Moroccan Baked Chicken with Chickpeas and Rice
Dad does piggyback double duty at one of our birthday parties. Dad’s yellow reading chair and Mom’s yellow curtain stencil are in the background.
Mom at Ridgefields in Kingsport, TN. 2003.
Here’s a detail from one of Mom’s crazy quilts. She did all of the embroidery and beading herself.
The living room at 126 Mallette St. in Chapel Hill, NC, the house where I grew up. The harpishord that Mom built (!) is in the back.
The dining room at 126 Malette St. Mom and Nonnie (my grandmother) painted the stenciled border. The floral painting on the left is one of Nonnie’s. The two at the end are by Philip Chesley, Nonnie’s painting teacher. The sideboard was purchased in NY when my dad was in grad school.
To quote the band Coldplay, “It was all YELLOW”. That pretty accurately describes the house I grew up in. Mom had a definite romance with the color yellow. It started with a few touches here and there, the stenciled border on the curtains in the living and dining rooms, the upholstery on Dad’s reading chair. But by the time Mom and Dad sold our Mallette Street house, virtually every room had some shade of yellow in it. The clawfoot tub in the upstairs hall bath was painted a bright lemon hue. There were quieter moments like the kitchen and breakfast room which were a mellow butter color. The whole house was kind of a Pantone symphony. We always joked that the Volberg women have an inherent color palette. We all gravitate to rich jewel tones: lots of burgundy, golds and greens. This is evident in the way we dress, the way we decorate our houses, and the arts and crafts we do.
My Nonnie broke color protocol *once* in one of her Tennessee guest rooms. It was on a lower level in a kind of dark part of the house. Like me, Nonnie loved flowers. And, like me, she also painted them. (I think that deserves more of a deep dive later.) In this bedroom she kind of went bananas with a floral theme with a pastel frenzy on the linens, on the curtains, and on a big fabric overhang which framed the bed. It was A LOT but it was kind of cool in its excess. In those days Dad was a late sleeper and one of us always had to go wake him. We used to laugh about him resembling Ferdinand the Bull asleep in the flowers.
I’m thinking a lot about decor these days because we just bought a vacation house in the West Texas desert town of Marfa (which is why my blogging has been a little sporadic). It’s a 50s ranch that needs some loving. I spent most of Saturday washing cabinets and painstakingly lining them with contact paper (or whatever that newfangled spongy stuff is called). I thought to myself, “I know how to do this because my mom taught me how to do this”. That woman knew how to set up a kitchen because she did it so many times! When she and Dad were doing semesters at various universities, the kitchens in their temporary accommodations would invariably be lacking, so Mom would get to work and inevitably leave the place in way better shape than she found it. As I look around the chaos of our new house this morning (we just closed on Friday), I think about the opposite side of the spectrum, the deep intention of Mom’s dish soap situation. She didn’t like the way plastic bottles of dish soap looked by the sink so she would squeeze the liquid into an antique glass bottle instead. She also felt that a lot of soap was wasted in the process of washing dishes, so next to the glass bottle would be a little ramekin where she could pour a little of the soap and dilute it with water. This sounds insane, but it was, well, lovely. Why not?! (And, Mom was a total Virgo, by the way.) Whenever we would go off to camp or school, Mom would always stick around long enough to get us “set up”. I sure could use her help now!
When selecting today’s recipe, I was thinking about the color yellow and my mind went to saffron. Mom loved a good Moroccan dish because of those complex, yummy flavors. So, today, I give you this gem from her collection!
MOROCCAN BAKED CHICKEN WITH CHICKPEAS AND RICE
Serves 4
One 3 1/2-4 lb chicken, jointed into 8 pieces (or you could use a pack of 8 drumsticks and thighs)
4 oz dried chickpeas
6 oz brown basmati rice
1 level teaspoon cumin seeds
1 level tablespoon coriander seeds
1/2 level teaspoon saffron stamens
2 small thin-skinned lemons
2 large yellow peppers
2 large onions
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 oz (15 g) fresh coriander
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 fresh chillies, halved, de-seeded and finely chopped
10 fl oz carton good chicken stock
5 fl oz dry white wine
2 oz pitted black olives
2 oz pitted green olives
salt and freshly milled black pepper
You will also need a wide, shallow flameproof casserole with a domed lid, about 9 inches across the base. Failing that, use any flameproof casserole of 5 pint capacity.
Pre-heat the oven to 350
There are two ways to deal with chickpeas. The easiest is to pop them into a bowl, cover them with cold water and leave them overnight or for a minimum of 8 hours. But, if it slips your mind, what you can do is place them in a saucepan, cover them with cold water and bring them up to the boil for 10 minutes. Then turn off the heat and let them soak for 3 hours. Either way, when you want to start making this recipe, the chickpeas need to be simmered for 20 minutes or until tender.
While they're simmering, place a small frying pan over direct medium heat, add the cumin and coriander seeds and toss them around in a hot pan for about 2-3 minutes or until they start to dance and change colour. Then remove the seeds to a pestle and mortar and crush them coarsely and transfer them to a plate. Next, crush the saffron stamens to a powder with the pestle and mortar, then squeeze out the juice of one of the lemons and add it to the saffron, stirring well.
Then prepare the chicken by seasoning the joints with salt and pepper. Slice the peppers in half, remove the seeds and pith and cut each half into 4 large pieces. The onions should be sliced roughly the same size as the peppers. Now heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in the flameproof casserole and, when it's really hot, brown the chicken pieces on all sides – don't overcrowd the pan; it's best to do it in 2 batches, 4 pieces at a time.
After that, remove the chicken pieces to a plate, then add the second tablespoon of oil and turn the heat to its highest setting. When the oil is really hot, add the peppers and onions and cook them in the hot oil, moving them around until their edges are slightly blackened – this should take about 5 minutes – then turn the heat down. Strip the coriander leaves from the stalks, wrap them in a piece of clingfilm and keep them in the fridge. Then chop the coriander stalks finely and add these to the peppers and onions, along with the garlic, chillies, crushed spices, the chickpeas and rice, then give everything a good stir to distribute all the ingredients.
Season well with salt and pepper, then combine the lemon and saffron mixture with the stock and wine, pour it all into the casserole and stir well. Cut the remaining lemon into thin slices and push these well into the liquid. Now scatter the olives in and, finally, place the pieces of chicken on top of everything. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and place in the pre-heated oven for 1 hour or until the rice and chickpeas are tender. Then, just before serving, scatter the coriander leaves on top and serve straight away on warmed serving plates.
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