Wow, couscous day! Couscous refers to the whole dish or meal, not just the grain. We sat down to a platter of food, probably 24 inches in diameter, piled high with all sorts of vegetables, garbanzo beans & meat. Everyone has a spoon and you eat from your area of the dish. You add more of the cooking liquid if you like it more moist. It was delicious. They accompany it with something called Leben (lay-bén) which is called, if I understood correctly, petit lait in French. The closest I can figure is somewhere between buttermilk and runny plain yogurt. Relatively thick & sourish. I liked it.
Zahra tells me that making couscous the way her mother makes it is very time consuming and labor intensive. (I know ‘grandma’ was starting preparations when we left for our first exam this morning).
You first coat the uncooked couscous grains with oil, then mix in water by hand. You put it in the steamer for a half hour or so, then take it out and break up the grains, add more oil and more water, then steam some more. When it’s done, it is hand mixed again to make sure there are no clumps. ‘Grandma’ cooks the meat and some of the vegetables in separate pans, to keep flavors separate. There were turnips (both long & round) carrots, cabbage and maybe onions. Zucchini (courgettes), too, and it was cooked separately to keep its shape & color. All is strategically laid on top of a flat plane of couscous so everyone has access to all the vegetable types and some meat. (As I prefer, meat is more of an accent than the main focus of the meal.) It was delicious and now I’m having a quick rest before we head off to the medina for the first time!
No comments:
Post a Comment