Couscous

I buy...and then toss out scallions all the time and it pisses me right off. I don't use them enough. They're very pungent and flavorful so a little goes a long way but then they go all mangy... like... in a day, before I can use 'em all up. The only time I've ever used an entire bunch of scallions was making a scallion sauce from Super Natural Cooking that topped a farro and asparagus dish. The farro was way undercooked and the asparagus was way over-cooked, but that sauce wasn't bad.
Last week I picked up a couple of Simply Ming DVD's from the library. First time I'd ever seen an episode and it immediately jelled with my cooking strategy of multi-use recipes. Each episode focuses on one master recipe that he uses 3 diffferent ways. Then he brings on a guest chef who creates his own dish using Mings master recipe. Jacques Pepin is a re-occuring fave, but Martin Yan cracks me the hell up.
The first episode features a curry and green tea spice rub that he coats onto a nice looking hunk of Butter Fish then pan fries. He takes you on little field trips with Mings Web Cam...in this episode to India where he goes to a spice market with lifestyle guru Colin Cowie. They go off on safari and share some pretty crazy stories of resorts and near death elephant charges. I'm a convert. Love the show.
I'm only starting to venture into the world of fish. Never really liked it 'cuz I hate the smell of fish...although I do love some Fish and Chips, but only smothered in malt vinegar and tartar sauce to of course cover the fishy-ness. I find that I do like white flaky fish...halibut, cod...fish and chips kinda fish. Anyhoo I found this first episode very interesting 'cuz  he's got me seriously thinking about cooking fish... but the segment that had me hitting the pause button and running into the kitchen was the couscous he'd prepared to plate his spice rubbed fish onto. Sooooo simple and I had everything on hand. I could rescue the scallions that were teetering on the edge of the trash can and finally open the  jar of couscous that had been sitting in the pantry for months. I'd bought the couscous in bulk at Whole Foods months ago and forgot to note the cooking instructions.  I always forget to look it up.
Sooooo Ming explains that the couscous to hot water ratio is 2 to 3: one cup of couscous into a glass bowl, add chopped scallions and finely chopped dried fruit (he used mangos), salt and pepper then add 1 1/2 cups of hot water, stir and cover with plastic wrap, let it sit for 20 minutes and done. It was tasty but next time I'll use hot stock.
I do love me some Ming. Not only is he easy on the eyes I'm truly jazzed about cooking fish now.