sweet couscous with almonds and cinnamon

Moroccans enjoy a course called avant les desserts (before the desserts) that includes this sweet couscous. It is served at the end of the meal, not so much as a dessert but as a semi-sweet finish before the fruit and mint tea arrive. I prefer to have it for breakfast, even if none of my Moroccan friends approves. Seffa is normally prepared with the finest-grade couscous, which is not precooked like most grocery-store varieties. In fact, hardly anyone in Morocco uses precooked couscous—that is, the type you pour boiling water over and let sit until the liquid is absorbed.

Moroccans like their couscous very fluffy, and the only way to achieve that is to use regular couscous and steam it at least twice. Many cooks steam it up to five times. I am with the Moroccans on this, so I buy my couscous from specialty shops and steam it. Soaking precooked couscous may be a lot quicker, but the texture is never as good as steamed; and in the case of seffa, the difference is even more noticeable.

SERVES 6 TO 8

2¹/₂ cups [500 g] fine couscous (not precooked)

1 tsp fine sea salt

1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

6 Tbsp [85 g] unsalted butter; 2 Tbsp melted, 4 Tbsp [55 g] at room temperature

1 cup [150 g] blanched almonds

3 Tbsp confectioners’ sugar, plus more for sprinkling

Ground cinnamon for garnish

Put the couscous in a shallow mixing bowl.

Dissolve the salt in ²/₃ cup [160 ml] water. Sprinkle the salted water over the couscous little by little, stirring the grain with your fingers as you go along to wet the couscous evenly and break up any lumps. When the couscous has soaked up all the water, stir in the olive oil.

Fill a pot into which you can insert a steamer one-quarter full with water. (Use a couscoussière if you have one.) If the holes of your steamer are so large that the couscous will fall through, line it with cheesecloth. Put the couscous in the top part of your steamer and set over the pot of water. Ideally, no steam should escape from the joint between the pan and the steamer, so if necessary, wrap a strip of cloth around the edge of the pot before slotting in the steamer. Place over medium-high heat and, when the water comes to a boil, steam the couscous, covered, for 20 minutes.

Tip the couscous into a bowl and sprinkle, again little by little, with another ²/₃ cup [160 ml] water, this time using a wooden spoon to stir and break up the lumps as the grain will be too hot for your hand—most Moroccan cooks use their hands, which seem to be made of asbestos! Add the melted butter and stir well. Let sit, covered with a clean kitchen towel, for 15 minutes to fluff up.

Preheat the oven to 450°F [220°C].

Return the couscous to the top part of the steamer and set over the pan of boiling water. Steam, uncovered, for another 15 minutes. While the couscous is steaming, spread the almonds over a baking sheet and toast in the oven until golden brown, 7 or 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool before coarsely grinding two-thirds of the almonds in a food processor. (The remaining whole almonds will be used for a garnish.)

Add the room-temperature butter and confectioners’ sugar to the hot couscous and mix well. Tip half of the couscous into a medium-size shallow serving bowl and spread the ground almonds evenly over it. Sprinkle with a little more confectioners’ sugar and cover with the remaining couscous. Using the back of a spoon, arrange the couscous in a mound with a pointed top. Sprinkle ground cinnamon lightly in four thin lines fanning out from the top to the bottom. Line up the whole almonds between the lines of cinnamon. Serve hot, with more confectioners’ sugar and cinnamon for those who like them.