Pumpkin Couscous

I mentioned yesterday the purchase of a pumpkin at our farmer's market this weekend. Well, here's why. I was craving my Roasted Pumpkin Couscous. You need to take a little time to clean the sucker up.

The first thing I did was cut a slice off the bottom of the pumpkin, so I had a flat surface to work with. Then sliced in half, then quarters. From there I scooped the goop, and continued to cut the pumpkin into slices. I was able to easily remove the outer shell at this point and scrap out all the stringy bits from inside.

Dice the pumpkin. About 1/4 inch pieces.

Toss with dried oregano, ground cumin, salt, pepper and olive oil.

Roast in the oven on a parchment lined sheet.

Meanwhile...make some chicken! I seasoned some chicken thighs with salt, pepper and a mish mash of other herbs and spices. Then dipped the chicken in some flour and into a hot pan with olive oil. Get a good solid sear on the skin, get it nice and crispy. Flip the chicken over and add some onion, dry white wine and some chicken broth. Cover and put in the oven for about 15 minutes.

When the pumpkin is done from the oven, toss with some couscous and serve with the chicken, with the reduced sauce on top! Enjoy.

Filling, Satisfying and Versatile

Last night I made a super-sized batch of my Bazaar Couscous! A fragrant and delicious melange of awesome. I make this with chicken, but it can very easily be made without, to accommodate vegetarians. There is chicken, which has been seasoned with my house blended Baharat Seasoning. Then we have red onions, red & green bell peppers, carrots, golden raisins, dried cherries, tomatoes, pistachios, pine nuts, parsley and Charnushka seeds. A final stir with some Zatar seasoning and you're good to go! Delicious! Fragrant. Savory with sweet. Filling.


Woo hoo, leftovers!

Wonderful

Last night's dinner was a surprise. Not in the "I'm making it for the first time and it's good" surprise-y kind of way. But in the "I forgot how satisfying this is" way. The past few meals I've made, I've always felt a little unsatisfied by it. Not last night. A complete & tasty meal.

Bazaar Couscous! I started making this a few years ago. It's slightly different each time I make it. This was just awesome and to me the best I've had! In a nutshell. You have Israeli Couscous--larger grains than traditional couscous, a variety of nuts, dried fruit, vegetables and spices. All tossed together. I gave it the name because it felt like something I'd come up with if I were exploring a Persian marketplace.

What made last night so good? Usually the couscous is a side to a piece of chicken. Well, why not make it a one pot, one bowl meal? So I cut the chicken up, spiced it up with my own blend of spices--Baharat spice blend. Once nearly cooked through, I added diced red onion and diced carrot. Let that start to soften. Add diced red & green bell peppers. Season with Zatar spice blend and Charnushka seeds. Stir in the cooked couscous with dried cherries and golden raisins. Finish with diced tomatoes and toasted almonds and pistachios. Finish with a light sprinkle of extra Baharat. Serve hot. The only thing missing was some awesome flatbread and a bit of chopped parsley, maybe.

And with only a single tablespoon of oil--avocado oil--it's pretty good for you. A fair amount of starch from the couscous, plenty of veggies and fruit, lean protein from the chicken and nuts. I only had a small bit of seconds!!!! Seriously good! And BTW, if you want to make this vegetarian--just skip the chicken. I'm sure you could add some tofu if you wanted...or add extra veggies...whatever you like!



A final note...if you cook with nuts, know that you can enhance the flavor and 'freshen' them up if they've gone stale by giving them a quick toasting either in a dry pan on the stove top or in the oven. I prefer the stove top, as I feel I have more control. I did this with both the almonds and pistachios. But only one at a time, they may toast at different times and you don't want to burn them. Just keep tossing them and moving them about so they don't scorch and get nasty.

Quick Chicken & Couscous

All right folks...last post before I commence radio silence for a week! Wish me luck. Hoping to find my mojo while I'm away.

Last night's dinner was fast, quick cooking and fairly tasty.

Chicken with Rum Mojo Couscous

I started with two boneless/skinless chicken breasts. The chicken received a coating of olive oil, salt, pepper and a sprinkling of paprika. Cook over medium high heat for about three-four minutes per side. Remove to a plate to rest while you get your mojo going.


The Mojo in this recipe starts with 2 medium shallots, diced and one medium bell pepper, diced. Cook until the shallots are soft and the peppers are just getting soft. Deglaze the pan with about 1/4 cup of spiced rum. Make sure to move the pan away from the heat/flame, or you can get a flare up and toast off your eyebrows...and everyone knows that's the source of your personal mojo! I kid...but please do becareful! Allow the rum to reduce by half and add 1/2 cup of chicken broth.


Add about 1 cup of grape tomatoes, which have been cut in half. Simmer until the chicken broth has reduced by half.


Add some cooked middle Eastern couscous, stir to combine and season with some extra salt & pepper if needed. I think I had about 1-1 1/2 cups of cooked couscous here.


Enjoy! The rum brings a playful flavor to the Mojo Couscous, which pairs nicely with the warmth of the paprika spiced chicken.

