Happy Couscous Friday! Green Olive Arts is excited to introduce the first of a series of articles written by Roqaya El Guiri. From the Middle Atlas mountain city of Midelt, Roqaya has worked for GOA for the last 2+ years as a Residency Assistant, helping artists in their residency experiences. She has interests in the work of Moroccan women artists and bridging cultures as an ambassador of her people. Roqaya is also an accomplished cook with a pitch perfect sense of flavor in the kitchen, from which we have benefitted much!

The Secret of Couscous

By Roqaya El Guiri

Anyone who has ever spent time in Morocco knows that every Friday people look forward to sharing a big plate of couscous together following Friday prayers. As a young girl growing up in Midelt in the Middle Atlas mountains, I watched my mom prepare this special meal every Friday. So I thought I’d share what I learned from Mom about the secret of couscous.

Couscous is usually served in a traditional large clay bowl, with everyone eating from the same dish from the section in front of them. While many people today use a spoon to eat couscous, back in the time before French and Spanish colonization, Moroccans used to eat everything with their hands, and couscous was no exception.

I grew up watching my grandmother eat couscous this way. She would gather up some couscous and a bit of vegetables between her fingertips and roll it in her palm while pressing it several times into a ball. And the result, voila … a couscous ball! It was ready to pop into the open mouth of whichever grandchild was next in line for a special bite.

Even as a kid I knew my mom’s couscous recipe was really simple, but as I grew, I began to realize that some of the secret of couscous was in how she carefully cut and perfectly timed the cooking of each part. She would cut up all of the vegetables into large chunks or pieces. Next, she would season the meat and put it in the large couscous pot to cook (see the recipe below).

While the broth started to simmer, she would prepare the semolina, which is actually just a type of flour made from durum wheat, for making the couscous itself. She would place couscous in a bowl and sprinkle salted water over it, then separate the grains by gently rubbing them between her palms adding oil to it before putting back on the steamer.

Building the Perfect Couscous

According to Mom, the key is calculating when to add each vegetable based on its cook time. For example, vegetables that take long to cook, like carrots, go into the broth first along with the meat. The rest of the vegetables are added depending on how long they need to cook. She typically uses carrots, turnips, squash, pumpkin, cabbage, eggplant, and green zucchini, with plenty of spices like turmeric, cumin, black pepper, salt, paprika and saffron. Fresh hot chilli pepper is also sometimes added.

Then, several minutes before serving, she would add salted-fermented butter (Called smen in Morocco) to the semolina in order to soften it. By the time my father would get back from Friday prayers at the mosque, Mom would have all the vegetables beautifully arranged upon of a mountain of couscous like a crown, and we would be sitting down to eat. Finally, she would top it all with my favorite part: the caramelized onions cooked with raisins, powdered sugar and cinnamon known as tfaya.

Made for social gathering … not distancing

As I pass this time of quarantine in my sister’s home in Marrakech, we often find ourselves talking about “how Mom cooks things” and we call her for advice or to tell about our cooking. We wish we could be there today with all the family gathered around a giant plate of couscous heaped with meat, vegetables and tfaya!

What began as a meal made up of the leftover ingredients at the end of the week has, over Morocco’s history, become a treasured family tradition of delicious food and togetherness shared in love. So I hope you get to make couscous for your special ones, when all this ‘distancing’ is over. And if you do, don’t forget that crucial ingredient! That … is the secret of couscous.

Couscous

• ½ kg semolina flour (coarse ground)
• Regular white flour
• ¼ Liter Water
• Oil
• Smen – salted-fermented butter

Steam the couscous for 10 minutes in a couscous pot (double-pot steamer) then stir by hand in a large basin and return to steam again. Repeat 3 times! Mix in the smen by hand just before “building” the couscous with meat and vegetables.

Chicken or Beef options

• 1 whole chicken, quartered  OR 1 kg of beef, cut into large chunks
• 1 chopped onion
• 3 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp garlic
• 2 threads of saffron
• ½  tsp turmeric
• 4 tsp of vegetable oil

To prepare and cook the chicken

Drop a finely chopped onion and diced garlic in the bottom of the couscoussier (French for a couscous cooking pot) with the meat along with some oil.  Put on the stove on low-medium heat, add all the spices in, mix till onion turns brown, finally add the vegetables, water enough to cover them, first those that will take the longest to cook and then the rest according to their cook time.

Toppings for couscous

• 3 tsp olive oil
• ½  lb chickpeas shelled
• ½  lb carrots peeled and halved lengthwise
• 3 zucchini’s peeled and halved lengthwise
• 1 onion peeled and cut into 1/8ths
• (some other vegetables that could be used; sweet potatoes, fresh fava beans, cabbage, okra, parsnips, rutabaga, peppers, fresh pumpkin)
• A fresh bouquet of greens made up of 2/3 parsley & 1/3 cilantro (finely chopped)

 

T’faya … “the face” of the couscous

• 1 onion
• ¼ raisins
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tsp powdered sugar
• ¼ Liter of water

Cook for 20 minutes then stir from time to time, until the onions and raisins are soft and caramelized. This gets spooned generously on top of the whole mountain of meat, vegetables and couscous.

 

… B’saha

That’s Moroccan Arabic for “with health!”