Israeli Couscous, Turkish style?

After reading J's post on giant couscous, I spied some at the local grocery store on sale, and decided to try my hand at this trendy new pasta.


I was going for Turkish type flavors (I think...), so I used a mix of dried fruits and nuts with some spices that I thought were appropriate. I tend not to measure out ingredients when I cook; I just haphazardly scatter things in that I think will taste good together, but I will try for the sake of this recipe (because it was that good!) to convert my dribbles and dashes into quantifiable amounts.

Ingredients:
- 1 box of cooked and drained Israeli couscous (follow directions on the box, but remove when a little firmer than al dente because you're going to keep cooking it for a bit in a pan with the rest of the ingredients)
- olive oil
- 2 shallots, sliced thinly
- 1/2 c. dried cranberries
- 1/2 c. chopped dried apricots
- 1/2 c. chopped toasted pecans
- 1/4 c. chicken stock
- 1/2 c. finely chopped parsley
- 2 tbsp. lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp. cumin
- 1/4 tsp. brown sugar
- pinch of cayenne
- salt and pepper to taste

In a large nonstick pan, heat up some olive oil over medium high heat and fry the shallots until they are browned and a little crispy. Turn the heat down to medium and add the cranberries, apricots, pecans, couscous, chicken stock, lemon juice, cumin, sugar, cayenne, salt and pepper and parsley. Mix so everything is nice and even and pretty.

I served this as a side to steak (rubbed with most of the same spices) and some sauteed green peppers and onions. Yum.