Today is Friday and families here have their couscous after midday prayers rather like the British Sunday roast. I have always liked couscous and used to bring the caravan home from France full of the tinned couscous royale you can buy there. It is of course non-existant in Morocco.
Beloved is not so keen on couscous and the standard 7 vegetable couscous is a no-no to him because one of the seven vegetables is traditionally chickpeas and Beloved is not allowed pulses for medical reasons. So instead of cooking we go out. We go to Moussa at the Hotel Roudani in the square and I have my couscous and Beloved has brochettes and chips. This was a great treat for him too until this winter when we brought out a deep fat fryer and he can now indulge in chips whenever he wants. A threecourse meal of moroccan salad starter, bread, couscous, or brochettes and chips, or tajine, and fresh fruit , with mineral water, costs 110MAD for two people. I have seen french people finish with mint tea but as we would not consume anything so sugary I don't know whether they pay extra.
The home dish is somewhat dry and eaten with the fingers rolling the couscous into balls (right hand only). At the restaurant all the elements are served seperately for ease and freshness of preparation and I eat mine much more brothy than is standard. I also like quite large amounts of hot Harissa sauce.
Couscous itself is a sort of semolina rolled in durum flour but in the Rif couscous may be made from barley or sorghum and in the south maize or millett. If you go to Aswad Assalam ,the islamist supermarket rival to the more frenchified Marjane, they have a gourmet section 6ft high by 20ft long featuring solely different varieties of couscous.
Here is a link to a recipe for 7 vegetable couscous but just as there are as many rash el hanuts as shops there are as many definitive recipes as mothers.
http://www.maroque.co.uk/printme.aspx?id=26
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| Hotel Roudani Taroudant |
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| 7 vegetable couscous |
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