Roll Your Own..... Couscous by P. Wolfert

(updated with more photos)

I know! Just the thought of making your own couscous gives you a headache, but in fact it's easier than making your own pasta or bread and delivers the same satisfaction: a sense of wonder at the magic of it all.

I don't know why it took me so long to start teaching homemade couscous. Once I did, putting on a show costumed in my printed blue and white pantaloons and sitting on the floor the way North African women do, I remembered how much fun it was and how astonishing the results.

Now spurred on by terrific feedback from my students, I demonstrate couscous making whenever I get the chance. I've taught the staff at Chez Panisse and at the Napa Valley Culinary Institute of America. I like to think that there are chefs across the country who are 'rolling their own'- couscous, that is.

(Photo of Paula Wolfert making homemade couscous taken by Christopher Hirsheimer in 2001)

 

When making couscous you'll need two horsehair, wire, or plastic sieves of different calibers through which to shake the rolled beads of semolina. You'll also need a couscous cooker or deep kettle with a colander that will sit snugly on top. And, of course you will need some fresh coarse semolina and fine semolina flour purchased by mail-order or from a good Middle-Eastern store. With these items at hand, you'll be able to make enough fine-grain couscous to serve eight in literally 1 hour. When making your own couscous, you must use coarse semolina, not couscous, as the magnet for the fine semolina flour.

This recipe can be halved to serve 4.

Hand-Rolled Couscous

1 cup coarse semolina
Pinch of fine sea salt
1/3 cup cold water (approximately)
1 cup fine semolina
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup cold water (approximately) for "raking" the couscous
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons of olive oil or butter
1 cup strained broth

1. Spread the coarse semolina on a large, preferably round tray. Sprinkle a few tablespoons of salted cold water over the coarse semolina and, at the same time rotate the palm and fingers of one hand in wide circles (in one direction only) to create tiny spheres.

2. After two or three rotations, begin to sprinkle the semolina flour and about 1/4 cup cold water alternately on the spheres while continuing to rotate. As the spheres absorb the flour and water they will turn into tiny couscous "beads" more or less the same size. You may need to add 1 or 2 tablespoons cold water.

3. Shake or lightly press the couscous "beads" through an everyday wire or plastic 12-mesh strainer in order to standardize their size. Place in a fine sieve to shake and remove excess flour.

 

 

Makes 4 cups uncooked fine couscous. (You may discard or use the    flour, as North Africans do, to start the next batch.)

4. Bring plenty of water to a boil in the bottom of a deep kettle or couscous cooker. Pile the freshly rolled couscous into a lightly oiled colander or top container. Fit the top onto the bottom, checking for a tight seal. Partially cover and steam 15 minutes.

5. Dump the couscous onto a tray and break up lumps with a large fork or whisk. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of salted water and rake the grains to keep them separate. Mix in 1 tablespoon olive oil. Gradually add another cup 1/2 cup of water while raking the couscous. When the couscous has absorbed all the water repeat the steaming for 15 minutes.

6. Dump couscous onto a tray, gradually work in another cup

water, and rake the grains to keep them separate. Allow to rest, covered, for 15 minutes. Fluff the couscous and loosely cover with a damp towel. Up to this point the couscous can be

prepared a few hours in advance.

7. Thirty minutes before serving, bring water back to a boil. Return the couscous to the colander or top container and steam, uncovered, an additional 10 to 15 minutes. Couscous lightens in color when fully cooked.

8. Dump the couscous onto a wide shallow serving dish and toss with oil or butter . Gently fluff the couscous, pile in a mound, and decorate with meat or fish and vegetables.

(Berber woman of Ait sidi Boumoussa tribe of the Middle Atlas holding a Berber couscous in the Souks of Itzev, taken by William Bayer in 1972)

c\ Paula Wolfert, 1998, 2005

Culture Food Food and Drink Travel

Comments

[Annette Harrison]

Where do I get cooking pot for couscous?

[Narjis]

So nice to see this recipe for making couscous from scratch. I was lucky enough to watch my friends making bercoukus while I was living in Algeria. It is like the giant economy version of couscous. It is made exactly the same way only you keep adding the semolina flour until a ball the size of large tapioca is made. Then it was not cooked right away, but laid out on clean sheets on the floor of the largest room in the house and left to dry. To use a local expression meaning "lots and lots", it made "bezef"!

[Farid Zadi]

Paula, I just wanted to let you know you have become a bit of celebrity on a Setifienne forum. They are very impressed by this post and very happy that you are teaching how to hand roll couscous.