Couscous, Jamie Oliver and Galette

My friend Samya is moving to Lebanon in a week, and I'll be so sad to see her go. She really inspires me though, moving away like that and pursuing her dreams. It makes me stay on track with my own goals.

The other day I casually mentioned that she should stay with me in Waterloo for a while, before she goes. "We could study, and cook and enjoy nature!" I prattled on, probably with some sort of insane expression. To my surprise and delight she actually took me up on my offer!

For our lunch menu, we went for Epicurious's Israeli Couscous with Roasted Butternut Squash recipe... although we had to make it student style - aka no preserved lemon (just a generous squirt of fresh lemon juice) and no cinnamon stick.



We were also too poor for pine nuts, haha, so we substituted them with raw crushed almonds... the golden raisins were fished out of a bag of trail mix I had... :|





I'm not crazy about regular couscous, I find the texture too fine and nubbly. But Israeli couscous? I adore it. Its pearls are just large enough to retain some bite, and yet it doesn't have the heavy starchiness that rice often has. I will say that I'd like to try a more untraditional recipe next time, something more savoury rather than the traditional dried fruit/nut route.

For dinner we tried out Jamie Oliver's Pan Cooked Chicken with Asparagus, Pancetta and Olives. Again, some alterations and substitutions were made. Try as I might I still don't like olives, so we cancelled those, and instead of pancetta we went for a more economical slab of President's Choice bacon. It's useful to note that when Jamie says "small knob unsalted butter" in the ingredients list, he really means "GOOD knob" like he says in the directions. The flavor really smoothes out when you're liberal with the butter.





And for dessert, Samya whipped up a yummy rustic berry galette. Délicieux!