Jumbo Couscous with Moroccan Lamb

Last year, I had a my first attempt at recreating a dish I had eaten at a restaurant purely and utterly from taste bud memory. The results were actually quite surprising, surprising in that it actually tasted quite good and didn't end up as a pile of mashed flavours. The snazzy dessert from Cafe Vue did wonders to boost my confidence, and thought me a valuable lesson on portion control, a full bowl of white chocolate mousse does not equal one serve. Recently, I tempted fate and had another go at recreating a dish I had tried at Bar Lourinha. And interestingly, the results were even better than my Cafe Vue attempt!

I really enjoyed the jumbo couscous with Moroccan lamb on the night. The flavours were intense, the dish was satisfying and definitely left me wanting more. Since I’m currently trying to avoid my McConnel curse, going back to Bar Lourinha just to have a bowl of this couscous is not ideal. Surely it can’t be that hard right, I’ll just try to make it myself at home.
I’m glad to report that the results were fantastic. No, the flavours weren’t quite the same, but the backbones were all there. It’s extremely hard to recreate the exact same spices as the original dish, to be honest I think mine is a little too simple. But in the end, the home version won a lot of fans - Daz and I!! It was warm and comforting. So creamy with the addition of sour cream, those little morsels of Moroccan flavoured lamb just popped in your mouth and my favourite of all was the texture component from the crushed pistachios, just down right delicious. Once again I failed to learn my lesson regarding portion control, I cooked enough to serve 4, between Daz and I the whole lot was gone before 10pm. Sigh.



One thing that certainly caught my eye when the jumbo couscous came to our table was the sheer size of the couscous. I know the menu said jumbo, but I wasn’t quite expecting it to be that big! And sadly that is the first point of difference between my couscous and Bar Lourinha’s. Mine isn’t quite as big, and on this occasion - to me size really does matter! I cooked the couscous al dente, perhaps if I had cooked the couscous a little longer it would have fluffed up more, but it definitely wouldn’t have become jumbo, extra large maybe.....certainly not jumbo.

The original Bar Lourinha dish

To me, the key step in this entire dish is the chicken stock. It must be full of flavour, and properly reduced to get all that gelatinous texture from the bird into the soup. Its so crucial as the stock is what gives the couscous its flavour and some of its creamy buttery texture. I know this make the recipe extremely long and lets face it troublesome, but there are places that sell good quality chicken stock already made. Well worth the time and effort.

By the way, you're probably wondering where I got my jumbo couscous from. There are plenty of pearl couscous products in the supermarkets at the moment, but this recipe calls for something grander! On a lazy afternoon while chomping on a South Melbourne Market dim sum, I stumbled across a packet of giant Couscous in front of the nut shop, so naturally I bought it. Later while at the other nut, I think it was Rita's, I noticed they sold the same Couscous by the kilo. Giant Couscous everywhere!



There’s a couple of things I would have done differently, I would cook the lamb slower and for longer. I found the lamb in my dish a little chewy compared to the original. I think it needs to completely melt in your mouth without the need to chew, chewing is over rated! I also think I need to tweak the spices, I suspect Bar Lourinha probably uses a multitude of other spices I haven’t considered. And I would cook the couscous for a lot longer. I was growing extremely impatient with the whole dish, ok I lie....I was hungry so as soon as the couscous was cooked I plated up. Once again, I really think it needs to be very soft and fluffy.



I’ve included the recipe the way I made it on the day, without my recommended changes. So in the end, the dish doesn’t taste exactly like the original although it does come pretty close. Regardless, I will be making it again and again and probably again.

