What kind of couscous croup is and how to cook couscous with

In an effort to diversify the menu of his family, many hostesses gradually fill up their cookbook with recipes for more and more new culinary masterpieces that are popular with different nations of the world. One of them is cooking the legendary couscous. This dish of cereals is distinguished by an organic combination of excellent taste, appetizing appearance and undoubted benefit. Ensure the accuracy of this statement on your own experience!

What is this - the mysterious couscous?

History and main features of the dish

So, cous cous is what? Initially, this name meant millet. A modern couscous is a wheat cereal, externally similar to round rice. The size of its grains is 1-2 mm.

Morocco, Libya, Tunisia and a number of other countries are called couscous homeland in various sources. Each state has its own special cooking ritual, and dishes from it have become the main component of Moroccan, Tunisian, and Algerian cuisines. In Algeria, this cereal is made from semolina, mixed with butter and yeast, sugar and eggs. In Tunisia, a combination of medium and small pieces of wheat grain, combined with water and olive oil, is used for this purpose. In Israel, dishes from this cereal are on the menu of any feast.

Couscous - what is this croup? As already mentioned, this dish was originally prepared from millet. Later, in the course of production, different varieties of wheat were used - hard and soft. In particular, the couscous is made from small semolina moistened with water. The grains formed from the resulting mass were sprinkled with flour and dried. The same size of the obtained cereals - 1-2 mm - was provided by sieving. Previously, manual labor was used to perform all the above operations; today, special mechanisms are used.

As an addition to cereal, chicken, turkey, and lean mutton are used. In addition, you can add fresh grapes or a "trio" of nuts with dried apricots and raisins. The sweet version of the dish is called "masfuf".

How is couscous useful?

Finding out that this dish is couscous, you can not ignore its nutritional value. The caloric content of cereals used to prepare couscous is 356 kcal per 100 grams of dry product.

In addition, this product contains:

• B vitamins (energy source and a guarantee of a strong nervous system);
• potassium (normalization of water balance);
• iron (help in fast recovery / renewal of blood);
• copper (normalization of hemoglobin production);
• phosphorus (strengthening of bone and muscle tissue);
• dietary fiber (maintaining the normal functioning of the digestive tract, cleansing the body of toxins);
• carbohydrates (fast recuperation, necessary for athletes and representatives of working professions).

How to cook it?

If you are interested in how to cook a piece of couscous, please note that traditionally this cereal is "steamed" for a couple. Initially, cuscucier was used for this purpose - a special vessel made of clay, baked over an open fire. It consists of 2 parts. In the lower compartment are loaded pieces of meat or vegetables, flavored with spices and butter. And in the upper through special openings the steam penetrates with appetizing aromas. It is in the second bowl that the cereal is loaded. Depending on the technology of cooking porridge can turn out dense or crumbly. For the first variant of the dish, the cover of couscousier should be closed, and for the second, the upper part of the vessel should be left open. The finished porridge is flavored with butter, spices or honey.

Modern hostesses use electric steamers instead of couscous. Of course, this cooking technology is inferior to the original version. Nevertheless, when using a double boiler, the delicate taste of the product and its nutritional properties are preserved.

Simple but refined recipes

Since this exotic dish is becoming increasingly popular, we suggest you learn the rules and recipes for its preparation. The simplest option is to use cereals as a side dish for fresh and pickled vegetables, boiled and roasted meat. For this purpose, you can use boiled couscous. Cooking is easy.

Boiled couscous

Ingredients:

• 100 grams of cereals;
• 200 ml of water;
• 1 carrot and onion medium size;
• a pinch of salt;
• curry powder to taste;
• 50 ml of soy sauce.

Cooking:

1. First you need to find the right dishes. It may be a cast-iron cauldron, but it is permissible to take a pan or a deep frying pan with a thick bottom.
2. Pour the cereal into the dishes, add salt and spices to it. Mix gently and fill all with boiling water. Cover the dishes with a lid so that the cereal is steamed gradually, soaking up moisture. In this case, the fire under the pan / pan does not need to include.
3. In the meantime, go in for steaming vegetables. First, peeled and chopped onion are fried in a frying pan with heated vegetable oil. Then add roasted carrots. And after 5 minutes soy sauce is poured into the vegetables. The resulting "frying" should be covered with a lid and simmered over low heat until the vegetables are soft.
4. Finally, mix the vegetables and steamed couscous. Your exotic side dish is ready!

