Let us think about the dish that we think of when we talk about North African cuisine, our eyes and imagination always end up going to the cous cous (or couscous, if we make it Castilian), those tiny grains of semolina wheat stews that accompany so many recipes.
Although it is very common to find it in houses and restaurants such as cous cous chicken or cous cous of lamb, the reality is that this derivative of wheat it is an accompaniment and not so much a dish, because its function is very often to second meat, vegetables or chickpeas in their tagine.
Of Berber origin, even the ancient Muslim settlers of Spain They ate couscous, even leaving the name with an Andalusian heritage, as they knew it as ‘alcuzcuz’. As we can see, we have been using this wheat semolina in our kitchen for longer than we think.
Transferred to the 21st century, you will see that making a couscous as a side dish is really simple and it will allow you to give a North African touch to your kitchen with very little effort, incorporating carbohydrates and great versatility as a complement to countless dishes such as grilled fish, some meat in sauce or sautéed vegetables.
Contrary to other elaborations with dry pasta, couscous is not prepared by cooking in boiling water, but let it rehydrate. It can be in a vegetable broth —better, because it will have more flavor— or in water —somewhat more bland—, but both options are worth it.
We start by boiling the broth or water that we have and add the spices. When it boils, add the wheat semolina to the broth, add a tablespoon of oil and cover the pan, once off the heat, with plastic wrap so that semolina begins to hydrate.
Separately, chop the onion, the tomato, the raisins and the brunoised cashews and the aromatic herbs, finely, while the cous cous keep hydrating more or less about 15 minutes.
After that time, the semolina grains will have absorbed the water or broth and will be more or less caked, so we have to release them with a forkr. Add the minced vegetables and aromatics, mix well and serve, either warm or cold.
With what to accompany the cous cous (couscous)
The question really is: what can we accompany with couscous and the answer, although it sounds obvious, is almost everything. It is a perfect alternative for quick lunches or dinners where we want to do without white rice, pasta, boiled potatoes or noodles.
A good friend of grilled and grilled fish, but also of certain meat dishes such as sauce recipes or meatballs, a couscous can complement any type of pan or sauté vegetables, meat or fish with the same ease.
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