International Supper Club: Algerian Couscous
Couscous, an iconic food in North Africa, is the main staple in every Algerian kitchen. The cultivation of wheat began in North Africa, and the Berbers, North Africa’s earliest inhabitants, gave rise to couscous as early as 200 BCE. So, as you can imagine, every family and household has its own “best version” of this traditional dish that’s been passed down from generation to generation.
People ask me all the time how I choose which recipe to use, or if I just create it myself based on inspiration I find online. I do my best to find the most authentic, traditional and respected recipe that the everyday family has in their weekly rotation. I’m not looking for the healthy version, the gluten-free version or the vegan version of any traditional recipe. If it calls for Crisco, I buy the Crisco. Woof. (Those empanadas were worth EVERY drop of shortening.)
I usually find my recipes after days and days of falling down the rabbit hole. Sometimes it starts at the .gov site of the country, by scanning menus of highly-rated local restaurants, or by personal recommendation. That leads me from site to site, link to link, and if a website looks like Wordpress layout from the ‘90s, with tiny images, poor English translation, and comments from locals, I see that as a good sign and I start my grocery list.
I don’t even know how I found this one. I do know that it took almost a week to find a recipe that to me, felt authentic and truly honored the tradition of couscous. It was so good, Guy and I silently ate while just looking at each other and sighing. IT WAS SO GOOD.
Couscous in the USA is like making spaghetti noodles. Boil water, dump in pasta, wait to soften, remove from water and mix with stuff. In Algeria (and all of North Africa, really) it’s an experience. You use your couscousière to cook the tiny balls of semolina by steam not boil, which was a SITUATION for me, not having a special pot just for steaming couscous. This copper version from Williams Sonoma is unbearably gorgeous.
One creates a fabulous pot of stew, and the herbs, spices, and steam from that stew are what cooks the couscous held above.
ALGERIAN COUSCOUS
This dish is made in three steps:
Prepare and slowly cook the meat for the stew
Prepare the stew
Steam couscous over the stew
First, to prepare the meat, choose your cut. Traditionally this dish is made with lamb, chicken or beef. I got my hands on a bone-in lamb breast (about 10 pounds, untrimmed) that I think made everything come together perfectly. Find what’s fresh, humanely-raised and affordable for you.
Notes:
The lamb breast I purchased had a lot of fat, and it took a lot of hands-on time to trim it. Before you leave the grocery store, ask the butcher to trim as much fat as possible. A leg of lamb would also be fabulous here, just be sure to choose a cut that is bone-in and humanely-raised. Bodily toxins are largely stored in the bones and fat of an animal, so you want these parts to be squeaky clean.
This dish took me most of a Sunday to prepare, but it was worth every minute. You can cut this time by prepping the spice blend and Harissa ahead of time, pre-trimming or purchasing a cut of meat that’s already trimmed of excess fat.
The ingredients are split into parts. I know that seems ridiculous, but the thing I hate about recipes from blogs is going back and forth. “Wait, I need what for this part? When?” So, I’m trying this out. Let me know if it works for you or if you hate it but it’s the way I want recipes to read, so here we go. It’s a to-do list. I LOVE A LIST!
For the meat:
1 bone-in lamb breast (4-5 lbs of meat)
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoons neutral oil like avocado or grapeseed, or even ghee
1/2 large yellow onion, roughly chopped up
After your meat is trimmed of a much fat you can, slice halfway between each rib. Place the slab in a large casserole dish.
Drizzle the breast with oil, give her a massage and liberally season with salt and pepper.
Place half an onion, under, on, around the edges, and between the ribs.
Cover tightly and cook at 300 degrees for 1.5 hours. Don’t peek!! It’s steaming itself to medium-rare perfection in there.
During this hour, begin preparing your stew.
When time’s up, remove from the dish from the oven and set it aside until needed (keep it covered).
For the stew:
1 tablespoon oil or ghee
1.5 large onions, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons Ras el Hanout spice blend
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp salt
½ tsp cinnamon
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 zucchini, cut into quartered spears (think pickle spears)
4 cups water
1-2 T harissa, depending on your spice preference. Start small! You can always add more.
½ can of chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans)
Note: Scoop out 125g chickpeas and save the liquid and peas for hummus or something else tasty. Don’t waste the good stuff! (Google aquafaba)
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large pot then add the onion until it starts to sizzle.
While the oil heats, uncover the lamb, debone, scrape off any extra fat, and roughly chop. Add the lamb hunks to the onion and cook together for about 5 minutes on low. It’s normal for bits to begin sticking a little to the pan but do your best to keep the ingredients moving.
Add all spices to the pot, mix and cook for a few more minutes until the spices begin to toast and become fragrant.
Add the water, stir gently and up the heat until it comes to a boil. Cover halfway with lid and lower heat to a simmer.
Add carrots and celery to the pot, then simmer another 20 minutes. Keep everything bubbling for the next phase.
For the couscous:
250g uncooked couscous
1 teaspoon oil
1.25 c water (plus more, keep measuring cups nearby)
¾ tsp salt
Place the dry couscous in a large mixing bowl. With your hands, mix in the oil and salt. Coat as much as you can, then add water. Stir to combine, and set aside for 15 minutes while you chop veggies.
This is hydrating your couscous so that it will sit tightly in a steamer basket and not fall through the holes.
This next part may feel repetitive, but it works. Add the couscous to a steamer basket and place it over the bubbles in the pot. The steam will cook your couscous. Note: Every time you remove the steamer basket, scrape the bottom and sides of the pot to make sure things aren’t burning and sticking.
Cover the steamer basket the best you can. You’ll see my crusty pot did a shotty job with what I had. Do your best.
Steam the couscous for 10 minutes, covered.
Keep the stew cooking on low, remove the couscous basket, and dump it back into your mixing bowl, fluff it with a fork and add a pinch of salt and ½ c water. Stir to rehydrate, return to steamer basket and back on the pot of boiling stew. Cover the pot and cook 10 mins.
Again, dump the couscous into your mixing bowl as the stew boils. Add chickpeas and zucchini to the stew.
Stir in ¾ c water to your mixing bowl, stir to combine then steam another 10 minutes.
Check your stew- if it needs more liquid to prevent sticking, add about ½ cup.
Combine in any way you prefer. I mixed the couscous into the stew, but you can also layer the couscous, then vegetables, then meat hunks and pour the liquid over the top.
Top with a bit of Harissa, mix to combine, then add more if needed.
Enjoy the most delectable stew there ever was!
“بالهنا والشفا” [bil hana wil shefa!]
