Couscous au veau (3) : le service

"Rain starting in one minute." That's what Accuweather says about the weather in Saint-Aignan this morning. The sound of hard rain woke me up sometime in the wee hours last night. That said, it's weirdly warm outside. As I mentioned yesterday, a strong, wet warm front is moving across France right now, and it's pushing drier, cold air off to the east. Where the two air masses meet, rain falls.

The warm front is going strong, but I've kind of run out of steam (as it were) with the couscous posts. It's not that we have finished eating it, but I think that I might make it into what we call "couscous soup" for today's lunch. That just means dicing up all the vegetables and meat, and maybe adding some water to the broth to make it a little soupier. On the right is the couscous as we served it a day or two ago. I hadn't yet sprinkled on some broth with harissa hot-pepper paste dissolved in it when I took this photo.

The second time we ate a lunch of couscous, I poured all the meat and vegetables into a big, shallow roasting pan so that we could better see which vegetables we wanted to eat with the couscous grain. Covered with aluminum foil, into the oven it went for a slow reheating. We cooked another batch of couscous grain to have with it.

On the left is the couscous served with some of the broth and some harissa poured or drizzled over it. You can make it as spicy hot as you want with the pepper paste. As for preparation of the couscous "grain" in a steamer pot (couscoussier), here's what you do. It takes a while, and it's probably better if you use long-cooking rather than processed, pre-steamed couscous grain:

Cooking the coucous "grain" in a souscoussier

Fill the bottom container of the couscoussier (steamer) pot two-thirds full of water or broth and place it over over high heat.

When the liquid comes to a boil, set the perforated steamer basket containing uncooked couscous on top of the pot. Make sure the two containers fit together snugly so that steam rises up into the couscous grain and doesn’t escape out the sides. If the holes in the steamer basket are large enough that the couscous grains might fall through, line the basket with cheesecloth or a clean, thin kitchen towel.

Put the lid on the steamer basket. After about 30 minutes, take the grain out, pour it into a large flat dish, and let it cool slightly. Oil your fingers and work the grain to break up any clumps. Put the grain back in the steamer basket over the boiling liquid and repeat the process twice, not forgetting to work the grain with oiled fingers each time to to break up any clumps. After the third cooking, dot the couscous grain with small cubes of butter and serve it with vegetables, meats, and the spicy couscous broth. Optionally, mix plumped  raisins into the grain.

The above is a loose translation of instructions I found in the 1990s electronic Larousse Gastronomique food and cooking encyclopedia. The older 1960s print edition of the LG gives the following instructions as an easier way to prepare the grain:

Cooking the couscous grain "by spontaneous boiling"

For this method, you don't need a couscoussier pot. Moisten the couscous with a little water and wait for it to absorb the water and plump up. Then carefully pour the couscous little by little into about a liter of boiling liquid, preferably strained couscous broth — or just water, clear chicken or vegetable broth, or milk.

Stir constantly. Cook the couscous for about 15 minutes. When it's done, strain it and and dot it with butter. Serve it hot with stewed couscous vegetables and meats.

The third method is to follow the instructions on the package. For example, to serve two, put a cup of couscous into a saucepan. Pour a cup of boiling water over it and let it soak for five minutes to absorb the water. Stir with a fork to break up lumps. Add a little olive oil or butter. Serve hot. This method assumes you're using quick-cooking couscous grain, which is about all you can find dans le commerce these days. I've looked at amazon.fr for couscous that requires long, slow cooking, but I haven't found any. Here's another take on the whole couscous cooking issue.

Notre couscous au Vent de Sable

Last Monday, a week ago already, I was in Paris at CHM's. When I woke up it was pouring rain. We decided to stay in and work some more on CHM's DSL connection and wireless network. By about 10:30, we finally got it up and running.

Le Vent de Sable couscous restaurant at 31, rue
Mademoiselle in the 15th arrondissement, Paris.

After a quick errand — a trip by car over to the Old England store on the Avenue des Capucines, near Opéra — to buy some Fortnum and Mason tea that CHM can't find elsewhere in Paris — we headed for a lunch of couscous at the Vent de Sable restaurant on the rue Mademoiselle in the 15th arrondissement.

Walt and I had eaten couscous with CHM at the Vent de Sable last summer, and I posted about it here, with complete contact information for the restaurant. W. and I also had dinner there with our California friends Chris and Tony in April. So this was our third visit. (Do I sound like Michael Bauer?).

