Couscous

Morocco's Friday feast: fine semolina pearls steamed three times, heaped with vegetables, chickpeas and tender meat. Ingredients: couscous semolina, lamb or chicken, carrots, zucchini, turnip, chickpeas, onion, tomato, ras el-hanout, butter, olive oil, harissa, broth. Recipe: 1) Roll and dampen the semolina; steam over the stew in a couscoussier. 2) Simmer meat and vegetables in spiced broth. 3) Steam the grains three times, fluffing with butter between rounds. 4) Mound grains, arrange meat and vegetables, ladle broth. Serve: communally, with harissa on the side. History: a Berber invention older than a thousand years, now shared across the Maghreb and honored on Fridays.