Thursday, June 07, 2007

Israeli Cous-Cous with Lemon

bigcouscous

I've had a box of israeli cous-cous - or large cous-cous, it has a number of names - in my cupboard for a really long time. A really, really long time. I've only used it once, and I wasn't thrilled. But for Ywette's party, I decided to give it another go. I thought about it, and decided that the classic trinity in gremolata - lemon, garlic and parsley - would work well. And my instinct was indeed right, it turned out delicious!

This was a really nice side dish. We had the leftovers last night for dinner - and to spruce them up a bit, we fried some bacon and fresh asparagus, mixed with the lemony cous-cous and topped with a little parmesan. Not bad at all!

Israeli Cous-Cous with Lemon

500 ml (2 cups) large cous-cous (israeli cous-cous)
water
the zest of two lemons
2-3 garlic cloves
large bunch of flat-leaf parsley
olive oil
flaky salt, preferrably lemon-flavored if you have it

Bring a pot of water to boil, lightly salted. Boil the cous-cous until tender, 10-12 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water to get rid of excess starch.

Mince the lemon zest, crush the garlic, chop the parsley, and mix it all with the cous-cous and a few spoonfuls of olive oil. Finish with a pinch of salt. I like lemon salt, just because I happen to have it - this is a good dish for it. But just use regular salt, it'll be perfectly fine too.

Recipe in Swedish:
Stor Cous-cous med citron

8 comments:

KrakelSpektakel said...

Var kan man köpa Israelisk couscous? Jag har en fablesse för gryn/ris (kolhydrater i allmänhet) med tuggmotstånd. Det är okej- tipsa mig om var i stockholm.

Chris said...

This looks great. I have never had the Israeli Couscous, only the medium kind. I love the simplicity of this recipe. Must bookmark - thanks!

Anonymous said...

in israel we call it "ptitim".
it has a lot of variations here, and it`s a very very popoular kids good :)

Anne said...

Krakel - åh, bra fråga. Jag köpte min på matmässan för ett par år sen (hrm, ja, det var ett tag sen) men jag är rätt säker på att jag sett det i Hötorgshallen. Måste fylla på förrådet nu i alla fall.

Starla - thank you! I have to look for more recipes!

Chris - enjoy :)

Anonymous said...

I've been served the 'big' couscous before, but not seen it in the shops - I must look out for it. I wonder if this would work with normal coucous, or bulgar wheat? Sounds good :)

Anne said...

Ok - I've now looked a bit, and they have this cous-cous at my local Ica Maxi. So my suggestion is to check your local stores - and if not, ask them to get it. "Wernerssons gourmetservice" is the seller.

valleyoak said...

Thank you for posting your big couscous creation. I have some of that couscous in the cupboard (I had to do an image search to figure out what it was), and now have an idea how to cook with it.

Anonymous said...

Like hummus, "Israeli" couscous has long been eaten by the people of the region. Perhaps Israelis discovered it when they moved from Eastern Europe, but there is nothing specifically "Israeli" about large couscous except their attempt to brand it.