Couscous - Unesco intangible world heritage

[kerouac2]

Couscous has just been elevated to Unesco intangible world heritage status after being jointly proposed by the four countries of which it is the national dish -- Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania.

Here is how to make it the traditional way.  Just about everybody uses a lot of shortcuts these days.

[lugg]

I have never cored a carrot or given couscous that much love but it looked very good..

[kerouac2]

I have never seen it served like that, not even in Morocco or Tunisia. It generally is served in three different dishes -- one for the grain, one for the vegetables and broth, and one for the meat. Everybody wants a different amount of couscous grain, and some like to make it soupy in their dish with the broth while others prefer it on the dry side.

[tod2]

Thanks for that intro to couscous Kerouac. I watched her and admire her doing all those (unecessary in my humble opinion) but I guess when a method is handed down from mother to daughter you dare not do it any different as your own Mother-in-Law is making sure you do it the way she did for her sonyboy!

I always have to have a tagine when in Paris. This was the last place we eat at.


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[kerouac2]

I do know that among the traditionalists, the fluffing and refluffing and adding butter and fluffing again of the grain is considere to be a must, but I suspect that it mostly uses up nervous energy and helps to waste time while the other things are cooking.

[tod2]

Oh you found out their secret!! All I can say as before, some families have traditions they wish to pass on even if the cook of the house has found a better simpler way, it is death by the sword to revise old granny's granny, recipe and method. My goodness would I love to get hold of one of those chefs in the kitchen and ask him what he thinks about all the kafuff.
As you can see our meat and veg definitely came separate from the couscous.

Going back to the video. Yes, definitely take out the middle part of the carrots if they are going to be the size I fed to my horses!! She could have timed the veg better without having to remove certain parts. It all boils down to experience of years and years. In the kitchen watching my mother cook the most amazing meals with one hand tied behind her back. My mother was phenomenal in the kitchen. She had CEO's of the most enormous companies stand like little children . plate in hand, to get one of her famous roast potatoes before the meal reached the dining table. Luckily I know how to do them....just for us.

[whatagain]

I love couscous.
My wife, of course,makes a great couscous.
But she fails in the 'semoule' the grains, which we should buy where real Moroccans buy it.

Short of thst i had about 100 couscous at le rendez vous des camionneurs, in the 93, 200 meters from le pont de Stain.

[kerouac2]

We were supposed to have lunch there, but you forgot me.

[kerouac2]

I know that couscous is the #2 favourite dish of the French, so I was trying to see where it stands in Belgium, but it was impossible to find a credible list, probably due to the cultural/language divide.

However, I did discover that couscous first appeared in French literature in the 16th century, as one of the elements of a banquet in Gargantua by Rabelais.

[whatagain]

Don't know how popular it is in Flanders, but as popular as in France in Wallonia.

[tod2]

Dec 18, 2020 19:11:12 GMT kerouac2 said:

However, I did discover that couscous first appeared in French literature in the 16th century, as one of the elements of a banquet in Gargantua by Rabelais.

Reading that sentence spun me down memory lane and the Loire Valley. That is where our tour took us to lunch in a Troglodyte restaurant to partake in one of RABELAIS favourite snacks....Fouee`. A small puffed up bread filled with rillettes and mushrooms. Since watching a video on the fouee rising and inflating like little whoopee cushions, I realize that they are simply pita breads but maybe a bit smaller.

Forgive the sidetracking....https://youtu.be/-pi8SOabje8