Tag: Perfect

Feel like a perfect couscous? There are 6 things to know – Italian Cuisine

What we know as cous cous it is, in fact, a grain obtained from the processing of durum wheat flour and steam cooked, usually served with meat, vegetables, legumes, sometimes fish or dried fruit. Widespread in the Maghreb and throughout the Mediterranean basin, it is very popular in West Africa and the Near East – in Israel as in Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine. It is loved in France and Belgium, it is found in Spain and is also part of the Italian gastronomic tradition: in particular of Sicily, in the Trapani area, and Sardinia, in Carloforte.

177094 In Italy it is found in some pages of gastronomic literature since the sixteenth century and the cooking technique and the way of serving seem to have remained unchanged. And not by chance in the Trapani area, a San Vito Lo Capo, will be held very soon on Cous Cous Fest, a tribute to the tradition of Trapani, who wants it strictly with fish. Whether it is a legacy of Arab domination or an original reworking, it does not matter: couscous is now also part of Italian cuisine. In this adorable location full of Arab-Norman architectural references, the twenty-second edition of a festival celebrating food that will take place from September 20th to 29th will be held. has many features in common with the ancestor of Italian pasta, not least that of being an adequate response to the need for preservation of cereals even after a long period of storage (need for all the populations that had the need to face long journeys at sea). During the event there will also be a competition that will bring together chefs from all over Italy who try their hand at preparing recipes based on couscous. The scouting chef is promoted by Bia CousCous, the leading company in Europe for the production and marketing of couscous, main sponsor of the Cous Cous Fest.

The traditional procedure wants the semolina to come worked by rubbing with a little water until you get tiny balls; the grain obtained is then sieved to select the desired size. There are three types of couscous, depending on the diameter of the balls: the medium, the most common, lends itself to all recipes; the finest is used for desserts; the largest is not widespread. The fresh couscous is then steamed, dried and packaged.

In medio stat virtus

The medium couscous it is definitely the most versatile: it goes well with meat, fish, vegetables; it is excellent as a base for cold or warm salads, for light meatballs, for flans, even savory muffins.

The traditional pairing is with stewed meat – mutton or chicken according to the North African tradition – or with fish and shellfish according to the Sicilian and Spanish; there is also a spicy sauce such as harissa (a sauce made with red pepper, chilli, garlic, cumin and mint) and lots of vegetables and legumes, especially chickpeas.

With dried fruit, spices, sugar and honey it is a base of unusual and delicious desserts.

A special pot?

Let's talk about the couscoussiera – called taseksut in Berber – the special pot used for steaming non-precooked couscous: it is equipped with a hole basket and a lid (found in the most supplied housewares). Put the couscous in the couscous sauce and steam it in 2-3 times. Alternatively, you can use a large high-sided saucepan and a metal colander to enter the saucepan: in this case, you will need to seal the two pans well before couscous is cooked with a damp cotton cloth.

Traditionally the couscous should be steamed two or three times, but do not worry, it is fine precooked couscous, faster and easier to prepare – it has already been cooked for the first time and then dried.

Just put it in a baking dish, bring to a boil some liquid (broth, flavored water, etc.), pour it over, cover everything with a cloth and let the grains swell for a few minutes. To avoid overcooked or too raw couscous, the liquid / couscous percentages are 1 to 1.

But watch out for these wrong moves!

1_ No tap water! Do not use running water to prepare it, but vegetable broth light.
If you don't have it handy, you can create aflavored water adding toasted natural boiling water, toasted star anise, crushed garlic, a piece of fresh peeled ginger and / or 1/2 onion; set of salt.
If you use the pot, use this water to steam couscous, or leave it in infusion 10 minutes and strain it before pouring it over the precooked couscous.

2_Mai, never boil it in water as you do with pasta and cereals! Season the cooked couscous in the pan with a little oil and then pour the boiling liquid over it. Respect the proportion 1 to 1: the liquid must cover the couscous flush, do not submerge it.

