When I called Lucas, my 13-year-old grandson, into the kitchen to offer him a taste of a simple pasta dish I’d just made, I was positive he’d take a bite - he always does - and then make a face.
“What were you thinking, Mimi?” I imagined him saying as he pushed the plate back toward me.
I was so wrong. He took one bite, savored it for what seemed like a full minute and then said, “Oh my god, this is so incredibly good. I can’t believe how good it is.”
And then he devoured every last bit.
It was an unusual dish that I’d tossed together on a whim. I was preparing Israeli couscous for a salad and had cooked more than I needed. I took the leftover couscous, tossed it with an intensely earthy herb puree I’d gotten from Rainbow’s End Farm at the Sebastopol Farmers Market on Sunday, grated some Vella Mezzo Secco cheese over it and garnished it with a handful of golden cherry tomatoes, cut in half. I thought it would be too pungent or simply too strange for Lucas. But I had underestimated that eager and adventurous palate of his, which was apparent with his first bite of grown-up food, a spoonful of cauliflower soup topped with olive tapenade, when he was six months old. After looking puzzled and then pleased, he opened his mouth like a baby bird, eager for another bite.
It is really fun to cook for this kid. Today, when he was getting ready to head to the airport to fly to New Orleans to visit my daughter Nicolle and her husband, Tom, I felt a little teary-eyed as I slipped a BLT and some of that couscous salad into his backpack. I’ll miss him, though I know he’ll return with tales of delicious discoveries in one of the world’s best eating cities.
I mention this because I think there’s a good lesson it. Our culture tends to patronize kids and their palates, offering them separate food not just on restaurant menus but at home, too. Some kids are indeed very picky eaters (I was one) but some of the reasons for this have more to do with psychology than actual taste. When we neither make food an issue -- as in, clean your plate! - nor cook separate foods for our children, their palates blossom early on with their full range of natural preferences.
So, no more chicken fingers for the toddlers just because you’re having, say, gazpacho, grilled zucchini and fried Padrons, okay? Now back to that couscous.
A big jar of it has been sitting in my pantry for months. I typically use it in a favorite soup redolent with Moroccan spices and seasonal vegetables that I make in the fall and winter. The rest of the year I don’t pay a lot of attention to it, but I’ve decided it was time I did.
The name Israeli couscous is a bit misleading and is thought to be a marketing term that took hold in the 1950s; previously, it had been known as Palestinian matfoul and North African berkukes. These days it is usually called Israeli couscous and occasionally known as both Jerusalem couscous and pearl couscous.
Whatever you call these roundish grains of wheat, they more closely resemble pastas such as acini di pepe, a small Italian pasta shaped like peppercorns.
Israeli couscous is toasted instead of dried and so there is a subtle bass note of flavor that blossoms, I find, if you toast it yourself before adding it to soup or cooking it in boiling water.
Use Israeli couscous as you would any small round pasta. I don’t think it translates as well in most dishes that call for traditional couscous, though you can, if you wish, make it work with the right seasonings and sauces. But understand in advance that it does not absorb juices and such the way true couscous does.
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Here is a basic recipe for this type of couscous; it can also be used to cook acini di pepe. Following the recipe, there are suggestions--think of them as mini recipes-- for serving the couscous. For more recipes, including my Moroccan Vegetable Soup, visit “Eat This Now” at pantry.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. <>
Simple Israeli Couscous
Makes about 3 cups, Serves 4 to 8
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup Israeli couscous
- Kosher salt
6 cups water
Pour the olive oil into a large saucepan set over medium high heat and add the couscous. In a second saucepan or in a tea kettle, bring the water to a boil.
While waiting for the water to boil, toast the couscous, stirring nearly constantly, until the grains take on a deep toasty color, about 5 or 6 minutes.
Do not let it burn.
When the couscous is sufficiently toasted, sprinkle with about 2 teaspoons of salt and carefully pour in the boiling water. It will pop and sizzle at first so stand back. When the water settles down to a regular boil, lower the heat to medium and cook until just tender, about 10 to 12 minutes.
Drain.
To use in a cool dish such as a salad, rinse under cool water and transfer to a wide shallow bowl to cool quickly.
To use in a hot dish, do not rinse.
To serve as a salad
Add 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas, 3 diced celery stalks, 1 cup quartered cherry tomatoes, 1 diced small red onion and 2 minced garlic cloves to the cooled couscous and toss well. Add about ? cup extra-virgin olive oil, the juice of 2 limes or 1 lemon, 4 ounces crumbled feta cheese and a handful of chopped Italian parsley or cilantro. Season with salt and several generous turns of black pepper, taste and correct as needed for salt and acid.
Add 3 cups fresh corn salsa, a splash of olive oil and a handful of chopped cilantro, toss, correct for salt and pepper and serve.
To serve as a simple hot pasta:
While the pasta is still quite hot, toss it with about 1 to 1 ½ cups freshly made pesto, Italian salsa verde, or other fresh herb sauce and toss until the sauce is evenly distributed. Divide among soup plates, add some grated cheese and serve.
While the pasta cooks, cut 1 pint (2 cups) of cherry tomatoes into quarters and put them in a wide shallow pasta bowl. Mince several garlic cloves and add them to the tomatoes, along with 3 tablespoons butter and 3 to 4 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs (basil, Italian parsley, mint, chives, cilantro, oregano, thyme, etc.). Season generously with salt, black pepper and a few shakes of crushed red pepper flakes. When the pasta is cooked, drain it, quickly add it to the bowl and use two soup spoons to toss the ingredients together until the butter is melted. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of creme fraiche and toss again. Divide among individual soup plates and serve neat or alongside roasted or grilled chicken.
Michele Anna Jordan has written 17 books to date, including “Vinaigrettes and Other Dressings.” You’ll find her blog, “Eat This Now,” at pantry.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. Email Jordan at michele@saladdresser.com
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