"I bought a whole lot of couscous. Do you like couscous?"
"Uhhh, yeah, sure...?"
"Okay."
And then he got up and left the room. He's an unusual man. I'm starting to see where I get it from.
So with that incident in my mind as I wandered around the supermarket aimlessly, I decided to get some appropriately light and healthy (!) accompaniments to a nice bed of couscous. Here's what I picked up.
Okay, okay, so I put in a COUPLE of concessions to my usual dietary habits, namely the big tub of mascarpone cream cheese, because I really wanted to try it, as well as a big pack of streaky bacon, which isn't pictured. Otherwise this might have been... he... hea... heal-thy? Am I saying that right?
There's quite a bit of time involved in this meal because your veg are gonna get roasted, as opposed to my usual quick-fix methods of just grilling or frying everything. Also, the ingredients I used serve two big-ass plated portions, so divide everything in half if you're eating alone.
Anyway, crank your oven up to gas mark 6 (200C), and get chopping! The courgette is cut LENGTHWAYS, and hollowed out using a spoon, and if you have any sense at all, you'll de-seed everything, ESPECIALLY THE TOMATOES. Hack, sever and disembowel your veg so they look like this.
Once that's done, pile your courgettes, peppers and garlic into a deep grill tray, and splash with a tbsp of olive oil. Season using whatever herbs and spices take your fancy, I went for standard staples like oregano, thyme, parsley... and some Cayenne pepper. Just to give it the slightest kick.
Give that about 20 minutes in your oven, turning halfway through to make sure everything cooks evenly. Remove the tray after the 20 mins, and add your tomatoes and chopped chilli pepper, and any more seasoning you fancy. Pop it back in your oven for around another 20 minutes, then boil up your kettle!
You'll need the boiled water for your main filler ingredients, which are about 150g couscous, and 200g chickpeas.
During this time, you can fry up your bacon if you want to make this dish slightly more carnivorous, which of fucking course I do. Scissor it up into smaller chunks of flesh, and fry on a high heat so it crisps up pretty quick. Once it's cooked, pop it into a bowl in the oven for a couple of minutes just to dry it out and make it uber-crispy.
Once your veg have reached their final countdown, take 'em out the oven and spoon a couple of serious dollops (technical term) of mascarpone into the roasted mix, and swirl it all together. Uncover your clingfilmed bowl of couscous, and fluff it up with a fork, adding more water if you think the texture is a little too dry (duh!). Remove your bacon from the oven too.
Cover your plates with the couscous as a base, then dump all your creamy veg mix on top of it, and sprinkle with any leftover chilli peppers you have, as well as throwing a handful of crispy bacon pieces over the whole thing. Serve to your slightly deranged father, to prove that you really DO like couscous.
Also, this, because if you don't like Thin Lizzy, then... well, fuck you, thats what.
