1000 Ways to Love Your Total Greek Yoghurt - Part 3

Finally on my Total Greek Yoghurt day with Chef Paul Merrett we started the main course in our groups.

The first tease was preparing the spices.  As we roasted and ground the collection of spices, including fennel seeds, chilli flakes, cunim seeds, corriander seeds, cinnamon and ground ginger, the room began to fill up with the most alluring aroma. If you closed your eyes at that point you would have thought you were in a spice market somewhere exotic!

We first peeled the butternut squash and cut it into small chunks.  These were rolled in the spice mix and fried for long enough to colour the squash.  At this point we all agreed this would make a great tapas style appetiser! 

All the rest of the ingredients were put together and cooked for a further 10 minutes or so until the squash was tender.

Whilst this was cooking the yoghurt sauce was made and then Chef Paul Merrett made us giggle as he prepared the cauliflower couscous!

And finally we had our full meal made and we sat down at a large table and a group meal with wine and lots of food blogger talk!

I hope this account of my day out with Total Greek Yoghurt and Chef Paul Merrett  makes you want to try a few of the 1000 ways to love your Total Greek Yoghurt! Cheers.

Spiced Butternut Tagine with Roasted Pepper and Tomato & Toasted Fennel Seed Yoghurt Served With Cauliflower Couscous

Serves 4
Ingredients:

For the Spice Mix
½ tbsp of fennel seeds
2 pinches of chilli flakes
½ tbsp of cumin seeds
1 tsp of coriander seeds
1 inch of cinnamon
1 tsp of ground ginger
½ tbsp of paprika

For the Tagine
1 butternut squash, peeled and roughly cut into 3cm cubes
8 cloves garlic, chopped
1 red onion diced
1 yellow pepper, diced into 3 cm squares
1 red pepper, diced into 3cm squares
1¾ tin of chopped tomatoes
100g of dried apricots, halved
Approx 20 green olives
1 tin of chick peas
Olive oil (for frying)

For the Fennel Seed Yoghurt
200g of TOTAL Greek yoghurt
2 tsp of fennel seeds
½ tsp of smoked paprika
1 tbsp of coriander, chopped
1 tsp mint, chopped

For the Cauliflower Couscous
1 head of cauliflower
20 inch square of muslin

Method:
1.      Dry fry, cool and grind all spices for the spice mix in the pestle and mortar.
2.      Dust the cubed butternut squash with a third of the spice mix and fry in batches until brown all over. At this point you are just ‘colouring’ your squash. Set aside.
3.      Heat a casserole and fry the garlic and red onion.
4.      Add the peppers.
5.      Add the tomatoes and bring the pot to a simmer. Cook for about 5 minutes.
6.      Add the dried apricots, olives and chickpeas.
7.      Add a little water at this point if required.
8.      Add the pre roasted butternut and another third of the spice mix.
9.      Cook on until the butternut is just cooked (about 5 min).
10.  Check the seasoning and add a little salt and some more spice mix if required.
11.  Toast the fennel seeds in a frying pan, cool and grind.
12.  Mix the yoghurt with the fennel seeds, paprika, mint & coriander and set aside.
13.  Trim cauliflower florets from the stalk.
14.  Whizz up the florets to a crumb in a robot coupe.
15.  Wrap the cauliflower couscous in the muslin and place in a colander over a pan of boiling water for approximately 5 minutes.