Couscous and Quinoa packets

Couscous and Quinoa packets
Originally uploaded by Andyrob

All couscous recipes can be adapted to use interesting substitutes or combinations of ingredients instead of the plain couscous grain, not that there's anything wrong with couscous by itself.

One of my favourites is to use a blend of couscous with quinoa.

You have to boil the quinoa for a few minutes first, then add an equal measure of couscous and leave to swell. That's all there is to it, using half quantity of quinoa for a couscous recipe.

Couscous recipe - Ingredients

This is not a couscous recipe - ingredients

So now I'm going to tell you how to make the most fabulous tasting authentic dish which will satisfy your family and friends without recourse to anything resembling a couscous recipe. Ingredients:

A traditional couscous dish, as served in the North African restaurants of Paris with mint tea and Algerian pop music is usually a choice between Lamb, chicken or Merguez sausage. There's also the 'Couscous Royale' which is a bit of all three, but you probably won't want to bother with that at home. These days people like to make up versions which are all vegetarian or seafood as well. It all depends on two things: What you like to eat, and what you have in the cupboard.

The single most important coucous ingredient, apart from the couscous grain itself, is a bowl of chick peas. This is important because if you are starting with dried chick peas ( tinned, cooked chick peas are never going to give the right texture so I'd say always use dried) then you need to think ahead and put the chick peas to soak the day before. The other thing is harissa sauce. That's the spicy red chile sauce made with the best fiery pimento chilli, garlic and caraway seed. The best one is made in Tunisia, not France. "La phare du cap bon". Fererro is also good. Squeezy tubes or little tins, it doesn't matter which. Stock up when you can find it. You'll also need root vegetables, onion, butter and some tomato or puree - not much.