Start with cutting the meat in pieces. Don't throw away the bones, you can also put them in the pot. Also cut the onion(s) and the garlic. If you use dried chick peas and didn't water them, put them for twelve hours into water and continue afterwards.
Fry the meat shortly in hot oil, also fry the onions and (very shortly) the garlic. Add about 1L of water, the chick peas and the vegetables. Now the engineering part of the cooking begins: The couscous should somehow be put into the steam of the pot. I put it into a metal sieve which I hang into the pot (it musn't touch the water). Better solutions are always welcome.
Let it all boil for at least one hour, better two. Whenever the liquid in the pot runs short, add some more. Turn the couscous in the sieve upside down every 10 minutes or so.
When your guests arrive or when you are so hungry you want to eat, you can start final preparation. Take some soup out of the pot and pour it over the couscous. Stir the couscous. Repeat several times. If soup runs short, add water and let it boil.
Add the spices to the soup. Make it hot. How hot? So hot you cannot eat the soup alone but you'll need couscous to cool down. After you added the spices, don't pour any more soup over the couscous.
Enjoy your meal. I put the Soup into bowls and the couscous in the middle of the table. For drink I like tea with it.
