02/11/2015
A trip around Italy- Sicily-
from 827 to 1061, Sicily was under Arab rule,that is when the Sicilians learned how to make Couscous..... every year in San vito Lo Capo ,in the month of September there is a Couscous Festival and a competition for the best couscous Chef in Sicily
Couscous di pesce alla Trapanese
Ingredients for the cous cous:
500 g durum wheat flour
½ cup water
1 pinch salt
Ingredients for the fish:
1 kg of fish of various qualities (redfish, snapper, mullet, bream, shrimp, etc.).
Extra virgin olive oil
A k**b of butter
2 carrots
2 stalks celery
2 onions
1 clove garlic
A bunch of parsley
A bay leaf
3-4 ripe tomatoes peeled diced (or the ready-peeled)
Saffron
50 grams of chopped almonds
Salt and pepper q.s.
A pinch of paprika
Hot pepper if you like it
Wash the fish, debone and deprive them of the head. Put in a pot the remains of the fish, cover with water and add the celery, chopped onion and bay leaf. And cook,, strain the broth and set aside.
Cut the fish into pieces, fry the other onion with the olive oil, garlic and parsley. Combine the bay leaf, peeled tomatoes and finally lay the fish. Cover with water, add salt and pepper, add the saffron dissolved in a little warm water and ground almonds. When the sauce with the fish is cooked is sufficiently thickened.
When the couscous is cooked, pour it in "lemmo", cover with the fish stock and put it to rest, cover it with a lid and covere with a woolen cloth, for half an hour.
Serve on serving plates sprinkling with more broth and pieces of fish carefully deboned..
Couscous:
Put the pure durum wheat semolina flour into the special container called “Mafaradda” (in Northern Africa it is called “Diefna”); dampen your hands slightly in salted water, start gathering the semolina using your right hand keeping your fingers straight to form minute grains about the size of peppercorns (this is a technique requiring a centuries-old skill, since only a year-long practice will allow the formation of grains with the same structure and size ).
After forming the grains, the cuscus thus obtained must be seasoned with olive oil and spread onto a dish towel to dry for at least three hours. Now move on to the cooking stage, using a special earthenware container called “Cuscusèra” (and in Northern Africa “Keskes”), composed of three sections: the lower part is similar to a high-sided pot and is used as a water container; the middle section, a sort of colander, contains the cuscus so that it can be steamed without coming into contact with the water underneath; the top section is the lid; obviously, the three pieces are made so that they fit into one other and stay one on top of the other.
Place couscous in the middle section only once the water has come to the boil, and seal – almost hermetically – with the lid using a strip of dough and a damp cloth arranged around the edge of the lid; in this way the steam cannot escape and gathers inside the pot.
Cooking time: 30 minutes: Halfway through the cooking, remove the cuscus from the pot, place it back into the Mafaradda and drizzle with a little cold water, allowing to rest for ten minutes; during this time it will start to swell. Place it back into the Cuscusera and cook for another 15-20 minutes. Finally, remove from the Cuscusera ..
