# Fruity fish pilaf and Moroccan chicken traybake: Ravinder Bhogal’s ways with dried fruit – recipes

Dried fruit three ways: a celebratory stunner of fish pilaf with green tahini sauce, a spicy apricot chicken traybake for weeknight show-offs, and a heady date and ginger cake for pudding

## Fruit and nut fish pilaf with green tahini sauce (pictured top)

Fruit and nut fish pilaf with green tahini sauce (pictured top)
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**Prep:** 15 min  
**Marinate:** 15 min  
**Cook:** 35 min  
**Serves:** 4

- **800g sustainably sourced firm white fish**, such as hake, cod, haddock or pollack, cut into 5cm chunks
- **½ tsp turmeric**
- **Juice of ½ lemon**
- **Sea salt and black pepper**
- **1 tbsp ghee**
- **125g wheat vermicelli**, broken into 2cm lengths
- **3 garlic cloves**, peeled and finely sliced
- **1 large pinch of saffron**
- **1 cinnamon stick**
- **4 green cardamom pods**, bruised
- **50g pine nuts**
- **50g flaked almonds**
- **250g basmati rice**, washed until the water runs clear, then drained
- **30g raisins**, or sultanas or currants

### For the tahini sauce
- **25g parsley**
- **25g coriander**
- **25g mint**, leaves picked
- **100g thick Greek yoghurt**
- **30g good-quality tahini**
- **Grated zest and juice of 1 large lemon**, plus extra cut into wedges, to serve
- **1 small garlic clove**, peeled and finely grated

Put all the ingredients for the sauce in a food processor and blend smooth. Pour into a bowl and set aside.

Marinate the fish in the turmeric, lemon juice and a pinch of salt for 15 minutes.

Melt the ghee in a pan, then fry the vermicelli until it turns dark golden brown.

Add the garlic, spices, pine nuts and almonds, and fry, stirring, until the nuts are golden. Add the drained rice, season with salt and stir to coat in the ghee and spices. Toss the rice around lightly until it’s toasty and hot, then add the dried fruit and 500ml boiling water. Cover the pan, turn down the heat and simmer for a minute.

Add the marinated fish and cook for 10 minutes, or until the rice and fish are cooked through and the water has been absorbed. Pile on to a platter and serve with the tahini sauce and wedges of lemon.

## Chicken, harissa and dried apricot traybake



Warm and aromatic Moroccan spices, sweet apricots, pistachios and chicken come together beautifully in this easy weeknight supper. Serve with couscous.

**Prep:** 10 min  
**Cook:** 50 min  
**Serves:** 4

- **100g unsalted butter**
- **4 tbsp harissa**
- **1 preserved lemon**, rind and flesh finely chopped
- **1 heaped tsp cinnamon**
- **2 tbsp clear honey**
- **Sea salt and black pepper**
- **1kg skin-on and bone-in chicken thighs**
- **1 large red onion**, peeled and cut into wedges
- **1 garlic bulb**, cloves separated
- **125g pitted green olives**
- **90g dried apricots**, soaked in 60ml boiling water
- **1 handful shelled pistachios**, roughly chopped
- **1 handful flat-leaf parsley**, leaves picked and torn

Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6. In a small pan, heat the butter, harissa, preserved lemon and cinnamon until the butter melts, then take off the heat. Stir in the honey and season very generously with salt and black pepper.

Massage this paste all over the chicken, making sure to get it under the skin, too, then lay the thighs skin side up in a roasting tin. Dot the onion wedges around the chicken, add the whole, unpeeled garlic cloves and roast for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, smash the olives with the bottom of a bowl. Take the chicken out of the oven and scatter the drained apricots (reserve their soaking liquid) and olives around it. Pour in the apricot soaking liquor, spooning the juices around and over the chicken, then roast for another 20 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.

Served scattered with the pistachios and parsley.

## Date and ginger cake with date frosting



Thanks to the rich dates, this headily spiced cake is so sticky and moist that you’ll find it hard to stop at just the one slice.

**Prep:** 15 min  
**Soak:** 10 min  
**Cook:** 1 hr 45 min  
**Serves:** 16

- **1 ginger/chai teabag**
- **125g medjool dates**, pitted
- **150g unsalted butter**
- **100g light brown soft sugar**
- **150g black treacle**
- **2 tsp ground ginger**
- **2 eggs**
- **2 large pieces stem ginger in syrup**, finely chopped
- **250g self-raising flour**
- **1 tsp vanilla extract**
- **1 tsp bicarbonate of soda**

For the frosting
- **20 medjool dates**, pitted
- **1 tsp vanilla extract**
- **1 tbsp ginger syrup**
- **A pinch of salt**
- **250g cream cheese**, at room temperature
- **30g unsalted butter**, at room temperature
- **Crystallised ginger**, finely chopped, to decorate (optional)

Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4, and grease and line a 20cm x 30cm oven tray with baking paper.

Pour 100ml boiling water over the tea, leave to infuse for a minute, then remove and discard the teabag. Add the dates to the hot water and leave to soak for 10 minutes.

Heat the butter, sugar, treacle and ground ginger in a large saucepan, stirring until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Leave to cool for 10 minutes, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the chopped stem ginger, then sift in the flour and fold in until the mix is well combined and smooth.

Stir the vanilla extract into the dates, then blend to a puree. Stir in the bicarb, then pour into the flour bowl and mix to combine. Pour the batter into the lined tin, then bake for 45-50 minutes, or until risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove and leave the cake to cool completely in the tin, then carefully turn it out.

When you are ready to ice the cake, cover the dates with boiling water and leave to soak for 10 minutes. Drain and put in a food processor with 115ml room-temperature water, the vanilla, ginger syrup and a pinch of salt, and blend to a very smooth puree, scraping down the sides if necessary.

Add the cream cheese and butter, and blend again until smooth. Smother all over the top of the cake, ideally using a palette knife, then sprinkle with the chopped crystallised ginger, if you like.

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