Piquant Post is a monthly culinary adventure. Each package delivers 4 chef inspired recipes with spice blends to go along with each. Each package is curated around a different global destination, so the subscriber can get a feel for the flavors of the region. Subscriptions are $11.99 with reduced prices for longer subscription terms. Not a Tree Reviews received this package at no cost for review purposes.
*contains affiliate links
Check out the unboxy box video
Here’s the Box Breakdown
Everything that we received in our Piquant Post Subscription. This month has a Moroccan themed set of flavors and recipes.
So what is all this stuff?
Our first recipe is Chermoula Salmon. Popular in North Africa, Chermoula is a marinade typically found with dried or grilled fish. This recipe is great for learning pan-basting if you are looking to improve your cooking skills.
Our spice blend includes; cilantro, parsley, paprika, cumin, spearmint, garlic powder, lemon peel, black pepper, coriander and cayenne powder.
The next recipe is our Lamb Tagine with Apricots. A traditional stew in North Africa serviced in clay pots. Because lamb is a hard meat to find in our area we didn’t choose this tasty sounding recipe.
Ras el hanout in Arabic literally translates to “top shelf” because it contains high quality spices. This blend includes; coriander, cinnamon, allspice, cumin, ancho, turmeric, black pepper, paprika, cardamom, mace, nutmeg, rose petals, fennel seed, anise seed, orris root, lavender, fenugreek, cloves, cayenne pepper and bay leaf.
Next we have our Lemon Harissa Chicken recipe. We are huge fans of harissa and were excited to receive spicy Moroccan recipe.
Our blend for this recipe includes guajillo chili, ancho chili, coriander, caraway seed, garlic powder, spearmint and cayenne. This looks so simple and delicious we had to make it for this month!
Our final recipe for the month is a Moroccan Lentil Carrot Soup. We love lentils, when we were vegetarians and wanted soup it was one of our only options! We like this recipe because it’s simple and can be played with to cater to different tastes!
The spice packet in this recipe contains; smoked paprika, cumin, cayenne pepper, coriander, turmeric and ginger. For the first time ever, we decided to create 2 recipes for this month!
Okay so now what?!
In the AM we soak our lentils. The jury is out on whether this is necessary or not but we do it.
As we settle in to prepare dinner we make our Harissa paste. To do this we mix together the Harissa blend, olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic.
We then mix this with plain Greek yogurt.
This will serve as our marinade.
Combine your paste and your chicken thighs in this bag and place in fridge to marinate. The yogurt tenderizes the meat – so the longer you marinate the better. Pro Tip: In the recipe preparation times they do not account for marination, so you’ll have to read through the entire recipe to find out if you’ll need to start a day in advance.
In the meantime we start our lentil soup by adding onion and olive oil to a hot soup pot or Dutch oven.
Now you’ll add your garlic, salt & pepper. Mix well to combine. Cook until the onions are translucent.
Now you’ll add the tomato paste and spice blend and cook until fragrant.
Then you’ll add your lentils, carrots, water and broth. We’re going to allow this to simmer and turn to medium low. Cooking for 15-20 minutes or until carrots are soft.
While our soup is simmering we start getting together the ingredients for our Harissa chicken. We use a large glass oven safe dish and add, in layer our chick peas, carrots and onions.
We then add our chicken on top of our vegetables, season with salt & pepper and bake for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked. While the chicken is in the oven you’ll make your dip by mixing together Greek yogurt and lemon juice.
Here are our completed recipes. We served our chicken with cilantro in addition to the yogurt dip. Both of these recipes were so delicious and there was soooo much food!
So in summary
Presentation: Everything arrives to us perfectly in our Piquant Post Subscription
Quality: We are impressed with the high quality spice blends that we receive each month.
Curation: We think they did a really great job of pooling together the flavors of North Africa and the Mediterranean and loved the recipes that we created!
Subscribe to Piquant Post
The post Piquant Post Subscription Box Review + Unboxing | November 2018 appeared first on Not a Tree Subscription Box Reviews.