Couscous with roasted vegetables

This recipe refers to the list of classic, served in almost any restaurant in the world. Nutrition and excellent taste of the dish will surely please your family, and the recipe for its preparation will not cause difficulties even for a novice cook.

Ingredients:

• 1 zucchini squash, bell pepper and bulb onion;
• 200 grams of purified pumpkin pulp;
• 250 ml of water;
• 150 grams of couscous groats;
• 3 tbsp. l vegetable oil;
• salt and spices - to your taste.

Cooking:

1. Peel the onions and zucchini, remove the seeds and tail from the pepper. Rinse the vegetables thoroughly under running water and dice them.
2. Heat the oil in a deep frying pan or saucepan - 2 tbsp. l Put the prepared vegetables there and fry them until soft.
3. In a separate saucepan, boil water, lightly salt it and add 1 tbsp. l oils. Steam with the resulting couscous grits. Leave it to infuse under the lid for 10 minutes.
4. Combine the prepared vegetables and couscous, mix the ingredients thoroughly. Serve them to the table. Couscous with vegetables can be used as a standalone dish or as an addition to meat dishes.

Couscous with vegetables and lamb

The combination of juicy meat and crumbly wheat cereals will not leave indifferent even the most demanding.

Ingredients:

• 0.8 kg lamb without bone;
• 0.5 kg couscous cereal;
• 2.5-3 Art. water;
• 200 grams of peas and asparagus beans;
• 3 carrots and tomato;
• 1 zucchini and bell pepper;
• olive oil;
• spices and salt to taste.

Cooking:

1. Cut the meat into small cubes, add salt to it, 3 tbsp. l oils and spices. Let the lamb marinate for half an hour.
2. In the meantime, peel and slice the small zucchini and carrot root vegetables.
3. At pepper, remove the leg with seeds. Cut it into small cubes. The bean pods should cut the tips.
4. Peeled tomatoes chop with a sharp knife into small pieces.
5. Couscous steam with boiling water with salt and spices, added to taste. Cover the saucepan with the rump. After 10 minutes, porridge is ready.
6. Fry the meat in a separate pan. Do not forget to periodically stir it. After 10 minutes, when the lamb is covered with a uniform golden crust, add tomatoes. After another 5 minutes, pour 150-200 ml of water. 20 minutes after adding the tomatoes, remove the pan from the heat.
7. Separately, fry in zucchini oil with carrots and bean pods. To keep vegetables in shape, they need to be cooked over high heat. After 8 minutes in the pan should add the finished meat with tomato sauce, as well as green peas. After another 8 minutes, vegetables and meat can be mixed with couscous. The dish is ready, it remains to decompose it into portions and serve.

Salad with couscous and eggplants

This dish is universal: it is tasty and warm and cold. You can use it individually or in combination with any kind of meat.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggplant;
• 100 grams of couscous groats;
• 150 ml of vegetable or meat broth;
• 3 garlic cloves;
• salt, spices and vinegar to taste;
• 2 bunches of greens - cilantro and parsley;
• 50 ml of olive oil.

Cooking:

1. Eggplant Ikus-kus is something for the autumn menu! The optimal combination of vitamins and microelements, distinguishing this dish, guarantees you a charge of energy for the whole day.
2. To begin with, steam the couscous, filling it with boiling broth. Cover the saucepan with the croup with a lid and set aside.
3. Peel the eggplants and cut them into small cubes. Then fry the vegetables in the heated vegetable oil.
4. For refueling, you will need finely chopped garlic and cilantro with parsley. Mix these ingredients with salt, spices and vinegar - table, apple or balsamic. Then once again carefully rub everything.
5. Eggplants fried to brown crust along with the oil shift to couscous. The final touch is the addition of a gas station. Put the prepared salad on the dish and serve.

Having included couscous dishes in your menu, you will not only enjoy a delicious and satisfying meal and satisfy your gastronomic curiosity. By making them part of your diet, you can reduce the risk of developing diabetes, help cleanse the body of harmful cholesterol, strengthen the cardiovascular and circulatory systems. For original flavor combinations, you can combine couscous with any vegetables, fruits, mushrooms, seafood. Successful to you culinary experiments!