Patience Is A Virtue

While it's not always true, sometimes good things are worth the wait. I often times have an ingredient at home that I'm dying to use. Maybe because it's I've been waiting months for it to be in season, or because I had it at a restaurant, or because it's new to me and I want to play with it. Other times it's something that I love that I just don't see being used often enough. That's exactly what happened months ago when I realized that I loved Israeli couscous, but rarely saw it in use. I'd occasionally see it pop up under a flank steak or lamb shank, but otherwise it was pretty much absent from any menu. So, I took matters into my own hands and headed over to the Greek spice shop that hides in the shadow of Port Authority. Inside were grains, spices and beans sold by the pound at very affordable prices. After scooping a few pounds of Israeli couscous into a brown paper bag I paid for my purchase and happily headed home. 

For months the bag sat on my pantry shelf, looming over me and begging to be used. Try as I might to work it into the many recipes I make a week, it never seemed to make the cut, and I suddenly understood why I wasn't seeing much of it elsewhere either. Fortunately, I never allowed myself to forget about it, because all I needed was the right inspiration to come up with an idea. Flipping through a few back issues of Real Simple, I came across a story about easy dinners. One of them was a lemony shrimp dish with white beans over traditional couscous. It was the perfect dish to serve over Israeli couscous, and just like that, I'd found a great use for my secret ingredient. The one thing I knew I had to do was to add a little more zip and flavor to the Israeli couscous. While I do like it plain, simply salted and drizzled with olive oil, the shrimp and beans were in such a light and simple sauce (lemon butter sauce), that I wanted something that would bring added flavor to the dish and not just come off as a bland carb component. So, I added a little saffron to the water I cooked the couscous in to give it that little extra Mediterranean flair and flavor. It also gave it a gorgeous amber hue that looked great against the coral shrimp and pale beans. 

The dish wasn't quite done in 20 minutes as promised (those fresh jumbo shrimp weren't going to peel themselves), but it certainly was very fast in light of how much you get for the 30 minutes or so it actually takes to prepare. It's super well rounded, very tasty, and great to make for company. Not to mention, it's a very light and complete meal that does a great job of ushering in warmer weather (I can totally imagine eating this outside with a glass of great white wine). I switched up a few other minor things, like using less scallions (4 seemed excessive for the portion) and adding a little olive oil to the butter to keep it from burning, and also to use a little less butter. Everything else was great, and the dish stands to become a new staple for me. The beans were a great idea, and a great bit of added protein and sweetness. I could even see the dish working with other types of beans, even black beans or another legume like chick peas. You could dress it up a number of ways, maybe by adding fresh tomatoes in the summer and a little white wine in the sauce. Olives or capers would add a tasty bit of sour bite, too, not to mention what anchovies would add to the simple butter sauce. In the end, it was more than worth the wait for my couscous to finally flourish into the perfect, easy dish. Hopefully others will have the same epiphany, and in the meantime, I'll keep using this wonderful ingredient as much as possible. Here's what I ended up doing:

Lemon-Butter Shrimp with White Beans and Saffron Scented Israeli Couscous

1 1/2 cups Israeli couscous

3 cups of water

3-4 strands of saffron

2 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 scallion, chopped

1 lb medium or jumbo shrimp, peeled

1 15.5 oz can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped

juice of 1 lemon

salt 

pepper

1. Bring salted water to a rolling boil and add Israeli couscous and saffron. Cook uncovered until couscous is done (soft but still al dente), about 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, heat butter, olive oil, garlic and scallions in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook for 30 seconds, then add shrimp and cook until pink and done, about 2 minutes. Add beans, lemon juice, and parsley, season everything with salt and pepper to taste, tossing to combine. Cook until warmed through, about 1 minute.

3. Drain couscous (you can reserve the liquid for a soup, rice or regular couscous) and plate, topping with shrimp and bean mixture. Enjoy!

-Laura

The Pine Is Mightier Than the Sword

One of my fondest memories of visiting Spain as a kid was visiting my great aunt and uncle in a small town about an hour and a half outside of Madrid, in the province of Valladolid. My father told great stories from the many summers he'd spent there as a kid, running on the plains with his cousins and reeking havoc on the town. My first experience there, when I was about six or seven years old, was somewhat different, perhaps because I'm a girl, or perhaps because I grew up in the United States. The area we were visiting was incredibly flat and dry. As a kid I remember thinking that it must be a desert, since we hadn't seen anything green for miles. The sun seemed brighter there than in America, and with no trees or tall buildings to offer protection, my little eyes watered even from behind the safety of my tiny pink sunglasses.

It turned out that of all the cousins, I was in fact not only the youngest, but the only girl. At the behest of their parents, the boys invited me to join them in a game of futbol with a few other kids from the neighborhood. But by the time we got to the dirt field, my eyes had begun to water uncontrollably under the sun's merciless rays, and I was forced to turn back for home. Left with no option but to hang out with the grown ups, I sat down in a chair at the kitchen table, rested my head on my arms, and settled in for a nap. Not a minute had passed before my great uncle came over and asked if I like pine nuts. "I don't know," I replied, my face still streaked with sticky, sun-induced tears, "I don't know what they are." Grabbing my little hand in his, he led me out to a large garden off of the patio. There he showed me a kind of pine tree I'd never seen before, and pulled a plump pine cone off a branch. Five minutes later I was pulling pine cones off trees and shelling pine nuts for an afternoon snack. It wasn't until I came waddling back into the house hours later that anyone asked what I'd been doing. "Tio Martin showed me how to get pine nuts," I said rubbing my belly, "I don't feel so good." Running outside, my mother saw the patio floor littered with shells and pine cones. I'd eaten every single pine nut off of every single pine cone in his garden.

According to my parents, the story ends with me having a week-long stomach ache and refusing to eat pine nuts for years. I have no such recollection and maintain that I have enjoyed pine nuts my entire life. I certainly do love them now, which is why I toasted off a big batch and added them to my Israeli couscous with pomegranate. I cooked the couscous in a saffron chicken broth, then mixed in the pine nuts for some nutty sweetness to contrast the juicy tartness of the pomegranate seeds. The dish came out really great, and would be a wonderful alternative to your average starchy side dish. Israeli couscous is larger, and more substantive than your traditional couscous, and is made up of pearl-sized bits of pasta, which makes for a lovely texture. It's great as a side to roast chicken, sautéed shrimp, or even as a vegetarian entrée with a few more veggies.

Israeli Couscous with Pomegranate and Toasted Pine Nuts

1 1/2 cups Israeli couscous
1 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/8 tsp saffron threads
1/2 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1/4 tsp fennel seed, ground
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 cup toasted pine nuts
1 cup pomegranate seeds

1. Bring broth to a boil and add saffron so it dissolves. Add couscous and half of the thyme and fennel seed, and simmer, uncovered, until cooked through, about 10 minutes.

2. Remove from heat. Stir in pine nuts, pomegranate, black pepper and remaining thyme and fennel seed. Taste for salt and serve. Enjoy!

-Laura