Cookin' Cous-Cous

The day after we made M'simmon was Friday - and on Fridays we make COUS-COUS! Here are some pictures of the process. First you need to have a cous-cous pot which consists of a large lower pot - on top of that snuggly rests the top pot with a perforated bottom.


Once you make sure you have one of these beauties, you get down the cous-cous and pour it into a large bowl and add water until it is covered about a half inch to an inch above the level of the dry cous-cous. The cous-cous sits until it absorbs all the water, making it more pliable, but still pretty grainy.













In the meantime you have to prepare your veggies. The veggies used in this cous-cous are: courgettes blanc (white zucchinis) , turnips, parsnips (look like white carrots), carrots (with the cores removed), squash (with the skin left on), and tomatoes.
Tomatoes are grated into a lovely thick mass of pulp (leaving out the skins) which gives a nice body to the "soup" that is poured over the dish just before it is served. Sometimes tomatoes are also cooked with the rest of the veggies, cut into halves.

While you are still waiting for the cous-cous to absorb the water, you brown your meat (it is called Tajine- which is just big chunks of stew meat) along with onions, salt and pepper, garlic, and a generous bit of olive oil.


Then when it has nice brown edges you add the other spices (sorry, not going to explain all of theses except to say, bright yellow stuff, ginger, dark red stuff, and bright orange stuff) and chopped up cilantro and parsley- and you let it cook some more.


Eventually you add all of your vegetables and some water and bring it to a boil.


Then as this scary looking conglomeration bubbles away in the lower pot you put your cous-cous in the perforated upper pot,



allowing the steam to come though the perforations (an not leaking out the cracks between the pans - if this happens, get a plastic grocery bag or two and tie them around the seam between the pots - seriously folks, it works and they don't melt to the pots) The steam of the cooking vegetables and meat cooks the cous-cous.

Then, at some point (I don't remember when) you take the hot, steamy cous-cous out and spread it in a low dish and, when it has cooled just enough (but not too much) you "crumble" the cous-cous through your fingers with salt and butter that has been aged for five days to give it flavor and to keep the cous-cous from clumping. Then you put the buttery, sifted cous-cous back onto the steamer and steam it some more.

Eventually the stuff in the lower pot has cooked enough for the meat and veggies to be nice and tender and tasty and it is time for the artsy part of the feast. Place the cous-cous in a low volcano shap and bury the meat in the bottom of the volcano - then surround the meat with veggies forming a kind of tee-pee with the courgettes and carrots. then when this is sufficiently arranged, you use some of the leftover "soup" or sauce and driszzle this over the entire masterpiece. Tah- DA! Finally it is ready to eat. (but we were so busy eating, that we forgot to take pictures of the final stages, the beautiful display in the two gigantic dishes, and the seventeen people who ate it!) Here is a photo I found on the internet (by camatlarge) that looks like a mini-version of what we had:

People here joke about the cous-cous coma (a phenomenon that happens when a tummy full of cous-cous meets a glass of water and the cous-cous expands to make you full to the point of explosion, combined with a sudden onset of fatigue) however I think the cous-cous coma is actually experienced more fully by the poor person who has spent the last several hours making the stuff!