So Nice I Screwed it up Twice

This is the entry wherein we discover my central flaw in the kitchen: I like to cook like I know what I am doing, but mostly I do not. I can follow a recipe quite well, but I find it basically impossible to resist the techniques of more experienced cooks -- namely, the one where they don't measure spices.

I found another recipe on Apartment Therapy's Kitchen site. Israeli Couscous with Chard. It is a pretty simple affair, really. Ingredients are:

1 3/4 cup chicken or vegetable broth

1 1/4 cup Harvest Grain Blend or Israeli couscous

Drizzle olive oil

3 large cloves garlic

1 teaspoon whole white cumin

1 dried red chili pepper (optional)

4 cups chopped chard

1/4 cup chicken or vegetable broth

1 teaspoon coarse salt

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Heat the broth to boiling in a small saucepan. Stir in the
grains and lower the heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for about 10-14 minutes.
Remove the lid and set aside. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-low heat. Sliver the garlic and cook it on low heat with the cumin and chili pepper until soft and fragrant. Don't let it brown. Add the chopped chard and turn the heat to medium. Sauté for about 5 minutes, or until it is beginning to wilt. Add the cooked couscous and the 1/4 cup of broth. Cook for another five minutes, stirring, until the broth has cooked off and the chard is fully wilted. Add salt to taste, and vinegar, and serve.

...With PBR, if you are married to the guy I am married to.

Here were the two nearly-fatal flaws:

1. I am SO BAD at not browning my garlic. If you ever watch Emeril, you know that he always makes fun of people who don't use the heat levels on their stoves. He'll point at the knobs and say, "You know what these are for?" So, I really tried to keep my heat low, but once I added the chard to the pan, my garlic totally toasted. It didn't burn, so it wasn't that big of a deal, except I was trying desperately not to toast it.

2. As alluded to above, I eyeballed my spices, and went WAY overboard on the cumin. And underboard on the salt. And overboard with cracked red pepper, which I used in place of the dried chili pepper.

All of that said, this recipe is freaking delicious. Israeli couscous was a new thing to me, and let me tell you -- it ROCKS.

It was so good, that I decided to make it again the next night. I was determined to get the seasoning right. But, I also upped the ante by adding sausage. I was envisioning a light chicken sausage type thing, but I didn't feel like going to the grocery store. (I'm sensing a theme to my recipes...) So, I used andouille instead. Nothing like Israeli couscous and pork, right?

Again, it was good. But again, I winged it on the spices -- andouille has a huge flavor of its own and I didn't want to add too much seasoning lest it get overly intense again. So, I went totally underboard on the cumin, a bit overboard on the salt, and underboard on the cracked red pepper.

It was a real learning experience, though. And, I found something to add to my repertoire!