An Exotic Dish the French are Mad For

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Tangine

In the states, when you say couscous, you will most likely be talking about that tiny delicious grain. In France, if you’re having “a couscous”, it means something else altogether.


Relatively few ethnic dishes make their way into France, since they consider their own dishes to be the ne plus ultra of cuisines. But the North African dish called couscous is an exception. Anywhere there is an outdoor market with big, steaming wok’s of take-out dishes, there will be paella--another import--and there will be couscous.


Couscous is one of those wonderful slow-cooked stews with many meats plus an abundance of spices, vegetables, and saveurs. The French adore it. It is served over what they call grains de couscous or semolina. Nearly every every country bordering the Mediterranean has their own version.


Our Moroccan born neighbor, Marc, invited us over for a couscous. We were very honored, as this is a meal that, made the traditional way, will be quite the endeavor. Nicole and Pierre, who both lived in Morocco when they were younger, were invited as well.


MarcJ

Marc and his Parisian wife, Janine, spent a couple of days preparing the meal. Couscous varies slightly by country and culture, but in Morocco it’s made with chicken, beef and lamb, which are each cooked separately in a bouillon. Vegetables are added, typically carrots, zucchini, and turnips. There is a rich spice blend to flavor it all.


But what goes under and on top of this rich stew is just as important as the complex flavors within it. At dinner, Marc opened a hot tangine to reveal steaming grains de couscous, which he cooks twice, first with olive oil, then with butter. We ladled the rich stew over it, then the toppings were passed: raisins, chickpeas, a spicy hot piment, dates, and a special dish: caramelized onions, slow cooked in lamb fat with raisins, almonds, and walnuts. PHOTO: Our chefs du jour.


After dinner there were Moroccan pastries and mint tea, and for a French flourish Janine made her famous baba au rhum (see this previous post).


Now I would not attempt Marc’s recipe, being much too lazy, so I’ve searched out some quicker versions. It's the perfect dish for chilly weather when you’re dreaming of travel.


Tea

Most of the recipes I looked at use just one kind of meat. Many versions added butternut squash, which is a fine idea. Some topped it with yougurt, some with cilantro; other choices were prunes, pistachios, and cashews. Like a good curry dish, you can take your pick of a variety of savory condiments that jazz it up.


If you make it, you might try one of these recipes:


The Candid Cook’s recipe seemed the closest to Marc’s, though it was short on veggies, which you could add.


Fine cooking has an exotic version with with green olives and preserved lemons.


Jamie oliver uses beef instead of lamb in his couscous.



In the COMMENTS: Apolgies are due today. I just discovered that many legitimate comments have been disappearing into a mystery spam folder--grrr! This is the fault of Typepad (they host this blog), and they are working to correct it. If you wrote a comment that was never posted, that’s what happened. My apologies and I am now able to access this spam folder, so it should not happen again, en principe.


Recommended Blogs: Our reader "Vagabonde" has a great travel blog you'll want to check out, called Recollections of a Vagabonde. A Parisian living in Atlanta, she's traveled to 58 countries. This week she takes an amazing train ride.


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Thanks for that Brian. We are all obviously enjoying the dish (however we all describe it) and the Couscous is often cooked in a Couscousiere which sits over the top of the meat dish and is therefore cooked by steam from the meats, fruit and spice mixture.

I can highly recommend a book by Mourad Mazouz "The Momo" Cookbook (a gastronomic journey through North Africa) ISBN 0-7432-6372-3. I have met the man himself and tasted his exquisite food.

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Alan, there is a wonderful history of the Savoy and its famous chefs that I read some time ago.

As an anthropologist it has always been my habit to stick my nose in to other business whilst doing my work. The vessel for cooking couscous is a tajine, the grain is the staple of most North African cuisines in Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Mauritania and Tunisia. It also appears in Sicilian dishes. However, couscous is the staple only as rice, pasta or potatoes and whatever goes with it is couscous with X. My older daughter would live on it, I would rather eat rice any day...

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Thanks to all, You learn eventually that naming dishes is a regional thing. All of my North African friends use the terms separately as Tagine with Couscous and this is the normal description in Australia and New Zealand.

Now I know what I need to order when in France.

Preserved Lemons are a must.

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Round here the dish is always referred to as a Couscous - lamb, beef and so on depending on what is added. The kids have it as school and it is listed as couscous, if it is just the grain it is referred to as semoule.

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As a former sociologist of religion, specializing in Muslim communities, my former students and I spent many field trips in Tunisia and Morocco tasting cous cous in many variations. The one thing that makes it for me is the addition of Pickled Lemon, which is always present in the versions I make.

One point to hit the French with when they boast about their classical french dishes. The famous french chef Escouffier developed them in London. Check out BBC radio 4 series London and Paris.

Happy eating!

Happy eating

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Alan, in Algeria they have either cous cous sauce rouge or cous cous sauce blanche, but i don't know which meat goes in which! Generally if you are having a couscous, it means the whole meal (even if the term refers to the grain)

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I have never heard of the whole meal referred to a Couscous.

Couscous is as you say the steamed grain which is served with the meat(stew), fruits and spices cooked in a Tajine (Tagine).

I was introduced to this by my Algerian French Tutor. Apart from your definition I concur with the thrust of your article.

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really enjoyed your article. My husband's family are from Algeria and my mother-in-law has her version: "the ONLY true couscous", which uses lamb, turnips,courgettes, artichoke hearts, peas and chick peas. Although we have been married for 24 years, hubby and i had never bothered(!!) to make this dish, preferring Indian or asian or french cuisine. 3 weeks ago we decided to hold a couscous party and knuckled down, with helpful advise from mother-in-law. It was a huge success and not as difficult as i had imagined. The cous cous grains were cooked as you mentioned above, they were amazing, especially after years of buying the Tipiak instant variety! We so impressed ourselves that we just had to do it all again 2 weeks later. I made a typical Algerian almond cake " Kabs Alooz" to follow which basically consists of almonds, butter and a ton of sugar, but was loved by all ,especially washed down with mint tea( more sugar yikes!) We'd do it again this weekend (we're on a roll after all) but the kids are feeling somewhat couscoused out.