Forgotten Algeria

[Suvir Saran]

Algeria often gets overshadowed by the cuisines of the two more known countries that border it. In the west it has Morocco and in the East Tunisia. So the Moroccon influence has given it taste for sweet and Tunisia a love for honey and tomatoes and thick sauces.

One can find some of the best stuffed vegetables redolent of the Turkish times. Mechoui (roast lamb) from Algeria is famous. The Algerian Shorbas (soups) are amazing in the many recipes one can find. Meats, vegetables and cereal are used in their preparation.

Algerians are famous for using one of two kinds of couscous. In the west one would find a coarser grain and in the north you can find a very fine grain. My friend always tells me of women coming to their home and making couscous fresh daily.

In fact I was once served a sweet couscous pudding that was an Algerian specialty. Cooked in milk with dried fruits and nuts. Not much of a fan of couscous, this dish was addictive.

Areas around the mediterranean are famous for their couscous preparations using fish. Any fish that can stay firm after being cooked is used.

My favorite part of Algerian foods is the relatively more spicy nature of their dishes. Tomato and harissa based sauces are commonly used to finish dishes.

Couscous cooked with several vegetables is one of the most famous couscous recipes from Algeria.

Algerian cuisine has many recipes that use fish. It has an abundance of fish due to the mediterranean. It is common to find all kinds of fish rubbed in spices and grilled whole.

And least of all what moves me about Algeria is the setting in which one would experience great food amidst the echoes of just as amazing music filling the air. Oran is the birthplace of Rai music. The music of Algeria in most any form, is evocative of the layers of richness that the culture has and also of the pain suffered by its masses.

Are there any favorite recipes you have from Algeria?

Where do you go to eat Algerian food?

[Brad S]

I offered my mechoui recipe in the Moroccan thread

[Suvir Saran]

I offered my mechoui recipe in the Moroccan thread

What a great offering..

Thanks!

I will make it someday very soon.

[helenas]

One can find some of the best stuffed vegetables redolent of the Turkish times.

Suvir,

I just love stuffed vegetables. If you don't mind can you share a couple of ideas, not necessarily recipes?

[Suvir Saran]

Before I am too late for dinner, let me share one quick idea.

A friend of mine from Syria was preparing Algerian style stuffed zucchinis the other day. He hollowed them out keeping one side sealed.

He kept the flesh aside for use later.

In a mixing bowl, he mixed minced lamb, paprika, dried mint leaves, very finely chopped onions, scant amount of raisins, Aleppo pepper, basmati rice, lemon juice, salt, a generous pinch of sugar, olive oil, toasted pine nuts, finely chopped tomato and ground black pepper corn. He mixed these very well. Stuffs the zucchinis with this. Left a half-inch of the zucchini unfilled for the rice will expand. Set aside.

He took some tomato puree to which he added salt, Aleppo pepper and some mint and freshly ground black peppercorn. Mix it well and set aside.

He then beat some lamb into very fine sheets. Poured some olive oil in the base of a heavy bottomed pan, covered the base with the beaten lamb. Placed the stuffed zucchinis over this in a single layer.

Pour the tomato puree over the zucchini. It should cover almost 3/4 of the zucchini. Add barely1/4 cup or less of water. Bring the puree to a boil and cover the pan tightly and simmer on very low for close to 40 minutes. Maybe a little less depending on how thick the zucchini is. You may want to check after 20 minutes to see how the sauce if faring. If you need to add a tablespoon or so of water, do so now.

When finished, serve the zucchinis on a platter sitting atop the sauce. You can cut the lamb into small pieces and serve on the side.

[Suvir Saran]

And now Helena, I must go to dinner. When I am back, I will spend some time scanning my recipes and dig out some for stuffed veggies for you.

Will share more in the weeks to follow.

[fresh_a]

I have many Algerian Berber friends, who prepare an excellent couscous , without sauce, and cook the semoule with vegetables by slowly steaming them together in a cooker... It's divine, and also very light. In my opinion, Algerian couscous is far superior, and their cuisine has more variety and sophistication than comparable cuisines from Morocco and Tunisia. That's my opinion, but I've eaten a lot of couscous...

I also love ah-rum an flat, unleavened bread, that is normally eaten with stewed hot peppers, but may be eaten with cheese, accompanying a meal, or just by itself.

Edited March 3, 2003 by fresh_a (log)

[Suvir Saran]

Would you have any recipes for the couscous you describe? It sounds wonderful.

[fresh_a]

I'll see what I can dig up.... I have never seen this variety of couscous in any restaurant, and have eaten it only at friends houses... it is definitely a berber specialty..as well as being my top-favorite couscous. I forgot to mention that it is often eaten accompanied by a hard-boiled egg and onions on the side...

