Date: 25 Aug 93 12:54:06 -0900 From: "Ari Kornfeld" I like couscous - it is very simple to prepare and has an interesting texture. The following recipe took me around 20 minutes from start to eat and that was with alot of fiddling in between. This recipe also includes "balsamic fried" onions. I love the taste (thanks FFers for introducing me to this) and will never go back to regular frying onions. "BASIC" COUSCOUS PILAF 1 cup couscous 1 1/4 cup water 1 medium onion balsamic vinegar 1 (peice???) celery currants cumin to taste chile pasillo to taste (this is not a hot chile) other spices? - chop onion, heat frying pan on medium/high flame, pour in enough balsamic v. to cover the bottom generously. add onions. stir onions until they have been coated with balsamic then cover and cook, stirring occasionally until onions are translucent but not limp. at this point the onion should be a little crunchy and very sweet. If you chopped the onion coarsely chop some more right in the pan. - while onion is frying, heat up the water to boil - chop celery - mix all dry ingredients - use lots of currants (if you don't have currants use raisins but currant are more compatible - especially in size.) - when water boils turn off heat and add all dry ingredients (or add celery a minute earlier - that's what i did last night and it worked nicely.) stir then cover for five minutes - around halfway through the five minutes add the fried onions, stir in and cover.