I love couscous. Most are the same basic idea (there are dessert couscouses, btw, but those are less well known).
Saute the onions and garlic in plenty of olive oil.
Brown the meat (in this case, cubes of lamb).
Add the veggies (peppers, carrots, zucchini, chickpeas if you want, tomatoes) and any fruit (prunes or dates are very good with beef). For seasonings, plenty of chopped fresh parsley, fresh coriander, ground cumin, ground coriander, salt, pepper.
Simmer for a long time. When the stew is done, take out a small amount of the liquid and stir in a good spoonful of harissa (fiery hot sauce made from red chilis and garlic--I can give you a recipe for that if you can't find it in your local stores) and serve on the side as a condiment.
As for the couscous, if you buy the quick-cooking kind, you just prepare it according to the directions (add hot water, butter or oil, salt, and fluff with a fork to get out the lumps). If you're preparing the more traditional long-cooking couscous, you pour cold water over it, then drain immediately. Then you line the top of your couscousier (yes, I actually own one) with cheesecloth. (A couscousier is a double pot. The bottom holds the stew and the top has holes in it and holds the couscous.) You steam the couscous over the stew for half an hour, then transfer the couscous to a large flat platter, sprinkle with a little salt, separate the lumps, and mix in a little clarified butter or oil.
If you're going back even further in the process, with a bag of coarsely ground semolina, you put a few cups in a bowl, then add water and mix it quickly with your fingertips in a "scouring" motion so that it forms little balls (grains). Put through a coarse strainer so that the balls are not too big. Then cook like traditional couscous.
Dessert couscous, fwiw, is regular cooked couscous served in a huge mound with trails of cinnamon, melted butter and fine sugar poured over the top. Can be garnished with raisins, dates, and almonds sauteed in butter.
Avital
(5/17/01)
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