Alton Brown’s Steamed Couscous

From watching Food Network, I have heard about couscous several times. I had it for the first time at a work Christmas party, and thought it would be a useful thing to have in my kitchen. I finally got around to buying some, so that I could serve it as the base for my Moroccan inspired pot roast. So when I was looking up to prepare the couscous, I turned to my favorite source of all things culinary – Alton Brown. His recommend way of preparing couscous was to steam it, not once, but twice. He promised this would produce a fluffy dish, that wasn’t gummy. I set out to try it his way. Below you will find my notes from the experience. For the full recipe, visit Food Network’s website.

1. Alton used a steamer pot for his couscous. I did not own one of those. So I used a regular pot with a strainer over top. The strainer was fine enough not to allow any of the grains to fall through.

2. After I steamed them for about 15 minutes, I dumped them onto a sheet pan and added cold water. Now you want to coat them in oil and then finish steaming. This is what prevents them from becoming gummy. In order to coat them in oil, you need to spray on some oil. Alton used an oil sprayer. You can just use a can of cooking spray, but it would be cool to have one of those oil spritzers!

3. Then after another 10 minutes of steaming, the couscous was perfectly done. Like Alton promised, it was not gummy at all, nice and fluffy.

This method is a great and easy way to cook couscous. I was very happy with the way it turned out. My kids like eating the couscous as is. You should have seen the mess my 16 month old made! I would use it as just a regular side again.