[Sca-cooks] Tharida questions (long)

[Jim and Andi]

I'm starting my recipe testing for my next feast and one of the dishes I
want to serve is Tharida.

I am looking specifically at the tharida with lamb and spinach, moist
cheese and butter (pg 38), and the tharida of lamb with garbanzos, orach
and cheese (pg 41).

I am using the Martinelli edited translation available here:
http://italophiles.com/andalusian_cookbook.pdf

She states at the beginning of the section that couscous can be
substituted for breadcrumbs in all of the tharida recipes, possibly
because one of the tharida recipes (tharida mudhakkar, pg. 38) states
that couscous can be substituted. I think this would substantially alter
the texture of all of these dishes and question that addition. I have
read the redacted tharida recipes in the Miscellany and by Urtatim, but
both are different kinds of tharidas than the ones I am trying to
redact.

More information on Tharidas:
http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/food/entries/display.php/topic_id/3/i
d/16/
Modern tharida recipe, possibly "historically-inspired":
http://www.superluminal.com/cookbook/substantial_tharid_lamb.html

My questions are:

Do you feel that couscous as an interchangeable ingredient for
breadcrumbs in tharidas is historically accurate?

On reading the two tharida recipes specified above, what would you think
is the texture of the final dish; soft like a savory bread pudding, dry
like a steamed couscous dish, or something else entirely?

Thank you for all of your help!
Madhavi