Moroccan recipe

Jul 18 2008 by Our Correspondent, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

500g barley couscous (or slightly less regular couscous)

The juice of 4 lemons, and the zest of 1

200-300ml water

½ regular-sized cucumber

1 bunch spring onions

4 large ripe tomatoes

2 handfuls fresh mint

2 handfuls fresh curly parsley

1 large red pepper (optional)

Extra virgin olive oil (optional)

First let’s prepare all the vegetables. Pop a pan of water on to boil. Prepare a bowl of iced water.

Trim the cucumber of its ends, and dice the flesh into 1/2cm cubes.

Finely slice the spring onions. Chop the parsley and mint very finely. Make a cross on one end of each tomato and plunge into the boiling water for about 30 seconds. Immediately plunge them into iced water and skin them when cool enough to handle.

Quarter the peeled tomatoes, and remove the seeds and ‘jelly’. If you’d like to, you can press the seeds through a sieve to collect the juice, and add this to the salad at the end. Finely dice the tomato flesh.

If you’re using red pepper, remove the seeds and membranes, and finely dice the flesh.

Pour the couscous into a deep bowl, and add the lemon juice and zest, mixing well. Allow the grains to swell, and then start adding the water, 50ml at a time and allow a few minutes for the swelling of the grain as you go.

You need to end up with a light, fluffy, separated texture; each grain should have a ‘bounce’ between the teeth, a bit like ‘al dente’ pasta.

Fold in the vegetables and herbs, and allow the flavours of the mixture to mingle for a couple of hours.

To serve, bring up to room temperature, dress with a little olive oil if you’d like, and serve with your choice of barbecued or roast meats, fish or poultry.