In the program "Historically Vôtre", on Europe 1, Olivier Poels explains the origins of an ancestral Berber dish, discovered relatively recently by France, but which the country has made for several decades one of its favorite dishes: couscous.

He took the opportunity to give us a recipe.

It is one of the favorite dishes of the French, and has been for a long time.

But France discovered couscous relatively late.

This dish is however old, much older.

Nomadic peoples, it is the Berbers who are the inventors of couscous.

Researchers have found a few pots that were probably used to make the first couscous in history.

They would go back to three centuries before Jesus Christ. 

>> Find all Olivier Poels' recipes here

Hundreds of recipes

They even found in northern Kabylia the remains of what could be the first couscous, the first course that made it possible to prepare couscous. It dates back to around the 11th century. The first cookbooks of the Islamic West of the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD already gave recipes for it. But there is no such thing as a couscous recipe. There are dozens, or even hundreds, depending on the villages, countries and traditions, but also on what you can find to put in there on the spot.

In France, we talk a little bit about couscous from the 15th and 16th centuries.

Rabelais and Dumas mention it in their stories.

But, at that time, the dish did not really impose itself and we do not know it very well.

It's couscous, it's a trio: semolina, meat and broth.

Even if, in some regions, it is done with honey.

A non-traditional "royal couscous"

And the royal couscous, which can be found in many restaurants in France, is a purely French invention.

It consists of making a richer couscous, with one or two meats and merguez.

But the couscous traditionally made by the Berbers and the Arabs has only one meat, accompanied by vegetables.

You can choose it: chicken, lamb, merguez, meatballs… In some regions, it is even cooked with fish. 

It was not until the 20th century that couscous really became popular in France with, of course, the arrival of populations from North Africa.

And in particular the Pieds-Noirs, who will use couscous as a means of maintaining social ties between them.

Chicken couscous

Ingredients:

  • 1 cut chicken

  • 2 zucchini

  • 4 carrots

  • 1 fennel

  • 1 onion

  • 400 gr of tomato puree

  • 1 tablespoon of couscous spices

The steps of the recipe:

1.

Brown the chicken pieces in olive oil

2.

Cut the vegetables into large cubes

3.

In a large saucepan, brown the tomato puree in 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

4.

Add the vegetables and spices

5.

 Wet and add the chicken

6.

Simmer for 30 minutes

7.

Place the semolina in a salad bowl, salt it and sprinkle it with a tablespoon of olive oil.

Mix well

8.

Wet with broth and cover

9.

Let swell for about 10 minutes and fluff with a fork (you can also cook the semolina to value)

10.

Serve the whole thing in a dish