See you all in a week. Behave yourselves. If you cause any trouble, please tell me the dirty secrets!

Couscous with shallots and parsley

This was a lovely, simple side dish we had the other evening. The recipe was in the recent Everyday Food. I altered the quantities to what I had on hand and it worked well, adjust as you need to.

Israeli Couscous with Shallots & Parsley

The ingredients. Simple enough. I did cook my couscous in chicken broth and saved some of the cooking liquid to help keep the final dish from drying up; almost making a light sauce.

Cook the shallots in olive oil...

...until golden and beautiful.

I tossed the couscous, lemon juice, parsley and the cooking liquid in the skillet, stir and serve.

A very nice side dish. I'll make this again. The parsley and lemon really pop the flavors. The shallots are mellow and sweet.

From Everyday Food.

Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 cup Israeli (pearl) couscous
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 shallots (about 1/2 pound total), halved and thinly sliced
1/2 cup fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1. In a medium pot of boiling salted water, cook couscous until al dente, according to package instructions. Drain, and transfer to a bowl.

2.. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add shallots; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Add to bowl with couscous. Add parsley and lemon juice, and toss. Season with salt and pepper.

Get Your Mojo On

The other night before my computer fried out, I made a recipe I created awhile back...Pork Chops with Rum Mojo Couscous. This second time out...still very tasty!

This time I added red peppers to the green.

Also, this time around, I brined the pork chops in a salt/brown sugar solution. Really good!!! For about two cups of water, I used 1 TB of salt and 1 TB of brown sugar. The chops hung out in the salty/sweet pool over night.

Saute onions and peppers until just about tender. Add rum and simmer for a minute to finish cooking the peppers and to reduce down.

Add cooked couscous, stir and serve with the cooked chops.

That's Rum Mojo Couscous in a nutshell. Give it a shot.

Mango-Ginger

my sick came back today...i made it to work for half a day...then had to come home...blah.

i did manage to make dinner...this is key...it tells you how easy this dinner is!

Mango-Ginger Glazed Pork Chops
w/Sauteed Carrots and Peppers on Couscous

The Mango-Ginger portion of tonight's dinner was the remnants of the jar of Martha's Mango-Ginger Jam we picked up at the Community Market (go this weekend for some great holiday treats!!!).

I had some extra ginger in the fridge, so I grated it up and stirred about 1 TB of ginger into 1/4 cup of jam. Add a pinch or two of salt.

Season the pork chops with salt and pepper and sear in a pan with olive oil until lightly browned. Place on a broiler pan or baking sheet and spoon over the jam, place under the broiler until the chops shiny and glazed with the bubbling jam. About 5 minutes under my broiler, but all broilers are different.

For the veggie/couscous: make your couscous per the package, set aside. In the same pan you seared the chops, add 1 small shallot, diced. Stir and saute until just translucent and beautifully fragrant. Add two carrots, chopped. Add 3 tablespoons of water and cover. This will steam and cook the carrots thru, about 2 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon of additional grated ginger. Stir. Add 1 green bell pepper, chopped. Season with salt and pepper. Saute until the veg are all tender. If you have additional Mango-Ginger jam, add 1 TB to sauce the veg and sweeten the deal. Serve over the cooked couscous with the chops.

Pork or Beef?

Mahogany Stew with Pork

This was last night's dinner. The original recipe is Mahogany Beef Stew. It comes together quickly, then cooks in the oven until tender. Served here with couscous. Rich and tasty.

The change was instead of beef, I used some boneless pork spareribs that I cleaned of excess fat and cut into large chunks. They worked very well with the sauce. The rich meat held up to the rich gravy. In looking back at the recipe I missed a few things. I used less hoisin sauce, only 1/4 of a cup. I forgot the tomato paste and oregano. Didn't notice either missing. The tomato paste might have added a little acidity, which could balance the sweetness a little, but over all no noticeable difference.

A nice variation.

Plan B

Looks nice. Tasted good. But totally not what was planned for dinner.

When you plan to make lentils, make sure you have lentils. Silly Scott. I had planned to make the Warm French Lentil Salad for dinner and turns out I had less than a 1/4 cup of lentils. Not enough for a snack. So Plan B! I went with the Israeli Couscous. It worked, different, but it worked. I added some onions and carrots to bulk this up a bit and it was fine. I didn't cook the carrots long enough, they were nearly crunchy, other than that it was nice. The vinaigrette flavors complement nicely with the pasta and very nicely with the smoked sausage. The only real problem I had with the dish was the parsley for garnish. It was very tough and wasn't easy to eat...chew chew chew and it wouldn't go away. Oh well, my parsley plant is about dead anyway.

Now I need to order some lentils and more couscous to replace my stock.

How Bazaar? How Bazaar!

Tonight was a late night at work and I wasn't sure I was up for making dinner when I got home. But a little advance planning made tonight's dinner a no-brainer.

Bazaar Couscous with Baharat Chicken!

The Bazaar Couscous is really a salad bowl of some of our favorite thing...things that can change based on what you have in your pantry, garden, fridge or what you can get at the markets. This has Middle Eastern Couscous, Carrots, Peppers, Onions, Golden Raisins, Dried Cherries, Pine Nuts and Pistachios. Throw in some herbs and spices with some olive oil and you're done! Divine. And it's really easy.

