Farmers Market Cooking Class (Cumin Scented Spinach Couscous with Spring Vegetables)

Whew. What a week. A big project came to fruition, just as we hit the home stretch for a big event that is being planned for the first week of June. Late nights, early mornings, voice scritchy from talking on the phone.  Frankly, I had a blast.

Those who know me well, know that the harder I push at work, the more I need to chop, sauté and plate-up new dishes. So the timing of my first cooking class at A Southern Season this morning was perfecto!

A Southern Season is a Chapel Hill institution.  Amazing cooking store, meets outrageous specialty food store and invites a wine shop and florist over for a party. Toss in a great restaurant, phenomenal candy store and a cooking store, plus a healthy dose of Southern cuisine favorites and you’ve got A Southern Season.  Oh yeah, forgot the cheese section.  And the paper goods.  You get the point.

The class I took revolved around the Farmers Market that takes place outside the store every Saturday morning.  After donning  our aprons we headed out to the market to meet the farmers and gather up supplies for lunch.

Everything we cooked with was from the local area – farm fresh eggs (from pasture-raised chickens) and local cream for a stove-top crème brulee (watch for future posts as I make this one my own); strawberries, dried figs, local cheese, bacon, greens and garlic for a sweet & savory salad; multi-colored carrots and radishes that we tossed in olive oil and roasted; plus  tomatoes, spring garlic and cucumbers that found their way into a delightful couscous salad that I re-created tonight and will share with you here.

The best part, I spent two hours cooking and enjoying lunch with the most wonderful group of people. We chopped, chatted and learned. Then we enjoyed the fruits of our labors. If you’ve never done anything like this, I highly recommend it. 

Here is how I remembered the couscous.  I don't think we put parsley in, but I did tonight and it was tasty.  Cilantro would be good too. I also added some spring onions from last week's market. 

Cumin Scented Spinach Couscous with Spring Vegetables

Ingredients:

• 1 cup spinach couscous (if you can’t find spinach couscous, plain couscous will do.)
• 1 ¼ cup boiling water
• 1 tsp Kosher salt
• 1 large or 2 small tomatoes, cut into ½ inch dice
• ½ cup diced English cucumber (the kind that comes wrapped in plastic when you buy them at the grocery store) 
• ½ cup spring onion, cut into ½ inch dice (They look like a cross between a leek and a green onion and are VERY mild.  This is a staple in our farmers markets here, but if you can’t find them, I’d use chopped green onions or even red onion that you cut into ¼ inch dice and soak in ice water to remove the bitterness)
• ¼ cup chopped flat leaf parsley
• 2 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and ground (or if you are in a pinch like I was tonight, around 2 ½  tsp ground cumin)
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 2 Tbs good olive oil
• 2 Tbs red wine vinegar
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Method

• Combine the couscous, boiling water and 1 tsp Kosher salt in a medium sized glass bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and allow to set until the liquid is completely absorbed.  This takes about 10 – 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile, combine all of the other ingredients, except for the final dose of salt and pepper in a large bowl.
• When the couscous is absorbed and tender, fluff it with a fork.
• Then add the couscous to the vegetable mixture. 
• Stir well.
• Season to taste.
• Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.  (Note, we didn’t really have time to get it cold during class or tonight when I made this, and it was perfectly fine.)

This was a great side dish with some grilled local sausages tonight.  Tomorrow it will make a comeback with burgers when my brother’s family comes over for dinner. (Shhhhhh don’t tell them, but they are getting leftovers!)  (And thanks, again, Ed for giving me this class for Christmas. You know your sister well.)

Enjoy.