My wife originally got this off a packet, I have altered it to make as I now do it, if there are any mistakes, it is probably that I have missed something.


Couscous

Vegetarians can have this without the meat.

Couscous:
500g. couscous, (about 100-125g. per person)
½ litre water, salted (about the same number of ml of hot water as grams of couscous or slightly more)
100g. butter or margarine
Accompaniment:
MEAT
I small lamb chop per person.(optional)
Small chicken piece, such as a thigh per person
1 Spicy sausage, such as a Merguez, per person.
STEW
2 litres vegetable stock
500g. carrots and turnips
500g. courgettes#
1 Aubergine
500g. tomatoes (or a tin)
2 onions.
A couple of sticks of celery
Celeriac (Celeri rave)
1 red or yellow pepper
1 can of chick peas (400g) You can include the liquid from these.
salt and pepper
Couscous spices (ras el hanout)
Harissa paste.
To make stew:
Add onions, carrots and turnips and cook, covered, for a few more minutes.
Add pepper, courgettes and tomatoes and cook for a bit longer.
Thicken with a tablespoon or two of flour or cornflour, if you like things thickened.(I don’t use any type of flour, but thicken with concentrated tomato puree)
Stir in stock and salt and pepper to taste.
Simmer for about two hours, or until cooked.
To make a hot sauce, take some of the liquid out and blend with spices in a jug
Cook the meat
Fry or grill the meat is a pan.
To cook couscous:
Pour boiling water onto couscous and leave for 2 minutes to swell. You can sometimes get “boil in the bag” cous cous, if so follow instructions on the packet.
Put the butter in a heated pan, add the couscous and cook for 4 to 5 mins., stirring with a fork to separate the grains.
Can be done by bunging it all in the microwave, stirring well and warming through.
The hot sauce
Remove some of the liquid from the stew, and add some harissa paste to taste. Serve separately in a jug

Serve the meat, they stew and the cous cous in separate bowls and the harrissa in a jug, and let guests help themselves.

Notes
Harissa, a fiery paste from Marocco. I used to buy it in a tube, in Tesco, but not seen it there lately. If you cannot find harissa, you could use some chilli powder.

Ras el Hanout. If you cannot get this, you could try adding the individual ingredients, all in powder form. Use with care. The ingredients on my jar are:
White pepper.
Garlic powder
Ground ginger
Mustard powder
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Chilli
Paprika
Clove.

Bon appetit


If you have some of the Cous Cous grains left over, try the following

TABOULÉ

I bowl of Cous Cous
Taboulé

1 "bol" couscous (½ - 1 pint)
Juice of 1 lemon
5 ripe, juicy tomatoes, diced or quartered
½ cucumber, diced
5 shallots or spring onions, cut lengthways
1 bunch Fresh mint leaves, chopped, but keep a few whole for garnish
2 tblsp. olive oil
salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Put the couscous into a deep salad bowl
Pour in lemon juice and mix
Add tomatoes and cucumber and mix again
Add onions, mint, oil, salt and pepper, mix
Chill for 4 to 5 hours
Adjust seasoning according to taste at the last minute
Serve well chilled

Variations - possible additions:
Cooked chicken, chopped small
Sultanas
Peas

Serve with salad or “Crudités”

Bubble and Squeak today.


Do you have that in the U.S.?

I have no idea what that is Brother David. Thank you for the cous-cous and taboule recipes though. They sound marvelous. I really like cous-cous and find it very versatile. I have not tried it as or with a stew previously. I shall have to try it with a lamb stew sometime. That sounds marvelous.

In Christ,
George

Brother George,

BUBBLE AND SQUEAK is yesterday's left over potatoes mashed with yesterday's left over cabbage and greens, fried, and served with fried bacon and eggs.

While the potato and cabbage hash is usually called Bubble and Squeak, when I was a child during the war, when any food was scarce, our family served it with fried bacon, the Potato and cabbage being called Bubble and the bacon Squeak due to the nioise each made when they were frying. We didn't have eggs with it as during the war, eggs were very scarce. We mostly had dried egg powder sent from the US in the convoys.

Some people like it so much they cook the vegetables specially. You can buy it frozen in Tesco's.

This post was last modified: Sat Dec 01, 2007 05:15 AM by Davo.

Aha! That sounds really interesting. As I recall we used to eat something similar to that when I was a youngster although I do not recall exactly what when into it. I was born shortly after the war so of course my parents went through the war. My mother learned quite a bit of cooking from my dad's kin-folks in North Carolina. Wee had quite a few dishes like that which were relatively simple yet very hardy. I remember I had one uncle who seemed to use bacon grease to flavor just about everything.

In Christ,
George

We didn't have oil in those days, things were fried in the meat fat.

Good morning on this rainy LORD's day! I've been neglecting my thread... sorry. But I sure do thank y'all for keeping it going for me. We had a wonderful meal on Thanksgiving day... and have finally finished up the leftovers. One of our children invited us over to their home and sent home plenty of food, lol.

Not much is new on the homefront... we finally made a makeshift indoor outhouse. Everyone will be responsible for their own tending to, like it is when we go camping. Don't know how we made it with 6 children and one bathroom all those years! (I hope I haven't offended anyone with this talk.)

I've always heard of "Bubble and Squeak", but never knew what it was..now I do; yes, very interesting! Well, here's some recipes I've been meaning to post... as you can tell, I am not health conscious - I should be and need to be with all the problems we have. Talk to y'all later, 'gators.

