chefzadi

Another thing is that Americans who have never been to any Maghrebi country are mesmerized by touristy Moroccan imagery. And many, many food writers use second hand information. There is no such thing as Moroccan harissa. That's a specialty of Algeria and Tunisia. So is Merguez. They have discovered it re-labled as Moroccan.

Possibly in a few years culinary tours can be arranged. In the mean time I offer a "cyber" tour through my Algerian cuisine blog. And every 6 weeks I have 17-34 students who know that couscous MUST be steamed 2-3 times and when they think of North Africa they will remember their smiling Algerian-French chef instructor. Thank you for responding Ms Reichl.

in English language food writing, .Forgotten Algeria Of course that's not the case in France where Algerian style reigns above other Maghrebi countries. Algeria is the 2nd largest country in Africa and the 10th largest country in the world. The history of Mediterranean trade, conquests, and exportation of ingredients converges in Algeria where nothing is forgotten. Studying Algerian cuisine will provide students and food scholars an almost complete range of cooking techniques and use of Mediterranean ingredients and flavor combinations that no other single cuisine can provide (minus the pork though). In short it is the table of The Mediterranean Feast. Most Maghrebis will agree that the dishes of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia are the same or very similar with regional variations in spicing. There was a time when the three countries were a unified whole and there has always been great travel and communication between them. In a sense it is more useful to speak of Maghrebi cuisine, rather than making rather artificial distinctions based on National boundaries that have historically shifted. However, geography and history have placed Algeria, the largest country of the Maghreb, in the culinary center. Berber, Black African, Arab, Turkish, Spanish, Italian and French have all converged in Algeria. By comparison Morocco has less French, Turkish and Italian influences. Tunisia has fewer Spanish and African influences. Even further back in history the Moors primarily came out of Algeria and Morocco to conquer Spain. And the Saracens (another word for Moors) who conquered Sicily primarily came out of Tunisia and Algeria. And of course once the Moors and Saracens were expelled they brought back elements they had absorbed from Spain and Sicily. The dishes they brought, exported, brought back again have not been forgotten. The ancient ways of the Amazight and Africans are still evident, the grand Medieval table is still here, the Ottoman table of sweets, pastries and kebabis are still eaten even as street food, the pastas introduced to Sicily by the Saracens are still made along with newer pasta dishes that were introduced during colonialism and on it goes. Moroccans tend to use the sweeter spices more with lots of oil and Tunisians have a love affair with the chili pepper. Algerian cooking is more varied than either Moroccan or Tunisian. Because of this I believe Algerian cooking has the potential to be more appealing to a wider consumer base than the dishes of the other Maghrebi countries. All those stereotypes about North African being "unctuous, rich, too spicy" are thrown out the window when confronted with Algerian style cooking. We have simple, humble dishes, we have extravagant sophisticated dishes. Maghrebi dishes are showing up slowly on a range of restaurant menus in America, from fine dining to casual. So, Ms Reichl. We're all waiting for North African food to be the "next big thing", the sooner the better! When do you think? What is the "push" needed? I know many non-Algerians who say things like "I had some of the best food of my life in Algeria." EDIT: I've been in touch with food writers who have written extensively about Mediterranean cuisines and the foods of the Arabic speaking world. I think it's safe to say that there is general agreement that the picture is not complete in English without more knowledge of Algeria.

Try buying couscous from the bulk bins at a health/natural foods store, which should have a higher turnover. ← That won't work either. The recipe is crap. Hi Mario, don't give couscous a bad rep with bad recipes. With all due respect... Want to try couscous? Read my Algerian cuisine blog. EDIT: It's like making Italian pasta dishes with instant cup ramen. WTF??!?!?!?!

Again I don't have time to get into it too much. But a tagine is designed for an airtight lid, little/no moisture loss. How tight was the seal on your clay vessel? You're correct on your second point as well. Vegetables as well as meat give off varying amounts of liquid. I bought chicken legs from this one butcher and the amount of water that came was SHOCKING.

Bingo! I agree with you, too, Michael. ← Agreed.

What do you know about Saudi in general?

I'd bet on it.

What are you blinking at? The Maghreb is in North Africa.

Arab is only a part of Maghrebi cuisine. The Maghreb is not in the Middle East, it's in Africa.

