Couscous Recipe

+ Directions : bottom of couscous pot, steamer, or deep pot, brown meat in oil with spices, onions, and tomatoes, stirring together. Add 4 qts of water and salt or bouillon cubes. After 1 hour of cooking, add carrots, turnips, parsley, and coriander. Continue at a good boil so that liquid will reduce a little. After 2 hrs. of cooking the meat should be tender. Taste for seasoning. Pour couscous in large bowl of water and stir around. Soak 15 mins. and drain. Put in top of couscous cooker over broth with meat and vegetables. After 1 hr. of steaming, dump couscous into a large flat pan. Work well with hands mashing butter and salt and lumps, separating the couscous grains. Put coucous back in pot and let steam an additional 15 mins. It is cooked when it turns a paler tan color. Taste to check for doneness. To serve, arrange couscous in a rounded cone on a large round platter. Make a well in the center into which put the drained meat and vegetables. Spoon a little broth over it all. Serve the remainder of the broth in a bowl, as well as the optional sauces in separate bowls. Optional sauces: Hot sauce Remove 2 or 3 ladles of broth to small saucepan about 20 mins before serving and simmer with whole hot peppers. Sweet Onion and Raisin Sauce 2 lbs. sliced onions 2 small, hot fresh peppers, 1/3 c. butter 1 c raisins 2 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp pepper 1 c sugar or honey Start 1 hr. before serving. Saute onions in butter, stirring frequently, until soften and golden. add other ingredients and cook and stir, letting mixture almost burn before stirring. This gives it a dark brown color. NOTE: As you can see by the receipe, the Moroccan women are resourceful like us, they use what is on hand to make a delicious meal. This is their version of stew but served with coucous. One night I made up a batch of American Beef Stew, served it on coucous and it was great.