Icarus's blog: "Hope- by any other name."

This is a morrocan inspired dish, and it capitalizes on very wild, very diverse flavors that I had floating in my fridge nearly turning bad, initially it started with a liver flavored couscous I had made months ago, not much has changed, and yet, quite a bit has.

For the base of this dish you really need nothing more than couscous and a soft liver sausage like a patte or branschweiger (pork liver) and a broth to cook the couscous in- as I find there is NO REASON to cook couscous in water when one can use broth and add a flavor element.

Now as I said- this was a bit of a bit of a fridge raid, the flavors are best after some time has passed. I had some souring plain yogurt,

some shellfish broth (this stuff was funky even before it had sat in my fridge a couple weeks- it was almost an americaine sauce- crawdads and some tomato paste and pepper pure` I didn't QUITE have the technique and equipment down for making a true americaine),

dry aged lamb (where the edges were starting to get translucent and the scent of blood had seeped into the lamb) ((you could use mutton on this dish- in fact I think I'd prefer it if I could get some, the intensity of mutton is much higher than that of even dry aged lamb))

about 3 tablespoons of liver spread (and yes, it neutralizes the tanginess of the liver when mixed into couscous, don't be a pussy, you'd like anchioves too if you gave em a chance)

Plain yogurt as needed- we'll get to this in a second

a clove of garlic or two, and some thick cut ribbons of onion, and herbs of your choice, when making non european lamb, I always reach for rosemary cumin salt and pepper. You could use coarse ground mustard, some thyme, some fennel, and some banana peppers here- but let's stick to the plan for now.

Saute the onions and lamb until the lamb is a little browned on the sides and the onions start giving a little juice, salt helps here, toss in the rosemary leaves and cumin (a couple pinches of both really) throw in the garlic and start a boil or simmer on the crawdad broth (or very flavorful broth of your choice) in a bowl in the microwave- lil over a minute works here. When that's done pour in a little UNDER a cup of couscous- if you made a cup of broth add about 90% of a cup. It's a weird and inexact science but play with couscous long enough and you get it. Stir, and let that sit covered for five minutes so the couscous can cook and bloom. You COULD add spices here I have in the past, but the sauce is on its way and all things will be clear soon-

Get back to that saute, grab your liver paste and add dolops of it into the frying pan grab yourself a soft whisking device (don't want to scratch any nonstick) and begin mashing and thinning the liver into a thin consistency, if you start smelling roasted garlic or roasted liver you need to hurry up with the whisking and back the heat down a touch, I find a wire whisk is best here as the liver tends to stay pastey and in a tight form so you can get it stuck to the whisk and fling it with a good whack on the lip of the pan. When you've got a nice fairly distributed round of liver it's time for the yogurt... you do NOT want this to taste like yogurt. You want this dish to taste like crazy gamey wild goat and manly fresh kills... and herbs. Throughout this process I've added salt where I've deamed it necessary on taste test. Back the heat down to a medium low~ low, add the yogurt in teaspoons at a time until the liver has a consistency of a gravy, not a pan sauce, not a broth, not a white sauce, a gravy, you want it to have some body and you want it to retain the flavors of the onions lamb and liver. Here is a good time to throw in fresh ground pepper since ... we're about done and it won't burn. The couscous should be done by about now, grab the bowl, take off the lid, and dump the whole damn thing into the liver onions and lamb skillet. Stir until distributed, pour back into your bowl and grab your favorite spoon.

You could garnish, you could make a little ring mold of this stuff and serve it to several friends with dainty lil crisps of lardon and lamb or a sprig of mint on top of a dollop of yogurt. You could use finely cubed liver and thin slices of mutton- you could Jazz the ever living christ out of this dish, a drizzle here, a lump of finely diced herbage or vegetables there. It'd look great with large couscous instead of my standard faire of the tiny

Don't.

Not today anyway.

Take your big bowl of protein and carbs and FLAVOR and eat, like a big hungry man that ate things like hunted game and every edible hunk of animal. It's good, and its good for you.

This stuff gets me hot and bothered for hagas or honest to god humble pie.

But yeah... you could nice it up real easy, couscous and ring molds are good for that stuff.

Have an aversion to pork? You can find patte in most midsized markets now- just find the specialty cheeses. Have an aversion to gamey nonbeef, nonchicken... then what the fuck are you reading this for? There's more to life than hamburgers and chicken tenders. Try something new, you might scare yourself and taste something wonderful.

The finish is rich, wild, tangy and exoticly spiced, and could totally use an au juis or a firm piece of liver/bacon/somethingrichandfattyandcrispy on top.

I think we can honestly say this is version 2 of my liver couscous. The king is dead, all hail the king.

It's kinda fun watching my dishes mature.