Moroccan Couscous And Smoked Mackerel Salad

Having never been totally convinced, we're still experimenting with dishes that combine sweet and savoury. We recently tasted a cheese macaron and although i found it rather pleasant, although equally confusing, Rach did not take to the clash of differing flavours occurring in her mouth ->

So it was with a little trepidation that i decided to take my life into my culinary hands and dish up a healthy Moroccan couscous style salad for dinner with Rachel's favourite broccoli included (hopefully this would help appease the beast) along with some potentially controversial and very sweet dried apricot also included.

The gamble luckily paid off, the mixture of the oily fish, sweet apricot, buttery couscous and fresh veg was splendid and has now been added to Rachel's weekly 'why dont we have ....... for tea tonight' request list, the seal of approval for any new dish!!

Ingredients (Serves 4) -

300g Couscous

2 tsp Ras El Hanout

Tsp Ground Coriander

Approx 1 tsp of grated ginger

2-3 Knobs of Butter

450ml Vegetable Stock

Approx 250g Broccoli, boiled until soft then chopped

Juice and Zest of half a Lemon

2 Cloves Garlic, finely chopped

Red Chili, finely chopped

1 Small Red Onion, finely chopped

100g Dried Apricots finely chopped

Toppings -

250g Hot Peppered Smoked Mackerel, flaked

100g Flaked Almonds, toasted in a dry pan until golden

• Mix the couscous with the grated ginger, Ras el hanout and the ground coriander. Dot with butter and pour over the hot stock, cover tightly and leave for 10 minutes or until all soaked in.
• Mix the couscous through with the broccoli, lemon, garlic, chili, onion and apricots until combined.
• Top with the mackerel and almonds and serve.