Couscous is the kind of food that I usually end up cooking on an induction burner rather than on a gas burner. It's a stew that benefits from long, slow cooking over low heat. When I cook it on the induction burner, I don't have to worry about the gas running out and I am comforted by the prospect of not having to go quite so often to the supermarket to buy another cannister of butane. When we lived in San Franciso we had piped-in gas for our kitchen stove, waterheater, and furnace. Here we don't and have to buy butane gas in "bottles" (cannisters). I remember we had a gas-fired barbecue grill in SF for which we had to buy bottled gas, but the cooktop in the kitchen was fired by city gas.
If you've been reading this blog for a while, as many of you who comment on it have, you know what couscous is. I hope you've even made it at home. It's a great winter dish, warm and comforting. And it's a great summer dish, hot and spicy. It's made with a mix of winter vegetables (turnips, rutabegas, cabbage, carrots... even radishes) and summer vegetables (tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant). We like to put raisins in the couscous "grain" itself, for the little burst of sweetness you get when you bite down on one, complementing the spiciness of the broth and the harissa pepper paste you serve it with. I made the couscous in the slideshow above back in April, using merguez sausages (made with lamb and beef) and chicken drumsticks. I don't think I posted it back then.
As you said, couscous is an all year round dish and it is delicious whatever the way you do it. The slideshow is very appetising. I love it!
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures, Ken! This is a dish that we enjoy very much too.
ReplyDeleteAccordng to Marie-Claire in the real couscous recipe there is equal weight of turnips, carrots, ohions, zucchinis, tomatoes, and half the weight in garbanzos. No eggplants, potatoes, rutabagas, cabbage or anything else...! That is my recollection of the delicious couscous served in that restaurant in Nice where I used to go. Each person might have their own recipe for that kind of stew.
ReplyDeleteWho in the world is Marie-Claire? Is she Morrocan? Tunisian? Algerian?
DeleteLOL! Ken! Marie-Claire is a well known feminine French magasine with a US version.
DeleteI think it's also a fashion magazine, as they mention it all the time on Project Runway. I had to get to your blog through Walt's...it didn't come up on Chrome.
DeleteI know about the magazine, but I didn't know it was an authority on couscous recipes. What are its rules and recommendations on choucroute? Or blanquette de veau?
DeleteDiogenes, the blog comes up fine in Chrome on my Android tablet and on Windows. Did you see an error message?
DeleteKen, it still doesn't come up on my desktop, with Windows, Chrome. I go to an old post that comes up and then to your current, if that makes sense.
DeleteThat happened to me one time yesterday as well when I was testing Chrome's handling of my blog. I don't know what's going on.
DeleteI read this last night, before going to bed, and I was dreaming of couscous -- ha!
ReplyDeleteThanks to the tip yesterday from Travel, I found the portable induction "hotplate" at Ikea and ordered one.
ReplyDeleteI have found that you can use quinoa instead of couscous if you are gluten sensitive.
Look at all these couscous recipes and ideas.
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