A Brief Guide To Cooking Couscous

A Brief Guide to Cooking Couscous

by

Louise Kalyn

Many people are used to using pasta in their meals not knowing that they can also know how to cook couscous, which serves the same purpose as pasta. Couscous has spherical granules, which are made form semolina wheat, which is known by a number of historians to date back to the 10th century. This food is staple in the Maghreb and this is a region in Africa in the North of the Sahara. Couscous is traditionally steamed and in other cases fluffed in order for it to be separated from the granules. It can also be boiled and stirred to reduce to a sticky, starchy mush.

Couscous does not have a flavor itself much like pasta and this is the reason why couscous dishes are made with flavored stocks, herbs as well as spices together vegetables, dried fruits, nuts and meat added or used as a topping. Most of the couscous in the market are packaged and is considered the instant variety, which will cook very quickly off the stove by absorbing a boiling liquid. However, the authentic couscous, which is roughly ground hard durum wheat, will require you to spare more time as well as a good steaming vessel known as a couscoussiere.

There are several things that need to be in your head when trying to prepare couscous and this will include making sure you know the type of couscous that you have purchased in order to properly plan the cooking time and this can either be traditional couscous or instant couscous. If you choose to go with the long, traditional method of steaming couscous you should make sure that the pot should never covered and this is because the condensation can drip onto the grains and make it mushy. Couscous can be eaten as porridge, or in salads as well as in desserts.

There are several ways you can use to be able to know how to cook couscous with boiling them being one of them. If you preparing it as a side dish you should plan on ? to 3/4 cup of cooked couscous per person. This can be eaten in a couple of days and can also be frozen by up to three months. In order to be able to prepare couscous you will need several things which will include a saucepan, a bowl, a fork, a cup measure, 1 cup uncooked couscous, a dish towel, ? teaspoon of salt as well as 1 ? cups of water. After gathering all things, you will need to know how to go about the preparation.

The first step will be to gather all the ingredients that you will need and then appropriately measure the water where you can mix it with the ingredients in a saucepan. You should then heat the water until it comes to boil. You should then place the boiling water in a bowl with couscous and stir them together. The bowl should then be covered with a dish towel and allow it to sit for 5 minutes and then remove the towel and fluff the couscous using a fork. If you need to double or triple the volume of instant couscous you should avoid the hot water method which is given on the box and alternatively steam it slowly.

This article touched the basics of the topic. I have 2 more resources related to the above. They are

how to cook couscous

and

how to cook couscous

. Do consider reading them.

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A Brief Guide to Cooking Couscous