Couscous With Love

Food in films is always a winner.... remember Babette's Feast, Like Water for Chocolate, Big Night, Eat, Drink, Man, Woman... well i have now been inspired by a new French movie - Couscous by Abdellatif Kechiche. If you happen to catch it you might actually be able to pick up the fish couscous recipe.....

Watching the movie and following the recipe I now know the secret for great couscous. There is a great scene where the mother is feeding her children and relatives her couscous that she has lovingly prepared. She describes how she has made this couscous with love.

Here is my vegetarian version with love. Serve with the rocket and orange salad and some fresh mint tea for a great combination.

Couple handfuls of chickpeas (pre-cooked)
1 pepper ( I used a fabulous orange pepper that tasted just great)
1 onion halved and sliced thinly
1 garlic clove (finely chopped)
2/3 potatoes (Cubes)
1/2 carrots (quartered)
1 courgette (cut into chunks)
1 chilli pepper (finely chopped)

100g couscous (I half fill a pasta dish with couscous which works out right for 1/2 people)
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp ground cayenne or chilli pepper
1 tbsp cumin (seeds)
1 tbsp cumin (ground)
Olive oil
Seasoning

(serves 2)

1. Heat the oil in a heavy based saucepan and fry the onion until golden.
2. Add the garlic and cook off for around 30 seconds.
3. Meanwhile to prepare the couscous soak it. I usually put a layer of couscous in the bottom of a pasta bowl and pour boiling water over it so that there is about double quantities of water to couscous (like rice making). Let it sit and swell in the dish.
4. Back with the vegetable sauce - add the cumin seeds to the saucepan to bring out that cumin taste, and the cayenne/chilli.
5. Add the fresh chilli (dependent on taste you can vary the quantities of cayenne and chilli.
6. Add the tomato puree and let it cook for 5 minutes.
7. Slowly add some water to the mix.... 1/2 litre to 3/4. Stir throughly.
8. Add the chick peas, the carrots peeled and quartered and the potatoes (cubes).
9. Once the couscous has soaked up much of the water pour it into a colander/steamer and place over the simmering sauce to steam the cous cous - this will make the cous cous even more light and fluffy.
10. I steamed the couscous for a good 10/15 minutes before taking it off the heat and fluffing it with a fork.
11. Add the rest of vegetables and continue to cook until soft.
12. Put the couscous back into the colander and reheat over the sauce. Flavour the sauce and the couscous with the ground cumin.
13. To serve place the couscous in a large serving bowl and mix in the sauce - gently folding in the mixture. The couscous should soak up the sauce and turn a luscious red colour. Flavour with pepper and salt if you wish. Enjoy!

Rocket and Orange Salad

What do you do when you have a surplus of rocket growing in your garden? You have it every day and start to tire (shock, horror) of the wonderfully peppery salad leaf.... then you need a new recipe to liven it up. What better than rocket and orange salad.

To serve 2:

Bunch of rocket
Half an orange peeled and sliced thinly
3/4 tsp Walnut or olive oil
1 tsp Honey
Juice of half an orange
A little orange peel
Seasoning


Mix the rocket and orange slices together. Mix the oil, grated orange peel, honey and seasoning together. Pur over the rocket and orange and mix together to ensure all the lovely oil concoction fully coats the leaves. Great as a side dish. In fact I put it with a cous cous meal I was cooking. (see further entries).

Free Range Review

Free Range Review - the local food company.....

It puts you in touch with all your local food producers and sellers...... well almost.... still a start-up site I think - hopefully some great local food purveyors will get on the site double quick. We have to support local food.....

Please sign-up and testify.

What shall we do with the Heirloom Tomatoes?

After buying some fabulously stripy heirloom tomatoes I was faced with the dilemma of what to cook. Pasta and tomatoes.... naaaa... been there and done that, tomato and rocket salad.... possibly - I do have all that rocket in the garden.... no it is going to be polenta and tomatoes. Simple but effective. Polenta is that gloopy mass of boiled cornmeal much beloved by the Italians. It is quite a bland carbohydrate but one that would go perfectly with tasty heirloom tomatoes. The fun is in the cooking - it turns your humble saucepan into a witches cauldron as the cornmeal bubbles away like the hot mud pools of Rotorua.

5 or 6 tomatoes (get the heirloom tomatoes if you can)
Onion or leek
2/3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
Polenta (measurements escape me - best to refer to the packet)
Good bunch of basil
Parmesan cheese (optional)
Olive oil
Seasoning

(Serves 2)

1. Skin your tomatoes... I place them in boiling water for about 5 minutes. You should see the skin break and begin to peel.
2. Chop onion or leek finely and gently fry in a little olive oil.
3. Add the finely chopped garlic and cook for about 5/10 minutes.
4. Chop the tomatoes roughly and add to the onion/leek. Cook for 5 minutes.
5. Meanwhile cook your polenta in a separate saucepan. I just followed the instructions on the packet. Add water, cook for about 5 minutes - it should bubble away quite happily then turn the heat off and let it stand for 10 minutes.
6. Place the polenta in a oven proof dish and smooth the top.
7. Drizzle some olive oil over the polenta and place under the grill for about 10 minutes.... it should be golden on top.
8. Back to the tomatoes... add a little salt to season and tear the basil into the mixture.
9. Divide the polenta into squares and serve with the tomato mixture and the grated parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. If your tomatoes are good enough you might not need the cheese.