Before I continue posting about the couscous we are eating again today and probably into the weekend, let me show you what our weather is like today. Here's the forecast for this morning. Saint-Aignan is of course under the clouds and rain being brought in by what they call une pertubation — the French-English dictionary calls it "a weather disturbance" — a warm front bringing rain. See the dot on a white cloud just below the number 50? That would be Saint-Aignan, or Tours actually. There are two other 50s south of it. That's the wind speed in kph (30 mph).
And here's the forecast for the afternoon. It's not much better. We're in for your classic rainy day. It's been raining nearly every day since I got back from North Carolina a week ago, in fact. At least we don't have to worry about forest fires. La pauvre Californie ! So far, I haven't seen any reports of fires near where our friend Sue lives, between Lake Tahoe and Sacramento. I hope it stays that way and that the winds pushing the fires westward will soon diminish in intensity. Meanwhile, we will be wearing rain parkas on our walks with Tasha.
Back to the couscous: When cooking the meat for the stew (le bouillon) — lamb, chicken, or veal — brown it first in olive oil. Then pour on vegetable or chicken broth with some tomatoes or tomato sauce added, and let it simmer until the meat is tender. Also add the North African spices to the broth. The veal in my photo is yellow because of the addition of turmeric and other spices to the pot.
The sausages in this photo are called des merguez and are made with beef and lamb (no pork). Merguez sausages are fairly spicy. They're cooked separately and served as a kind of garnish with the stewed vegetables and meat. The other garnish is some harissa red pepper paste, dissolved in some of the broth and drizzled over the stew and the steamed couscous.
After I had let the carrots, turnips, and eggplant cook in the couscous broth long enough to start becoming tender, I added in chunks of peeled zucchini along with some pre-cooked green beans and cubed celery (from the freezer). Zucchini cooks quickly. Yesterday, I also cooked a red bell pepper (from the garden) in a small amount of the broth, along with some frozen okra, and added those to the stew.
Walt cooks the couscous according to the instructions on the box it comes in: Plump up some raisins in a cup of hot water. Then cook a cup of couscous in a cup of boiling water with the raisins. Turn it off when it comes back to the boil and let the couscous completely absorb the water. Add salt and a little vegetable oil, and also a tablespoon of butter for flavor just before serving the couscous with the stew and broth.
By the way, here's the weather forecast for the next week or so. Several more fronts are going to sweep across France, bringing rain on a daily basis. This is typical Toussaint (All Saints' Day) weather in France. Happy November!
[More about couscous tomorrow...]
The instructions on the cous-cous box don't call for raisins, that's my own addition.
ReplyDeleteI guess the couscous, la graine, you buy at the supermarket is processed, that is pre-cooked and is "instant" couscous. The taste is somewhat bland.
ReplyDeleteFor the real thing, you need to cook it in a couscousier. Here is the Wikipedia definition.
« A couscoussier is a traditional double-chambered food steamer used in Berber and Arabic cuisines to cook couscous. It is typically made of two interlocking pots, made of either the traditional ceramic, or metal. The first, which is the larger one, holds water or soup used to produce steam. »
This cooking process takes more time, because you start with raw semolina; but the taste is much better.
Well, the spicy broth gives it its flavor. The steamer method reminds me of one of your sayings: Pourquoi faire simple quand on peut faire compliqué ? The couscoussier or steamer pot is something I planned to mention tomorrow. I suppose you can buy long-cooking raw couscous somewhere, but I don't know where. With the processed couscous, Walt makes it more flavorful by adding olive oil, butter, salt, pepper, and the water that the raisins soaked in.
DeleteAnyway, like the grits, semolina, and polenta you can buy in the supermarket, yes, this is surely an instant-cooking couscous. I've tried the kind of polenta that you have to cook for 45 minutes, and compared to the five-minute kind I can't really taste any difference. When you cooked the commercial, processed couscous here in a steamer pot, it was quite a production. Do you think it tasted better than couscous cooked the way I described?
Here's a video showing how you can make couscous from scratch, by hand. It would take two days or more to make a couscous meal this way!
DeleteNo doubt the instant-cooking couscous is a time saver, but in my experience it is not the same as the real thing.
ReplyDeleteMy stepfather had lived for many years in Tunisia and he knew everything there was to know about couscous. The couscous he prepared was the best I have ever had - with an exception for that small restaurant in Nice. He used a couscousier to cook the grain! I think he would have been horrified about the instant couscous.
A "couscousier"...had no idea there was such a thing. That broth looks heavenly.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it couscoussier? I never knew you had a stepfather.
ReplyDeleteThese days, you either eat commercial five-minute couscous or you don't eat couscous at all! Unless you make it from scratch, by hand. Le bon vieux temps est révolu. We have to make do with what we can get. Do you think Paris couscous restaurants make couscous the old-fashioned, legendary way? I bet they don't.
Yes, it was a typo. My eyes are not as good as they used to!
DeleteMy eyes are not as good as they used to [be] either. Thanks for making me notice my own typo.
ReplyDeleteYour steamer pot or couscoussier sounds like what my mother called a double-boiler. Water in the bottom pan, whatever you're cooking in the top one.
ReplyDeleteYou may have returned just in time. NC has gotten cold in the last day or so, and there are freeze warnings up for the western part this weekend. I brought the tender houseplants in, just in case, although the lack of sunshine inside will come as a rude shock to them.
The couscoussier is not a double-boiler, which is called a bain-marie in French. The difference is that the top pot of a double-boiler doesn't have a perforated bottom, where the steamer (cuiseur vapeur) has a top pot that is perforated to allow steam to pass through and cook what's inside. The double-boiler let's you cook delicate preparations like crème anglaise (egg custard) or sauce hollandaise without having direct heat causing them to curdle. I seldom use a double-boiler but I use the steamer pot all the time.
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