Couscous

It was new and unfamiliar.  Both as a food and as a word.  Couscous sounds suspiciously foreign...  That's my only excuse for letting that bag of couscous sit on the counter and stare at me for 2 weeks.  I let it intimidate me.

Until today...

Cooking it can't be easier!  You just bring 1 1/2 cups salted water to a boil in a medium saucepan, add a cup of couscous and turn down the heat, cover, and let simmer until all of the water is absorbed.  Seriously.  That's it.

I used that simmering time to cut up a big handful each of carrots, onion, celery, and tomato and tossed them into a waiting bowl.  Then I added a drained can of garbanzo beans and a nice sprinkle of feta cheese.  When the couscous was cooled, I scooped it into the bowl and added a couple of shakes of Mrs. Dash and Tony Chachere's Cajun Seasoning.  The final ingredient was about 1/2 cup of balsamic vinaigrette.  Then just toss it all together.

Light, fresh, and delicious!

Though I think it could benefit from cucumber and some torn mint leaves...

If you like pasta salad, you'll like this Couscous Salad.  Couscous, from what I can tell, is just a tiny pearl-shaped pasta.  It smells pleasantly wheaty while it cooks.

Still another time I think I'll go a different route with salad and use broccoli florets, dried cranberries, crumbled bacon, sliced almonds, feta, onions, and a raspberry vinaigrette. (Ken's Steak House makes a yummy one!)

Couscous is good for more than just salads, too.  A recipe I will only loosely follow makes a Tex-Mex casserole using black beans, salsa, and taco seasoning.  Top that with some cheese and bake for a hot dish.  That sounds pretty good to me for dinner one day next week!  I wonder if this would make an acceptable filling for vegetarian tacos or burritos?  Add some shredded lettuce and bit of guacamole to the tortilla...

Perhaps couscous will be more than a novelty in my new plant-based kitchen...

Even Cornbread Has A History

If there were a clear career path that supplied a living wage, I would become a Culinary Historian for the final chapter of my career life.  But there's not so the history and cultural meaning of food will remain a hobby that fascinates me...

A while back there was a 'placed post' (aka advertisement) in my Facebook feed from The New York Times that got my attention.  It was titled, The True Story Behind Your Thanksgiving Cornbread.  Now I don't know about you, but I don't reserve my cornbread eating for just Thanksgiving... I like it.  And I'll eat it anytime I get the chance.  Always have, always will.  And I've heard the whole spiel about adding sugar makes it into corn cake.  Whatever!  I'm Southern by adoption and I like a little bit of sweetness in mine so I'm not even entertaining that argument.

The article, though, captivated me.  It took a page from a newish cookbook by Toni Tipton-Martin, "Jubilee: Recipes From Two Centuries of African American Cooking" about the roots of cornbread.  In it, she shares that cornbread stuffing, a Thanksgiving staple to be sure, is a memory dish; an attempt by West African slaves to recreate a dish from their homeland called Kusha.  And today's recipes are a kind of homage to that heritage.  Ms. Tipton-Martin continues, pointing out that as slaves were freed, they founded communities and opened businesses, including eating establishments where recipes were transformed by the locally available foods and trends of the day.  And that's how humble cornbread was transformed into such dishes as corn pone, griddle cakes, spoonbread, corn muffins, hoecake, and hushpuppies. Today we see the fusion influences of the American Southwest and Tex-Mex foods when we include such ingredients as whole kernel corn, cheddar cheese and green chiles in our cornbread.

I've put in a request with my local library for "Jubilee: Recipes From Two Centuries of African American Cooking" and I can hardly wait to see what else I learn!

Cornbread made up as muffins.

In the meantime, here's my recipe for cornbread that I based on a bread recipe on the wrapper of an old-time hot cereal named Germaid.  (And yes, when I'm going to use it in stuffing I leave out the sugar, well at least most of it, and it is wonderful when made with crumbled bacon, cheddar cheese chunks and either green chiles or finely chopped jalapeno!)

Kathy's Cornbread

1 cup corn meal
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 cube margarine, softened

Mix together to form a stiff batter.  This is enough batter for a 9" round cake pan or my favorite 9" cast iron skillet.  It's also just right for 12 muffins.  Bake at 400F until golden brown on top.