The most bizarre combination of ingredients ever

When I lived in Washington, there was this local chain, Lebanese Taverna, that had this one amazing dish...consisting of either chicken, lamb, or eggplant, served with yogurt, chickpeas, pomegranates, and tons of garlic. It was to die for.

There is no Lebanese Taverna in Berkeley, and I had a craving. Through the magic of the internets, I was able to hunt down a recipe for this dish. The recipe I used was posted by a poster on the Chowhound boards. I improvised a little, so I'll try to describe it the way I did it. And while I used a whole chicken as the recipe suggested, next time I will just use boneless chicken pieces, which will make preparing this a lot easier. Or perhaps I'll try lamb or a vegetarian version with eggplant.

While not exactly like Lebanese Taverna's, this version was still really, really good. I'll definitely make this again.

Fatteh Bel Djaje

For chicken and broth:

1 chicken, quartered (or 2-2.5 pounds or so of boneless chicken pieces)

1/2 lemon, cut into quarters (I used half an orange)

1 Tb ground cinnamon

1 tb salt

2 cups water (I needed a little more water to cover everything in the pot)

1 onion with 3 cloves stuck in it

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 stick cinnamon

2 bay leaves

1 large can chickpeas

For serving

1 quart plain yogurt (i use labneh or the thick greek yogurt, they work best)
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup mints leaves, torn
1 cup pine nuts
3 Tb butter
2 pita breads cut into 1 inch squares
1/2 a pomegranate (if available)

Rice or couscous, for serving, if you want.

First, mix the yogurt with garlic and a pinch of salt and let it sit for at least 15 minutes. I'd keep it out of the fridge so it can come to room temperature.

Brown the chicken in a large large dutch oven or stockpot. Add lemon or orange, ground cinnamon, salt, water, onion with cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon stick and bay leaves. If you are using boneless chicken in small chunks, you can probably just leave it on the stove to to simmer. If you are using bigger pieces with the bone in, bring the water to a boil and put it in a 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, depending on how big the pieces are.

Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the broth. Let it cool if you need to debone it. Strain and skim broth, pour over chickpeas and cook for 15-20 minutes. I reserved a little bit of broth and poured it back over the deboned chicken, covered it, and simmered on very low heat to keep it warm.

Cook the rice or couscous, if you are using it. (I used basmati rice, which works well with this.)

Fry pine nuts in 1 tb butter until brown.

Set them aside and fry the pita cubes in remaining butter until crisp.

To serve

Put rice or couscous in a shallow bowl. Top with chicken, chickpeas and a couple tablespoons of broth, and the yogurt mixture. Sprinkle the pine nuts, pita, mint, and pomegranate on top.

And convince people that despite the odd ingredient list, it is actually an incredibly delicious meal. The pomegranate seeds add sweetness, the pine nuts and pita are crunchy, the mint makes it fresh and bright, and all of them compliment the spicy chicken and garlicky yogurt beautifully.

Chickpea and Spinach Stew

Nothing in this recipe comes from my farm box, but it just looked so delicious I had to try it. It is pretty simple to prepare, though it does involve a fair amount of spices, including saffron. I recommend the investment, as the dish really is delicious.

Again, another recipe from Food and Wine.

Ingredients

1 cup water
10 ounces baby spinach
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
Kosher salt
Pinch of saffron threads
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Pinch of ground cloves
Pinch of freshly ground pepper
Two 15-ounce cans chickpeas with their liquid
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 large tomato—peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped (I skipped the peeling and seeding, it was fine)
1/4 cup golden raisins

Directions

Pour the water into a large deep skillet and bring to a boil. Add the spinach leaves and cook over high heat, tossing frequently, until wilted, about 2 minutes. Drain the spinach in a colander, pressing hard on the leaves to extract the liquid. Coarsely chop the spinach.

I did this step, though I don't know if you need too. There's enough liquid in the recipe to add the spinach in at the end, if you'd prefer. You'd have to chop it first though.

Using the flat side of a large knife, mash the garlic to a paste with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and the saffron.

Transfer the garlic paste to a small bowl. Add the paprika, cumin, cloves and black pepper and mash until combined. Stir in 1/4 cup of the chickpea liquid.

Add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil to the skillet and heat until shimmering. Add the onion and tomato and cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until they are softened, about 3 minutes. Add the spiced garlic sauce to the onion and tomato in the skillet and cook for 1 minute.

Add the chickpeas and the remaining liquid to the skillet. Add the raisins and bring to a boil over moderately high heat. Add the spinach, reduce the heat to moderate, and simmer for 15 minutes.

I ended up simmering it for about 5 extra minutes to make it slightly thicker, and served it over couscous. The recipe suggests drizzling each bowl with olive oil before serving, which I skipped and it was still delicious.