[chefzadi]

I just found this thread! I comb through all the threads in this forum once and I missed this one. How I don't know.

I have many Algerian Berber friends, who prepare an excellent couscous , without sauce, and cook the semoule with vegetables by slowly steaming them together in a cooker... It's divine, and also very light. In my opinion, Algerian couscous is far superior, and their cuisine has more variety and sophistication than comparable cuisines from Morocco and Tunisia. That's my opinion, but I've eaten a lot of couscous...

I also love ah-rum an flat, unleavened bread, that is normally eaten with stewed hot peppers, but may be eaten with cheese, accompanying a meal, or just by itself.

Yes, fresh A! We do have far more variety, it's due to geography and history.

[chefzadi]

Algeria often gets overshadowed by the cuisines of the two more known countries that border it. In the west it has Morocco and in the East Tunisia. So the Moroccon influence has given it taste for sweet and Tunisia a love for honey and tomatoes and thick sauces.

This is true in the States. But not so in France. Anyway, I am hoping to change this very soon!

Starting here immediatly and with my cookbook later on. I will begin posting more in depth soon.

[fou de Bassan]

Yes, Chefzadi, Please do! My MIL spent some time working in Algeria in the late 1950's and still waxes rhapsodic about the food and the people.

I've been looking for an Algerian cookbook, either in French or English, and have had no luck. So I'll happily sign up for a copy when it happens!

[Wolfert]

The challenge of presenting the traditional cooking of Algeria would be exciting for you...and for us, the book buying public. It has never been easier to transpose recipes from one region to another because so many of the ingredients are here for the first time. Chefs and non-conformist home cooks need this book!

If you do a hold-no-information-back type cookbook, and present the material with the liveliness and spirit you show on these forums, I think you will have a winner. I know I'll buy a copy.

[Hector]

One really great thing about algerian cooking! the fabulous spicy fresh merguez-sausages.. love them.

[andiesenji]

Years ago I used to go to a small middle eastern restaurant on Ventura Blvd in Studio City. They listed several dishes from North Africa, including this one which was supposed to be an Algerian dish.

They served stuffed cucumbers, rings of peeled cucumber about 2 inches long, filled with a mildly spicy mixture of couscous and lentils and served with a yogurt sauce. The mixture may have contained a little ground meat but it has been so many years I really don't recal exactly.

The cucumber rings had been cooked just a little. I remember trying to recreate the dish and having no luck at all.

Does this sound like a dish that might be from the region?

[Pan]

A passage from Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages:

Apart from Morocco, grains of paradise are also popular in neighbouring Tunisia.

Those two countries are "neighbors" only if you ignore a wide expanse of one of the largest countries in Africa. It's more or less as bad as talking about Canada and Mexico as neighbors and ignoring the intervening U.S. territory that prevents the other two countries from bordering on each other.

So why is Algeria so forgotten in English-language sources that a good webmaster didn't even realize how foolish the above passage sounds? I don't understand. Are there just fewer Algerian immigrants than Moroccans and Tunisians in non-Francophone countries, and if so, why? Or is there some other explanation?

[chefzadi]

Forgotten Algeria in English. Short answer, no one has written about the cuisine in English. Clifford Wright touched on the intricacies of Algerian cuisine in his book The Mediterranean Feast. He also touches on the countries internal instabilities, which has made it very difficult for foreigners to travel too. Lack of English language writing on the country and lack of tourism.

It was a bit of a shock to me when I came to the States. Very few people know much about the country. Algeria/Nigeria? Wha wha what? People from Africa look like you? French is spoken there? The opposite is true in France where Algeria is central to the understanding of the Magrheb. Even in the States I meet alot of Algerian pied noirs, French people who are of mixed Algerian and French or other Euorpean heritage. I think there is more of a North African community in San Francisco as opposed to LA.

Algerians are also a big part of the youth subculture. Musically think of hip hop and Rai music, sometimes combined. I'm a bit old fashioned so the hip hop language grates in me a bit. But there you have it. The Algerian boys from 'the hood' are the role models (not that's a good thing ) for coolness. Young Moroccans and Tunisians in France like to say they are Algerian. Fundamentally though we are Magrhebis.

All this is to say in France it's Algeria this, Algerian that... Fou de Basan's MIL waxing poetic about the food and the people after 50 years is not uncommon.

When I read things like

Apart from Morocco, grains of paradise are also popular in neighbouring Tunisia.

which I find ALL the time, I wonder if the writer stopped to look at a map. That website is informative overall by the way.

As a side note, the last Moroccan cooking class I taught two Moroccan people had enrolled. They took it knowing that I was North African by my name and were pleasantly surprised to find out that I was Algerian. We became instant friends.