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For my first ICSA, I humbly present a couscous with chicken soup, carmelized vegetables and dried fruit. Ok, so first off; three confessions. My first is that I am borrowing my girlfriends’ grandma. I never got the pleasure of meeting my fathers’ parents, and my mothers’ parents died when I was rather young. For this reason, I am borrowing my girlfriends’ grandmothers’ recipe for this dish. The second confession is related to the first. The only time I’ve ever had this, it was cooked by her mother. I’ve never had her grandmothers. However, her mother, who had literally gotten out of the hospital that day for back pain, cooked not only this energetic, and time consuming dish, but went on to make no-less-than 10 salads consisting of various varieties of shakshuka, and many delicious alternativey fried or fresh salads. Oh and there was salmon, just-baked challot, and meat stuffed artichoke yerushlami.. I mean afterall this was Sukkot, the Jewish harvest festival. Mad props to this woman. I am not this superwoman, so I will only make this couscous, which leads me to the … Third confession. I am not using freshly made couscous. I used store bought, packaged couscous. I am a broke bloke, and I don’t have much time for couscous production, nor money for a proper couscousier. Now that I have given you every reason not to vote for me, let me show you how I made a monstrously large and delicious couscous with commonplace ingredients. It is probably pretty healthy too, but who cares. And then again it’s not healthy if you are like me and eat 5 kilos of it. Step 1. Assemble Ingredients We have: -Three russet potatoes -Three leeks -Three medium onions -Three Carrots -Three celery sticks with leaves separated but washed, tied together and reserved -Two zucchini -Two chicken thighs, legs brined for 6 hours (we made a vegan one as well) -Slice of pumpkin -One cup of fresh chickpea. Boiled, peeled, washed. -One cup almonds -One cup figs -One cup raisins -One cup dried cranberries -One cup walnuts -One cup dried plums -Cooking Oil ( I used a combination of olive and canola) -and, of course, Couscous  For spices: -Sugar -Cinnamon -Salt -Turmeric -Pepper  At this point in the operation, you will figure it out that the figs are missing from the picture, so you better hop on your bike and go get some from a friend, who is the figurehead of a local farm. He will probably be very kind, and figorous, and also give you a coke bottle full of olive oil from the 18 gallons of oil from the 140 kilo of olives he just harvested. While there, be sure to smoke a spliff and talk sports figurations about the Cinncinatti Bengals, because your fighting Chicago Bears are really more than figuratively eating poo poo this season. I am fignished Step 1. The almonds  You will breathlessly return from your bike ride home, to find that your darling girlfriend has so nicely boiled, and peeled your almonds. -Boil and peel your almonds   -Dry them!!! -Once dry (seriously, did you dry them enough??), FRY (we did this in two batches to avoid buring) -toss a lot while in the oil to avoid burning  -Once fried, sprinkle them with salt, and you will get to see them get all blistery and delicious.   -Set aside for garnishing the couscous later Step 2. Assemble your soup. -Take half of the potatoes, zucchini, carrots, leek, celery, and cut them into halves, and the chopped into larger chunks -All of the celery greens (which should be tied together if possible, these will be removed later) -All of those nice chick peas -In a large pot, add the vegetables and celery leaves into roughly 8 liters of water -Set to a boil  **For Vegans** -Once reduced by an eighth, separate soup into two equal portions in two pots. -Add the chicken to one of the pots. -Season both with turmeric, salt, and pepper. Perhaps season the vegan soup a bit more -Allow to reduce, but add water if it reduces to more than one-fourth the original amount Step 3. The Vegetabling At this point you can murder your gf b/c its Halloween.  -Add a cup of water, a few dashes of oil, and one and a half spoons of sugar -Take the other half of the vegetables and pumpkin, and assemble them on a large shallow pan, try to ensure they all are touching the bottom of the pan  -Sprinkle with more sugar, and cinnamon  -Cover and allow to cook  -After they are nice and soft, yielding without resistence to the penetrating prongs of a fork, stick them puppies in the oven at 190C until the tops are nice and carmelized awwwww yissssss  Step 4. The Fruitening -Cut all the dried fruit into quarters -In a small pot, add three spoonful’s of oil, one centimeter of water, and three spoonful’s of sugar -Stir frequently until the figs begin to disintegrate and spread their sweet seeds all over the rest of the fruit   Step 5. Coucous It is funny, because, in Hebrew, the word cous = pussy/vagina. -We do this in two batches because of VeGaNz -From each soup, take one cup of the broth and add it to a respective batch of couscous  -Fluff with fork -Cover with plastic wrap for 5 minutes  -Uncover, add about one half of a cup more of broth -Fluff, and cover again **Confession #4, our couscous was still a bit to clumpy, so we microwaved it on medium high, watching it like a hawk, and fluffing every ten seconds. Now, put couscous on a wide and deep serving pan and begin to build!!!! First the remaining soup, then the vegetables from the oven, then the dried fruits, and then the almonds.    Serve with wine and challah, and enjoy with plenty of friends! Happy belated Halloween, and Shabbat Shalom. 
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Nov 1, 2014 22:37
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SnakeParty posted:Third confession. I am not using freshly made couscous. I used store bought, packaged couscous. I am a broke bloke, and I don’t have much time for couscous production, nor money for a proper couscousier. Anyways your food looks good but I can't condone murdering your girlfriend, seeing as she's your only link to the grandma in question.
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Nov 1, 2014 23:13
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Lots of people still make their own couscous. It is just time/labor intensive, and (to my knowledge) it is best done by making large quantities. For instance, my girlfriends grandma won "Best Couscous in Ashdod" (a large city in Israel where everyone is either Moroccan, Russian, or Ethiopian) and she made her couscous by hand. From what I have seen on the internet it is not an easy process, and like pasta, the handmade couscous definitely tastes better.
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Nov 2, 2014 15:47
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But I've made handmade pasta and it doesn't taste better. It tastes different, sure (or more accurately the texture is different) but it doesn't really taste better. As far as I can tell the real difference between handmade pasta/couscous/whatever and non-handmade is that the latter is dried out before you eat it, so that changes the texture.
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Nov 2, 2014 16:28
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I suppose you are right. But texture is a huge part of what makes couscous. I have yet to try the handmade grandma version, or any fresh couscous to my knowledge. So the verdict is out. Perhaps someone will come along and enlighten us. Be that as it may, you should try making this. Its really delicious. One tip: if you make it, only assemble what you plan on eating, and save the rest for later. Its much better reheated if you save it all separately.
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Nov 2, 2014 18:14
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