***********************

~ HARVEST BREAD ~

2½ c. sugar (or adjust to taste)
3/4 c. shortening
4 eggs
2 c. mashed sweet 'taters (pumpkin will work)
1 (6 oz.) can frozen orange juice, thawed
3½ c. plain flour
1½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 c. chopped hick'ry nuts (or pecans)

Cream sugar and shortening. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add sweet 'taters and orange juice. Sift together flour, salt, soda and spices. Add to creamed mixture. Stir in nuts.

Pour into 4 (1 lb.) coffee cans, greased and floured. Bake in a 350° oven for about 40-45 minutes. These cans can be sealed with the plastic lids and frozen for later use.

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~ Strawberry Cheesecake Trifle ~

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 c (8 oz) sour cream
1/2 c cold milk
1 small instant vanilla pudding mix
1 (12 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed

1½ c crushed butter-flavored crackers (about 38 crackers - I used those new honey butter Ritz)
1/4 c butter, melted

2 cans (21 oz each) strawberry pie filling

In large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese 'til smooth; beat in sour cream, mix well. In small mixing bowl, beat milk and pudding mix on low speed for 2 mins. Stir into cream cheese mixture; fold in whipped topping. In small bowl, combine crackers and butter.

In a 2½ qt trifle bowl, layer half the cream cheese mixture, crumbs and pie filling. Repeat layers. Refrigerate 'til serving.

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~ Sausage and Cabbage Casserole ~

1 head of cabbage sliced
1 yellow onion chopped
4 potatoes peeled and cut into rounds
1 pound of smoked sausage
Cavender’s Greek Seasoning
1 stick butter

Slice the cabbage and chop the onion. Peel and slice 4 lrg 'taters into rounds. Slice a pound of smoked sausage into it and stir in a stick of melted butter. Season well with Cavender’s Greek Seasoning and put it all in a large casserole dish. Cover with foil and bake at 350° for 1½ hours. It's done when the potatoes are soft and the cabbage is tender.

This post was last modified: Sun Dec 02, 2007 08:31 AM by granny.

Here is one of my favorite Homey receipes:

Meat Pie:
Brown meat with onion, mushrooms, and olives thicken with a little flour (not to thick)
spread in a casarole or cake pan.

next add (peas or corn or asparagus) what ever can vegtable is handy

spread mashed potatoes on top of those, then spread cream of mushroom soup and bake for 20 minutes on 350 then top with cheese and cook additional 20 minutes.

This post was last modified: Sat Apr 19, 2008 02:14 PM by SummerHarvest.

That sounds really good and really easy. Being a single man who loves to cook sometimes, actually a lot of the time I just don't feel up to doing what I should. I like simple.

A question though: For the meat would you use something like ground beef or ground pork or would you recommend something else?

In Christ,
George

i use ground meat such as beef or turkey or pork. my mom uses pull apart meat such as roast beef or pork, I personally perfer the ground meat.

That recipe sounds mighty deelish Summer and I can't wait to try it soon! Thanks for posting it and hope you share more goodies as easy as that one seems.

Hiya broGeorge. It's good to see you again.

Thank you Granny. I like that name. That is what my mother is affectionaly called by a lot of people.

I have been under the weather spiritually, emotionally and physically lately. I have diligently started working on repairing my relationship with God the past few days. He is already rewarding me. What an awesome God we serve!

By the way, I am not trying to hijack the thread. Just wanted to acknowledge the kind words.

In Christ,
George

Not to worry about the hijacking, broGeorge. When I sit at my kitchen table, we talk about everything from food to the "Pope"...

I can understand being under the weather spiritually, emotionally and physically. It kinda slips up on me too. I'll keep you in my prayers and may you have a peaceful day. Take care.

here is a easy sunday recipe:

1. Brown a small-to-medium roast, season, and place in a pot (one that can go in the oven) with about 2 cups of water or chicken stock.
2. brown some chicken, season, and place int the same pot on top of the roast.
3. pour your favorite speghetti sauce on top of them I use a sauce with some chili pepper (My mother in law showed my how to make a mexican speghetti sauce before she died that her mother had taught her. She used it in the old country before they became american citizans) . let cook at 350 until the roast is all done (2-4 hours).
carefully remove the roast and chicken then poor the speghetti sauce over cooked noodles (any kind) add a salad and a non starch veggie. wal-la you have sunday dinner. (I cook the roast while I am at church). Come home and boil the noodles or take already cooked noodles out of the frig the hot sauce will make your noodle warm. Quick and easy. Plus left overs for durin the week.

SummerHarvest

This post was last modified: Mon Apr 21, 2008 02:02 PM by SummerHarvest.

Well, I will have to try your easy Sunday recipe next. I did "borrow" your idea for your first recipe to concoct something I named "roadkill pie", lol. But it tasted really good.

I marinated a pork roast and beef roast overnight in brisket sauce. Then I slow-cooked 'em the next morning. In the meantime I simmered some carrots, whole green beans and corn in butter and a tad of broth and combined the meat mix with this. I also made mashed 'taters.

So... I put the meat/veggie mix in a sprayed pan, added the creamed 'taters on top of that, then sprinkled with cheese and baked til melted. I have some left and will add a can of mushroom soup before heating. Thanks for the idea!