Tunisian-American Fish Couscous w/ Striped Bass & and Flound

Amarante

Wed, Jul 26 2017, 3:16 pm

Looks complicated and not an every day dish. But it's actually easy and much can be made ahead of time. Steps 1 through 4

Tunisian-American Fish Couscous with Striped Bass and Flounder

Excerpt From: Nathan, Joan - The New American Cooking

Ever since Jeffrey Steingarten, food writer for Vogue magazine, told me about Tunisian fish couscous, I’ve been in search of the dish. When I was invited to attend a fundraiser in Tiburon, California, where Simone Joseph, who hails from the Tunisian port town of Sousse, told me she was going to make her family’s version of the dish, I readily accepted.

Her couscous is a meal in itself: a vegetable fish soup, followed by couscous, fish balls, and poached fish. I returned home determined to translate and simplify this dish for busy Americans, who are always looking for the exotic, yet easy.
Most of this recipe can be prepped in advance and finished with a few minutes of simmering before serving. If you do steps one through four several hours or even a day ahead, the recipe is quite simple. You can use harissa or any other hot sauce to spice it up. This is not an everyday dish, but one well worth the effort.

YIELD: 8–10 SERVINGS

BROTH

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1½ medium onions, diced
2 celery stalks, cut in 6 pieces”
3 carrots, peeled and quartered
3 medium tomatoes, peeled and quartered
4 cups water
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

FISH BALLS AND FISH

1½ pounds fresh soft-flesh white fish like sole, flounder, or whiting
¾-1 cup dry bread crumbs
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
¼ teaspoon pepper
1½ onions, roughly chopped (about 1½ cups)
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 cups chopped fresh cilantro
6 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
7 cloves garlic
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup water
2 pounds fresh fillets of striped bass, Chilean sea bass, grouper, or your favorite firm white fish
3 scallions, diced
½ cup snipped fresh dill
1 teaspoon-2 tablespoons harissa or other hot sauce
1 pound couscous
3 zucchini or yellow squash, quartered lengthwise

1. To make the broth, heat the olive oil in a heavy soup pot over medium heat. Sauté the onions until they are translucent, then add the celery stalks, carrots, and tomatoes. Stir in water, tomato paste, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring everything to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and set it aside.

2. To make the fish balls, process the soft white fish, ¾ cup of the bread crumbs, the eggs, salt, pepper, onions, parsley, 1 cup of the cilantro, 2 tablespoons of the mint, 4 cloves of the garlic, and the cinnamon in a food processor equipped with a steel blade. Pulse until all of the ingredients are thoroughly blended. The texture should be pastelike, not mushy. If it’s too thin, add some more bread crumbs; if too thick, add a little water. Refrigerate the fish mixture for at least a half hour.

3. To form the balls, dip your hands into cold water and mold the fish mixture into balls a little larger than walnuts and place them on a large plate. You should have about 2 dozen balls.

4. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy frying pan and sauté the remaining 3 cloves of garlic. Remove the garlic before it burns and becomes bitter. Add the fish balls and brown them on all sides. You don’t want to crowd the pan, so depending on the size of your pan, you might have to do this in 2 batches.

5. Dilute the tomato paste in the cup of water and pour into the frying pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer all of the fish balls, uncovered, for a few minutes, to just coat them with the sauce. Set aside.

6. Cover the fish fillets with the remaining cup of cilantro (reserving a bit for garnish), the spring onions, fresh dill, the remaining 4 tablespoons of mint, a few grinds of pepper, and 1 teaspoon of the harissa or hot sauce. Go lightly with the harissa; you can always add more later if you want to make the sauce spicier.

7. Just before serving, cook the couscous according to the package instructions.

8. Discard the celery from the vegetable broth and transfer the broth to a wide 10-quart pot, such as the base of a couscousière or a casserole large enough to hold the fish fillets in a single layer. Bring the broth to a boil and add the zucchini and the herb-covered fish fillets. Top with the fish balls, adding a cup or so of water if needed, to almost cover. Reduce the heat, cover the pot, and simmer until the fish fillets are cooked, about 10–15 minutes.

9. Pile the couscous in a pyramid on a big serving platter. Arrange the fish balls and the vegetables around the couscous. Smother with some of the broth and sprinkle on the reserved cilantro. Serve the fish fillets on a separate platter. Pour the extra harissa into a little bowl and serve the dish with cooked salads like turnip and orange salad or a tomato salad on the side.