On the first and second visits I had the couscous méchoui, which is couscous; vegetables in broth with hot sauce, raisins, and chickpeas; and a big piece of spit-roasted lamb. It was very good.

This time I decided to have couscous with kebabs of lamb and beef. That came with a merguez sausage. The lamb and beef were fairly rare or medium rare and the combination with the couscous, broth, vegetables, and harissa hot sauce was good.

CHM decided to have chicken with his couscous and he said it wasn't as good as he had hoped it would be. The chicken was a little dry. It was a breast section that had been cooked separately from the broth and vegetables.

The pictures I took of the food at the Vent de Sable didn't come out, but I'm including some shots of the restaurant's décor, which is fairly elaborate.

Here's the recipe I usually use when I make couscous at home. It's from Monique Maine's book called Cuisine pour Toute l'Année. As usual, click on the image to see an enlargement.


Here's my translation of the recipe. You'll notice that it is not very logically organized, so you have to study it carefully before you begin. By the way, you can use chickpeas out of a can and they will be perfectly good.

Couscous

For 6 to 8 people:
2¼ lbs. couscous
1 chicken
2 onions
1 celery stalk
2 fresh tomatoes
1 carrot
3 zucchinis
1 turnip
5 small artichokes
1 green bell pepper
10 oz. chickpeas
6 slices of lamb from the leg
1 herb bouquet
12 merguez sausages
1 can of harissa hot sauce
3 oz. butter
oil, salt, & pepper

Work the couscous with your fingertips as you gradually humidify it with one cup of water. When the couscous grains start to separate, pour the couscous into the top of a couscoussier and steam it for 30 minutes uncovered. Pour the couscous into a big bowl and add a cup of oil and a cup of salted water. Work it again with your fingers. Put it back in the steamer and cook it for another 45 minutes while adding 3 oz. of butter cut into small cubes. Mix well. Cook a chicken in bouillon with all the vegetables (except the artichokes and chickpeas), the herb bouquet, salt, and pepper, for 50 to 60 minutes. After the first 30 minutes, add the artichokes, cut in half and choke removed. Soak the chickpeas for 12 hours, and then cook them for 3 hours in salted water. Cut the lamb slices into cubes and put them on skewers; salt, pepper, and oil them; grill them quickly. Cook the merguez sausages on high heat in a pan without adding any oil or fat. As they cook, spoon off the fat they release. They should be golden brown. Warm up the harissa pepper paste and add to it a tablespoon of olive oil. Serve the bouillon and vegetables in a tureen, the cut-up chicken, the kebabs and the merguez sausages on the same plate. The couscous in a bowl, the chickpeas in another, and the harissa separately.

Couscous is eaten in shallow soup bowls, each diner takes a little of everything, spoons on some bouillon and carefully adds just a little hot sauce.

Couscous de lapin

I cooked the other rabbit. I had bought two that were sold as un lot — a package deal — and with the first one I made Brunswick Stew. With the second one, I made something similar but at the same time completely different: a North African couscous. Normally, you'd find it made with chicken and/or lamb.

A huge serving of North African couscous. Tomatoes, carrots, green vegetables, and turmeric provide nice colors.

Browning the rabbit

As with the Brunswick Stew, the first step was to cook the rabbit by browning it lightly and then simmering it in a seasoned liquid to make broth. I browned the rabbit in a combination of canola and olive oil, and then I poured on enough water to cover it.

The rabbit cooling after simmering for an hour

The seasonings were three small onions, three garlic cloves, half a dozen allspice berries, a dozen black peppercorns, and three bay leaves. Plus salt, of course. It simmered for an hour, and then I took it out of the liquid and let it cool. I strained the liquid to use as a base for the couscous broth.

Couscous is a kind of tomato-based soup or broth of meat and vegetables that is served with the cooked couscous "grain" — it's not a grain, actually, but a form of pasta. I had a big can of whole tomatoes in juice, and I had a lot of little bowls of cooked vegetables in the refrigerator or freezer, leftovers from recent meals. The main vegetables that you usually put in the couscous broth are onions, carrots, green beans, tomatoes, summer squash (green and yellow), turnips, and chickpeas. As you'll see from the photo below that I took and labeled, I had a greater variety than that, and it worked out really well.

