Couscous, Popular in Many Countries

[Annacia]

Couscous, popular in many countries.
This is reprinted with the generous permission of Zorha Warda of http://northafricancuisine.com/



A staple dish in some North African countries such as Morocco in the west and Algeria in the middle, Tunisia to the east of North Africa, however most of people in even those countries use the commercial couscous unaware of how couscous originally made from scratch, in the authentic way.

Being a North African I know the delicate and maybe difficult process of creating the grains of the couscous and making it ready to serve as part of a delicious meal. Therefore I am going to share the knowledge with people who may wish to know more about how is the couscous made .

Where I was brought up, I use to see women, every day, making this unique food, namely “couscous”. They make it by hand, using wheat flours, salt, water and few natural traditional appliances and tools.



First they place semolina in a large wooden dish and sprinkle it with fresh salted water. Then begins the rolling of the semolina with the palms, after that they spread a hand full of fine semolina on top of the forming grains, they repeat this process until the couscous grains are formed.



The couscous grains are then placed in a large net sieve that called “sharing” in Algeria, ”ghorbal” in Tunisia, they press the couscous through the net. The processes of palm rolling and sieving are repeated, using a medium then fine net sieve.

The fine net sieve allows the fine semolina that couldn’t form the couscous grains to pass through and what remains on the sieve is the actual couscous. Vegetable oil is applied to the palms of the hands to roll the couscous grains and prevent sticking and lumps from forming. The product becomes ready to prepare as a meal following another process of cooking or drying it under the sun and storing it until is needed.



The couscous has to go through a stage of steaming before is ready to eat, accompanied with an appropriate stew (such as 'Tagine'). Outside North Africa we use commercial or readymade couscous for convenience, and this is ok; it still tastes good if prepared properly.


The couscous lamb stew Shurba’t Ghanem (lamb's soup)




Lettuce, Radish Salad Chicken Soup Lemon Garlic Roast Chicken

For the recipes shown above visit North African Cuisine: http://northafricancuisine.com/Recipes.php

[Elmotoo]

this is FABULOUS ~ thank you for sharing!!

[Stella Mae]

Wonderful recipes, thanks! I have a Kenyan friend who makes the most fantastic beef and vegetable soup. The flavorful soup (or stew) simmered while the couscous cooked in another pan. I have her recipe somewhere in my stash, so I'll try to find it and post it. I have fond memories of sitting on her balcony eating this delicious dish, drinking good wine and solving all the world's problems.