Cooking Couscous

Cooking Couscous, today back with our adopted local family and are in the kitchen again, this time with son Costa.
Costa is a chef at a local pasta and cannoli catering company and today is his day off so is taking us under his wing and showing us how to cook Sicilian Couscous.
Normally Sicilian Couscous is made with seafood but today we are doing with pork this is a family favourite, after all yesterday was all about the octopus.
This is start from scratch Couscous , no pre cooked Couscous in packs here we have some good old-time family time as it takes about 1 hours just to get the Couscous ready for the steamer.
Paino Paino 2 table spoons at a time of warm water is added to the dried Couscous 
.

The grains have expanded 10 fold during this process

 

 

Stirring by hand and as soon as you put the 2 tablespoon of water in it felt like wet sand, so it was stirring with your fingers for about 5 mins till that water was absorbed, and seamed dry again (just a bit bigger and didn't stick to your fingers)  than you would start the process again so after about 1 hour it was ready for the steamer.

"Would we be bother in our real lives" in Sicily it all about the end result and if it take 1 hour to get perfection ...

well that what they do!

The texture and taste is just so different to back home so time WELL SPENT! 

 

So for the sagu follow notes from previous posts

but using pork

Now this is also different it is what they call broccolo, so more like a greenish cauliflower with a much stronger taste, and in season right now mid autumn. This was interesting as we cooked in water for about 30mins that we fried till brown than it was put in to the pork sago for about another hour so buy the time it was served the stalk were still visible (if this was done to a cauliflower back home it would have been mash) 

 

Lunch with our adopted Sicilian family

May not be look much to look at but if you were here tasting this Couscous you would agree that its fantastic and worth ever minute spend absorbing the couscous and the water.

Simple food done well ... delish