couscous

This week’s theme for I heart Cooking Clubs was to find a dish from Jacques Pepin that was NOT FRENCH! THAT as NOT easy. I mean, people, Pepin is French. Why? would he cook non-French food? Because he can. And does. But there aren’t that many dishes out there that don’t have some French ‘flavor’ in them. Including this one with a North African origin – Couscous…

…is a traditional dish of semolina (granules of durum wheat) cooked by steaming. Traditionally it is served with a meat or vegetable stew spooned over it.

But why would Pepin cook Couscous? I think I found the answer.

Couscous was voted as the third-favourite dish of French people in 2011.

So maybe it IS a French dish after all. Whatever it is it is easy to cook with and can be a delicious dish. this version is Green Couscous.

and is cooked with a mixture of different fresh herbs.

~~tarragon~~

Add the herbs, and garlic to 1/4 cup of boiling water in a mini-chopper and process for about 30 seconds, or until the mix is smooth.

Add the couscous and salt to the melted butter in a saucepan and coat the couscous with the butter. Mix in the herb puree and 1/2 cup boiling water. Remove from the heat, cover, and let it sit for about 10 minutes.

Fluff the couscous with a fork.

{Original Recipe}

I found the couscous to be a little bland in flavor so I added a little more salt and that helped somewhat. On it’s own it really doesn’t stand out so I decided to do something with it. I stuffed a chicken breast. Not bad.

{Mine was not quite thin enough.}