Cooking is my passion. I am fortunate that this passion often overlaps my career in nutrition as we work to build healthy recipes, test cooking techniques, and write curricula that helps everyday cooks make healthy food for their family. As with any passion, you should sharpen your knives from time to time. The way I do this is to attend cooking classes.
I have had the opportunity to train at Le Cordon Bleu, Culinary Institute of America, and most recently, at the Institute for Culinary Education. My latest class was four days of intensive training in cooking skills. The class included traditional French techniques that are centuries old and are still used as building blocks for many cuisines of the world. This four part blog series will include one technique from each day that I believe may help you as a home cook. Cook along with me as we explore fine cooking techniques.
Day 1
The first class in this four-class series included fish butchery, searing fish filets, making the sauces Béchamel and Volute, fish stock, and cooking and seasoning couscous. The one technique I think I will use again and that you also can use is how to easily cook couscous. Couscous is a pasta; it is made by steaming semolina and passing it through a fine mesh strainer. Not to worry, you don’t have to actually make the couscous. It is easily found in almost all grocery stores. Sometimes you can even find whole-wheat couscous which is even better.
Couscous cooks quickly, making it a great work-night side dish. You can season it with many different combinations of flavors – saffron OR herbs from the garden OR cumin and cinnamon. Here is a recipe to get you started. This recipe uses instant couscous, as there is also Israeli or pearl couscous that requires a different cooking technique. Couscous is great with chicken or fish as a side dish. You can also use it as a base for a bowl meal. It is also good mixed in a green salad to add an interesting texture.
Couscous with Fresh Herbs
Ingredients
- 1 cup instant couscous
- 1 ½ cup chicken or vegetable broth
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Fresh black pepper (about 6 grinds from a pepper mill) OR a generous pinch of ground pepper
- 2-4 Tablespoons finely chopped herbs (thyme, parsley, dill, tarragon, cilantro, chives, oregano – any combination or even a single herb)
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- Lemon zest from 1 lemon (optional)
Directions
- Place couscous in a medium glass, ceramic, or metal bowl.
- Add the herbs to the bowl.
- In a small pot, heat the broth with the salt and pepper until boiling.
- Add the hot broth mixture to the couscous and herbs.
- Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let steam for 10 minutes.
- Uncover and add the lemon juice and zest if using.
- Fluff with a fork and adjust the seasoning.
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