How to Make Tunisian Couscous

Naimi Remadi: Welcome Mara this is my kitchen, my Tunisian Kitchen.

Mara: Your Tunisian Kitchen, thank you so much this is for you, this is rosemary, thank you for having us here. Now I am so excited to learn how to make the Tunisian National dish, Couscous.

Naimi Remadi: The famous Couscous.

Mara: So what do we have here as far as ingredients go?

Naimi Remadi: We do have the Couscous which is made of semolina.

Mara: Semolina, and now is it a pasta or is it a grain.

Naimi Remadi: Yes it is a grain.

Mara: A grain okay. So it’s like a vegetable stew that‘s on top of it and meat.

Naimi Remadi: Yes it’s a lamb, it’s very popular in Tunis, couscous is known to be very good with lamb.

Mara: With lamb.

Naimi Remadi: Yes.

Mara: And what are the other ingredients here.

Naimi Remadi: This is—

Mara: —squash.

Naimi Remadi: Zukini, chickpeas, potatoes, carrots, pepper and onions.

Mara: Do you make that separately just on the stove top and then you put it on top of the couscous is that—

Naimi Remadi: We cook them separately, we cook the sauce with the meat and then we add the vegetables and then we steam the couscous.

Mara: And the couscous, do you just put that in water and then when did the spices come into play? When did the spices come into play?

Naimi Remadi: Definitely at the end when we steam the couscous and it is already done we put it aside separate and then we take so much of the sauce that was cooked with the vegetables and the meat and we spread it on top of the couscous we leave it a little bit until it dries.

Mara: Soaks in some of the liquids and all of the spices.

Male: Naima is a great story teller and gives us some folklore about using spices while cooking.

Mara: And now tell me about the spices that you use because I know that Tunisian cooking is fiery hot.

Naimi Remadi: Yes thank you I guess not all the time it depends of how hot you want it and we say in Tunis if you love your husband you cook something spicy, if you don’t love him you cook it without spices.

Mara: Oh my Gosh the amount of spice is proportional to how much you love your husband. But why are we making this one tonight. I want to make mine extra hot.

Naimi Remadi: Yes it is.

Mara: So what kind of spices do we have here on our table?

Naimi Remadi: So we have the pepper paste.

Mara: Pepper paste. Now is this where the heat comes from?

Naimi Remadi: Yes. But it’s natural, it’s made dried in sun, it’s a hot red pepper and then it’s mixed with garlic and of course salt and olive oil.

Mara: Then what’s this right here?

Naimi Remadi: This is cumino.

Mara: Okay cumin and so that’s just ground.

Naimi Remadi: Yes and this is table which is a mixed of spices — and this is very Tunisian, this is a mix of spices that — let’s say like a mix of cumino and all the spices and it is delicious.

Mara: This is going to be what if you think of what flavor is Tunisian.

Naimi Remadi: It’s a basic —

Mara: The taboo. So I’ll taste a little —

Naimi Remadi: Yeah please. It’s not taboo, that taste delicious.

Mara: You can tell the business and mixture of a lot of different spices together.

Naimi Remadi: Yes.

Mara: Oh that’s great. Would you eat Couscous mainly for lunch or must be dinner?

Naimi Remadi: Usually it’s lunch and usually it’s for the family when they come over for the weekend, Friday. We all cook Couscous Friday.

Mara: Couscous is the Friday, it’s the big weekender.

Naimi Remadi: Yes for all the family. Yes it’s like a gathering the tradition to get together.

Mara: And what would say would be breakfast to me or so interesting because it — no matter where you are in the world it’s never the same. What’s a typical breakfast then to Tunisia?

Naimi Remadi: Tunis usually it is vignette it’s called like a crepe, with honey.

Mara: Okay so that sweet, a sweet dish.

Naimi Remadi: Yes.

Mara: That’s great and what about your meals do you usually what do you have to drink what’s the big beverage?

Naimi Remadi: With this we drink butter milk.

Mara: Buttermilk, wow!

Naimi Remadi: And then you can get to sleep for 2 hours.

Mara: This goes your belly and you can like relax on the low cushions.

Naimi Remadi: Yes definitely.

Mara: That’s so great. Well now, I can get what taking their best but we got a whole lot more so stick around and we are going to be right back with a little hint of Tunisian Culture.