Cous Cous stuffed Acorn Squash

So, I went to the farmer’s market looking for some sweet peppers.  Into the booth that has some extraordinary variety of peppers I went.  And, then, right there, there were these little peppers that looked just like Thai(ish) eggplants. And, they were right next to all the eggplants…  But, they were orange and there was a sign in the middle of them saying they were a sweet pepper.  Hmm. So, I decided to buy them – for adventure…  A little inquiry and investigation, and it turns out they’re actually Turkish eggplants…  That explains why they didn’t look like peppers, doesn’t it

The Components:

Cous Cous:

• brought 1 cup of chicken stock with a pinch of salt to a rolling boil.
• stirred in 1 cup of cous cous.
• Let sit, off heat, for a while.
• fluffed with fork.

Seasoning:

• ground some cumin seed.
• minced (pre-sliced) raw almonds very very finely.
• put in some cinnamon.
• warmed it all in a frying pan until fragrant.
• dumped into a bowl with a bunch of brown sugar.
• added salt
• & pepper
• & a pinch of red pepper flakes

(Most of the) Veggies:

• chopped an:
• onion.
• celery.
• carrot.
• sautéed in a tiny amount of oil, with a lid on, stirring occasionally over medium heat, until tender.
• turned off heat
• dumped in the seasoning mix, stirred.
• dumped seasoned veggies into cous cous, stir/fluffed.

Eggplant:

• cut into thin half-round slices.
• tossed in olive oil and salt.
• arranged on the microwave/convection oven combo’s baking sheet.
• put in the combo oven on “grill” setting, without the riser that brings things close to the heating element.
• “grilled” for a little short of twenty minutes.
• tasted the slices, cursed, swore, wished I had peeled the eggplants first.
• tediously cut the skins off of all the cooked eggplants slices.
• dumped the de-skinned slices into the cous cous and stir/fluffed.

Acorn Squash:

• cut the squash in half.
• removed seeds (then cleaned them, baked them and ate them while I was cooking everything else).
• put the squash halves face down in about ½ an inch of water, in a baking pan.
• roasted in the oven at 350ºF for about 40 minutes, until soft.
• allowed to cool.
• scraped out the flesh with a spoon.

Pork:

• barely, just barely, thawed out a pork chop.
• removed the bone and fat.
• chopped the almost frozen pork chop into very very small cubes.
• tossed in olive oil with salt and pepper.
• by this time, it was finished thawing.
• put in the combo oven on “grill” setting, with the riser so that is was close to the heating element.
• “grilled” for 15 minutes, until it was a little tough, but not too tough…

Assembly:

• shoveled the cous cous, veggie, & squash mixture into the half shells of the acorn squash.
• sprinkled with dry parsley.
• topped with the diced pork.
• garnished with lemon zest.

Good: Light, low fat, a handful of different veggies, seasonings I don’t eat very often.  And, mmm does cumin & cinamon remind me of tasty Moroccan food.

Otherwise: There are probably a handful of things I could have done to get some more flavor into this.  Whatever they are, I should have done one of them…  Maybe I should have put in slightly more seasoning mix.  I think though, that it was the squash that was lacking.  If I had cut up the squash into little cubes, spiced, oiled, and roasted it like that, I could have brought a lot better flavor out of it.  Trouble is, of course, if I had done that, I wouldn’t be able to use the emptied out shells to serve it in.