Jumbo Couscous with Moroccan Lamb
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

Chicken Stock (this can be prepared in advance and frozen)

1 medium sized boiler hen, rinsed and cut into quarters
2 onions, cut into quarters
2 celery stalk, coarsely chopped
2 carrot, coarsely chopped
1 leek, white part only, coarsely chopped
1 garlic head, broken into individual cloves
half a bunch of thyme
a few sprigs of rosemary
10-15 sage leaves
5 or 6 bay leaves
1 tsp white peppercorns
1 tsp black peppercorns

Moroccan Spiced Lamb

Small leg of lamb (under 1kg)
2 tsp Salt
2 tsp black Pepper
1 tsp Ginger powder
1 tsp ground Turmeric
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp ground Cumin
1 tsp chili powder
3 cloves of garlic, mashed into a paste
4 tbs olive oil

Jumbo Couscous

2 cups of giant couscous
3 shallots, diced very finely
3 cloves of garlic, diced very thinly
2 tbsp olive oil
1-1.5liters of chicken stock
Diced Moroccan spiced lamb
100g of sour cream
a few springs of flat leaf parsley
2-3 tsp paprika
50 grams of toasted and crushed pistachios

METHOD

For Chicken Stock

1. Place all ingredients in a large pot. Cover with plenty of cold water. 4-5 liters. Place over medium high heat and bring to the boil, once boiling reduce heat and allow it to gently simmer. Simmer for 3-4 hours. During the cooking time, skim as much as the sum and impurities from the stock. Allow to cook until the stock becomes well flavoured with the chicken and vegetables and reduced by half. Remove the chicken carcass and as much of the vegetables and herbs as possible, then strain to remove any small portions. Place in a suitably sized container and allow to cool with the lid off. Once the stock has cooled, place in the fridge and allow the fat that has settled on the top to solidify, this step my take a couple of hours. Once the fat has solidified, skim it off and your stock is ready to be used, this recipe makes 2-3 liters, depending on how much the stock is reduced. I divide my stock into small portions and place in the freezer. That way I will only defrost as much as I really require.

For Moroccan Spiced Lamb

1. Pre-heat oven to the highest temperature it will go. The oven needs to be really hot so the meat will quickly sear when its placed in the oven, this will lock in the juices and forming a spice crust.

2. Place all herbs and spices in a bowl, I use a mortar and pestle because I tend to buy whole spices, but mixing the ground spices together is just as effective. Add the garlic paste and olive oil and combine to make a spice paste. Cover the entire lamb leg with the spice rub and place on a baking tray.

3. Place lamb into hot over for 15-20 minutes, make sure to keep an eye on it as it can quickly begin to brown. We want it to brown, but not burn. Reduce temperature to 180-190C and cook for a further 45 min-1hr, cook until the meat is still pink in the middle. As I mentioned earlier, next time I would reduce the temperature to 150-160C and cook for much longer.

4. Allow the meat to rest for 15-20 minutes and then cut into small bite size chunks. The lamb can be prepared well in advance as it will be re-warm when the couscous is cooked.

For Couscous

1. Place chicken stock in a sauce pan and bring to the boil, reduce heat and allow to stay hot.

2. In the large frying pan, over medium heat add olive oil add garlic and shallots and saute until tender and fragrant. Add the couscous and lightly toast for until all the couscous has become covered in the oil, similar to risotto.

3. Add half the hot chicken stock and cook, while occasionally stirring, until all the liquid has been absorbed. Add a few ladle's worth of stock to the pan and allow the stock to be absorbed, repeat until the couscous is cooked and fluffy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add lamb and cook until all ingredients have warmed.

4. To serve, place couscous on a dish, add a dollop of sour cream, sprinkle with a little paprika and pistachios and garnish with parsley.



I dare you to only eat one serve!!

