Moroccan Couscous with Cranberry and Turmeric

Yesterday, I picked up a free magazine "Sage, Natural living for You and Family" at our Supermarket. In the May edition in the section called Your Food, it featured Moroccan Food.  

In the article, spices are credited for many health benifits from antioxidants, anti-inflammatory and in improving digestion, not to mention the flavor and scent of spices give the dish pizzazz!

The recipe I chose is quick and easy to make.  Since I had Couscous and am trying to purge my cupboards, an on going battle, I used couscous.  Couscous is traditional made from wheat.  

The recipe calls for Millet an ancient grain with similar protein structure to wheat but is a non gluten grain.  I was eager to try this grain until I read the warning about eating too much of the grain.  Although Millet does not contain gluten, it contains goitrogens which in fact suppress thyroid activities and can lead to goitre or Hypothyroidism.   This article talks about protecting one's thyroid at all cost and avoid regular consumption of food that may harm us given the overall current environment stress on body.  In this case Millet. 

So couscous it is! Not sure I want to start using Millet just yet.

Moroccan Couscous with Cranberry and Turmeric

I c couscous
2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp sea salt
handful of dried Cranberry
handful of chopped Cilantro

In a sauce pan, add 2 c water to the couscous, salt and turmeric.  Bring to boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook until the couscous absorbs all the water. Add cranberries, fluff with fork. Add chopped cilantro. 

The recipe called for currents but cranberries added color and taste.  Chopped nuts and green onions would also be nice

I served this with roasted chicken breast and a Greek Salad!.


  

Lamb Ouzi with Rice, Almonds and Peas

A traditional Syrian Meal full of flavour and deeply aromatic was prepared using lamb.  This was the first meal the Syrian couple we had hosted during the Christmas holidays prepared for our family.

This proved to be an interesting journey through the world of spices and transcribing the recipe for me!  The couple had brought a bag of spices that the wife used all the time in her home.  With the help of google search and google translate, we were able to find most of the spices in my kitchen.  

Kabsa, Kabseh is a mix of both pungent and floral spices such as black pepper, bay leaves, ginger, saffron, cayenne, black lime, cardamom and cloves. 

Curcuma is Turmeric and a Indo European Hot Curry Mix that I had added even more flavor to the rice. 

The adding of spices was not measured, but done to taste.

The Natural almonds were blanched to remove the skins.  This has been a long since I'll seen this done as now one can buy skinned almonds, but at an increased price.

The blanched almonds were dried and fried in canola oil until golden

The lamb was cooked in a pressure cooker. When cool to handle the lamb was cute into bite size pieces.   

Butter was melted and the pieces of lamb were fried in the melted butter

The next step was to cook the rice stove top with aromatic spices;cardamon pods, curry, turmeric, cinnamon, bay leaves, salt and black pepper along with juices from cooking the lamb. 

The lamb dish was beautifully served Family Style, the rice was topped with the lamb and garnished with the sautéed golden almonds and peas. 

This Syrian meal was not only colorful but flavorful and fresh!

This beautiful meal was prepared by a young Syrian couple to mark one week in Canada . What an accomplishment to be able to pull this meal off using two unfamiliar Canadian kitchens!