Couscous - Homemade

The other day my girl made me Couscous for dinner, I really enjoied it so I decided to add the recipe to the blog.

Being a north African dish, you can expect a rich and exotic flavour with lots of spices, usually couscous is made with lamb, but this time she made it with chicken(good alternative if you don't like lamb).

The best place in Lisbon to get spices and other strange ingredients is Martim Moniz mall and surroundings, located near Rossio, you can find stuff mostly from Africa, India and China. You can buy most ingredients in your local market.

Ingredients:

- 1 red/green pepper(the vegetable, not the spice)

- 1 onion

- Garlic

- Chicken or Lamb

- Potatoes

- Carrots

- Chilli peppers(optional, hot)

- Olive oil

- Spices: cinnamon(pt: canela), cumin(pt: cuminhos), black pepper(pt: pimenta preta).

- Couscous

The meat:

Get a large pan or a wok and pour a bit of olive oil, when hot add the onion(chopped) the red/green pepper(chopped) the chilli peppers(chopped) and the meat in small pieces, fry until the meat is cooked, add the salt, chopped garlic and a teaspoon of black pepper and cinnamon (if you like cumin pour just a bit) and stir for a few more minutes.

The vegetables:

Put the small unpeeled potatoes and sliced carrots(you can add other vegetables that you like) on a recipient(oven resistant), spray the with olive oil and salt, and put it in the preheated oven, remove it when the vegetables are cooked(stick them with a fork to see if they are tender).

The couscous:

Although it is the dish name, it is actually the small wheat semolina grains that accompany the rest.

You can buy it simple or already with spices and other stuff, my advice is to get them already prepared and cook them following the instructions in the box.

For cooking the simple just google it because I really don't know how :P

The wine:

Being in Portugal, you can get very good wine for a very low price, and you can find it in your local market or grocery shop. For this dish I advise a 2 ~4 Euros red wine: "Fontanário de Pegões", "Loios", "Quinta de Cabriz" or "Quinta da Esperança".

After everything is ready just get a large dish and add everything and serve! voilà! Enjoy.