Tony Jackman’s chicken and dried red fig tagine with almonds and raisins. (Photo: Tony Jackman)
It’s been a while since I used my tagine, the Moroccan cooking vessel with a conical lid that collects the fragrant vapours and drips them down again. In this sense, it has something in common with our humble potjie (three-legged cast-iron pot).
But this recipe was conceived when I opened a packet in a cupboard and wondered what was in it. It was the dried red figs I’d bought in Calitzdorp, Klein Karoo, a few months ago. My mind went to the tagine on a dresser in the front dining room, then to chicken. A recipe was born.
But this needed more. More fruit. And nuts. In the end, I bought a 100g packet of pitted raisins, and some whole almonds. These would be toasted and scattered on top when serving.
But I was feeling adventurous, so I made my own harissa paste too. This is not necessarily Moroccan – more Tunisian, although it can generally be thought of as a north African condiment. It is made chiefly of red chillies and garlic, with seed spices such as cumin, coriander, fennel and sometimes caraway. A whole red pepper is the centrifuge of it, if you like, the background force that holds it all together, along with olive oil. Citrus, usually lemon, is sometimes added.
I left out the citrus, because I knew that I was not going to be using all of it – I only needed two tablespoons, in fact. The rest is now in the fridge. It consists of: a red pepper, 20 red chillies, 20 garlic cloves, one red onion, ground cumin, fennel and coriander seeds, and olive oil. The reason I honed it down to these is because it means I can add it to all sorts of curries. Or to stews for a bit of a kick. Citrus would get in the way of that, altering a curry’s flavour profile.
It remains a traditional harissa paste however, because citrus and caraway aren’t requisite ingredients in one.
But that’s not the whole story. I also made a simple mix of ground spices – cumin, fennel, ginger, cayenne pepper, paprika, turmeric, coriander, black pepper – to rub onto the chicken portions before frying them at the start of the cooking process. And a cinnamon stick went in too.
To start with, I fried the chicken thighs in De Rustica Olive Estate’s hand-harvested cold extracted medium extra virgin olive oil, which I keep near the stove and grab it at will when cooking. It comes in a one-litre cylindrical box with a tap, like a tall, round wine box. I see online that it retails for R310. Any “evoo” today is an indulgence with a scary price, so I just use it sparingly. Sort of.
Finally, I toasted raw almonds in a dry pan to enliven them, and scattered them on top before serving, with some chopped coriander leaves.
Tony’s chicken and dried red fig tagine with almonds and raisins
(Serves 4)
Ingredients
For the harissa:
1 heaped Tbsp each of these seeds: coriander, fennel and cumin
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 large red pepper, diced
20 garlic cloves, crushed, husks removed
20 red chillies, whole
100 ml olive oil
For the spice mix:
½ tsp each of ground cumin, fennel, ginger, cayenne pepper, paprika, turmeric, coriander, black pepper
For the tagine:
8 chicken thighs, skin on
All of the above spice mix
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
1 cinnamon stick
5 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2 cups chicken stock
2 Tbsp harissa paste
16 dried red figs, whole
100 g seeded raisins (not counting the 5 you munch before putting them in the pot)
Salt to taste
2 cups couscous
50 g roasted whole almonds, toasted
A small handful coriander leaves, finely chopped, for garnish
Method
Make your harissa paste:
Trim the red pepper and red onion and chop up roughly.
Trim the stems off the chillies.
Crush the garlic with the flat end of a heavy knife and discard the husks. Leave the cloves whole.
Add the seeds to a dry pan and toast over a moderate heat until they begin to smoke, then turn off the heat. Process them to a powder in a grinder or with mortar and pestle.
Put everything in a food processor, pour in the olive oil and blend until as fine as it will ever be. There will be a little texture at the end.
Mix your spices for the chicken: the ground cumin, fennel, ginger, cayenne pepper, paprika, turmeric, coriander and black pepper.
For the tagine:
Pat the chicken pieces dry. Rub the spice mix onto all sides of the chicken portions.
Heat olive oil in the tagine base on a moderate heat and, when hot, add the chicken thighs. Brown well on all sides.
Add the chopped red onion, cinnamon stick and garlic cloves.
Stir 2 Tbsp harissa paste into the chicken stock and pour it in.
Add (to the tagine) the dried red figs and raisins, salt to taste, bring to a boil, and reduce to a gentle simmer. Put the lid on, as always when cooking in a tagine.
Leave it to cook gently for about half an hour, for the chicken portions to be cooked all the way through.
Before serving, toast the almonds and set aside, then make the couscous. Measure 2 cups of couscous and add to a bowl. Pour in the same quantity of hot (not boiling) water. Stir and leave it for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
Spoon the couscous onto plates, add the chicken, fruit and sauce from the tagine, scatter almonds over and sprinkle with coriander. DM
Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the Year award, in 2021 and 2023.
Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.
This dish is photographed in a bowl by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.