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CouscousCouscous (called maftoul in Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories), is a food of the Maghreb. This dish, with a name derived from Maghreb Arabic kuskusu, which is from Tamazight seksu, is a food which consists of grains made from semolina which are about 1 mm or 1/16th inch in diameter (after cooking). Couscous was traditionally made from the hard part of the hard wheat Triticum durum, the part of the grain that resisted the grinding of the relatively primitive millstone. The name is also used for prepared dishes made from other grains, such as barley, millet, sorghum, rice, or maize. Couscous is traditionally served under a meat or vegetable stew. The dish is the primary staple food throughout the Maghreb; in much of Algeria, eastern Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya it is simply known as ta`aam طعام, "food". It is popular in the Maghreb, the West African Sahel, in France, in western Sicily's Trapani province, and parts of the Middle East. It is also very popular among Jews of North African descent, but has a Berber origin. In the United States couscous is known as a type of pasta, probably reflecting the influence of Sicilian immigrants. However in most other countries it is treated more like a grain in its own right. It is particularly valued for its rapid preparation time. In French-speaking countries in sub-Saharan Africa, fufu is often called cous-cous. One of the first written references is from an anonymous 13th century Hispano-Muslim cookery book, "Kitāb al-tabǐkh fǐ al-Maghrib wa'l-Andalus", with a recipe for couscous that was 'known all over the world'. From the name, it appears that this dish was not Arabic, but Berber. Couscous was known to the Nasrid royalty in Granada as well. And in the 13th century a Syrian historian from Aleppo includes four references for couscous. These early mentions show that couscous spread rapidly, but that in the main, couscous was common from Tripolitania to the west, while from Cyrenaica to the east the main cuisine was Egyptian, with couscous as an occasional dish. Today, in Egypt and the Middle East, couscous is known, but in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, couscous is a staple. One of the earliest references to couscous in Northern Europe is in Brittany, in a letter dated Jan. 12 1699. But it made a much earlier appearance in Provence, where the traveler Jean Jacques Bouchard writes of eating it in Toulon in 1630. Evidence is mounting that the process of couscous cookery, especially the steaming of the grain over broth in a special pot, might have originated before the tenth century in the area of West Africa now comprising Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Ghana, and Burkina Faso. Ibn Batuta journeyed to Mali in 1352, and in what is now Mauritania he had a millet couscous. He also noted rice couscous in the area of Mali in 1350. Also, for centuries, among the nomadic Berbers, black African women were employed as couscous cooks, another possible indication of the sub-Saharan origin of the dish. Check out the following recipes that are tagged "Couscous":
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