Cooking Couscous Cooking With Commercial Quick Cooking Couscous Recipes

PERFECT COUSCOUS

Steps:

• Combine the water or broth, olive oil and 1 teaspoon salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Stir in the couscous and immediately remove from the heat. Cover and let sit 5 minutes.
• Fluff the couscous thoroughly with a fork (the more you fluff, the more separate and light the grains will be). Season with salt and pepper. If you are making the couscous ahead, spread while hot on a baking sheet lined with parchment to stop the cooking as it cools. Once cool, refrigerate in an airtight container up to 5 days.

HOW TO COOK COUSCOUS

Steps:

• In a saucepan, add broth or water. Add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of kosher salt. Bring to a boil.
• Now, toast the couscous. In a non-stick skillet or pan, heat about 1 to 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil. Add the couscous and toss around with a wooden spoon until golden brown. This is an optional step but can really adds a great nutty flavor.
• Stir couscous in the boiled liquid quickly and immediately turn the heat off. Cover and let sit for 10 minutes or until couscous has completely absorbed the broth or water.
• Uncover and fluff with a fork.
• You can serve couscous plain, or mix in spices and herbs to give it more flavor. If you like, add in a pinch of cumin, sautéed garlic, chopped green onions, and fresh herbs or your choice. Enjoy!

COOKING COUSCOUS: COOKING WITH COMMERCIAL QUICK-COOKING COUSCOUS

Steps:

• An Easy Way of Preparing Quick-Cooking Couscous in the Oven
• This is how I make couscous. It is very simple, and you can hardly fail, but there is an art to doing it well.
• A package of couscous weighing 500 grams contains 3 cups, while a 1-pound package contains only 2 3/4 cups, so you had better measure it, as the weight varies depending on the brand. A foreign brand is likely to be 500 grams.
• In North Africa 6 cups usually serve 6-8 people, but for us 3-4 cups are ample.
• Put the couscous in a wide oven dish so that the grains are not squashed on top of each other. I use a large round clay dish, in which I also serve. Gradually add the same volume (3 cups for 3 cups of grain) of warm salted water (with 1/2-1 teaspoon of salt), stirring all the time so that it is absorbed evenly. Keep fluffing up the grain with a fork and breaking up any lumps (as the grains stick together). After about 10-15 minutes, when the grain is plump and tender, mix in 3 tablespoons vegetable oil and rub the grain between your hands above the bowl, to air it and break up any lumps.
• Put the dish, uncovered (I used to cover it with foil, but now I find that leaving it uncovered keeps it fluffier), in a preheated 400°F oven and heat through for 15-20 minutes, until very hot. After about 10 minutes, fluff it up again with a fork. (Smaller quantities can be heated, covered, in a microwave oven.)
• Before serving, work in 3 tablespoons butter or vegetable oil and break up any lumps very thoroughly.
• Other common package instructions recommended by manufacturers
• For 2 people, boil 1 cup salted water in a saucepan. Remove from the heat, add 1 tablespoon oil and 1 cup couscous, and mix. Allow the couscous to expand for 5-7 minutes, then add a knob of butter and separate the grains with a fork. Reheat for a minute over low heat while continuously stirring, or place for 1 minute in a microwave oven.
• For 5-6 people, use 3 cups couscous. Empty the box into a dish and moisten with lukewarm water mixed with 1/2-1 teaspoon salt. Allow 10 minutes for the couscous to puff up before steaming in a couscoussier. As soon as the steam has penetrated through the couscous, empty into a dish and toss with butter or oil.
• Serving Couscous
• The traditional way to serve couscous is in a wide, round, slightly deep dish. Shape the grain in a mound or a cone with a hollow at the top. Lay the meat in the hollow and the vegetables on top or on the sides. Pour 1 or 2 ladles of broth over it all. Bring the rest of the broth to the table separately. By tradition, couscous is a communal dish, and the old way was for everyone to eat with one hand from the serving dish, from the side in front of them. Nowadays it is eaten with a spoon. The meat is supposed to be so tender that you don't need to cut it with a knife. On grand occasions the mound of couscous is garnished with boiled chickpeas, raisins, and fried blanched almonds, as well as sprinklings of confectioners' sugar and ground cinnamon for decoration.
• Another way of serving, which has been adopted in France and which you might find more practical, is to serve in separate dishes: the grain on its own, the broth with the meat and vegetables in a separate bowl. Serve in soup plates, the grain on the bottom with the meat and vegetables and the broth ladled on top. If you like, pass around a peppery sauce made by adding harissa (page 464) or ground chili pepper to a few ladles of the broth.
• Garnishes
• Sprinkle the grain with cinnamon and confectioners' sugar and whole or chopped toasted blanched almonds, making a design with lines of cinnamon fanning down like rays from the top.
• Decorate with walnut halves and raisins.
• Side Dishes
• For caramelized onions, cook 2 pounds sliced onions in about 4 tablespoons sunflower oil, with the lid on, over very low heat, stirring occasionally, for 20-30 minutes, until very soft. Then cook uncovered until they are really very brown, stirring often. Stir in 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon and cook a few minutes more.
• Simmer 1/2 pound raisins in water to cover for about 10 minutes, until soft, and serve them in a bowl.
• Soak 1/2 pound chickpeas for at least 1 hour, then drain and simmer in fresh water for 1 1/2 hours, or until very tender, adding salt when they begin to soften. Serve them hot in a bowl in their cooking water.
• Variations to the Grain
• For saffron couscous, add 1/4 teaspoon powdered saffron to the water before moistening the couscous.
• Serve the grain mixed with hot cooked or canned chickpeas, heated through, and raisins, boiled in a little water and then strained.

