Couscous: Fresh and Flavorful Contemporary Recipes [Paperback]

Kitty Morse (Author), Alison Miksch (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2000

Bored with spaghetti? Tired of rice? Discover the exotic world of couscous! Fluffy and foolproof, couscous cooks in in less than five minutes and makes aperfect accompaniment to any dish! North African cusiine, couscous is a hot trend in contemporary cookingand author Kitty Morse is here with the most exciting and inventive ways to get couscous beyond the land of Casablanca and straight into your kitchen. From Couscous Paella to Couscous Mango Mousse, Couscous will revolutionize your culinary repertoire. You may wonder what you ate before discovering this versatile and delectable staple.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Author of many books on Moroccan cooking, including The Vegetarian Table, Morse divides the couscous recipes here into two categories: traditional and contemporary. The traditional recipes are all enticing; the contemporary ones, however, vary wildly from the tempting (Couscous-Parsley Salad with Preserved Lemon) to the unorthodox (Steak and Mushroom Pie with Double Gloucester Couscous). The best of the contemporary recipes take cooked couscous as an ingredient for further preparation. These include Lettuce-Wrapped Couscous Terrine with Dilled Shrimp and Yogurt SauceAa perfect light luncheon dishACurried Couscous Croquettes with Ribboned Vegetables, and Chicken Vegetable Soup with Mint Couscous Dumplings. The traditional recipes cover Sicilian Fish Cuscus? alla Trapanese with clams, mussels, swordfish, sea bass and shrimp; Algerian Couscous with Lamb Meatballs, Lima Beans and Artichoke Hearts; and Moroccan Sweet Couscous with Almonds, Raisins and Orange Blossom Water. Purists may grumble that all recipes use the instant couscous method (pouring the couscous into boiling water, then covering it and setting it aside off the heat to steam), although Morse does include the lengthier traditional method for the more ambitious. All in all, with its enjoyable introductory essay and instructions on making basics such as Moroccan Preserved Lemons, this serves as an attractive overview of a relatively unknown ingredient.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Kitty Morse was born in Casablanca. She has taught Moroccan cooking for over 80 years and is the author of five cookbooks, including Come with Me to the Casbah: A Cook's Tour of Morocco and 365 Ways to Cook Vegetarian. When she isn't leading an annual culi

Alison Miksch 's photographs have been featured in many magazines, including Better Homes and Gardens, Country Home, and Shape . She lives in Pennsylvania.

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (April 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811824012
• ISBN-13: 978-0811824019
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 8.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,137,547 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kitty Morse hails from the "real "kasbah" in Morocco. She was born in Casablanca of a French mother and British father, and emigrated to the United States in 1964.

She is the author of nine cookbooks, five of them on the cuisine of Morocco and North Africa. They include Cooking at the Kasbah: Recipes from my Moroccan Kitchen (Chronicle Books), The Scent of Orange Blossoms (Ten Speed Press), and The California Farm Cookbook (Pelican Publishing).

Kitty's career as a food writer, cooking teacher, and lecturer, spans more than twenty-five years. More recently, she became the author/publisher of the second edition of A Biblical Feast: Ancient Mediterranean Diet for Today's Table.

Her next book bears the working title of Mint Tea and Minarets: A Memoir of Morocco with Recipes.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Food, Poor Editing, March 12, 2001

By 

Teantae Turner "sistert" (Columbia, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Couscous: Fresh and Flavorful Contemporary Recipes (Paperback)

My first attempt was "Couscous Fritters with Fresh Corn and Tomato Salsa". Delicious! Every recipe tried was well seasoned and was what I'd call an "eager to repeat winner", if you don't mind fighting past all the errors.

In "Couscous Fritters", the instructions you're supposed to turn to page 20 for her technique on how to peel and seed tomatoes. There is nothing about tomatoes on page 20. It's really page 22. The recipe calls for 2/3 cup broth, but what kind? Step 1 puts all the ingredients for the salsa together while in step 2 you are asked to prepare the fritters. Among the ingredients you're supposed to mix together is the "remaining salt". What remaining salt? You used it all in step 1 for the salsa. I think she meant the cumin.

Recipes are well thought up but somehow, either the test kitchen or the editors goofed. If you are someone who really needs recipes to be right, skip this book. You'll pull your hair out trying to figure out what's wrong. If you can work around the mistakes and really want to try couscous, you'll find some really tasty meals in here. My copy has lots of notes and cross-outs. I'm sure yours will too.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous!, June 20, 2002

By 

Elizabeth Moran (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Couscous: Fresh and Flavorful Contemporary Recipes (Paperback)

Tired of rice and potatoes, I've been keeing an eye out for recipes about couscous. Not too long ago, I caught Kitty on a television program. I think it was Sara Moulton's show on the Food channel. They prepared "Couscous-Parsley Salade with Preserved Lemons." The recipe called for 1 or 2 Tsp of pine nuts and Sara dumped about a cup in! Hey, but that's okay. I like crunch! So, I bought the cookbook and set about preparing the "Rock Cornish Game Hens with Dried Fruit and Couscous Stuffing." I substituted dried cherries for the prunes. The recipe was easy to follow and came out just fabulous. A welcomed twist from the usual game hens and wild rice. The next recipe I want to try is "Tongolese Couscous in Peanut Sauce." While there's no photo, it sounds delicious. Thank you Kitty!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flavorable, exotic recipes, February 21, 2001

By 

Anne Marshall (Sarasota,, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Couscous: Fresh and Flavorful Contemporary Recipes (Paperback)

My husband and I traveled with Kitty on her last Moroccan culinary tour and we highly recommend it. We also highly recommend this book from which we have prepared several dishes including the delicious Rock Cornish game hens with dried fruit and couscous stuffing. Our dinner guests have loved the Moroccan foods that we have prepared - a departure from the usual party fare. We have found all of her recipes unique, flavorable, fun to prepare and delicious to eat! Also recommend her "Cooking at the Kasbah". Our guests have raved about the chicken b'stila which is quite unique, a "production" to prepare but can be made ahead of time, frozen and then baked right out of the freezer.