Recipe for "pita-seafood"

NAME

     PITA-SEAFOOD - Pita-Seafood Salad Sandwiches
     This recipe is more of a  formula  than  a  recipe.   It  is
     excellent  for  a  cool dinner in the summer (any time after
     February in Texas!)

INGREDIENTS (Serves 2-4)

     200 g     scallops or shrimp
     60 ml     olive oil
     1         medium onion
     1         garlic cloves (or more or less to taste)
     500 g     vegetable (such as eggplant or zucchini)
     50 g      mushrooms
     to taste  salt, pepper and spices
     350 ml    cooked couscous
               pita bread

PROCEDURE

          (1)  Cut up the vegetables  into  small  (1-cm)  cubes.
               Slice the mushrooms.
          (2)  If using shrimp, peel and devein  the  shrimp  and
               cut into small cubes.
          (3)  In a small amount of olive oil, saut e  the  onion
               and  the  optional  garlic until the onion is soft
               but not quite transparent.
          (4)  Heat the remaining olive oil in a skillet and  add
               the  vegetable  and  mushrooms.   Saute  until the
               vegetables are almost soft.  Taste and  add  salt,
               pepper and whatever spices strike your fancy (ore-
               gano, basil, and red pepper are good).
          (5)  Add the scallops or shrimp  and  cook  until  just
               done - about  a minute or two.  Scallops will turn
               opaque and shrimp will turn pink.   Do  NOT  over-
               cook.
          (6)  There should be an excess of oil  and  fluid.   If
               not,  add more oil and briefly heat.  Transfer the
               mixture to a  bowl.   Add  the  couscous  and  mix
               thoroughly.
          (7)  Chill several hours or overnight.
          (8)  Stuff into the pita bread (maybe with some tomato)
               and serve.

NOTES

     You could substitute almost any vegetable and crab or a firm
     fish.   To use this for a picnic, don't stuff the pita bread
     until you are about to serve it.  Err on  the  side  of  too
     much  oil,  since the couscous absorbs the oil (and a recent
     study says that olive oil may be good for you).

RATING

     Difficulty: easy to moderate.  Time: 30 minutes preparation,
     overnight chilling.  Precision: no need to measure.

CONTRIBUTOR

     Anita Cochran
     Astronomy Dept., The Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX
     {noao, ut-sally, ut-ngp}!utastro!anita
     arpa:  anita@astro.UTEXAS.EDU