WE HAVE A SUBMISSION!
This is very exciting. May I present to you Denise (real name Dennis) and his Wheaty Balls:
Dennis’ “Moroccan” Lamb Cous Cous
Sorry, Lickers, but I’m not much of a baker/confection artiste- I don’t have the precision or the sweet tooth to really warrant spending the time. Toffee, however, is a different story, but we’ll get to that some other day.
Anyhow, the other night I had some friends over and decided to put a spin on a simple cous cous salad I broke out for a BBQ when spring was springing a few weeks ago. This time I decided to up the ante with a little delicious protein (MOTHERFUCKIN’ LAMB, YA’LL!) and some seasonal treasures (FAVA BEANS, YA’LL!). The end result was a texturally complex wonder in a bowl, which my friends devoured with expedience and groans of pleasure. Come join me on a delicious ride to my kitchen where I will show you how to capture some Epcot Center-style reappropriation of lovely foreign flavors.
BEHOLD!
LAMB COUS COUS DELICIOUSNESS
(Admittedly, this looks a little skimpy- I forgot to take photos until we all had devoured our first helping.)
So here’s what you need to serve 5 hungry friends (including yourself):
2-3 cups of Israeli (pearl) cous cous - Don’t get the small stuff kids, the larger size adds a lovely texture to the whole thing.
4 good sized pieces of lamb sausage, a little over a pound perhaps - I wanted to use traditional merguez, but my market only had Italian lamb sausage in stock. This was actually a surprise boon- the fennel flavor worked really well in this dish
1 cup of fava beans - get ‘em fresh and prepare ‘em- I’ll show you how
1 cup of dried mission figs
2 cups or so (a nice handful) of fresh spinach
1/2 cup thin sliced almonds
1 medium shallot
2 fatty cloves of garlic
Olive oil
Paprika
Cloves
Cinnamon
Red wine, preferably Granache, to down while you make the whole thing.
Start off by shelling the fava beans. Once they’ve been removed from their pods, boil the beans in a small pot just for about a minute, then strain and shock them. Once shocked, remove the starchy outer layer and you’ll have some gorgeous green wonders ready to be added to your dish.
This is probably the most labor intensive process you’ll have to deal with while cooking this dish- from here on out, it’s smooth sailing.
In a large pot boil 4-5 cups of water (4, if you’re using 2 cups of cous cous, 5 for 3 cups…I’ll let you figure out how starch happy you’re feeling). Once the water has come to a boil add the cous cous, and stir intermittently until the water is boiled down and you have a pot full of pillowy white pearls on your hands. Once finished, pour a generous amount of olive oil, a few good dashes of paprika, salt and pepper into the mix and let it sit covered until the rest of the dish is ready.
In a large skillet start cooking the sausage, which you should cut into nice sized chunks. Once the sausage is about halfway cooked add the chopped shallot, garlic, figs (which should be de-stemmed and chopped into nice medium pieces), and almonds. Drizzle a little olive oil on that nonsense and give it a good dash of cloves, paprika, and cinnamon and stir it all around on a lower heat setting, letting everything soak up the various flavors. Once it looks like the lamb is done, throw in the fava beans and spinach, and cook until the spinach is lightly wilted. You should have a beautiful mix like this on your hands.
Again, this photo was taken after we had assaulted the food. Skimpy, yes, but so delicious.
Now have your friends pile their bowls up with that cous cous and a generous helping of the lamb, etc. mix on top. Sprinkle a little (or a lot of) feta cheese on top of that business, and you’re ready to sup.
The kids love it.
It’s simple as hell, and impossibly tasty. Put down cookie sheets, Lickers, come join me in lamb heaven.
