Couscous Pilaf...

Back to the food...

As I mentioned, our freezer is not quite back to itself yet so I'm limited to what I can make without having to dig to the bottom (remember - meat on the bottom). Well, somehow, when I was packing our food into my parent's freezer, I had left a bag of thick cut pork chops on top of their stuff and when my Mom saw it (and realized that she doesn't package food for an army) and put it back into our stuff. I went to look, in the dark, and when I looked in the light I was pleased with my happy accident. Now...what to eat with it?!?

I am an awful rice cooker. Seriously, I CAN NOT cook rice - it's a joke for our family but something I've struggled with my whole cooking life. I can bake rice (white and brown) but it was hot out and I didn't want to turn on the oven. Hmmm... I looked around the kitchen, I was thawing peas and it hit me - Pilaf!!!!! I love pilaf, especially when you mix peas into it. I didn't have any fabulous mushrooms or bacon or ham or anything else that would make my jump with joy, but I figured the peas and parmesan would have to tide me over...I went to the pantry and saw a jar of couscous staring at me. Why not?!?

Add 2T of olive oil to your pan.

I always begin my pilaf cooking with a little oil and butter (about 2T of each). If you add the oil first, the butter will not burn as easily. This time, I grabbed for this delicious Sundried Tomato and Parmesan Garlic Olive Oil from The Olive Cart (his stuff is AMAZING - go to the website, they ship - I'll wait...)


I make big portions because I cook for a crowd so you'll need to half this if you're cooking for 2-4 people (I feed 6 but cook for 8-10 most of the time; teenagers and lunches for Bill).

Add 2T of butter.

Add 2T of olive oil to your pan. After the oil is hot, add 2T of butter. I realize that this may seem like a lot but I love the way the flavor infuses the grain, or in this case, pasta and with this amount, it really has the opportunity to add flavor. Once you've got it all melted, add 2 cups of large couscous.

add 2 cups of large couscous.

Take a few moments to stir the oils and couscous together. For the next few minutes, allow the pasta to cook, the oil to absorb and only stir it every 45 seconds or so. You'll start to see a browning of the granules and it adds a depth of flavor to the dish (I do this with my rices as well).

After a few minutes, it should about like the next image...

Lightly toasted couscous

My general rule about pilaf is 2 parts grain to 7 parts liquid - for my family, that means cups 2 cups grain : 7 cups liquid. You can do a mixture of liquids or all one, like a lot of recipes call for. I like to do about 4 cups of milk, to add to the creaminess and then the last 3 cups are typically broth. It's your choice as to what you add or don't add; just as the contents are up to you. You add what you like and you should have fun and not feel too tied down to doing it someone else's way...

Add your warm liquid in batches - I start with 4 cups

Warm you liquid. You don't have to do this BUT it will speed up your time standing there stirring. I use 4 cups of warmed milk and you stir until it is almost all combined. This takes quite some time and you need to be mixing on the regular. I like to mix, shred a little parmesan, mix, shred, etc. I'm not walking away from the stove area for more than 30 - 45 seconds, especially once it begins to really absorb all that liquid. As I look up from my stirring and shredding and draining of peas, etc. I see my beautiful, sweaty, daughter in her typically position at the counter...

When your mixture is about 2/3's or 3/4's of the way absorbed, add the final 3 cups of warm liquid. In my case, broth. Continue to stir and do whatever you need to do (in my case now, I was prepping the pork for the grill and getting my oils and other equipment ready). Remember, don't walk away from it - it will change or boil over and you may not be able to fix it. Trust me...


This is about what it should be looking like as you're beginning to stand over it more and more. Keep stirring until you have a wonderful gluten-tacky flavorful dish. A little past this point (I kind of forgot to keep taking pictures at this point - that's how focused I was), you add in your parmesan cheese, about 1-1.5 C parmesan cheese. Allow it to melt into the creamyness. Oh! I almost forgot, at this point, you've hardly got any heat on you pan or you can burn the bottom of it. This is about all you want - so it's easy enough to warm and incorporate all that you're adding in but not so much to still be cooking it all!

Today, I added in a bag of thawed, frozen peas (2C?) and some garlic powder, paprika, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper (all to taste).

As I said earlier, normally I would add in some mushrooms and some kind of meat but since we were having pork chops with this meal, I figured we'd all just cut it up and mix it together!

See that ooey-gooey-ness?!? That's right...dinner time!

Couscous Pilaf


Ingredients:
2Tbl Olive Oil (flavored or not)
2Tbl Butter
2 Cups Large Couscous
4 Cups Milk, warmed
3 Cups Broth, warmed
2 Cups Shredded Parmesan Cheese
1tsp Red Pepper Flakes
2tsp Paprika
1Tbl Garlic Powder
Salt & Pepper (to taste)
2 Cups Peas

Directions:

Heat Olive Oil over medium-high heat in large pan.
Add butter, melt.
Mix in Couscous, coating with oil and butter mixture.
Add in Milk and stir, almost constantly, until 2/3 of the way incorporated.
Add in Broth and mix until almost completely incorporated.
Over low heat, mix in Parmesan Cheese until completely melted.
Add in Red Pepper Flakes, Paprika and Garlic Powder.
Add in S&P to taste.
Fold in Peas (don't mash them) until evenly incorporated.