Recipe#13723

Title: Couscous 10

From: Nacheroo@aol.com 
 Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes 
 Subject: Couscous and Veal 
 Date: 25 Oct 1996 05:02:11 -0600 
 Message-ID: <961022165750_1712215027@emout09.mail.aol.com> 

Couscous is an Arab dish that Moses and Jacobs descendants spread
 throughout the world during their wanderings. Who can say how many
 modifications it has undergone? It is presently used as a soup by Italian
 Jews, two of whom were kind enough to let me try it and see how it is
 prepared. I have since made it in my own kitchen, and can therefore guarantee
 its authenticity, though I cannot guarantee my being understood:
 Che non i impresa da pigliar a gabbo
 Descriver bene questo grande intruglio
 Ni da lingua che chiami mamma e babbo.
 [Its not a task to be taken lightly,
 The description of this great hodgepodge,
 Nor to be undertaken by infants who still cry mamma or papa . (Dante's
 Inferno)]
 The following quantities will serve six or seven people:
 1 2/3 pounds breast of veal
 6 ounces lean boned veal
 3 1/3 cups coarse grained semolina 
 1 chicken liver, minced 
 1 hard boiled egg, diced 
 1 yolk
 1 large onion, diced
 Various greens, such as savoy cabbage, onions, celery, carrots, spinach, and
 beet greens, julienned.
 Set the semolina in a low sided, extremely wide vessel made of either
 terracotta or tinned copper. Season it with salt and pepper and slowly
 sprinkle it with 1/3 cup of water, spreading it around with the palm of your
 hand till the grains expand and separate. Once youUve added the water, add a
 tablespoon of oil in the same manner; it should take about a half hour to
 complete the two operations. Once the semolina is prepared, put it in a soup
 bowl and cover it with a cloth. Fold the excess fabric under the plate and
 tie it tightly with a string. 
 Boil the breast of veal in three quarts of water, so as to make broth, and,
 once youUve skimmed the pot, lower the heat  and cover it with the bowl of
 semolina. Make sure there's some space between the broth and the bottom of
 the bowl, but also make sure that the bowl forms a tight seal, so that no
 vapor escapes (if you have a double boiler large enough, it will work well
 here). Steam the semolina like this for an hour and a quarter; when its half
 cooked, stir the semolina and retie the cloth.
 Using a knife, mince the 6 ounces of veal, add to it some about two
 tablespoons of bread crumbs, and season the mixture with salt and pepper.
 Divide the mixture into meat balls about the size of a hazelnut and fry them
 in oil. Remove them when they are done, three to five minutes.
 Saute the onion in the oil first, and when it has turned translucent, add the
  remaining vegetables, season them with salt and pepper, stir them, and cook
 them until they reabsorb the water they give off. Once they are almost dry,
 dampen them either with meat sauce or broth and tomato sauce or paste, and
 cook them till done, adding the chicken liver and the meat balls.
 Remove the semolina from the bowl, set it in a pot over a low flame, and,
 without letting it come to a boil, stir in the egg yolk and some of the sauce
 from the vegetables. Mix well and transfer the semolina to a platter. It
 should be almost dry, so that it forms a mound, which you will decorate with
 the pieces of hard boiled egg. Mix the rest of the vegetables into the broth.
 Divvy the broth into as many bowls as there you have guests, and serve it
 with the semolina. In other words, each diner spoons some of the semolina
 onto his plate, and drinks the broth with a spoon while eating the semolina.
 Serve the breast of veal later as boiled dinner.