Lamb-tomato with couscous **

Couscous is our favourite source of carbohydrates. As widely known, combination of tomato and couscous is a match made in heaven (or somewhere in north Africa I suppose). The tomato based sauce would work with any kind of meat, chicken is quite popular I reckon, but lamb is my choice.



(serves 4-5)
800g Lamb (any part you can get):
2 tins of whole tomatoes
1/2 cup of tomato pures
3 bell peppers
3 cloves of garlic
1 carrot
1 onion
salt and pepper
2 table spoon of olive oil
1/2 cup of wine (red or white)
chicken soup stock
1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
a bit of dried thyme
1 dried leaf of laurel

couscous 90g/person
a good pinch of salt
boiling water 90ml/person
butter 10g/person

Cut up the meat into about 1/2-1/4 of your fist size as well as the bell peppers. Grate the carrot, finely chop the onion and squash the garlic cloves.

Put the olive oil and squashed garlic into the deep cooking pan and start heating it with moderate heat. Put the onion and the carrot when it starts to sizzle. lower the heat and mix till the onion bits become translucent. Add the lamb, season it with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper. Put wine when the surface of the meat is cooked, add bell peppers and thyme, mix it a bit before you add tomatoes (whole and pured). Add water to cover the ingredients in the pan, put a laurel leaf and a cube of soup stock. Cook it on low heat for approx. 2hrs. Oh and put a lid on, just leave a bit of space for the pressure to escape.
When it is almost done, remove the lid to reduce the liquid and thicken the sauce.

The orhodox way to prepare the couscous is to steam it, but we do it in a fast and easy way, and it works well for us.
When the sauce is ready, put the couscous in a bowl with a pinch of salt and mix it. Add the calculated amont of boiling hot water, put a lid on and wait for 5-7min. Add some butter and mix it with a fork (not a spoon, beause it will become claggy).....and dinner is ready!