I'll find out and let you know. Are you including Maghrei cuisine in "Arabic"?

It means mixed together. My wife knows alot about Korean food.

A quick reply. You can do a quick google of Sicily and Saracens introducing durum wheat pasta and come up with a number of Sicilian sources that accept this.

Hector that was most definately covered in the pasta thread and the articles it pointed to. If you have something to add to the scholarship please do. As for your second point. I am working on a piece about with Algerian recipes and how dough is used for flat bread and different pasta shapes. I do not believe that the technique was transported/learned somewhere from China into the Maghreb. You have a bunch of people playing with dough and certain cooking techniques for a few thousand years.... There are Amazight words for pasta that are not related to Arabic words.

Like my wife said, yes I am familiar with the dish. I would ask them about the spicing/seasoning. Since the chefs are Algerian and Tunisian my guess would be that they do not make add much sugar like the Moroccan style. We don't like that sort of thing generally speaking. mimblewim, I'm glad that you remember it as being fantastic. Other details aren't so neccessary!

Bumping up the thread. I've posted many more Ramadan recipes in my blogs and the Bob Beer has submitted an article about Ramadan in Instanbul. An estimated 1.7 billion muslims in the world. Not alot of Ramadan or halal threads in this global forum though. I know, I know I can start them. And I will.

...and we're all deeply impressed by mom's apple pie over here of course. Run me through the entire canon of American home cooking not derived from your British ancestors would you, I've got 30 seconds to spare. ← Speaking of generalizations.... My KOREAN born wife's family's AMERICAN home cooking has nothing to do with British cooking. My AMERICAN born children eat Korean, Algerian and French. They'd be surprised to hear about their British ancestors.

I took a look at the site. Yeah, alot of the descriptions are pretty much the same. "In a village perched on a hill...." Sounds like the village I'm from. A friend of mine's father had a restaurant in an even smaller village. It's not even on the map, but people would come to try it. Most would drive past it a few times before realizing where it was.

looks great Lucy and Elie. An option for sauteeing the mushrooms is to reduce the liquid afterwards and thicken with just a little bit of roux if you don't want to throw out the flavor of the mushroom juices. I suppose you can use cornstarch, but I don't think of it as being French and the texture of cornstarch thickened sauces do not appeal to me.

asia is a large diverse continent. i can't think of a single korean fish dish that requires ginger. sure it's added sometimes to soy sauce based sauces, but it's not an automatic thing. my favorite korean fish preparations are the pan fried salted fish, which is actually quite fishy. it seems to me though that throughout the world fish dishes have some sort of astringegent/acidic component or is salt preserved.

Looks like the restaurant serves Algerian and Tunisian. Same dishes really with regional differences in spicing. I don't know what to recommend because I have never been there. I can only suggest telling them what your preferences are. I'm interested in the report. Good or bad, one restaurant though is not necessarily representative of Algerian cooking.

In the Magreb the lamb feeds on wild greens, the meat tastes better than even the French artisanal brands. If there is one country's food that the French wax poetic about it's Algeria. Even people who have not been back for decades will still talk about the food with delight. In the States I've found the most affordable lamb at halal, Middle Eastern/North African stores. For obvious reasons of doing a higher turnover by catering to a lamb eating customer base. A few of my lamb recipes and some recipes with ground meat (traditionally for lamb). Harira with lamb. White bean stew with lamb. My use of spices is very light. I doubt that with most dishes people would be able to finger on which I used.

Can the people who expressed interest in testing recipes email me at chefzadi AT gmail DOT com? It would be easier to communicate via email rather than PM.

that's a dolsot. and the lid is made from the same material as the vessel.

if conserving electricity/fuel is not an issue, I think a crock pot is really a better way to go for "convenience" for some dishes. You can start it in the morning and have it ready for dinner. Or the night before, then put it in the frigo, re-heat for dinner. Some dishes even taste better this way. Again it depends on the dish and contect. I made "steamed" chicken in a crock pot, by laying the chicken pieces on a bed of vegetables with just a little liquid and the results were very good. The chicken retained it's shape but was falling off the bone tender without well falling off the bone. It looked nice for presentation purposes as well. My own feeling at a certain point with "short cuts" or "convenience" techniques is that once they go too far in taking away from the flavor save the preparation for the weekend, make something else like a fish tagine for instance.