Shrimp and charred vegetable couscous
Leave the vegetables alone in the pan and they brown. Stir them and they steam.
At a Glance
Story
Pearl couscous is pasta, not couscous, and it wants boiling in plenty of water and draining like pasta rather than steaming in a measured amount. Treat it like the semolina kind and you get a gummy lump. Five to seven minutes at a proper rolling boil, drained hard, and it stays in distinct beads.
Ingredients
- ½ cup pearl couscous
- 10 oz shrimppeeled and deveined
- 1 zucchinimedium diced
- 4 oz grape tomatoeshalved
- 1 yellow onionmedium diced
- 1 clove garlicgrated to a paste
- 1 tbsp capers
- 1 ½ oz fetacrumbled
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
- olive oilsalt, pepper
Method
The spice blend the original ships is smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and dried parsley. You have all four, and yours will taste less like dust.
- Salted water on to boil. Dice the zucchini and onion, halve the tomatoes, grate the garlic to a paste.
- Couscous into the water, 5 to 7 minutes to tender. Drain thoroughly and return to the pot, covered.
- Zucchini, tomatoes and onion into a hot pan with olive oil, in a single layer. Do not touch them for 3 to 4 minutes. That is where the browning comes from and stirring is how people lose it.
- Capers, garlic paste and red pepper flakes. Season, 1 to 2 minutes more until the vegetables soften. Tip the lot into the couscous. Wipe the pan.
- Pat the shrimp dry, then toss with the paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and a good amount of salt. Sear 3 to 5 minutes, until just opaque.
- Couscous into bowls, shrimp over the top, feta crumbled across.
A lemon wedge would not go amiss, though the original never suggests one.
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