I love my job. Partly because I enjoy nitpicking the English language and partly because going through numbers of recipes and health-related articles every week fills me with bits of nutritional wisdom – and the desire to discover more.
Of course, being a copy editor doesn’t also make you a great cook. But with time, patience, and a healthy appetite, we all can learn.
The first step to a blooming learning process is curiosity. It was this nagging state of affairs that led me to wander down the pasta aisle of my local grocery store the other day, lingering between grains, waiting for heavenly inspiration to hit me with a stupendous dinner idea. And then I caught a glimpse of the calamitous crop that blighted my teenage years: couscous.
Growing up in a Mediterranean family comes with a mother who’s an excellent cook, who obsesses with nutrition, and in the name of health, often feeds you the most odious concoctions. As fate had it, couscous, along with fish soup and bean soup – all nefarious substances to simple-minded youth, were a weekly given.
Though I acquired a taste for all the rest, couscous remained a challenge. Even so, week after week, as I sat at the table for hours, poking around my plate of smelly couscous, I certainly digested the fact that couscous is necessary. And yes, there’s no way around it, couscous is good for you. Packed with vitamins, minerals, calcium, and other nutrients, this grain guards digestive health and protects against disease.
So today, as I stared back at my childhood foe, I already smelled a new challenge: Buy it, squeeze the nutrients out of it – and find a way to enjoy it.
Images of food programs, cookbook illustrations, and even the creations of my college culinary-school-bound friend Martin popped into my head. Top chef, Saveur, wild rice – it was the latter that made me pause. Yes, I remembered that wild rice. It was a Wednesday, and Martin had found yet another way to make me change my mind and date him: creating magic in the dorm kitchen, with skinless chicken breasts and wild rice. The taste had been mediocre in the end – and I, admittedly, may have left him to do the dishes. But what was now relevant to my situation is the color of that wild rice: white with specks of brown. What was that brown?
Thanks to a Crunchy Breakfast recipe I had edited a week before, suddenly, I remembered a brown ingredient: flaxseed. These omega-3 fatty acid superstars, which contain countless of disease-fighting benefits, would enhance the benefits of couscous AND complement the look of the dish. So I grabbed a packet and headed out of the store – after paying a few bucks of course – as soon as possible.
A few hours later, the familiar whiff arose in my kitchen. But it was a different smell this time. By then I had gotten more creative, and added garlic and tomatoes into the pot. And it had all only taken me about 15 minutes. Now without further ado, I will share with you the how-to:
Ingredients
4 cups water
1/2 cup couscous
1/2 medium-sized onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 whole tomato, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
flaxseed
Directions
1. Boil water, then add couscous, oil, chopped garlic and seasonings.
2. Cook for several minutes, then add the onion and tomatoes.
3. After a few more minutes, add the flaxseed.
4. Let cook for no more than 7 minutes, then take out and carefully drain excess water.
The total cooking time was about 15 minutes. The flaxseed added a crunch to the couscous, while the tomatoes contributed a sweet, full taste – adding more superstar health points.
Yet in the end, I still wasn’t taken aback by the taste of couscous. Sitting at my kitchen counter, tasting the bits again, I felt like I had lost the challenge and was now stuck with a three-day supply of dreadful couscous. Something was missing.
Defeated, I wrapped up the food, and walked to my room. Yet it ate at me, and I coudln’t let it go. I logged onto the Internet and wondered what I should write. And after aimless, misguided paragraphs, I decided to start from the beginning, retrace my steps, and understand the essential nature of what I had made.
And slowly, the idea suddenly hit me: I had cooked the couscous, and even though the pot had included other tasty things, the flavors had melded into one mild taste. And then, the solution: All the dish needed was a kick. A kick of fresh vegetables, a bit of spice, and maybe an added component for a full meal. Thank goodness for that bell pepper I had bought for a salad that had gone unmade what with couscous stealing the show that afternoon. And holy smokes, what luck that I still had another full tomato, the other half of the onion, AND – the secret ingredient – spicy jalapenos. And were those two chicken legs I spotted in the freezer?
You can guess the results, or you can look at the picture. And because both are equally good, I will continue the how-to, and share the success with you here:
Additions
1 whole tomato
6 (depending on taste) jalaenos
1/2 onion
2 chicken legs, baked, shredded
Just two things to keep in mind: Chop the tomato, jalapenos, and onion coarsely to keep the kick of the taste. Add the chicken legs, and drizzle with olive oil – and a bit of lemon, for more kicker points. By now, though, you’re so far ahead, that even without the lemon, you’ve won the challenge. Which, as it turns out, is not at all about winning or losing, or even mom’s dreadful recipe.
It’s about understanding the nature of what you’re cooking, and what you want to accomplish.
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