Couscous Salad with Ras-el-Hanout and 'Kofu'

When I don't travel in the Middle East, I am trying to bring the Middle East to my home - or to my plate, to be more precise. With my bag full of spices from Spice Kitchen UK, part of their Brand Ambassador Programme, I am bringing the rich world of flavour of the East to my West-Berlin kitchen. 

And there are many opportunities coming to my door, almost begging me to take them, prepare them and further share them with my readers. A couple of weeks ago, I've purchased from a local store Kofu, produced in Berlin, using the culinary wisdom of Israel. It is a special kind of tofu, using chickpeas flour. Available in different variants, including simple, mine was the falafel-one, which means that it has the usual spices used for the preparation of this special Oriental dish. I am generally very skeptical when it comes to the non-Asian attempts of producing tofu - I've tried way too much from the Bio sortiment and none was really satisfactory compared to the usual original results. Kofu seems to be a completely different story with an unique taste, not necessarily the usual soybean one, but healthy, smooth and adaptable enough to a variety of ingredients and dishes.

Another great discovery I had is that there is a before and after using Ras-el-Hanout in your couscous everything. This spice made of dozen of ingredients - among which cardamom, rose petals, paprika salt, ginger, coriander, cloves and turmeric, to mention only few of them - gives actually THE taste to the couscous. All the other occassions when you had this typical Moroccan dish are past and not a very glorious one. Ras-el-Hanout brings flavour, strength and unique memories to your plate. With every single bite of my couscous dish I felt like being back from a long - foodie - sleep. All the years when I only added salt, or only za'atar were a nightmare, as nothing compares to taste revelation of a couscous done right. Feel free to try by yourself and you will experience by yourself this unusual enthusiasm. 

The salad I prepared is easy, can be prepared in less than one hour and can be eaten both cold and warm, alone or in combination with meat - preferably chicken, in the summer as during the winter, as part of the lunch or the dinner menu. It suits the vegan or vegetarian, the healthy mother or child.

Ingredients

- 1 cup couscous

- 1/4 cup tablespoon cooking oil

- 2 medium-size eggs, beaten

- 10 small can champignons, halved

- 1/2 tablespoon Ras-el-Hanout spice

- 1 pinch salt

- 1/2 cup lemon zest

- 2 medium-size tomatoes, finelly cut

- 125 gr. Kofu Falafel-flavored tofu, cubed

Directions

In a medium-sized pan, add the oil, and let it fry, at least 10 minutes before starting to cook, at 250C. Add the couscous and eggs and 1 cup water and stir slowly. Add the Ras-el-Hanout and salt and lemon zest, and keep mixing every couple of minutes.

On another pan, slowly fry first the champignons and on another, the cubed Kofu. You can either fry them deep or just warm them a little bit. Once ready, add them to the bowl. 

In the bowl, add the couscous, the tomatoes and the other ingredients and mix them well.

Your healthy meal is ready!

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking: 30 minutes

Serves: 3

Bon Appétit!

Learning how to properly prepare couscous - work in process

I love to much couscous not only because it's very easy to prepare - maximum 20 minutes if you are lazy enough - and very tasty too. Also, you can add various spices - za'atar, of course, but also cumin, and some dried parsley and even some cayenne pepper - veggies - such as carrots or tomatoes, scallions and garlic. It goes well with various types of oils - cotton being the less recommended, and olive the favourite. However, there is something always missing from my couscous recipes, mainly the real experience of preparing it in the traditional way, as it is done in Morocco or the Middle East.

Till will be able to take part to a live exercise of preparing real couscous, I tried to update my bibliography and have a look at various videos and traditional explanations and recipes. Based on the latest lectures and conversations, I improved a little bit the couscous recipe, as follows:

- before starting the cooking, I add 4-5 tablespoon of flour and mix it for 60 seconds till the entire composition is homogeneous. Did I say that I try to mix it with hand, feeling the special texture of the grains?

- talking about mixing, acquiring homogeneity after each ingredient added. It will take longer to prepare the recipe, but at the end you enter the ancestral pace of the genuine couscous experts. 

- limit the amount of water added. I used to add around 1 cup of water for 2 cups of couscous, but I rather preferred to be more generous with the oil - 4 to 6 tablespoon. 

- add the oil first, then the spices and then the garlic. For the bigger veggies - such as tomatoes - the cooking time takes longer and thus you better add them when the composition is almost done and hot enough for a proper preparation. 

Right now, I am very far away from a successful couscous maker, but following my personal motto of learning at least one new thing every day, I promise to improve soon and share a genuine experience.  

Soon...very soon...