Arabic fish stew with lemon and saffron and giant couscous

Like the hot red pepper rouille, this dish is adapted from one in Saha: A chef's journey through Lebanon and Syria. The book was our birthday present for our friend Alan, whose birthday falls on New Year's Eve. This year he celebrated his birthday with a New Year's Eve bonfire on the beach at Portobello, and I made this fish stew to bring along.



I liked the fact that it had giant couscous in it. I'd never heard of it until I read the recipe, but when I mentioned it to my mum she responded with a very blase, "Oh, yes, I keep hearing about giant couscous." Where have I been? I'm afraid I didn't manage to take a picture of the stew, so here's a picture of the giant couscous instead. They look a bit like mini chickpeas. If you can't find them, I guess the best replacement would be little pasta shapes.



Ingredients
100 g moghrabieh (giant couscous)
olive oil
2 large onions, chopped
2 large leeks, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
25 saffron threads
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
3 fresh tomatoes, diced
1 long red chilli, seeded and shredded
3 bay leaves
750 ml water
1 kg of cod fillet
1/2 cup coriander leaves, chopped
squeeze of lemon juice

Method
Gently fry the onion, leeks and garlic in a large saucepan with plenty of olive oil.
Once they have softened, add the thyme leaves, and cumin and fry gently for a few more minutes.
Roast the saffron in a dry frying pan.
Add the roasted saffron, tomatoes, chilli, bay leaves, moghrabieh and water, stir well and bring to the boil.
Lower the heat, cover and simmer very gently for 30 minutes until the moghrabieh is tender.
Add the fish pieces, cover the pan and continue to simmer gently until the fish is just cooked. (Probably about 5 minutes.)
Sprinkle with chopped coriander, and serve with a piece of lemon and plenty of hot red pepper rouille.

Happy New Year!!