The chicken is flavored with a spice blend known as Baharat. I intended to grill chicken tonight, but the timing wasn't right, so I threw the chicken in a pan with some olive oil. It's spicy, but not hot and full of plenty of flavor. If you have a spice grinder, or a coffee grinder, make some of your own Baharat blend. You'll be very happy.

Pumpkin Cous Cous

So the other night I made Sauteed Cous cous with Roasted Pumpkin and I loved it. Here's the best I can give for the recipe so far.

2 cups of diced pumpkin tossed in 1 TB olive oil, 1 tsp of ground cumin, 1 tsp dried oregano, hefty pinch of salt and a few grinds of fresh black pepper. Place in a 350 degree oven for 30-45 minutes, until tender.

Roasted pumpkin bites. As the pumpkin roasts, the pieces shrink up and the flavors concentrate. Wonderful.

While the pumpkin is roasting, cook your Israeli cous cous until it's nearly al dente--five minutes maybe? You want to be a moment away from fully tender pasta. It will cook a minute longer later.

Here's where I don't have a photo. Saute half a medium onion that has been finely diced in 1 TB of olive oil. Let the onion carmelize and get some brown color. Add 1 garlic clove, sliced. Stir into the onion and give a minute to start to cook and release it's garlic aroma. Then, add your cooked cous cous. Stir to incorporate with the onions and to pick up some of the olive oil. Have you heat on high. Everything will be sizzling and making great noise. Keep stirring. As the pan starts to dry out, add 2-3 TB of a dry white wine. This last addition will pick up any bits of flavor left in the pan and finish the cooking of the cous cous. When the wine is absorbed, add the roasted pumpkin.

Fold the pumpkin into the couscous until well incorporated. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt & pepper.

I served my cous cous with a roasted chicken thigh, seasoned with a French blend of spices--containing cinnamon. I expected the flavors to go really well together, but in this case, the cinnamon didn't supplement or enhance the pumpkin flavors. It was fine chicken, but nothing to write about.

The cous cous was wonderful and I loved it almost as much as I love my Bazaar Cous cous. This was a great new side dish. Look forward to having this again.

Get your Mojo on

For no real reason, I'm going to call last night's dinner Pork Chops with Rum Mojo Couscous. Sounds fun.

I started by sauteing a few boneless pork loin chops that I trimmed up nice and clean. I seasoned the chops with a liberal coating of Adobo Criollo, a spice blend I picked up in Puerto Rico that is basically salt, pepper, garlic and oregano...tasty! When the chops were cooked through remove to a plate to rest.

Add about 1/2 a chopped white onion and toss around to pick up any oil. After a minute, add 1/2 a chopped green bell pepper. Give that a minute. Add you seasoning: 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes and 2 tsp dried oregano. Stir to coat everything. Add 1 TB tomato paste and stir to incorporate. The pan will be dry and the tomato paste will start to carmelize. Remove the pan from the heat, and away from the flame, add 1/4 cup dark rum. Stir and return the pan to the heat. When the rum has reduced by half, add 1/2 cup of broth. Stir. Add about 1 1/2 cups cooked Middle Eastern Couscous (click here for more info). Stir to coat.

Plate up; chops and couscous.

I enjoyed this. The flavors blended together pretty well. I couldn't really taste the rum though, so maybe a little more next time. The spice was nice, but you don't have to use as much if you don't like. But try to have some heat from the red pepper flakes, to help balance the sweetness of the tomato paste and rum. And I love the Middle Eastern Couscous. I have only found it at Whole Foods stores. And it's usually sold out. So be diligent and keep looking, it's worth it. If you can't find it, I'm sure you could use an orzo pasta in place of the couscous. I'm not sure I would use a regular fine textured couscous.

Cinnamon for your chicken...

Cinnamon Chicken and couscous with roasted veg

Last week I made this Cinnamon Chicken. Interesting. I'd suggest a few changes to the recipe, to suit my tastes.

The original recipe is here at Anne's Food.

To start:
*I let my chicken sit overnight with the marinade. Not a problem, will do that again.
*I used chicken breasts as that's what the store had. OK. I might not do that again. The breasts were meaty and easy to eat, but a bit dry.
*I made double the marinade, I had twice as much chicken, no problem.
*I would do the actual amount of salt next time...I think I only did teaspoons. More salt would be better.
*I had the fennel. I won't use it for this recipe again. The flavor just didn't work for chicken, for me. Maybe if I did this with pork, it might work for me.
*And more rosemary. If I would have used more, but my plant is getting small.

Not too bad. The cinnamon was interesting. I would like to make a bit of a sauce to accompany the chicken. The couscous was nice. I made a roasted garlic blend from a box and did roasted vegetables: sweet potatoes, red onions and cherry tomatoes...seasoned with salt and pepper, little olive oil. This was a good side dish. Again, a little dry, so coming up with a sauce will help that all out. Oh, and toasted pine nuts.