3_Never mix the couscous in the absorption phase. Allow the liquid to absorb and cover the couscous container with a cloth. Once well swollen, first shell it with a fork; once warm, work it with your hands to shell it: i grains I must all be well separated. You can spread it on a dry towel to wipe it well with your fingers.

4_ Do not overdo it with oil. Once well shelled, add a drizzle of oil to your still – just a thread, it must not be too greasy – and then season the couscous according to your recipe or fantasy.

5_Non never salt the grains. In the case of a savory dish, season with salt the liquid you use or the seasoning, meat and / or vegetables or legumes that you will mix with couscous.

6_Never serve it cold! If it is not hot or lukewarm, the couscous should be maximum at room temperature. The cold facilitates the cohesion of the grains and the formation of lumps.

Choose the right recipe for you, avoid these "crimes" against couscous and enjoy a tasty and delicious single dish.

Francesca Tagliabue
June 2017
updated by Emanuela Di Pasqua
July 2019

Image Credits:
Cous Cous Fest Press Office

5 songs perfect for those who love sushi and Japanese cuisine – Italian Cuisine

Among sashimi, uramaki and hymns of love to the meat of Kobe, here are some pieces to hold the chopsticks and let go. At the table or on the track

Sushi, sashimi, uramaki, edamame, tempura. There Japanese food has now found its own stable place in the heart of us Italians, and more generally in that of the greedy of the whole world. Merit of its traditions and its autochthonous products of the highest quality, of course: and so is its lexicon – even the apparently more technical or complicated to remember – has now become extremely common. In everyday life, when we are at the restaurant ready to launch into a feast of rice and fish, but also in the world of music.

Here then is that, alongside the timeless Tomato soup or to the various Chocolate ice cream, sweet and a little salty, today more and more songs refer precisely to Japanese specialties. Any examples? We have collected five of them, to hold the ordinance chopsticks and prepare ourselves for a nice musical binge.

Inside Out – Mahmood

The winner of the last edition of Sanremo, runner-up at the 2019 Eurovision with the song Money, obviously he still has a lot, a lot of hunger for success. So what is the best dish to satiate this appetite? Some good uramaki, come to answer, as the new traditions of Milanese millennials & co impose. Or so we would say by scrolling through the titles of his EP Wasted Youth, among which we find a single that bears the name of the famous Japanese roll.

Live all lives – Elisa and Carl Brave

"Let's go to the sushi and you eat the edamame, I who went to the matriciane". This is the verse of the Roman rapper Carl Brave in the passage Live all lives, sung in collaboration with Elisa: two verses that well summarize the meeting and (sometimes) the clash between the local granite tradition and the new suggestions coming from the East, represented in this case by the now famous soy beans.

Bon Appétit – Katy Perry

Even overseas, the Japanese tradition has now fully entered pop culture. Katy Perry proves it to us, that in her Bon Appétit – cleverly played on the double meanings of the gastronomic dictionary – it is defined first as a 5-star Michelin restaurant, and then as a succulent Kobe fillet, obviously mentioning the highly prized Japanese beef. Tastefully lush.

Japanese cuisine – Matteo Becucci

The track of the winner of the second edition of X-Factor, recently returned to the small screen first as a competitor and then as vocal coach of the broadcast As such, openly refers to recipe books and Japanese cuisine dishes. "This life among cushions tastes of sushi and sashimi", sings Becucci, while in the music video the singer and actress Giulia Ottonello, another well-known social figure, and in particular of Friends of Maria De Filippi, makes its way through rice and soy sauce.

All you can eat – Wood and Sofabed

The indie musical project of Wood meets Nicolò De Devitiis, aka Divanoletto: what is born is a nice ballad with a summer aftertaste that tells of an appointment in a classic Japanese restaurant with formula All you can eat. "Sashimi, wasabi, do you love me tonight?" When in doubt, better to order another round of tempura. And a miso soup, thanks.

