Couscous

Couscous, the national dish of Morocco and Algeria, is a must-have dish in any Moroccan or Algerian restaurant. It consists of numerous tiny, light, tender grains arranged in a pyramid and served on a platter at the end of a meal. The name refers to both the entire dish and the tiny grains of semolina.

Water is sprinkled on semolina flour until it forms tiny pellets, which are then pushed through a sieve. Couscous is typically prepared on Fridays for lunch, when entire families gather for the week's most important meal. The dish is traditionally made in a couscoussier, a metal steamer pot with a perforated basket on top, where the stew is on the bottom and the small grains are cooking in the steam rising from the rich stew.

Couscous dishes are rarely vegetarian, despite the fact that they are frequently loaded with vegetables. Couscous with seven vegetables and couscous with raisins and caramelized onions are two classics, but there are many more variations, including spicy with chili peppers, sweet with chickpeas, lamb, and raisins, Berber-style with chicken, milk, and turnips, and fish couscous with fish, fennel stalks, and wild turnips.

There's even a dessert couscous dish made with butter and cinnamon and sugar. After the couscous has been served, it is topped with meat or fish and vegetables, and the broth from the same stew is served on the side for those who want to ladle some on top of the grains.

However, it is not the main course, as it is served at the end of a long series of courses to completely satisfy the consumer, as the popular Arabian hospitality saying goes - "No guest should go home hungry."