Moroccan feast!

Okay, okay, I'm sorry! I've been uber-busy and just returned from a week in the culinary wasteland of Jacksonville, NC, so I haven't had any time or inspiration to blog. In fact, I really shouldn't be writing this right now, but it's a good excuse to procrastinate from my take-home midterm. :)

Nearly two weeks ago now, P and I had Emily, Courtney, Ashleigh, Rob, and Mandy over for a Moroccan feast. I felt I had really been neglecting my friends, and this was the perfect way to make it up to them!

Mandy supplied grape leaves and baklava for apps, courtesy of Astor Cafe. Dinner was lamb tagine with prunes, kesra (Moroccan flat bread), and crunchy country salad (seen here modeled by the lovely Mandy!), all courtesy of Modern Moroccan.

I was worried there wasn't enough lamb, so I also threw together a side of warm bulgur, cooked with some grated orange peel and orange juice, mixed with toasted pine nuts and parsley.

Overall, it was a pretty good dinner. The lamb was super tender, although I had to uncover and turn up the heat substantially at the end to get the sauce to reduce down to wear I wanted it. I also added a bit more honey for flavor. I think we did something wrong with the yeast in making the kesra, because it seemed a bit heavy and never rose as much as I think it should have. That said, it was still pretty delicious...kind of like a slightly sweet soda bread. P did a great job kneading the dough! The crunchy salad was also pretty good, although we didn't think it really went with the lamb (as the recipe book said it would). I used half regular olive oil, half Meyer lemon olive oil, to pump up the lemon flavor. The bulgur salad was fine, but nothing special. But I'm glad we had the extra dish to make sure no one went hungry!

Dessert was an amazing mocha ice cream that Emily and Courtney made from scratch. I paired it with a cardamom chocolate bundt cake, with adapting a recipe from CL.

The best part of dinner, though, was of course, the company!