Clumpy couscous

Pasta, not grain

Couscous is made by rubbing semolina with water until small pellets form, then drying them. What is sold in British shops is almost always pre-steamed and dried, so it only needs rehydrating rather than cooking.

Being pasta, it has starch on the surface. Add hot liquid and that starch gelatinises, and if the grains are touching each other while it does they glue together into a solid mass.

Everything that stops it is about keeping the grains separate while they absorb: oil around each one before the liquid arrives, and physically breaking them apart afterwards.

The method that works

1. Put the dry couscous in a wide bowl rather than a deep one. Depth is what makes the middle clump.
2. Add a tablespoon of olive oil or a knob of butter and rub it through the dry grains with your fingertips until each is coated. This is the step almost everybody skips and it is the important one.
3. Season the dry couscous now — salt distributes far better before the liquid than after.
4. Pour over hot stock or water. Roughly equal volume to the couscous, and it should just cover.
5. Cover with a plate or cling film and leave for five minutes.
6. Uncover and fluff with a fork, lifting and separating rather than stirring. A fork separates; a spoon compacts.
7. If it is still clumping, rub it between your fingers to break the lumps, or push it through your hands.

The three couscous

Fine or medium couscous

The standard, tiny grains. Steeps in five minutes and does not need cooking.

Giant or pearl couscous

Also called mograbieh. Larger balls, and genuinely cooked in boiling water like pasta, then drained.

Israeli couscous

Similar to pearl couscous, often toasted first, which reduces stickiness considerably.

Fregola

Sardinian, toasted, nutty. Cooked like pasta.

Traditional couscous

Steamed in a couscoussier over a stew, in several stages, and raked between them. A different and much better food.

Rescuing a clumped bowl

• Rub it between your fingers. Most clumps break up mechanically with a little patience.
• Add a little oil and work it through, which lubricates the grains and helps them separate.
• Spread it on a tray to cool, which stops the clumping getting worse and lets you break it up.
• Warm it briefly in a pan with a little oil, breaking it up with a fork as it heats.
• Push it through a coarse sieve, which is fiddly and effective.
• Or use it as it is in a salad where it will be dressed and mixed anyway.

Making it ahead and reheating it

Couscous holds better than almost any other starch, which makes it useful and makes reheating the commonest place it clumps.

1. Cool it quickly, spread out on a tray rather than left in a bowl, and refrigerate promptly.
2. Fork it through with a little oil before it goes into the fridge, so it does not set into a block.
3. To reheat, sprinkle over a tablespoon or two of water, cover, and steam it — over a pan, in a covered dish in the oven, or briefly in a microwave.
4. Fork it through as soon as it is warm. Reheated couscous stirred with a spoon will always clump.
5. For a salad, do not reheat at all. Bring it to room temperature and dress it, which is what it is best at.
6. Dress it while it is warm if you can, because it absorbs dressing far better warm than cold.

Common questions