Couscous

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 10 people, you will need:

• 1 4 courgettes
• 2 1 leek
• 3 4 carrots
• 4 4 turnips
• 5 1 onion
• 6 1 garlic clove
• 7 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 8 20 Meatballs (optional)
• 9 800 g chicken breast
• 10 4 tablespoons spices for couscous
• 11 350 g tinned (canned) chickpeas
• 12 2 litres water
• 13 70 g tomato paste
• 14 2 beefs stock cube
• 15 5 glasses water
• 16 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 17 5 glasses couscous
• 18 50 g butter
• 19 salt
• 20 pepper
• 21 a little harissa (optional)
• Total weight: 6,890 grams

Times:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
48 min.	5 min.	1 hour 43 min.	2 hours 36 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Vegetables preparation Prepare 4 courgettes. If you have small courgettes, just cut into thick slices. Set aside.
2	Wash and slice 1 leek thinly, set aside.
3	Peel and wash 4 carrots, cut into pieces, set aside.
4	Peel and wash 4 turnips, cut into pieces, set aside.
5	Peel and slice 1 onion and 1 garlic clove thinly.
6	Meats preparation In a big pan on hot fire, put 4 tablespoons olive oil. When it's hot, make brown 20 Meatballs.
7	Do the same thing with 800 g chicken breast. Do this for all the meats, then set aside.
8	In the same pan, add a little more olive oil if necessary, add onion and garlic, salt and pepper, and cook for 1 or 2 minutes.
9	Add meat, 4 tablespoons spices for couscous and mix again.
10	Add all the vegetables and 350 g tinned (canned) chickpeas, mix again.
11	Add 2 litres water. With a spatula, scrape bottom of pan well to mix all the flavours (important). Add 70 g tomato paste and 2 beefs stock cube, then salt and pepper.
12	Bring to the boil.
13	Then cover, and let cook on slow fire for at least 1 hour (2 or 3 hours is better).
14	Couscous preparation Prepare the couscous: heat 5 glasses water with 3 tablespoons olive oil and salt.
15	When water is boiling, remove from heat and add 5 glasses couscous, mix well, cover and leave for 5 minutes.
16	After this time, add 50 g butter (or more), and mix with a fork. It's ready.
17	When couscous is ready, broth is in a beautiful red and all vegetables are soft. Check seasoning.
18	The traditional way to serve: a layer of couscous, then vegetables and meat, and a good deal of sauce over the top.

Remarks

To prepare a hotter sauce: take 2 or 3 ladles of stock from the pan, and in a bowl mix with a good tablespoon of harissa (according to your taste) and some chick-peas. Serve with couscous for spicy sauce aficionados.
As for the chicken, choose a good quality one (free-range, of traceable origin, or "red label" in France for instance).
Proportions are given as suggestions, do not hesitate to adapt to your taste.
You can add other vegetables if you like: bell pepper, aubergine/eggplants, and other meats: meatballs, lamb, spicy sausage, beef...
If you can't find a ready-made mix of couscous spices, you can make your own from: cumin, coriander (ground), cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom and turmeric. Paprika, cloves and caraway are also sometimes used.

---