Bar Lourinha

Dining Date: April 2010
2010 Rating: 79th, 1 Star
Chef: Matt McConnell
Location: 37 Little Collins St, Melbourne, (03) 9663 7890
Website: www.barlourinha.com.au

For some reason Bar Lourinhã and I don’t have a good relationship with each other, I discovered this before I even stepped through the doors. We’ve attempted twice to have dinner at the hip establishment. The first time ended with Daz and I wondering the streets looking for the door, yes it was a Sunday, and yes they were closed....but I didn’t know that at the time! We ended up eating takeaway and going home depressed. On the next encounter we decided to head on down before a comedy show during the Melbourne Comedy Festival. I had left ourselves loads of time, and briefed everyone – telling them that the first person to arrive was to grab a table, or at least start waiting for a table. Somehow we got stuck in traffic. For an agonising 45 minutes we were less than 5 minutes away by foot. I contemplated parking the car in the middle of traffic, but then thought better of it when I realised my car might come in handy when getting us home. So we were stuck slowly growing more impatient and hungry, I’m not sure which of the two is worse! We finally made it to the restaurant, greeted by cold stares....and this from the staff.....not our friends! I felt terrible. I very rarely show up late, and if I do...its never by more than 5 minutes. So Daz and I sat down, looking like a pair of octogenarians after a Senior Olympics marathon. I was determined to not let the stress and embarrassment ruin my night, so I opened the menu and started to order.

First some nibbles - Spiced almonds, and I was in desperate need for a drink, so settled for the Conejitos - Millers, Cointreau, cucumber, lemon & fluff. The drink was exactly what I needed. Tangy and refreshing. The fluff was a favourite of mine, I suspect it was made from egg white, when it arrived at the table everyone ooed. After a quick pass around, very little of the conejito was left. Apologies for the photo’s, its quite dark in the bar and later in the meal I resorted to using the flash, bad move!



What I really like about Bar Lourinhã is like all other “share plate” places is that if you’re still feeling a little hungry, you can always order more. With the service so rapid at Bar Lourinhã, you don’t feel like you’re going to starve while waiting for the dish to arrive.

Here are some of the dishes we tried. Steamed mussels, with white wine, onions and lashings of olive oil. Some crusty rye bread accompanied this dish, perfect for mopping up all those juices.





Yellow tail kingfish 'pancetta' & lemon oil. Extremely thin slices of king fish, which were so delicately cut that you could literally see through them. For me the lemon oil was too over powering. They managed to pack a hefty zest of lemon into the oil and to me I thought it was too much. It would have been perfect if there were only a few drops of the olive. So overall I wasn’t a huge fan of this one.



Smoked corn salad. Oh yum, I couldn’t get enough of this salad. It had smoked corn, coriander, potato, pea shoots, red onion and delicious olive oil. The oil coated every component in the dish with a jelly like consistency, when you put it in your mouth they all swam together like a synchronised swimming event, just delicious.



Spiced chickpea & spinach. This was a very satisfying dish. The chickpeas added some fibre to the meal, instantly filling us up. I’m a little biased towards this dish, I’m a big fan of chickpeas and spinach, so this was a winner for me. I especially like the lemon juice and zest, this dish would have been fantastic accompanied by something really fatty like crispy pork belly.



Jumbo cous cous with grilled Moroccan lamb, and when we say jumbo we mean jumbo!! I’ve had pearl couscous before, but never jumbo. They were literally the size of small gnocchi. This was another stand out dish, the lamb was tender and spiced nicely, there was sour cream folded through giving the dish creaminess, and pistachios to add an nice crunchy texture to the chewy couscous. Personally I would have been more generous with the lamb, but I've always been greedy!



Wagyu 'carne cruda' & shaved horseradish. Dismal failure! I’m not scared to say it either. The horseradish was too dry. It needed to be more of a cream to bring all the meat and components on the plate together. It was literally just a hunk of chopped up raw meat, with lemon zest through it. I was really disappointed by this dish. But hey one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure.



Onto dessert, Orange crema & blood orange caramel. YUMMO! This was the perfect dessert, the orange crema tasted like it was made from sour cream or buttermilk, I can’t describe it, it just had a tangy element that wasn’t citrus. The blood orange caramel was divine, refreshing and luscious. I love this. I hate that I had to share it!!



Churros & dulce de leche....all I have to say is......NEXT!!



