Following is one of my favourite recipes. It’s couscous with shrimp. What is couscous? Good question. It’s wheat. Couscous is a staple food in North Africa.

You start with couscous in a bowl.

Then you add equal portion stock (vegetable, chicken, etc) or water. I think it’s best if the liquid is hot. After pouring the liquid into the bowl of couscous you let it sit for 10 or 15 minutes. After, you scratch the surface with a fork to make it fluffy and separate as shown below.

To that I added diced tomato, green onion, cilantro, olive oil and lots of oregano. Couscous has a very neutral flavour. You need to add stuff to it. Try whatever.

You can stop there or you can add some shrimp (or other protein). Below is shrimp washed and patted dry with freshly ground black pepper, lemon juice and salt.

You melt some butter/margerine and wait until it’s done frothing. Then you add the shrimp and let sit. After a minute you can add garlic paste or minced garlic. Then toss it a bit until shrimp is pink. Do not overcook shrimp, it gets weird.

After, take the shrimp out of the pan. There will be shrimp bits and seasoning left. You then add apple juice and lemon juice to unstick the bits (deglaze the pan).

After the liquid comes to a boil and thickens a bit pour it over the shrimp. Add a little cilantro and grated lemon peel.

Then incorporate the shrimp and juices into the couscous. Couscous can get really dry so liquids are a necessary addition.