Date Harissa baked squash and couscous

Hello friends of hive. This is my participation in @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.