Mauritania!

Not to be confused with the island Mauritia... Mauritania is a country in the west of Africa (doing this international food night has made me realize that I really have no idea about African geography!). At any rate. Originally we were going to make pepper steak with coconut... but we couldn't find any coconut, so we combined this recipe with a recipe for lamb couscous and came up with Pepper Steak Couscous!

Try this! It's really good. It's a cross between Asian and Middle Eastern food to create this Mauritanian awesomeness! On a side note, I used two habanero peppers. I've chopped them before and never had a problem, but apparently these were really potent, because about 30 minutes after I chopped them, my hands burned like whoa! Chemical burns are fun. The end. Moral of the story: use gloves even if they usually aren't that bad. Luckily it only lasted a couple of hours.

Pepper Steak Couscous
serves 4

1-2 lbs beef, cubed into bite-size
1 onion
2 green peppers
1-2 habaneros (or hot chili of your choice. If you use habaneros, use gloves!)
3 small potatoes, chopped
2-3 T. oil
1 t. salt
2 t. black pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
8-10 drops of Tabasco
2 T. soy sauce
2 beef bullion cube
4 T. cornstarch

Add oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and Tabasco. Fry onions, peppers, and habanero. Add steak cubes. Brown. Add potatoes. Add soy sauce, beef bullion, and 1 c. (or so) of water. Cook until potatoes are soft. Mix cornstarch with water. Add to sauce. Bring to a boil. Cook until thickened.

Cook couscous according to package directions. Serve over couscous.

It's spicy!