Couscous bel Hlib

Couscous bel hlib — couscous with milk — is the simplest Moroccan couscous preparation: steamed couscous served in a bowl of warm milk with butter and sugar. It is a rural, comfort-food dish, eaten for breakfast on cold mornings or as a light supper, and it is especially given to children and the elderly because it is soft, nourishing and easy to eat. In the Moroccan countryside, where milk was once drawn from the family cow or goat and couscous was the daily grain, this combination was the most natural thing in the world. It has no spice, no meat, no vegetables, just grain, milk and butter, and its plainness is the point.

The couscous is soft and warm in sweet milk, the butter melts into it, and the whole bowl is gentle, filling and soothing. It tastes like a Moroccan childhood morning.

The couscous, already steamed, rehydrates further in the warm milk, swelling slightly and softening, which is why this dish has a porridge-like texture rather than the distinct grain of a savory couscous. The milk must be warm, not cold: cold milk does not penetrate the grain, and the couscous sits on the bottom hard while the milk floats on top. The butter is stirred in last, after the grain has absorbed the milk, so it coats the couscous rather than being absorbed by it. Sugar dissolves into the milk, sweetening from within.