couscous salad of AWESOME

[Triple Zero]

which contains self-made dried tomatoes:

- half a bunch of tomatoes (i used 5) and cut the green bit out with a tiny V-cut.
- place them in an oven dish, covered in aluminium foil (as to make the cleaning afterwards easier), best if the tomatoes exactly fit, so they sort of stud eachother. have the cut-side up.
- make a mixture of 1/2 honey, 1/2 dark balsamic vinegar (i got some really fine stuff that's ripened for 3 years or something) and salt. enough salt. think of a really strong thick salad dressing
- carefully spoon part of the mixture over the tops of the tomatoes so they are completely covered, but dont get too much in between the tomatoes.
- place in the oven at low heat ("4" on my gas oven)
- go do something else for a while
- periodically re-apply the mixture to the tomatoes
- mine were done after about 2.5 hours
- let cool

the couscous salad:

- get a can of black olives without pits, throw away the "juice" and halve them
- put the olives in a bowl together with a few tablespoons of olive oil, minced chillipeppers (sambal oelek), two pressed cloves of garlic, a bunch of dried green herbs and black pepper. stir and cover.
- go do something else for a while.
- put some water in the electric waterboiler
- take the tomatoes, cut one in half, taste. yumyumyum...
- cut the other tomatoes in half.
- put the couscous in a pan
- tear open a teabag of mint-tea and sprinkle it over the couscous (if you got fresh mint, you must use that of course, and just cut it up and mix it through the salad, but it's so expensive over here.. mint tea works pretty damn well, though)
- crumble a small cube of stock-powder over the couscous
- pour the boiling water over the couscous (not too much, not too little, you know how to prepare couscous, right?) and stir a bit with a fork until the stock-powder is dissolved
- dice about half a cucumber
- dice some feta cheese (i forgot how much, sorry, just use a sensible amount)
- hopefully in the mean time the couscous is done (taste it, it's the only way to make sure), otherwise you wait a little, add more water, or start over (as you can't add less water, adding more couscous will ruin it, and couscous is cheap, so if you fucked it up just start over)
- then you just sort of throw everything together and mix it up

- and then


- you EAT IT

[East Coast Hustle]

- put some water in the electric waterboiler

[Triple Zero]

it's a device you put water in, push the button and after a few minutes (depending on how much water you used) it boils. it's both more energy-efficient as well as faster than boiling water with a gas stove.

[Jenne]

We use that because so much GODDAMMED TEA is drunk in this house.





Yes, not by me.