It's Barefoot Thursday!Barefoot Bloggers are a group of bloggers that twice a month prepare a (almost always) delicious recipe from the Barefoot Contessa Ina Garten. This weeks recipe was selected by Ellyn of Recipe Collector and Tester . She chose Curried Couscous from the Barefoot Contessa cookbook. Well I'm going to be totally up front with you...I did not want to like this recipe. I have long turned my nose up at all things "curried"-and honestly only because of the smell; I just can't stand the smell of curry. But I made the recipe thinking Ina has never steered me wrong and why would I let my aberrant fear of curry stand in the way of a potentially delicious dinner? Well..she did it again-it was a fabulous recipe. I made one omission and one addition (and one little tweak-for personal taste). The omission was the raisins/currants. I only like raisins if they are covered in chocolate and since I did not think that chocolate would be a good addition omission seemed the only option-my kids were grateful for that. (And speaking of my kids, they don't really care for nuts so while I did add the almonds to the final dish I photographed the dish before stirring them in!)The addition was to take an entire rotisserie chicken, dice and toss in...it was delicious and made it a meal. And now for the tweak...I am almost embarrassed about the tweak. In my heart I knew that Ina would know just the right amount of each ingredient, but when it came to adding in the curry my olfactory receptors seemed to take over and make me decrease the curry to 1/2 teaspoon...it was curried enough.Curried CouscousCopyright, 1999, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook1 1/2 cups couscous1 tablespoon unsalted butter1 1/2 cups boiling water1/4 cup plain yogurt1/4 cup good olive oil1 teaspoon white wine vinegar1 teaspoon curry powder1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper1/2 cup small-diced carrots1/2 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley1/2 cup dried currants or raisins1/4 cup blanched sliced almonds2 scallions, thinly sliced (white and green parts)1/4 cup small-diced red onionDirections:Place the couscous in a medium bowl. Melt the butter in the boiling water and pour over the couscous to soak for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.Whisk together the yogurt, olive oil, vinegar, curry, turmeric, salt, and pepper. Pour over the fluffed couscous, and mix well with a fork. Add the carrots, parsley, currants, almonds, scallions, and the red onions, mix well and season to taste. Serve at room temperature. (Sorry about this photo...it's been dark and rainy around here the last few days and so hard to get a bright shot!:))
