Name: Couscous Royal
Yield: For 4 (it’s a feast!)
Cuisine: Moroccan
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon caster sugar; 150 g tinned chickpeas; salt and freshly ground black pepper; 100 g flaked almonds; 1 teaspoon turmeric; 4 cloves; 4 onions, peeled and sliced; 2 red peppers, sliced; 4 merguez sausages; olive oil; 4 chicken legs and 4 thighs; 1 kg shoulder of lamb, cut into 2 cm chunks; 2 tablespoons ras el-hanout; 3 courgettes, cut into chunks; 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon; 3 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks; 100 g raisins; 200 g pumpkin, peeled and cut into chunks; harissa paste; 2 turnips, peeled and cut into chunks; 5 sprigs each of fresh coriander and parsley, coarsely chopped; 300 ml tomato paste; orange flower water (optional); 700 g medium-grain couscous

Preparation info

For
4
(it’s a feast!)

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Trish's French Kitchen

By Trish Deseine

Published 2008

About

This dish might not be very French, but the links between France and Morocco go back a long way. One of the greatest feasts of my life was in Marrakesh, at the home of a generous and affluent fruit grower. The meal lasted over three hours and we were served dish after dish. In between the salads, pastilia, briks, brochettes, chicken with preserved lemons and, of course, couscous, there were pauses during which chilled water with rose water would be splashed on our hands by the waiters. It w