"COUS COUS " FOR YOUS YOUS!! (Couscous)

Member Name: totalserenity

Product:	Couscous
Date:	13/03/09 (226 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: TONS - IT'S TASTY, HEALTHY, VERSATILE, AND CHEAP TO EAT....IT'S ALL 'GOOD'...

Disadvantages: IT'S SOOO JUST MOREISH THAT I CAN'T HELP MYSELF TO JUST A LITTLE BIT MORE!

Well until recently dear dooyoo'er, I feel like I've been left out in the cold regarding one of the world's best kept 'foodie' secrets, I really do!

Discovering cous cous at one of my weekly weigh in meetings at my local diet club via the friendly Fiona - our Weight Watchers leader, was a total revelation to me! As always a bit of a fraidy cat at trying new foodstuffs, I bravely decided to give it a go when I spotted in the 'World Section' of my local supermarket doing the weekly shop. Nothing ventured, nothing gained and hey it's only 60p for a 500 gram packet...what's the worst that can happen, I mused to myself? (Probably muttered it under my breath as I am wont to do...it's a strange little world I live in, but it works for me!)

Now luckily, my wonderfully dark and demonic Goth-child wasn't in attendance, so I had chance to peruse the packet...shake it around a bit to see what funny noises it made, etc, as you do (told you -'strange world' mine...), and actually see what the heck it was made of?

Now slap me down with a frothy phoenix feather dear readers, as it actually only consists of - and I quote '100% Durum Wheat Semolina'!
Eh? Wasn't semolina the baby food dessert they used to serve us in school? (Probably muttered all that too...I put it down to the oddly-mutated Geminian genes I inherited at birth. Do you know it's no wonder I get look at strangely when I'm shopping come to think of it?!)

Into the trolley henceforth it went - obviously I was in a devil-may-care mood 'that' day then...especially when I'd read it it contained NO saturated fat OR sugar at all.

Sold as Seen.

Next!

Deciding to use the cous cous as my carbohydrate accompaniment to the main course of fish that night, a major plus was that Gothy actually ate it with relish. Well not with actual 'relish' you understand, more like with 'gusto'. Now I don't mean 'Gusto the Gastronomical Chef'...Argh, time to move on and stop digressingly digging myself into a bigger black hole here...

So now we know what it is then.

We know it's a fab fat free, sugar-free carb - therefore a great aid when trying to lower cholesterol; in addition I can personally tell you it's a great alternative to potatoes, pasta rice and the like. :o)

Calorifically it's very similar to pasta, so not the lowest substitute to potatoes, but it is incredibly filling and very versatile too. Plus, it is a very different taste to the milky semolina we all know and love!

As with all things I try and cook as healthily as possible, so I add nothing to the cous cous except a stock-flavoured water. My method of preparing the dish is as follows - however, please bear in mind you can jiggle around with the basic ingredient once it's cooked by adding allsorts of textures/tastes...mushrooms, sweetcorn, peas, pretty much anything that appeals to your palate. I'll detail my own way of cooking for you, it's kind of a variation of the packet instruction...

To serve two:
***********

*8oz cous cous

*14 fluid ozs vegetable stock (basically a stock cube dissolved into boiling water)

Pour the stock into a medium pan and re-boil, add the ingredient and then turn to a simmer until all the liquid is absorbed.

Now that happens within a minutes or two so be careful not to over cook. Remove and pop to one side for 5 mins and 'keep a lid on it' (funny how may peeps tell me to do that?). The cous cous maintains its heat for ages so that's another plus in it's favour; when you're ready to serve give it a good mix through with a fork to break it up into small segments. Being a small-grained wheat product it clumps together quite vigorously, but we can beat it into submission with our cutlery cosh, can't we folks?!

And there you have it - it really is as simple as that...

The pack is fantastic value - always an advantage when you're on a tight budget like moi, and you can reduce the amount to suit however many mouths you are feeding. Remember too it is very filling; AND keeps in the fridge as long as it's cooled plus covered with clingfilm for a few days, being delicious eaten cold.

I hope you try this particular foodstuff if you've never tried it before. I used to think it was a Yuppie food of the 90's; how wrong i was!

Who knows you may even become as instant convert to the cous cous cause of: 'Heat, Beat, and then shamelessly Eat me'?

NB: Don't be ashamed if you eat it straight from the fridge as a midnight snack...shhh, I do it too! ;o)

Summary: A MUCH-WELCOMED ALTERNATIVE TO THE MORE CONVENTIONAL CARBS IN OUR DAILY DIET :o)