If you want to make couscous from scratch, then all you need is semolina, salt, flour and water. However, the process is a long, labor-intensive one (See below).
If you are using couscous you buy from the supermarket then just follow the guidelines on the box.
If you are using hand-made couscous (dry pellets), they should be steamed twice in a special utensil like a double-boiler that we call by the French term couscoussier. Its upper pot, the keskas, has tiny holes punched in the bottom, and nests snugly atop the lower pot (qadrah), in which the sauce, the stew of meat and vegetables, is gently simmered. Steam from the sauce in the lower pot passes through the holes in the upper one and cooks the couscous, causing the grains to swell, lighten, and absorb the aroma of the sauce.
But if you want to make it yourself from scratch, then here is how it’s done, but you need special utensils!!
A warning though is that the process of making couscous grains requires skilled hands and an abundance of time, you will need only four utensils, a shallow dish made of wood, clay or metal, called a gasaa; a wooden hoop sieve called a ghorbal, with a mesh fine enough to produce the size of couscous grains desired; a shallow, round dish or platter; and a large, clean white sheet. Similarly, the ingredients are simplicity itself: semolina, salt; water and a dash of ordinary flour. One pound of semolina will produce roughly enough couscous for six to eight people.
To make couscous grains, place several handfuls of semolina in the gsaa, sprinkle them with salty water, then roll the resulting lumps in the gsaa under your palm. Small grains or pellets will form. Repeat this process until all of the semolina is rolled into small pellets. Sprinkle a little flour on the pellets as needed to help separate them.
Sift the pellets through the ghorbal. The smaller, finished grains will drop through the screen into the gasaa or other container. Tip the larger grains into a dish so they can be rolled again without returning them to the gsaa. As you roll them, sprinkling with flour as necessary, they will break up to become smaller pellets. Sift again in the ghorbal, re-roll and sift again, until all of the grains have passed through the ghorbal and are thus of suitable size. Any larger grains remaining in the ghorbal when you are tired of rolling can be used for berkukes, another Algerian dish.
Next, steam the couscous over plain water in a couscousier until the vapor penetrates all the grains and steam rises from the entire surface of the mound of couscous. Cooking time will depend on the size of the couscousier. Then transfer the pellets to the gsaa to cool to room temperature, and break up any lumps. Steam the couscous a second time, and return it to the gsaa again, add butter, and a little bit of black pepper.
If you want to keep the couscous to use in the future then instead of adding butter and black pepper, leave the couscous to cool. Once it has cooled, spread the grains out on the sheet to dry. Rake them occasionally with your fingers to expose all the pellets to the air. Drying them completely may require several days, depending upon humidity; remember to take the grains in at night, or the dew will dampen them again. When the couscous is completely dry, store it in closed containers until needed. Properly dried couscous will keep for months.
Because the ingredients of couscous are so basic, it is hard to imagine that the product from a box you buy could be inferior to home-made, hand-made couscous. But home-made couscous is certainly more satisfying and definitely tastier. Nonetheless, even boxed couscous can be good if it is steamed over the sauce you make to accompany couscous rather than soaked in boiling water.
Now I can just imagine Bibi making couscous from scratch!!
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