Hello friends of hive. This is my participation in https://peakd.com/qurator/@qurator/qurators-hive-top-chef-or-dates, where this weeks theme is Dates.
The first thing that comes to mind when thinking of dates, is dessert. In recent years, I have learned to use dates on occasion as a sweetener in savoury dishes. This is what I've done for this dish.
I have made this up with a little Middle Eastern / North African fusion in mind.
A guy came to work at the restaurant, where I work. He quit after 3 shifts, without calling. During that time, I mentioned that I like different foods, including Middle Eastern. He was very irritated by that, and exclaimed, "there is no such thing as Middle Eastern food! It's either Lebanese, Iranian, Israeli, .....!"
It kind of made me feel stupid and said "oh yeah, your right, but we all just generalize I guess."
So I will try to clarify to you all, that I am talking about foods, that are often used, in countries that may be located, in what people around the world would say, is in the Middle East. Hopefully nobody gets mad at me. I'm just a dumb Canadian. What do I know?.
In the case of dates, they are often found in the "Middle East" and north Africa. They also grow in other parts of the world and are used all over the world. I know I am preaching to the choir with this.
I am using Mazafati dates. which have become my favourite.
What I love about these dates is that they are creamy and make it so you don't have to soak them to soften. I could blend them easily with the other ingredients to make a paste for the squash.
Here we get squash of all sorts and pumpkin pretty much all year round. It's the autumn when we seem to cook with it the most. We are in the midst of autumn.
For this, I have chosen the buttery butternut squash. It's my favourite for the taste and texture. It's also smooth and easier to peel than other types. It can be roasted first then peeled, but I didn't want to do that.
Marc helped me with the photos of myself. Needless to say, the jokes were flying. Of course there's the one about us having "date night".
I have had squash often which has been baked with brown sugar, or maple syrup. For this I am using dates and adding a smokey spicy paste, that is new in my pantry. It's called "harissa paste".
The guy that quit our work told me that if I like spicy food I should get harissa paste. He told me to get the Tunisian kind for really spicy. So off I went to a shop that seems to specialize in these kinds of foods.
There was an older man there working. I asked him if they had "Tunisian Harrisa paste". He said, yes, and led me to some plastic bulk food type containers, full of paste. I said I wanted Tunisian harissa paste. He pointed to the containers and said, "yes".
I asked him if it was made here in Montreal. He said "yes". I told him we are in Montreal so how is it from Tunisia. He said "yes". I insisted that I wanted Tunisian harissa paste. It went on and on until I told him I will buy his paste as well as the Tunisian one. He finally led me to the can from Tunisia.
As it turned out, his was much tastier. In fact I threw the can out.
Baked squash
700g butternut squash
1 cup harissa spiced date paste
Harissa spiced date paste
1 cupdates
1 tbsp harissa paste
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup orange juice
3 shallots
1 tsp cardomom
1tsp cumin
3 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup water
I removed all of the pits from the dates before adding them to the blender.
The shallots were chopped roughly and the citrus zested and juiced.
I think I would have used a mortar and pestle, if I had one. Then on the other hand a machine is easier.
I decided on my bullet blender, instead of my mini chopper, but it would have worked as well.
I saved some of the lemon zest for the couscous. I focused more on the orange for this. I like the combination of orange, dates and cardamom.
Originally I was not planning on adding water, but I needed a bit to smooth out the paste.
It was blended it as smooth as possible.
The squash was sliced into rounds and the seeds taken out.
When it was time to spread the paste on the squash, I realized my pastry brush was missing.
I had to use a spoon, which made more of a mess than I wanted.
After around 15 minutes in a 450f oven, I flipped the pieces over.
This was an approximate time. I didn't time it. I just checked to see if they were getting tender.
I didn't cook them fully. The oven was turned off and the squash left in while I made the couscous. It continued to cook to perfection.
I have only made couscous a couple of times in my life. I have only used regular couscous.
This time I bought whole wheat couscous. It was so much more enjoyable. I will always use this from now on.
I have only ever used water to cook this, but this time I used vegetable broth. I had some left in my fridge from the other day.
The items I used to add to the couscous were things I had in my fridge. It was quite simple.
Couscous
1 cup whole wheat couscous
1 cup diced red onion
4 cloves garlic
1 cup diced carrots
2 cups diced zucchini
1 red chili
lemon zest
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Salt if necessary
1 cup vegetable broth
Garnish
Chopped dates
Roasted almonds
Pomegranate
Radishes
Parsley
Before I brought the broth to a boil I added the diced carrots.
When the broth was at a boil, I added the couscous.
Remove the pot from the burner right away. Gently fluff the couscous and cover. Set aside.