Ideas for vegetables you can put into couscous broth

As for the rabbit, I decided to do what I did when I made Brunswick Stew week before last. I pulled all the meat off the bones after the rabbit had cooked and cooled down. The rabbit cooking liquid made a good base for the couscous broth, and the large and small chunks of rabbit meat went into the soup, along with the juice from the tomatoes and the cooking liquid from all the other vegetables. Turmeric, cumin, hot red pepper flakes, and other North African spices gave it good flavor.

"Pulled" rabbit meat and tomatoes from a tin

The other meat you usually have with couscous is the spicy little lamb and/or beef sausage called a merguez [mehr-GUEHZ]. We didn't have any merguez sausages, but we had some similar but fatter sausages that we got at SuperU. They were sold as « chorizettes » — little Spanish chorizos (see the photos above). They were really good with the couscous. In France, you can find merguez sausages in any supermarket.

Couscous "grain" — pasta, really — steamed with raisins

Finally, you cook the couscous "grain" or semoule. It can be steamed over the broth in a special pot called a couscousier, or it can be quick-cooked according to the directions on the package it comes in. We did the quick cooking this time, and we added a handful of raisins to the semoule. You serve some couscous grain on your plate and then you put vegetables, meats, and some of the spicy broth over it.

Another indispensable condiment to have with couscous is some of the hot red pepper paste called harissa. If you like your couscous extra-spicy, take a ladleful of the broth and squirt a tablespoon or so of harissa paste into it. Stir it with a fork to mix it all up and then dribble it over the pile of semoule and vegetables. Try it — you'll like it.

The combination of hot peppery broth and sausages, sweet carrots, and even sweeter raisins that explode in your mouth when you bite into them... well, it's amazing. And you get all those vegetables and the rabbit (or chicken) meat as a bonus.

Couscous today

Today is the day we make couscous. The weather is supposed to be warm and sunny, so we'll eat outdoors around our new table. There will be seven of us. Susan and Simon are coming from Preuilly-sur-Claise. J-L and S., who are neighbors, are coming over too. CHM is here, finishing up his visit.

The couscous is the classic one, a Couscous Royal. It includes lamb, chicken, merguez sausages, carrots, tomatoes, turnips, celeriac, eggplant, zucchini, green beans, and chickpeas. Couscous is a big pot of stewed vegetables in a spicy bouillon, served over the tiny pasta bits that are the couscous itself.

One of our cactus plants sports a new flower.

CHM and I drove down to Loches yesterday afternoon just to look around. We stopped in a big supermarket there and picked up the rest of the vegetables and meats we needed for the couscous. We already had chickpeas and a leg of lamb, plus all the spices and a box of couscous.

Here's what the grapes in the vineyard are looking like these days.

We started the cooking last night. The first thing to do was to cut the lamb up into chunks and browned them in oil with onions, garlic, and spices. When the meat was well browned, we poured in water and some vegetable broth and put in the turnips, carrots, tomatoes and celery root, all cut up into medium-size pieces.

The last of the wild orchids of springtime

Now today we have to brown the chicken and then cook it in the bouillon. And put in pieces of eggplant and zucchini, along with the green beans. It won't take long for everything to finish cooking. While it does so, we'll steam the couscous so it is light and fluffy. Then we'll serve and eat it all with the one indispensable accompaniment, which is harissa, a spicy paste of vegetables and hot red peppers that you dilute into some of the broth and pour on at the table.

Callie with her new tennis ball, enjoying summer

Here's a good recipe for Couscous Royal. I've translated and adapted it:

Couscous Royal

2¼ lbs. lamb shoulder or leg, de-boned
1 chicken (or 3 lbs. of chicken parts)
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
12 merguez sausages (spicy lamb and beef sausages)
4 zucchini
4 carrots
2 turnips
1 stalk celery or 1 small celeriac
2 eggplants
3 very ripe tomatoes
2 cups cooked chickpeas
3 teaspoons ras-el-hanout (a Moroccan spice blend)
salt & pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
3 Tbsp. butter
½ cup vegetable oil
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
2¼ lbs. couscous (medium grain)

Cut up the chicken and cut the lamb into big cubes. Brown the meat in oil and butter in a big pot for 5 to 10 minutes with the onion and garlic, chopped.

Add the spices (ras-el-hanout is a blend of cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cayenne pepper, etc.) and the salt and pepper. Put in the tomato paste and fresh tomatoes, cut into chunks, and then add water just to cover the lamb and chicken pieces. Simmer for 15 minutes on low heat.

