help the skin really crisp up later. Bake for an hour.

3. Using tongs, gently turn chicken over. It is possible, even with a Silpat, that the chicken will stick to the mat. Return chicken, skin-side up, for another 10-15 minutes, until the skin is very crispy. Remove chicken from baking pan and set in a covered glass dish. Serve hot.

Ras-el-Hanout Dry Spice Rub

For the pork butt recipe, I used a Moroccan spice blend called Ras-el-Hanout; which, according to the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen means "head of the shop" in Arabic, or a shop's best house blend. It can also be used as a spice marinade for lamb or chicken.

Ingredients

1 1/2 tsp coriander seeds (can substitute ground coriander)

3/4 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

Directions

If using all ground spices, simply combine them together in a small bowl. If using whole spices, lightly toast the seeds before grinding into a powder in a spice grinder.

Chicken with Lemon and Olives

This recipe originates from Morocco; or at least that's what the Mediterranean the Beautiful Cookbook says. I've had Moroccan food before at a restaurant, and it involved eating everything (including the chicken) with my hands. This dish is intended to not replicate that experience but to use up a lot of preserved green olives that just happened to be on hand at the time.

The organic chicken from Trader Joe's was skimpy on giblets, so I wasn't able to take them or the chicken's missing liver to mash up into the sauce. The hardest part of the recipe was pitting the whole green olives using a cherry pitter. It's very hard work to do it by hand. Overall, this recipe process was very similar to making curry chicken. 

The original recipe called for preserved lemon, and I only had fresh lemons on hand. Using a vegetable peeler, I removed the peel of a lemon and sliced the peel thinly then soaked the peel in lemon juice with a pinch of salt and sugar; because if I had two extra days, that's how the preserving could have started. Anyhow. The peel doesn't go into the pot until 30 minutes of cook time has transpired.

This dish was served with Israeli couscous that was cooked in duck broth and lightly spiced with ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cumin, and freshly ground black pepper.

Ingredients


1 whole organic chicken, cut into pieces
1 c white onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 c olive oil
2 c water (I used mushroom dashi that was leftover from a previous meal)
2 c good quality green olives, pitted
juice of two lemons
peel of one lemon, thinly sliced

Directions

1. Take a whole raw chicken and carve it into individual pieces (wings, thighs, drumsticks, etc). I thought the chicken breasts would have added too much meat to the recipe; so those were reserved for another dish. If you are going to trim off the excess fat, don't throw it out, toss it into the pot with the chicken.

2. In a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, add olive oil. Add spices and onion and stir until the oil is fragrant, a couple minutes. Add the chicken pieces (including giblets, if any) and turn the pieces over to coat with the spices and oil. Add water or a neutral broth to cover (approx 2 cups). Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.

3. Add olives, lemon peel, and lemon juice. Cook for an additional 10-15 minutes. Transfer chicken and sauce to a platter. Serve hot.