I'm In An Andalusian Mood Today...

Yup. I'm going to take a peppery Andalusian rabbit stew from Clifford Wright's book Real Stew, and make it with chicken thighs (we don't eat Bugs Bunny around here...lol). And, just for fun, I'm adapting a recipe called Mahshi, from An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th Century. The original was a dish of eggplant, meat or fowl, cheese, eggs, breadcrumbs, almonds, cilantro and mint, spices and oil, all baked until golden and set. I'm going to modernize it a bit...remove the meat, slice the eggplant (and some zucchini for added visual appeal), coat 'em with the breadcrumbs and almonds and fry them 'til golden, and put the herbs (mint and cilantro) and spices (pepper and coriander, cinnamon and saffron) in a tomato sauce. Layer the whole thing (sliced veggies, tomato sauce, eggs-and-cheese) and bake it. Sort of an Eggplant Parmesan meets Moorish Al Andalus... I'll serve a simple salad with a vinaigrette alongside.