I can’t remember what this dessert was called, I think it was called black and white, but I could be wrong. It was a coffee jelly with a vanilla and almond sorbet. It was a perfect way to end the meal, instead of tea and coffee, have some coffee jelly. Delicious.



There were some clear hit and misses on the night. I’ll like to go again and try all the dished I didn’t get a chance to sample. I’m sure there would be more hits and misses, but that’s the nature of eating dinner!

The Results - Spiced Chocolate Mousse

Sunday was a beautifully warm day, and this dessert topped the day off perfectly. Although, everyone was a little too full from the bbq, but the spiciness and lightness of the mousse went down well.

So here is the picture of the great achievement.....

I managed to stuff this recipe up, or so I thought. I used 70% dark chocolate as apposed to the 54% cocoa chocolate suggested in the recipe. This isn’t a problem, I like the bitterness and intenseness of the dark chocolate, but its up to the individual. I suggest tasting the mixture before adding the cream, if its not sweet enough, add a little castor sugar. If you use the 54% cocoa chocolate, this should be sweet enough.

My main problem was when I added the egg yolks to the melted chocolate. You are "supposed" to wait until the chocolate is cooled right down, so when you add the egg yolks you don't scramble them. Because I am so impatient and I wanted to eat the mousse as quickly as possible, I added the eggs when the chocolate was still too warm. And of course I ended up with something that looked alot more like fudge, rather than the glossy chocolate mixture I was expecting. So my first thought was, "stuff it, start again and turn this stuff into some awesome chocolate fudge brownies". So I took my egg whites (that were at room temperature, really important because if they are at room temperature they become really fluffy and keep more air in them), gave them a bit of a beat so they were foamy and added them to the chocolate/cooked egg yolk mixture. I noticed that the mixture was a bit lumpy so I gave it a really good beat, as I was beating the eggs I noticed that they were getting really fluffy and were holding alot of air. So I kept beating until I got a very moussy consistency. Some how I had managed to rescue the whole thing. Then I added my cream and folded the whole lot together.

The end result was really yummy. Yes, if I had started again I would have gotten a much more airy mousse, but my version tasted so good that I don’t care. So if you manage to cook your egg yolks like me, don’t worry, just add the eggwhites (only slightly beaten) to the mixture and continue from there. It worked a treat for me. I will definitely be doing this recipe again, but maybe next time I will try nutmeg only.....just to spice things up a little.

Spiced Chocolate Mousse

Restaurant: Bar Lourinha (Victoria)

Recipe from Chef Matt McConnel (appeared in Australian Gourmet traveler: October 2007)

2009 Rating: Number 93, 1 Star

This weekend we're having a bunch of friends over for a nice and relaxing bbq in the sunshine. As the temperature is set to hit 28C, I thought I might prepare a nice light dessert. Considering there will be alot of meat on offer, it might serve as a welcomed end to the day.

So here is the recipe:

Prep time 5 mins, cook 10 mins (plus setting)

Serves 6

MOUSSE

180 gm dark chocolate (54% coccoa solids), coarsely chopped

3 eggs, at room temperature, separated

1/4 tsp each of ground cinnamon, ground allspice and chilli powder

224 mL thickened cream, lightly whipped

HAZELNUT PRALINE

100 gm hazelnuts, roasted and skins removed

100 gm caster sugar

METHOD

1. Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water, turn off heat and cool, add yolks and stir to combine, then add spices. Add cream and fold through to combine. In a separate bowl, beat eggwhites until soft peaks form, then add to chocolate mixture and fold to combine. The mousse should be smooth and even in colour. Spoon into six 1/2 cup capacity moulds and refrigerated for 3 hours or until set.

2. For hazelnut praline, place hazel nuts on baking paper-lined oven tray. Combine sugar and 2 tbsp water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil over medium heat for 5-10 minutes or until light caramel in colour, then pour over hazelnuts and cool completely. Coarsely chop.

3. To serve, scatter mousse with praline and serve immediately.

Results here