Moroccan Chickpea Tomato Stew (Page 276)

RECIPE #762

• Date: Monday, June 9, 2008 -- 7pm
• Location; Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: Matty's Apartment
• Dining Companion: Matty
• Recipe Rating: B
  

More than a year ago now I made the Moroccan Preserved Lemons from The Book. When I moved away I stored them in Matty's refrigerator where they have been sitting (READ: rotting) for months and months now. Matty is about ready to be rid of them, but there are several recipes in The Book that use them as an ingredient. This was one of them. So out of courtesy to my special gentleman I made this stew a couple weeks ago. We ate this cautiously, a little unsure if we were going to be poisoned by the aged lemons, but there seemed to be no serious negative consequences. This stew was fine -- if you imagined a typical Moroccan chickpea stew, this would likely be exactly what you would come up with. It had very typical seasoning. The addition of the preserved lemon peel did give it a little punch of flavor, but I still found it a bit dull. It certainly was not seasonally appropriate to a hot Boston summer evening -- I would recommend waiting until the chilly winter months to make this. If you love Moroccan stews you are likely to enjoy this recipe, but while Matty and I both found it inoffensive enough, I am unlikely to make it again.

Here is the recipe.

My European math adventure is winding down. The last afternoon of lectures is about to begin, and then tomorrow it is back to Boston! It has been a fun week in Bonn. In addition to four math lectures a day there has been a variety of fun, social activities. On Wednesday afternoon we took a two and a half hour boat ride up the Rhine to a small historic German town, where we had a banquet honoring Haynes (the mathematician whose 60th birthday this conference is honoring). It was really fun. Earlier in the week we made an outing to the zoo of Cologne, which was especially cool because we were there after hours and the zoo was closed. We got a private tour at dusk -- very nice. Aside from the math lectures, and the social activities, V and I also managed to get some work done on our joint project! Overall, it has been a great week! The food here -- not so great -- but other than that, I have no complaints. Plus, beer is cheap and plentiful, so it is easy to ignore the sketchy food!