Pork loin and lemon tajine-style

This recipe could not be a proper tajine recipe. To my knowledge, tajines come from North Africa where most people are muslim and thus do not eat pork. And I don't have a tajine dish. But this dish has some tajine-ish flavours and is baked into the oven. This experimentation using pork loin, summer veggies and lemons was stunning. We loved it!

Alright... I am not very happy with the pictures (well that's a good reason for replicating the recipe again and making new pics! yay!). Trust me it tastes much better than it looks. Plus it is a very healthy option, full of flavours and veggies, that you can serve with couscous for a complete meal. The sauce is awsome - rich but made out of the veggies and the lemons, with just a little bit of fat from the meat and the olive oil. Quite a healthy and addictive sauce. Believe me when I said that I loved this dish!

Even No.2 (nearly 1!!! yay!!!) loved it. The mix of veggies is perfect, the kumara and the tomatoes bring a little bit of sweetness to balance with the lemon. The veggies can be pureed, but they are so soft that it's easy for babies to eat in chunks.

Lemon confits / Preserved lemons

Thanks to my FB follower who spotted a inconsistency between my FB page and the blog! I had accidentally removed this post from the blog... I probably got distracted by something... or someone... wonder who this might be... Anyway lemon confits are back!

The winter has ended; it is a good time to finish harvesting the lemons (or to buy them at a fair price), but you don't know what to do with all these lemons!? Let's prepare some jars of lemon confits or preserved lemons for summer salads and tajines. This is a very simple preparation that will add the little plus to your, sweet and savoury dishes, cakes and cookies...

Ingredients

- 1 kg lemons (~ 8 lemons), preferably organic if not coming straight from your garden
- 200 g salt
- hot water
- 1 big jar

Instructions

1. Incise the lemons in four quarters - do not cut them, the quaters must keep together (see picture above).
2. Stuff with one tablespoon of salt.
3. Squeeze all the salted lemons in a steril jar.*
4. Add the remaining salt in the jar and cover with hot water.
5. Close the jar tightly and store for at least 3 weeks before use.

Tips

* To sterilise the jar, first clean it, then keep it in boiling water for 10-15 minutes.

Lemon and parsley chicken breast with butternut, spinach and Israeli couscous salad

I have heaps of parsley in my herb patch. And that's cool because I love parsley. I wanted a dish full of this flavour. I thought about making a parsley soup, but wasn't sure whether dinosaurs (in particular mini T-Rex) would like it.
I recently attended a team cooking challenge with my workmates; the chef taught us how to prepare a 3-course meal for 12 people in 2 hours or so - The time went so fast I don't exactly remember how long it took. Well, one of the dish was a lemon and parsley chicken breast - perfect to satisfy my sudden crush for parsley. Although I slightly revisited the recipe to make it a bit healthier - the question was: can I make such a moist and yummy chicken breast with a minimum of fat? The short answer is 'Yes! You can!'

I did remove the skin off the chicken and dramatically reduced the amount of oil. I put a twist on the original recipe, which was served with Salsa Verde, by adding the capers into the marinade to give it a little tang. And it work out gorgeous!
On the side I served a yummy butternut and spinach Israeli couscous salad, naturally sweetened with sultana.

Lime marinated beef kebab, chickpea and pumpkin casserole

I try to provide a variety of meals to my family. I recently posted a Mexican-style pork chili, a prawn and noodle Thai soup and some French cuisine-inspired dishes. But foremost, I cook like I feel. 

After the chocolate cake topped with chocolate ganache that we shared with our neighbours yesterday, today, I felt like something healthy but flavoursome and spicy but not hot. I also wanted something very quick to cook - Monday is only the first day of the week, it's safer to save some resources for the rest o fthe week. My dinos wanted meat.
So I came up with this North Africa-inspired marinated beef kebab with a chickpea and pumpkin casserole served on couscous. And yes, this took me only 30 minutes or so to make it! And jackpot for busy moms to little bubba, the chickpea and pumpkin casserole can be blended or puréed. Chickpeas are rich in protein and low in fat, so a very healthy option. This recipe also follow proportions as recommended by WW* - so a tasty healthy meal for little and big dinosaurs. Enjoy!