Peel and cut up the carrots and turnips. Cut up the eggplant and zucchini.

Add the vegetables to the pot, along with a celery stalk, parsley, and other herbs if you want. Make sure the liquid covers all the ingredients. Bring the stew back to the boil and then let it simmer 45 minutes to an hour. Five minutes before serving, add in the cooked chickpeas.

Prepare the couscous grain according to package directions and add butter cut into small pieces to the hot couscous, stirring with a fork to fluff up the grain.

Cook the merguez sausages in a frying pan.

The couscous, the meats, the vegetables, and the broth should be served in four separate bowls. In addition, put a cup or two of the broth in a dish and stir in some of the harissa paste. Serve some of the grain, some vegetables, and some meat on each plate. Moisten with sauce, and then let each person add a few spoonfuls of broth flavored with harissa, to taste.

You can get the recipe in French here. Look for some pictures tomorrow.

Un couscous... royal

It always comes as a surprise to me when people visiting from the U.S. don't know what eating 'a' couscous involves. Sure, now nearly everybody knows what couscous is — the so-called "grain" I mean. People tell me they eat it as a breakfast cereal. But around the Mediterranean — Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, France, etc. — a couscous is big bowl of tomato-based, spicy broth full of vegetables and meats that happens to be served with the couscous grain — a.k.a. semoule or semolina —along with meats and sausages.

I believe current polling shows that couscous has replaced more traditional French dishes like blanquette de veau or bœuf bourguignon as the favorite meal of most French people. Couscous is satisfying in winter because the broth is hot and the vegetables and meats are comforting. And couscous is delicious in summer because the broth is spicy and light, and because the meats served with it can be grilled over a fire.

Traditional couscous includes lamb in one form or another — spit-roasted lamb that's called méchouis, or lamb stewed in a sauce or right in the couscous broth. The lamb-and-beef sausages called merguez, often grilled, are served alongside. Other meats, including meatballs and chicken, are good too. You can make a couscous with rabbit or turkey, veal or mutton.

The vegetables are tomatoes, carrots, onions, turnips, green beans, zucchini, eggplant — either summer or winter vegetables. The most important thing is to have a spicy, herby broth to cook them in.

And finally, there are the garnishes. Chickpeas are pretty much required, and they are cooked and served separately (though you can also put them right into the broth). Plumped-up raisins lend a note of sweetness to complement the spiciness of the broth and meats. And then when it comes to spiciness, there's nothing to compare to the red-pepper paste called harissa that is inevitably served alongside couscous and broth.

Serve yourself "a mountain" of couscous grain in a shallow bowl. Dip into the broth to get some vegetables and meat and put everything over or around "the mountain." Then use a ladle to get a good serving of the couscous broth. Put a spoonful of harissa paste into the ladle of broth, stir it well, and dribble the mixture over the grain, vegetables, and meats. Don't forget the chickpeas and raisins. You won't need bread. Be careful — it's filling.

Couscous day

Yesterday was couscous day at La Renaudière (our hamlet). At least it was at Les Bouleaux (our house). Today will be couscous day II because there's a lot of it and the leftovers are at least as good as what you eat on the first day.

We put raisins in the steamed couscous "grain" and served a gravy boat of the cooking liquid on the side.

Couscous is a form of tiny pasta that is a specialty of North Africa and countries including Lebanon. In English, people call it a "grain" but it's not a grain like rice or bulgur. It's a kind of pasta. In French, people call it « la semoule », but it's not exactly that either. No matter.

Walt used a dry spice rub including cumin, black pepper, turmeric, coriander seed, and fenugreek to flavor the grilled lamb.

And then the name couscous gets expanded to mean the whole meal that is based on the couscous you buy in a bag or box. Usually, it's a big bowl of stew containing lots of vegetables — onions, carrots, turnips, tomatoes, green beans, courgettes, chick peas, bell peppers, artichoke hearts, and so on — and two or three meats — lamb, chicken, beef, meatballs, etc. Spices including cumin, piment fort, and allspice go into the broth.

Merguez sausages and cubed lamb cooked on the barbecue grill

Our couscous yesterday was based on lamb — a New Zealand gigot d'agneau or leg of lamb — and a rabbit (instead of chicken). I deboned the lamb and used the shank end as stew meat. With the leaner, more tender large end of the leg we made brochettes — cubes of meat on skewers that Walt cooked on the barbecue. We also grilled the requisite North African lamb & beef sausages called merguez. It's nice to have a combination of boiled and grilled meats.

