An appetizing slide of golden porridge with slices of vegetables and pieces of meat in the center of the table is couscous. What it is? This is a traditional Moroccan dish. Each region of this African country and even each individual family has its own ideas on how to cook couscous. The recipes may vary, but the respectful attitude to the dish remains unchanged. It is served on Fridays, treats guests to it, and is served at the memorial table. The fact that Europeans are particularly surprised by couscous is that this dish is eaten by hand. It is believed that it’s tastier. How to arrange an original Moroccan meal at home?
Special dishes for couscous
To prepare the classic version of the dish you will need a special pan, for which the French language even has a separate name, literally translated as “couscous”. It is also sometimes called borma. This dish is distinguished by a device comprising two parts. The lower one is a high volume pot, and the upper one is a colander inserted into it. In the absence of a real couscous at home and in the store, you can do with ordinary pots and a colander. The main thing is that the first should not be too high, and the second should fit in diameter. In addition, you will need a large round dish. Moroccans use clay-free crockery for this purpose. So, the dishes are collected, you can start making couscous.
How to cook?
First of all, you need to find all the necessary products. First of all, cereal is required directly - stmida, from which couscous is made. What is it? Almost the same as the usual semolina, only crushed larger. Now you can buy such cereals in ordinary European stores, but in its absence, you can try to do with manna. In the lower part of the bite, you will need to send meat and vegetables. What kind of couscous you get as a result of all your culinary efforts depends on what they will be. For example, sometimes figs are added to a dish, and in the Mediterranean part of Morocco, fish is used instead of meat. Most often, you can find the so-called Bel Hodra, or vegetable couscous. What does this mean? It's simple - you will need tomatoes, onions, potatoes, turnips, pumpkin, zucchini, cabbage, chicken and aromatic spices. How to cook this dish?
Couscous Belle Hodra Recipe
Take half a kilogram of groats and about the same amount of chicken, one onion, one medium-sized tomato, a couple of large carrots, one turnip, one potato, a couple of small zucchini, two hundred grams of pumpkin, half a small head of cabbage, several sprigs of cilantro and parsley, three tablespoons vegetable oil and two - creamy, ground pepper. Prepare spices - ginger and turmeric, without which real couscous will not work. What kind of seasoning is this? Turmeric is a bright yellow spice similar to saffron, which goes well with many dishes of oriental cuisine.
Wash the meat and put in the whole pan, chop the onion and tomato, pour it with vegetable oil and add seasonings. Cover and cook a quarter of an hour over low heat. Pour in one and a half liters of hot water and add the remaining vegetables, also cut into large pieces. Place a colander with grits over the pan. Before cooking, grits should be laid out on a dish and ground with palms, sprinkled with a couple of tablespoons of water. After a quarter of an hour, grits should be removed from the pan, put from a colander on a dish, pour cold water and mix, shaking hands. Then pour the cereal back into the colander and put it to languish in the pan, add fresh herbs. After half an hour, remove the dish from the heat and put the couscous on a plate, and on top of it - the contents of the pan.