I am starting to develop a pattern. Go on a trip. Eat food. Buy food.
I have even gotten a credit card that will allow me to check my bags for free so I can bring more food back with me.
Most recently this endeavor took me to New York City. While most women I know bring a bigger suitcase so they can bring home clothes, I only walked in one clothing store and didn’t try on a single item. I did, however, go into many cool specialty food stores, and I came back with a ton of stuff from these places. Spices, cookies, cake decorating items, hard to find food items. You get the picture.
My bag, I was scared, was going to exceed 50 pounds, so I finally quit when I had also overloaded the Citi bike we were renting to navigate to all these places. Among the goodies I came home with were Indian spices, Japanese condiments, Greek seasoning and lots of curry powder. I also got some Disco Dush for decorating cupcakes, edible decorative hearts and some harder to come by staples such as saffron rice and Israeli couscous.
Needless to say, when I got home, I was ready to get cooking. First up, chicken tikka masala; one of my favorite dishes. I bought some gorgeous tikka seasoning, so I marinated chicken overnight in a mixture of Greek yogurt, lime juice, garlic and the spice blend. We grilled the chicken on our Green Egg, and it turned out perfectly. Frankly, it would have been great just as is. 
Using some of the other spices I bought, I then made the tomato-based masala sauce. Once I had a rich sauce, I simmered the chicken and some chickpeas in it while I decided what to serve the tikka masala on. This dish can be great simply with rice or naan, but I had all this great stuff, so I decided to make something extra special.
I love Israeli couscous. The bigger (rather than the normal, small size couscous) pieces I think make for an interesting bite. They are, be warned, harder to cook at altitude. If you follow the directions on the package, make sure you plan to steam it for longer than it calls for. They won’t be done in Jackson with the normal amount of cooking time.
I made a simple, but flavorful side dish with this couscous recipe. It made the perfect bed for the chicken tikka masala but it would be great with so many dishes or even on its own.
I like the way the couscous held up under the sauce and the flavor shown threw the complexity of the tikka masala. You could serve this with almost anything as a side dish or as a bed for grilled meat. I would love to have shared my tikka masala recipe, but I don’t measure and the spices I used would be hard to get your hands on unless you plan to make a trip to New York City anytime soon!
Israeli Couscous with Kale and Pine Nuts
Ingredients
- 2 cups of cooked Israeli couscous (still warm)
- 2 cups kale, stems removed and chopped
- 3 carrots, peeled and shaved into small pieces
- zest of one lemon
- ¼ cup toasted pine nuts
- cumin oil* to taste
- salt and pepper
- *You can buy this from Vom Fass and at the Whole Grocer.
Instructions
- Take the hot couscous and put it in a bowl with the kale, carrots and lemon zest. Mix the ingredients together and stir until the kale and carrots have wilted a bit. Add the rest of the ingredients and season with salt and pepper. Toss in enough cumin oil to lightly coat the couscous and prevent it from sticking together.