We put green beans, rabbit, artichoke hearts, green and red bell peppers, leeks,  zucchini, and even a rutabaga in the stew.

An American friend of mine whom I've known for 35 years spent a few years in Paris back in the 1970s, when I lived there too. She had an Algerian friend, and one summer she spent a couple of months with the friend's family in Algeria. She brought back this couscous "recipe" — it's more of an idea or method — for making a couscous. She developed it by observing her friend's mother working in the kitchen.

Authentic Algerian Couscous

Group 1
chick peas
turnips
carrots
onions

Group 2
zucchini
yellow squash
tomatoes
string beans

salt
pepper
saffron
turmeric
ginger
cinnamon
parsley
cayenne or harissa

Brown meat and some sliced onions in butter and/or oil. Add spices.

Add everything else and enough broth cover, bring to a boil, and simmer for one hour...

... or ...

Add Group 1 to broth, bring to a boil, and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes. Then add Group 2 and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes longer so that total cooking time is one hour.

Finally, while the broth is simmering, prepare the couscous itself. Moisten the couscous with water and work it to avoid lumps and clumps. Steam it uncovered for 30 minutes and work it again to break down lumps. Repeat the operation.

For the sauce, mix to taste some broth, ginger, and cayenne or harissa.

Couscous aux sept légumes

Okay, so now our weather is downright chilly — only 55ºF this morning. What a strange summer! I'm back to wearing sweatpants and long-sleeved shirts around the house, instead of shorts and T-shirts. We had a few hard rain showers yesterday.

And we made couscous, a big pot of stewed meats and vegetables with North African spices, for lunch on Sunday. Here are some pictures. It's the kind of food you can cook in winter to warm up the house and make it smell good. But it's also a spicy hot-climate food people make in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia... and France. The last time we made couscous seems to be more than two years ago.

I follow a recipe given to me decades ago by an American friend who spent a summer in Algeria in the 1970s and was taught how to make couscous by the mother of a friend from there. Every time I make couscous, I also look at different recipes on the internet, including this recipe this time, and modify my ingredients and methods accordingly. There are as many recipes for couscous as there are cooks, I'm sure. It helps to have eaten couscous many times in restaurants in France — that gives you an idea of what it's supposed to be like.

To me, the fundamentals are vegetables — including tomatoes, onions, carrots, turnips, eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers, and chickpeas — cooked with meats like lamb, chicken, and beef. Try putting turkey or meatballs in the stew. The key thing is the spices: cumin, powdered ginger, salt, black pepper, cinnamon, coriander seeds, cayenne pepper, allspice, and cloves. If you can find the North African spice blend called ras-el-hanout, use that.

Brown the meats in a big pot with onions and peppers. We had some lamb shoulder cut into chunks and some chicken wings. Add some of the spice blend, stir it in, and let it cook with the meats. Then cover the meats with water or broth and let them cook until they are close to being done. The cooking time depends on the meats you're using. Beef or lamb will take longer; chicken not so long. (I even have a recipe for couscous made with rabbit.)

Add the vegetables to the pot and pour in more liquid so that everything is covered. (I used sun-dried tomatoes, and the water they soaked in, along with half a cup of tomato paste.) My couscous stew filled a 10-liter pot.

Let the stew cook for another hour or so or until the vegetables are tender. The meats should be almost falling apart. Other vegetables you can add include green beans, cabbage, winter squash, and/or okra — the phrase "seven vegetables" in the title is just a guideline. Finally, add a small can of chickpeas.

Of course, another crucial ingredient in a dish of couscous is the couscous itself. It's actually a kind of micro-pasta. You can buy it in boxes at the supermarket. I know people who eat it as a breakfast cereal. Just prepare it according to the instructions on the box, adding some plumped-up raisins if you want. Serve it with the spicy broth, vegetables, and meats spooned over it. Two other traditional ingredients — garnishes, really — are the hot pepper paste called harissa, and the spicy little lamb or beef sausages called merguez, preferably grilled.

Un couscous au veau (1) : les ingrédients

I know that couscous is available in most American supermarkets. I know that because my mother used to buy boxes of it in the supermarkets in the little town of Morehead City, N.C. She would cook it according to the directions on the package and eat it with melted butter as a breakfast cereal. Actually, it's a form of pasta, made with durum wheat semolina (semoule de blé dur). Think cream of wheat but not boiled, just steamed so that the grains of semolina remain separate.

