Lockdown Lowdown – Couscous

While you and your granny were around in the toilet roll aisle having a punch-up with a tattoo encrusted weightlifter, I was quietly loading up my trolly in the dried goods aisle. Down the far end from the scrum and bloodletting at the pasta, I was at the couscous. There was really no need to stock up as a kilo (2lb) packet costs less than two euro (or $2 for that matter). It can produce enough carbohydrate laden deliciousness to quell the panic in any pandemic fearing hoarder.

Why am I telling you this? I really should keep it to myself. However, there is method to my madness. I’ll come back to that later. For now, you can enjoy a veritable feast of pouring shots as I instruct you in the dark art of making a mind blowing couscous.

Ingredients

• 300 gms of couscous
• 200 gms of  green beans
• 2 tablespoons of good quality olive oil
• 1 bunch (6-8) spring onions
• 2 teaspoons of turmeric
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper
• 1 teaspoon of salt (optional)
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon of raisins
• 1 tablespoon of sultanas
• 1 handful of chopped parsley
• 2 red chillis chopped

Method

The method for this is firstly to follow the pack instructions. In my case it was to use 160ml of water for each 100 gms of couscous. As I was using 300 gms, I used just under half a litre of water. So, pour the couscous into a big bowl.

You will be sick of the pouring shots by the time we get finished here….

Then pour in the water (just off boiling).

Who would have thought that pouring water would look so interesting?

Cover the bowl with a tea towel? Why a tea towel? I have no idea.

We have loads of those tea towels in red, blue, brown and black.

Leave the tea towel in place while you do the hard work. Chop the green beans into small size pieces. Cook them to al denté. Wash and chop the parsley. Wash and chop the spring onions and the chives. Then comes the fun part (It was fun for me). Pour the ingredients into the bowl, starting with the olive oil.

Stir the whole thing together with a big fork. It will seem like it is never going to mix. Just stick at it. It will.

There is enough in this to act as a side for six hungry diners. So, you could feed 20 people from one sub €2 (2$) pack. The great news is that is is extremely tasty and works really well with fish, chicken, meat or even with big chunky vegetables.

So, next time you are heading into the supermarket with all those (for the American readers insert  “guns you you just bought to fight the virus”) (for European readers insert “long life shopping bags you use”), think about stopping off in the couscous section. While you are all in there, kicking six shades out of each other, I will be two aisles over loading up with toilet paper and pasta.

Enjoy.