Cooking Couscous: Cooking with Commercial Quick-Cooking Couscous
The commercial varieties of couscous we get in the U.S.A. are industrially precooked and instant. They are the “medium”-sized granules, which are best for ordinary couscous dishes. A “fine” size is used for the sweet couscous seffa that you will find in the dessert chapter (page 422), but the “medium” will also do. I visited a couscous factory in Sfax during an Oldways International Symposium in 1993 which took us on a fabulous gastronomic tour of Tunisia. We were received with welcoming banners, and offered a tasting of dozens of sumptuous couscous dishes—both savory and sweet—and a demonstration by women in Berber dress of the old ancestral ways of rolling couscous by hand. When the owner of the factory showed me around the plant, I asked him what the best way to use his product was, since packages sold abroad gave different instructions. He said that, although steaming is a ritual and part of the culture of North Africa, which the people are used to and hold on to (they steam everything, including vermicelli and rice), you could just as well add water and heat up the precooked couscous in the oven or a microwave. I know from hearing home cooks complain about their failures trying to steam precooked couscous that you are more likely to have success by simply heating it up in the oven, for example. I want couscous to be easy and trouble-free, so that people will adopt it. Couscous should be the easiest thing for you to make, but there is an art, even with the instant variety, to achieving a light, airy, separate, and digestible grain. Follow the instructions below for an easy way of preparing quick-cooking couscous in the oven and you will get good results.
Ingredients
Preparation
An Easy Way of Preparing Quick-Cooking Couscous in the Oven
Step 1
This is how I make couscous. It is very simple, and you can hardly fail, but there is an art to doing it well.
Step 2
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.
Step 3
In North Africa 6 cups usually serve 6–8 people, but for us 3–4 cups are ample.
Step 4
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.
Step 5
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.)
Step 6
Before serving, work in 3 tablespoons butter or vegetable oil and break up any lumps very thoroughly.
Other common package instructions recommended by manufacturers
Step 7
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.
Step 8
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
Step 9
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.
Step 10
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
Step 11
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.
Step 12
Decorate with walnut halves and raisins.
Side Dishes
Step 13
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.
Step 14
Simmer 1/2 pound raisins in water to cover for about 10 minutes, until soft, and serve them in a bowl.
Step 15
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
Step 16
For saffron couscous, add 1/4 teaspoon powdered saffron to the water before moistening the couscous.
Step 17
Serve the grain mixed with hot cooked or canned chickpeas, heated through, and raisins, boiled in a little water and then strained.
