Okay, there is our cous cous. Now cous cous, lot of people consider it as a grain, but it’s not a grain, it’s actually tiny, tiny little particles of pasta. Okay, made from derm wheat and it is really easy and really delicious. So we’re going to do a shrimp and vegetable cous cous here.
And step one, I want you to take a pound of shrimp. This one with shell on, I defrosted them. It’s very important you get the shell on. I want you to peel the shells off the shrimp. Reserve those for later. And we’re going to make a quick little shrimp stock with our shells.
Now cous cous work with any hot liquid, but what’s going to be really nice about this is we’re going to make our own stock. And you’re going to see how easy this is, just put a little chunk of butter with our shrimp shells. And I want you to sauté those in the butter for about 3-4 minutes and you are going to smell the most amazing roasted shrimp. Beautiful aroma coming out of there. Alright, so they turn nice and pink. See that. And that brings out all the beautiful oils in the shell and all the flavor and we’re going to have two and a quarter cups of water. Now we need two cups of shrimp stock in the end of this procedure. So I’m going to put in two cups plus a little splash here, because as we simmer this on the back of the stove, a little bit will evaporate. Okay, so bring that to a simmer. Put the back burner on low, just let it sit. In the 20 minutes it takes to put this dish together, that’s going to be perfectly cook.
Alright, there’s our cous cous. See, very nice. Alright, we’re going to put some really nice fresh herb here. Dill and tarragon, great with shrimp. I got half a cup of dice tomato or they’re going to be dice, that’s some rosano. I had some cherry tomatoes left over so I’m going to use them. Get yourself a nice eggplant. And I’m using two green zucchini. And what the heck, I’m going to go with four cloves of garlic. And of course you adjust these things to your liking.
In a nice stainless steel bowl, something that’s going to hold the heat, I am going to put two cups of our cous cous. Hey, you can almost see me in the spoon.
So the cous cous has been measured out, two cups. I did not film dicing vegetables, because it’s just boring. Alright. So you cubed up your zucchini, your eggplant. Add your salt and pepper to taste. You know, good amount of salt. And I’m going to sauté this for about a third of a cup of olive oil might sounds like a lot, but it’s not because that olive oil is going to be important later, I’m going to explain. So I’ve cooked that for about 6 or 7 minutes, I want the eggplant nice and soft. I want the zucchini nice and tender. And I'm going to make a little kind of space in the middle here. I’m going to add my half a cup of diced tomato. And I’m going to actually caramelize a little bit the sugar in the diced tomato in the middle of the pan here. So it’s a little trick, instead of doing it in another pan, we’ll do it right here. See if I just mix it all together, it wouldn’t caramelize as well. So give about 3-4 minutes in the center of the pan and the sugars again in the tomato will actually roast a little bit. You get a nice roasted tomato flavor. That’s a good spot to add our four cloves and minced garlic. I used a pressed. And then give it all a swirl together and just cook that garlic for about a minute and then that is done. Just put that up to the side. Alright, that’s going to stay hot, don’t worry, because the only thing we have left to do here is cook our shrimp and we’re going to put this whole thing together.
So I wipe out the pan, I added another splash of olive oil. Now that pan is hot, see the steam. This are literally only going to go a minute at each side. These are going to continue to cook when we add all these hot veggies and the hot shrimp stock to the cous cous. So I just want you almost as fast as you can turn them. They’re going to have some nice orange rust color on them. See, visual. Okay. So that’s literally a minute on each side. Those are going to cook in the cous cous, don’t worry.
And now we’re going to put everything together. I got my two cups of raw cous cous. I’m going to add my nice hot shrimp. I’m going to add my nice hot vegetable mixture. I'm going to add my chopped herbs. I'm going to add my cherry tomatoes. And you can throw in any other thing you want to get rid of. Alright, toss it in here. Now that olive oil that was in the vegetables and the shrimp, that’s going to coat all those little particles of cous cous and that’s an important factor. So give that all a good toss, now I did spice, salt and pepper, my veggies really well. But I’m going to give it another spike here with cayenne pepper. Just because I always do. Alright. And just I felt like it needs just a little more salt. So I put another pinch of salt. But that’s always up to you.
Now, before you add your shrimp stock which again is simmering on the back of the stove, you going to scrape down the sides of your bowl with the spatula and I want you to pack this so it’s all nice and even. Now don’t pack it too hard, but I just want you to make it all nice and even and flat. Now here’s another important tip, have your piece of foil ready, because as soon as you pour that boiling stock over this cous cous you have to cover it. So there’s our two cups of very hot right off the simmer. Strain that right in. And again, it’s amazing how flavorful that gets just with that little bit of shrimp shell and 20 minutes simmering in the back of the stove. Now put your foil on right away, I don’t want that steam to escape, nice and tight. Let it sit for 5 minutes. That’s it. cous cous is like a magic food. Alright.
Five minutes later, I un-wrapped it. And I’m ready to toss it and serve it. This not a trick photography, that’s all there is to it. Now because the olive oil coated all those little grains of pasta, it’s all nice and fluffy and separate. And it’s just such a great dish, I mean, I just really, really love cous cous. And so versatile. You don’t like shrimp, put in chicken. You don’t like chicken put in sausages. You don’t a zucchini, put some other vegetable. Really, really versatile. Do anything you want with it. Hey, by the way, the next day for left overs, you make a cold shrimp and tabuli salad throw in a handful of parsley, a little more lemon and olive oil. Fantastic. Okay. So I really want you to give this a try. It’s almost fool proof, again its equal part cous cous and any hot liquid. Wrap it up for 5 minutes and you have a delicious north African dinner and enjoy.
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