In North Africa, the Middle East, and France, couscous is much more than just the couscous "grain" or semoule. The Larousse Gastronomique food and cooking encyclopedia says that couscous is « le plat national tant de l'Algérie que du Maroc et de la Tunisie. » It's not about breakfast cereal. So what is it about? Couscous as a dish is a stew — a mix of peeled vegetables cooked in a broth (chicken or vegetable) flavored tomatoes and with ras el hanout, which is a powered spice blend.

Here are some of the vegetables that go into the stew. I think you can identify them. They include what we might call summer vegetables like eggplant, zucchini, and green beans, as well as winter vegetables like turnips, rutabagas, carrots, celery root, and leeks, along with onions and shallots as well as chickpeas (garbanzo beans).

The spicy stew of tomatoes and vegetables make a sort of sauce that is served with the couscous "grain". Putting meat in the stew is optional, because it can also be served separately as a first course (spit-roasted lamb called méchoui is a standard, but chicken and other meats are often included). The hot-pepper paste called harissa is a standard accompaniment. Serve a pile of steamed couscous on a plate, put some vegetables and meat and broth over the grain. Then fill a small ladle with broth and stir in some harissa paste before dribbling it over the couscous and vegetables to spice it all up.

For this couscous, I decided to cook some veal that often goes into acreamy white stew called blanquette de veau, flavored with onions, carrots, white wine, and mushrooms. Veal is a mild-tasting meat, like chicken or turkey, that won't clash with couscous broth and vegetables, I thought, when I saw that Intermarché was having special on veal at 8.50€/kg. This is stew meat that needs long (two hours or more), slow cooking before it becomes tender and succulent. (In the past, I've also cooked this kind of veal in tomato sauce with olives.)

First, sauté the veal (or chicken) in olive oil to brown it. Pour 1.5 liters of chicken broth over it and let it simmer for 90 minutes (less time for chicken). Taste it for tenderness. Add in some bay leaves, black peppercorns, and allspice berries or cloves. And add in two tablespoons of ras el hanout spice powder (powdered cumin, turmeric, ginger, nutmeg, coriander seed, cardamom, pepper, caraway seeds, paprika, fennel seeds, and fenugreek are some of the spices in the spice mixture).

[More tomorrow...]

Salade gives way to couscous

A few days ago I wrote about summer salads. Then our hot weather cooled down and eating vegetables hot rather than cold became a happy prospect. My idea was a North African vegetable soup served with the tiny pasta called couscous. I've blogged about it many times of the years.

There are two or three indispensable ingredients in couscous besides the couscous "grain" itself. One is tomatoes. Another is chickpeas. And carrots... turnips... zucchini... onions. Not to mention the hot pepper paste called harissa. We had all those. We also had raisins to add to the couscous, and that's a nice flavor touch, making the couscous both sweet and spicy hot.

 

My couscous broth (the soup) this time was unconventional in several ways. Other things that are good in couscous are eggplant and green bell peppers. It dawned on me that those also go into the southern France dish called ratatouille, which also includes tomatoes, onions, and olive oil. I had some ratatouille in the freezer, and I used it as the base for my couscous broth.

I also added a few okra pods to the mix. Some fresh snow peas from the garden. A couple of leftover steamed new potatoes. It's free-form, really. We had a couple of chicken breasts, cut into chunks, spiced up, and put on skewers for grilling. And we had some spicy sausages called chorizettes that also went to cook on the grill.

The ingredients that turned the ratatouille into a soup were about a pint of chicken broth, the liquid from a can of tomatoes, and a couple of tablespoons of the North African spice blend called ras el hanout. The mixture varies, but the one I used included spices like curry, coriander seed, cumin, carraway, and cayenne. I added some more hot red pepper in the form of harissa.

When you eat couscous, you put a pile of the "grain" (a form of pasta, really) onto your plate and then you spoon some broth and some big chunks of vegetables over it. You put a squeeze of the spicy harissa paste into a ladle, scoop out a little more soup broth, mix it well, and then dribble or just pour it over all. You can make it as spicy as you like. And the spiciness is what turns a soup that might be good in the cold of winter into something that's also really good when the weather outside is hot.

Couscous au veau (2) : pourquoi ?

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...]