The best dish I had in a while…
I’ve made couscous combined with seafood, chicken, beef and vegetable, but this apple couscous that I made a couple of days ago beat the rest. My refrigerator is literally filled with the apples that I had picked from the orchard farm last weekend. Every time I open the fridge, I look at the apples sitting merrily and walk away without taking them out. Besides eating as it is I so wanted to put them in my cooking pot and cook it. Way too many recipes lined up in my mind, from pies to tarts and I ended up making this easy flavorful apple couscous.
Here is the collage of the apples that I picked from the orchard farm. Nothing can beat freshly picked apples right from the trees. There were many varieties of apples: red delicious, golden delicious, mutsu, jonagold, empire and grany smith. I loved the sweet and subtle taste of jonagold and empire a lot.
Couscous is a very flexible ingredient, you could make savory or sweet dish out of it. I used golden delicious apple which is not too sweet to make this. You could use any variety of apple which is not too sweet to make this dish. Couscous itself is very blant so I flavored it up with mint leaves, garam masala and ghee. After I finished cooking this dish, the entire house started to smell like biryani. I had to agree: simplicity is bliss.
Apple Couscous
- Preparation time: 15 minutes
- Serves: 3 people
Ingredients
- Oil- 1 tbsp
- Apple, any not too sweet variety, diced- 1
- Shallots, chopped- 10
- Ginger, chopped- 1 inch slice
- Garlic, chopped- 2 cloves
- White mushroom, halved- 10
- Chili powder- 1 tsp
- Turmeric powder (optional)- 1/8 tsp
- Garam masala- 1 tsp
- Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp
- Ground pepper (optional)- 1/4 tsp
- Mint leaves- 6 leaves (must add)
- Ghee- 2 tbsp
- Water- 1 cup
- Couscous- 1 cup
- Salt- to taste
Instruction
- Heat a large cooking pan, add oil and add shallots, little salt in it, saute.
- Add ginger and garlic to it, saute for a minute.
- Add mushrooms and apples to the pan, saute till everything starts to turn light brown in color.
- Don’t cook till the apples get mashed up.
- Add mint leaves.
- Add chili powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, cumin powder and ground pepper to it, combine well.
- Saute for 30 seconds and adjust the salt level.
- Pour the water and add ghee to the water.
- Let the water come to a boil.
- Add the couscous to the boiling water, cover the pan and remove from the heat.
- Let it stand for 5 minutes.
- Open the lid, using a spatula combine the couscous and serve warm.
Tips:
- Mint leaves, garam masala and ghee enhanced the flavor of this dish greatly, so don’t skip these.
- To make the couscous moist, I used 1: 1 water: couscous ratio.
- Adjust the spice and salt level accordingly.
- Oil- 1 tbsp
- Apple, any not too sweet variety, diced- 1
- Shallots, chopped- 10
- Ginger, chopped- 1 inch slice
- Garlic, chopped- 2 cloves
- White mushroom, halved- 10
- Chili powder- 1 tsp
- Turmeric powder (optional)- ⅛ tsp
- Garam masala- 1 tsp
- Cumin powder- ½ tsp
- Ground pepper (optional)- ¼ tsp
- Mint leaves- 6 leaves (must add)
- Ghee- 2 tbsp
- Water- 1 cup
- Couscous- 1 cup
- Salt- to taste
- Heat a large cooking pan, add oil and add shallots, little salt in it, saute.
- Add ginger and garlic to it, saute for a minute.
- Add mushrooms and apples to the pan, saute till everything starts to turn light brown in color.
- Don't cook till the apples get mashed up.
- Add mint leaves.
- Add chili powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, cumin powder and ground pepper to it, combine well.
- Saute for 30 seconds and adjust the salt level.
- Pour the water and add ghee to the water.
- Let the water come to a boil.
- Add the couscous to the boiling water, cover the pan and remove from the heat.
- Let it stand for 5 minutes.
- Open the lid, using a spatula combine the couscous and serve warm.
To make the couscous moist, I used 1: 1 water: couscous ratio.
Adjust the spice and salt level accordingly.
