How do you make cous cous nice?

[ZeroFucks]

I've got 10kg of cous cous. It's not something I'd usually eat but I don't hate it.

With 10kg of the stuff, I need to get thinking of recipes.

I'd normally have it as a side dish but how do you make it nice? After you've re-inflated it, do you just mix some fresh herbs around in it? Spices in before or after the water?

Bloody hell.

I can't donate it to a food bank because the bag's opened. I did check with my local food bank.

You can use it to make a vegetarian version of chilli too.

You have it plain as a side dish? Would you have rice, noodles, pasta as a plain side dish?

It’s a carb and by its nature bland but absorbs other flavours very well.

I love it because it’s SO easy to make and doesn’t require a pan and only takes a few mins. I just make it in the bowl I/we are going to be eating from.

Depending what it will be eaten with/used for I will:

use stock to rehydrate at times - if I’m having with a stew or casserole, goes especially well with stroganoff

Use herbs and spices mixed in before adding the liquid to hydrate - lots of different dishes this works with of course you just vary the herbs/spices used

Add a little of the sauce from whatever I’m serving it with mixing in before adding rest of dish

If serving with a stir fry add a little soy sauce or sweet chilli sauce to the rehydrated cous cous

If a passata based dish use a little passata as the rehydrating liquid

Recently discovered its lovely with some Henderson’s relish mixed in.

Sometimes just adding some butter or olive oil is enough

But yea 10kg is a shit load 😂

You might find there are locals who will be willing to take it off your hands to feed the homeless etc where I am we have some lovely local fb pages and people who’ve organised swaps etc to redistribute things like this. Also a couple of local people who do voluntary work with the homeless and make up soups and stews with donated stuff.

Loads of good ideas on thread too.

24 hours before use, lightly toast dry couscous in a pan with a wipe of garlic and sesame oil.

Then make up a jug of fresh chicken stock, a twist of fresh parsley, thyme, and perhaps sage; infuse a lemon tea teabag, a handful of peppercorns and a pinch of freshly ground Himalayan salt.

Soak your couscous over night in the stock.

The next evening, roast a selection of root vegetables; parsnip, turnip, shallot, garlic; plus halved sun-ripened tomatoes, infused in balsamic, for 30 minutes.

Bring your couscous in its stock to a gentle rolling boil, for 20 minutes.

Drain carefully and mix through your roasted vegetables, add a squeeze of lemon. Place on a serving platter.

Then carefully holding the platter, thumb and forefinger, tip the platter to between 40-45 degrees away from you, then, with a wide sweep of a spatula, deposit the vile, claggy mess into the bin.

I love cous cous but even I would struggle with 10kg!

I always make with stock, then either have it on it’s own or with following mixed through:

• chopped tomato, cucumber, red onion or spring onion
• spring onion, peas and chopped salami or chorizo
• roasted veg - courgette / tomatoes / peppers / red onion
• olives and feta cheese
• Harrissa paste and prawns

Some lovely ideas on this thread that I will definitely be trying

There's a very delicious Leon recipe for spicy chicken cous cous, I make it with salmon instead of the chicken

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/jan/17/spicy-chicken-couscous-recipe-allegra-mcevedy

This is one of those MN threads that I love. So random but so funny with some useful tips too. 😅

Oh I miss Slubberdegullion.
Are you out there, Slubbers?

@ZeroFucks I would dearly like to be more helpful, but all the possible suggestions I can come up with are of the anthropomorphic or craft sort.

Can I enquire if your 10 Kgs is traditional 'small' couscous or whether it might be of the 'Giant' variety?

You can have it instead of rice or whatever you usually have with stews, curries etc. Doesn't matter then that it's bland; that's rather the point.
While I like couscous salads, it's not really the weather for them at the mo. Look up some tagine recipes –so comforting and warming.

soupforbrains, oh, I love giant couscous! Especially wholemeal.

I'm reluctant to use it as a dehumidifier because I had £3,000 worth of damp work done on my house in November 2019 so my house is, sadly, bone fucking dry.

If I'd have known I was about to inherit this much couscous, I'd have told Damp Fix to shove it and just used my couscous hoard.

It's the small couscous variety.

It’s actually a type of pasta, really. So you can also use it with pretty much any Italian recipe. Since you can just mix it into the sauce to cook you shouldn’t need to flavour it, as long as your pasta sauces are aromatic enough.

Cook it the traditional moroccan way. Google search cooking with alia couscous. Once you have had moroccan couscous the 'regualr' one tastes stodgy.

Mmmmmmm tagine.........

Will no one spare a thought for the vulnerable , confused maiden aunts among us, so summarily dismissed by the callous OP?

Just had to say this thread is pure gold.
Sorry OP, no other words of wisdom, I rarely cook cous cous except for the Delia recipe linked by a PP, but thank you for the laughs

Is there a Food Cycle near you? They take donations from supermarkets and cook free hot meals for the homeless, and normally have a bit of space to store dry goods.

@Miljea ,
You had me hooked till you said boil for 40 mins !

@maslinpan I would expect that they cannot accept donations of opened packets. As frustrating as it is for them and I'm sure the people there would WANT to accept them.

It's the small couscous variety.

thats a shame, giant couscous is MUCH more versatile...

Ah @ maslinpan - you are the sensible one (fun fact - my autocorrect changed sensible to sweetest). Some charities may take opened food or cooked items if they know you?

Cook it in the way the north africans do.

There isn't a Foot Cycle or any such charity around here. There's one small soup kitchen type charity in the centre of my nearest city but they actually tweeted the other day to say they've got lots of dried food to be getting on with. Plus, they're based about 5 miles from where I live and I don't drive. I am not manhandling maiden aunt couscous onto the bus to get into town.

Anyway, don't the homeless have it tough enough without having remnants of my millions of kilos of couscous every time they're offered a hot meal?

How big is a 10kg bag? How long would it last?

Could you donate it to flood-stricken areas, it would absorb all that water?