1,000 Jewish Recipes (252 page)
Read 1,000 Jewish Recipes Online
Authors: Faye Levy
2.
Bring vegetable stock to a boil in a small saucepan. Stir in couscous and currants. Cover pan. Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and let stand until ready to serve.
3.
Reheat vegetable stew. Add cauliflower and half the cilantro, if using. Cover and cook 6 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Adjust seasoning. Sprinkle with remaining cilantro. Mound couscous in shallow bowls and ladle vegetable mixture around it.
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This makes a lovely holiday side dish and can be made at a moment's notice. Serve it for Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot, or Friday night dinner. It's great with chicken, lamb, veal, and baked or stewed vegetables.
1
â
4
cup pine nuts
1
3
â
4
cups chicken or vegetable stock
1
â
2
cup water
One 10-ounce package couscous (1
2
â
3
cups)
1 green onion, white and green parts, finely chopped
1
â
4
cup currants
1
â
4
cup diced dried apricots
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Cayenne pepper, to taste
1.
Toast pine nuts in a dry small skillet over medium-low heat about 2 minutes or until lightly browned. Transfer to a plate.
2.
Bring stock and water to a boil in a small saucepan. Stir in couscous, green onion, currants, and apricots. Cover pan. Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes. Taste for salt; add a little pepper and cayenne. Serve sprinkled with pine nuts.
Couscous is wonderful with this aromatic chicken tomato sauce flavored with peppers, garlic, cilantro, and green olives. The sauce cooks quickly because it's made of ground chicken. Jewish cooks from Morocco and Tunisia use fava beans but I substitute the more widely available lima beans.
1 cup
Fresh Tomato Sauce
or an 8-ounce can
2 or 3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 large red or green bell pepper, diced
8 ounces ground chicken
4 large cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
One 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, with their juice
One 10-ounce package frozen lima beans, cooked
1
â
3
cup pitted green olives
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro or Italian parsley
1
â
4
teaspoon hot sauce, or to taste
1.
Prepare tomato sauce, if using homemade. Then, heat oil in a large saucepan. Add onion and bell pepper and sauté over medium heat, stirring often, for 5 minutes. Add chicken and cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, about 7 minutes or until it changes color. Add garlic, cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper. Cook over low heat, stirring, for 1 minute.
2.
Add tomatoes and tomato sauce and bring to a boil, stirring. Cover and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Add beans and cook uncovered for about 5 more minutes or until sauce thickens to your taste. Sauce should not be dry; it will be spooned over couscous to moisten it. Add olives and cilantro to sauce and heat through. Add hot sauce to taste.
3.
Prepare quick couscous. Then, spoon it into shallow bowls. Serve sauce in a separate bowl for spooning over couscous.
Instead of the usual North African seasonings, Jews in France sometimes flavor couscous the way noodles are in classic French cuisine. This couscous is flavored with shallots, thyme, chives, butter, and cheese, and topped with fresh chanterelle mushrooms. It's delicious for dairy dinners.
6 to 8 ounces fresh chanterelle or other exotic mushrooms
3 to 4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 large shallots, minced
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1
3
â
4
cups vegetable stock
1
â
2
cup water
One 10-ounce package couscous (1
2
â
3
cups)
1
â
4
cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1
1
â
2
teaspoons fresh thyme or
1
â
2
teaspoon dried
2 to 3 teaspoons snipped fresh chives
1.
Gently rinse mushrooms and dry them on paper towels. If they are large, cut them lengthwise into pieces about
1
â
2
-inch thick, keeping their shape.
2.
Put 2 tablespoons butter in a skillet. Cut remaining butter into pieces and let soften at room temperature.
3.
Add oil to butter in skillet and heat over medium heat. Add mushrooms and sauté about 3 minutes, or until mushrooms render their liquid. Add shallots, salt, and pepper and sauté over medium-high heat, tossing often, about 3 more minutes, or until mushrooms are browned and tender and liquid has evaporated.
4.
Bring stock and water to a boil in a small saucepan. Stir in couscous and remaining butter. Cover pan. Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes.
5.
Reheat mushrooms if necessary. Fluff couscous mixture with a fork, tossing until butter is blended in. Add cheese, thyme, 1 teaspoon chives, and
2
â
3
of mushrooms and lightly toss mixture. Adjust seasoning. Serve garnished with remaining chanterelles and sprinkled with remaining chives.
Bake this savory, easy-to-make stuffing in chickens or Cornish hens or use it to fill zucchini boats.
2 pinches of saffron threads (about
1
â
4
teaspoon)
1
â
2
cup slivered almonds
2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
1 red bell pepper, diced
1
1
â
4
cups couscous
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro or Italian parsley
1.
Crush saffron between your fingers. Add saffron to 1
1
â
4
cups boiling water in a saucepan; cover and let stand 20 minutes.
2.
Preheat oven or toaster oven to 400°F. Toast almonds on rimmed baking sheet or tray, stirring once or twice, for 4 minutes or until very lightly browned. Transfer to a plate and let cool.
3.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large saucepan. Add diced pepper and sauté over medium-low heat for 3 minutes. Add couscous, ginger, salt, pepper, and saffron flavored water. Stir once and bring to a boil. Cover and let couscous stand for 5 minutes.
4.
Fluff couscous with a fork to break up any lumps. Drizzle remaining olive oil over couscous mixture and add cilantro and toasted slivered almonds. Toss the mixture and taste it for seasoning. Let stuffing cool completely before spooning it into a chicken.
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