Fish & shellfish couscous

By: Katie & Giancarlo Caldesi
From: Sicily
Serves: 6–8

In Italy, they often use small or damaged fish, or the bones of particular kinds like scorpion fish, John Dory or gurnards, as these all have a good strong flavour to impart to a stock. These types of fish aren’t always easy to find, so I add the heads and shells of prawns (shrimp) instead. You can use a bought fish stock for this which is a lot easier but doesn’t have the flavour of a homemade one. If you do buy one, bump up the flavour by adding the cinnamon, chilli, wine and tomato purée from the recipe below.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient

For the fish broth

Quantity	Ingredient
2 tablespoons	extra-virgin olive oil
1	onion, finely chopped
1	celery stalk, finely chopped
1	carrot, finely chopped
1kg	see method for ingredients, mixed fish heads and bones and prawn heads and shells
3	garlic cloves, peeled and lightly crushed
1	bay leaf
1	small cinnamon stick
1/2-1	red chilli, finely sliced
4 tablespoons	white wine
3 tablespoons	tomato purée
2 litres	tepid water

For the couscous

Quantity	Ingredient
1	small garlic clove, peeled and finely grated
5 tablespoons	extra-virgin olive oil
25g	toasted chopped or flaked almonds
1/2	orange, finely grated zest
1/2	lemon, finely grated zest
pinch	ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon	ground cumin
300g	wheat or maize couscous
large handful	parsley, chopped
large handful	mint leaves, chopped

Fish for the filtered broth

Quantity	Ingredient
1.5kg	cleaned and scaled mixed fish such as sea bream, sea bass, king prawns
1-2 teaspoons	salt

Method

First make the fish broth. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion, celery and carrot for 10 minutes or until softened. Add the fish heads and bones, prawn heads and shells, garlic, bay leaf, cinnamon and chilli according to taste and stir through. Add the wine and allow to reduce for a few minutes then stir in the tomato purée and water and cook for around 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, put the ingredients for the couscous, apart from the herbs, into a heatproof bowl and stir together.
Cut the fish into 5–8 cm pieces.
Strain the broth through a fine sieve and pour into a saucepan. Season to taste with the salt and a little more chilli, if you like. Prepare the couscous by pouring over the hot broth following the amounts given for hot water on the packet. You should still have some broth leftover. Stir into the couscous and allow it to sit for 5 minutes, then fluff it up with a fork and add the fresh herbs.
Meanwhile, cook the fish pieces with the king prawns in the remaining hot broth until cooked through – this will take only 7–10 minutes, depending on the size of your fish and prawns. Serve the couscous on a warm serving platter accompanied by the fish broth and fish in a bowl with a ladle for guests to help themselves.

Tags:: Italy; Italian; Sicily; Sicilian

Fish & shellfish couscous

Ingredients

For the fish broth

For the couscous

Fish for the filtered broth

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