Man, was yesterday long. I started well, tea and newspapers then yoga at 8am. Then I did an hour's work, did my parents' shopping, had three meetings, went to several hours of a conference, had a training webinar till 7 and then the livestreamed Old Vic production Faith Healer 7.30 till 10 (it was brilliant).
And. I. Had. Scheduled. Myself. A. Dinner. That. Took. Three. Hours. To. Cook.
I'm an idiot. And if we aren't locked down this weekend, I'm going away for a few days, so I couldn't even put it off (the chicken had just defrosted so I couldn't bung it back in the freezer and order a pizza like a sensible person).
Luckily, this chicken and fennel stew (Persiana) was very tasty, once I'd managed to do it. I chopped an onion during a speaker changeover in the online conference, and browned it during the tea break. I managed to brown off the bone-in chicken thighs too as the speakers hadn't run over so we had a proper break, and luckily it's then a bung-everything-in job: cinnamon, cumin, saffron, seasoning, juice of a couple of oranges, a couple of spoonsful of runny honey, and quartered fennel bulbs. Boiling water to cover the meat, put it to simmer, wait. Stir maybe once. (Between conference and webinar.)
After an hour, bung in lots of barberries. Give it another hour. Then, and I love Sabrina Ghayour but honestly least helpful instruction ever "check the chicken and fennel are still intact". I'm not sure what you do if they aren't apart from giving up and ordering pizza, but I'm glad to say these were. You give it another 20 minutes, anyway.
Serve with rice, apparently, but in this case cracket wheat and courgettes.
It's very nice, if not pretty. I'm glad there is more for today, as inhaling it in 17 minutes between webinar and play, and just about getting through the washing up without losing a finger too did not do it justice. It's very fragrant, moist and falling apart. Great stuff. On another day, it would be absolutely perfect working from home fare, as it's not that much work but needs watching occasionally.
(Today I tried to attend two conferences at once in the afternoon. Lockdown is getting to me.)
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