COUSCOUS

Steps:

• Put broth, butter and salt in a saucepan. Bring to the boil.
• Add the couscous and stir. Cover and remove from the heat. Let stand 5 minutes.
• Fluff the couscous with a fork and serve hot with merguez sausage.

COOKING COUSCOUS: STEAMING TRADITIONAL COUSCOUS

Steps:

• The grain must cook only in the steam. It must not touch the broth throughout the steaming. The couscoussier, the pot traditionally used, is made of glazed earthenware or tinned copper, and, more recently, of aluminum or stainless steel, and has two parts-the bottom is a large round pot in which the stew is cooked, the top consists of a colander to hold the couscous. If you cannot get an authentic couscoussier, you can improvise with a metal colander with small holes that fits snugly over a large pan. It is important that steam can escape only from the top, so seal the join with a band of wet cloth (it is most effective if the wet cloth is steeped in a flour-and-water paste) or with aluminum foil.
• When the stew in the bottom part of the couscoussier is well on the way (about 1 hour before the end of cooking), start preparing the grain. Wash 3 cups couscous in plenty of water and drain in a sieve. Put in a wide bowl and let the grain absorb the moisture for 10 minutes. Then rub between your hands to break up any lumps and to air the grain. Turn it into the sieve part of the couscoussier, sprinkling the grain lightly in layers and not pressing it down. Do not cover the sieve with a lid. After the couscous begins to give off steam, continue to steam for 15 minutes.
• Now turn the couscous out back into the bowl. Sprinkle 1 cup of cold water mixed with 1 teaspoon salt over the couscous, then turn and rake the grain with a serving spoon, and, when it is cool enough to handle, rub it between the palms of your hands to break up any lumps and separate and air the grains. The water will make the grains swell. Leave the couscous for 10 minutes, then sprinkle on more water (about 1 cup), until it becomes swollen and tender. Return to the top of the couscoussier, and when the steam emerges, let it steam for a further 10 minutes.
• Turn out the couscous again. Rub 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in with your hands, and air the grain again. Steam a third time, for 5 minutes. (This can be done much later, just before serving.)
• Stir in 2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces.
• The grain can also be steamed over boiling water.