Saute onions until translucent, add garlic and chili pepper. Add zuchini.
Add lemon juice and lemon zest.
Stir and cook until the zuchini is tender.
Add couscous.
Stir gently and get ready to serve.
This is by no means, a traditional couscous typically baked in a tagine. It's simple. However a quick, tasty side dish.
If I had different dates, that could be chopped I would have added them to the cooking of the vegetables. I just did my best to chop them and use as a garnish.
The squash tasted the way I had imagined. Sweet savoury, smokey and slightly spicy. the citrus balanced the other flavours.
When I made this recipe, I first wrote out what I imagined it to be. I listed the ingredients and the amounts that I felt would be right.
After writing out the recipe, I started to make each dish by following my recipe.
It was pretty accurate, except for some additions and tweaks on the amounts.
This was a case of no leftovers. I was certain that the two of us would not be able to get through all of it.
There was a cup of date paste leftover, which will be used another day.
Thanks for dropping by and have a great day.
design by: @KidSisters
You've been curated by @plantpoweronhive! Delegations welcome!
Thank you @plantpoweronhive.
What a flavoursome dish this must have been Carolyn! I'm sure your date went well after this meal! Lucky Marc👌
I would give anything for a dish like this 🤗
Haha😅 I have to admit, I really enjoyed it. The food that is.😊
Join the foodie fun! We've given you a FOODIE boost. Come check it out at @foodiesunite for the latest community updates. Spread your gastronomic delights on and claim your tokens.
Thank you @foodiesunite.
The dates are very concentrated, and it looks very sweet making the pumpkin dressing very delicious I love pumpkin processed like this so healthy!
These dates are the best. I just discovered them a couple of years ago. They taste like sugar without the refined sugar feeling. Thanks for your kind words.
This post has been manually curated by @steemflow from Indiaunited community. Join us on our Discord Server.
Do you know that you can earn a passive income by delegating to @indiaunited. We share more than 100 % of the curation rewards with the delegators in the form of IUC tokens. HP delegators and IUC token holders also get upto 20% additional vote weight.
Here are some handy links for delegations: 100HP, 250HP, 500HP, 1000HP.
100% of the rewards from this comment goes to the curator for their manual curation efforts. Please encourage the curator @steemflow by upvoting this comment and support the community by voting the posts made by @indiaunited.
Thank you @indiaunited.
Excellent recipe looks very appetizing
Thank you so much!!!😊
You always make a good recipe post. Yummy 🤤
Thank you for your kind words my friend!😊
Mmmhmmm, this sounds so very yummie. I just got back from the supermarket and picked up some harissa so guess what I’ll be making soon?
Harissa is such a new and interesting flavour for me. I like the smokiness but I find that you can't use much of it or it will take over. I wish you a good dish.
Thanks for your comment and visit.
Your date recipe is unique.
I haven't seen that type before and am glad I got to know of other types of date
I made it up in my mind first, but it's based on certain foods in parts of the world. Thank you so much!
How can someone be this cute in the kitchen, oh my hehe. You look great, and this dish, oh mouth watering 🤤. And the way you presented it here, who wouldn't want tk have some lol.
I didn't waste my time here, in fact I'm happy I saw this. Thank you!
You've been curated by @amazingdrinks! Delegations welcome!
Thank you @amazingdrinks.
Hello lady @carolynstahl good morning
this dish looks exquisite, I would love to try it
I loved this recipe, you make it look easy to prepare
have a lovely day
It's quite easy. I must admit I really loved it.
Thank you for your visit and support @miprimerconcurso Abigail!
The good use of dates... it looks so delicious 😋
Using dates in place of sugar for certain things works out good for me.
I appreciate your comment @mysteriousroad.
True....i always used dates for making smoothie 😄
Thank you @hive-106316
Could I try to receipe? @carolynstahl
Of course!
your Harissa looks very delicious I think it my kind of taste. I would like to try it one day Nice recipe you shared dear friend @carolynstahl Have a great day. :)
It was delicious. You have a versatile palate like me and like different foods.
Thank you my friend 💚
I most confess that I usually use dates too for sweet dishes but I know that in some middle oriental places there are a lot of salty or bitter sweet dishes with dates, your recipe by the way look so cool. 💕💕
Yes for me it's a good way to substitute sugar sometimes. Thank you so much @noemilunastorta!
Ah you always amaze me with everything about making plant based recipes. I even just found out there are whole wheat couscous ingredients that I have never heard of before.
Aww thank you so much! I wonder if you can get whole wheat couscous in other places. It's rather new to me too. I like it so much better.
I really appreciate your kind comment.