Harissa Happening

It was a Thursday night, a day of going at full pace at work to give me a sense of achievement and well-being. I was also a touch tired, to say it was only a four day week it had felt very busy; perhaps because I was trying to cram five days' work into four days.

I wanted something quick for tea so I could get an early night and be up at the crack of dawn to push on with my work at the office prior to the phones starting to ring at 9am. I have recently become a fan of Turkish and Moroccan Cooking and it was a Morccan Dish laced with Harissa Powder that I decided to make. The ingredients were as follows:

10 ounces of Quorn Meat Strips.
2 Garlic Cloves.
1 Red Onion.
1 Red Pepper.
2 Teaspoons of Harissa Powder.
1 Tablespoon of Tomato Puree.
8 Baby Tomatoes.
1 Can of Chick Peas.

The artist and the album I was listening to were such a guilty pleasure that when I purchased the album for a pound earlier in the week, the shop assistant at the counter had to try and hide his laughter considerably as he sold me the record. Mind you, as a piece of undemanding but fun listening it did the job after a tiring day.

The first task was to slice very finely the garlic, red pepper and red onion. I then poured some sunflower oil into the bottom of my Le Cresceut dish and added these ingredients to the dish with the Harissa Powder and the Tomato Puree. I stirred in thoroughly the powder and put the lid on the dish. I left the vegetables and the Harissa Powder to sweat on a medium heat for twenty minutes, while stirring them occasionally to stop them sticking to the bottom of the Le Cresceut.

After twenty minutes I added the Quorn Meat Strips and repeated the above cooking process for another fifteen minutes. We were now thirty-five minutes into the cooking process and I added the Baby Tomatoes and the Chick Peas. At this time I removed the lid of the Le Cresceut stirred the food in the Le Cresceut for a further ten minutes as it cooked and allowed the water from the can of Chick Peas to evaporate a little. This meant that the mixture wasn't too watery when it had finished cooking.

I then served it and found that the Harissa gave the onions, garlic and pepper a stronger and more smoked flavour than they would otherwise have had. I'm a real fan of smoked food and this is the reason why I'm drawn to Moroccan Dishes as many of them include Harissa in their recipes. The Tomatoes and Tomato Puree also gave the dish a sweetness to stop the smokiness being too overpowering and the Chickpeas and Quorn Meat Strips gave plenty of protein to this dish.

If you want an alternative version of this recipe then instead of the Quorn Strips try using strips of beef and trying them separately before cooking them in the Le Cresceut with the vegetables.

A quick to make mid-week meal with plenty of protein.