Summer: Perfect skewers, even on the grill – Italian Cuisine

Joy on the table + pleasant taste? Simplicity and originality of preparation at the same time? One word: skewer. Eight letters, the number of the infinite, such as endless it's combinations and the possible recipes for this timeless dish-filling dish that never tires us.

Traditionally of meat, fish and vegetables and cooked in a pan or on the grill, the skewers actually support every kind of food and are increasingly used also for small pieces of raw and fresh food. Sure, in an epic barbecue I can't miss it (we've already given you the tips, including the wise choice of charcoal, lighter basket and thermometer.)

Accuracy and imagination in the composition. Eyes to color, never like on the skewer he wants his part! The taste: a bellsapid and delicate alternation, sweet and strong. There consistency, then: you can alternate softer tidbits with the tougher ones, the fatter ones with drier ones, but, in the case of cooked skewers, keeping in mind the rules we are going to illustrate.

For skewers that will go cooked, fundamental is the size some skewered bits. All are said to be made equal: true, in part. If some ingredients require little or no cooking, they can also be a little bigger, but always balanced. The point is that instead everything is cooked well, the smaller it is, the easier it is it becomes. For a guaranteed cooking: 1cm and a half. Of course, at that point you have to be very vigilant for do not overcook, while if you want to make sure you get meat or fish well cooked outside and damp inside, you will have to venture into larger sizes and trainings in the field to become perfect stokers.

Anyhow, don't press too much the morsels one on top of the other. If you wish to enter elements particularly tough to cook – like corn or potatoes – cook them first. As well as, if you love ingredients from very short cooking – like cheese rather than shrimp, to be alternated with elements from longer cooking – aubergines and peppers, for example – Pre-cook the latter and then compose the skewer. The pre-cooking can be a simple blanched, one passed in the oven or the grill itself, depending on the ingredients.

I spit it in itself it can be wood, metal or bamboo. For meat, better those a square or rectangular section instead of the round ones, on which the cubes of fat tend to rotate. Among the metal ones, better stainless steel. They can also be used sprigs of aromatic herbs like rosemary or oregano: in this case, remove the leaves and soak them for 10 minutes in cold water. If you then cook on the barbecue, they must stay in the water at least half an hour, and this applies to any skewer of wood or bamboo: otherwise they risk burning.

Hot cooking tool and, if it is a grill, watch out for it just embers without a living flame. Used hardwood charcoal good quality and if you want to add an aramatic touch, a little fragrant wood.

marinating: it's always an advantage. The base is good oil, aromatic herbs (or spices) at will and a touch of acid, preferably a citrus fruit. Lemon, of course, but it can also be lime for a more exotic taste. Or for example the very original chinotto. THE'Tavian Antique Oil Mill of Vado Ligure has for example created the winner Chin'Oro simultaneously breaking Taggiasca olives and chinotti of Savona. A real treat!

If then cooking is on the barbecue, you can continue one swabbing during construction. The herbs in the marinade can be put whole for the grill, while if baking in the oven can be a chopped – to be enriched during cooking with one breading.

Recipes and combinations are truly lost in imagination and increasingly daring combinations. Span over the whole meal. Appetizer, like the delicious apricot skewers. Starter, for example those that whet the appetite while being light, to the watermelon. Such as second: of fish, for example with a marinated sword (the recipe goes very well even with a slice of any other fish with hard meat, to choose among the many cheaper and more ecological alternatives). Of meat, of course: what do you say about beef & prunes? Vegetarians: of breaded tofu or almond and mint. Outline, like the funny onions and fruit skewers. And speaking of fruit, and cheese to enrich our meal in beauty: melon and gorgonzola. Only fruit like apples & kiwi, or in a delicious version dessert, with fruit and cubes of bread Spaign.

Finally, don't underestimate the accompanying sauces: self mayonnaise it must be, do it at home! THE do-it-yourself dressing they can be lighter and more delicious mixes, with fresh elements such as mint and yogurt, to accompany raw and cooked, sweet and savory skewers.

Carola Traverso Saibante
July 2019

DISCOVER THE COOKING COURSES OF SALT & PEPE