Recettes Tunisia

Tunisian Sabayon

Tunisian sabayon is a frozen custard of whipped egg, sugar and oil, scented with orange blossom water and served very cold under crushed pistachios or almonds. It resembles its Italian namesake in ingredients and method, with one substitution that changes it entirely: oil replaces the alcohol. Sabayon comes from the Italian zabaione, and the word appears in French as sabaillon in 1803, apparently brought back by soldiers from the Italian and Swiss expedition of 1799 to 1800. Older origins are claimed, an introduction to the French court in 1533, or an invention in Turin, but these are unverified and some are frankly legendary. The Tunisian version is much more recent than any of them, arriving through Italian influence in Tunisia. There is one thing to be clear about. Italian zabaione is cooked, whisked over a bain-marie until the eggs thicken. **This version is not cooked at any point.** The eggs are whipped raw, folded together and frozen. That makes it a raw egg dessert, which matters for anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immunocompromised, and pasteurised eggs are the sensible answer if you are serving it to any of them. It needs at least eight hours in the freezer, so it has to be made the day before.

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20 minEasyTunisia · north african

Recette de Blessing · Africook

Masfouf (Tunisian Sweet Couscous)

Masfouf is steamed couscous sweetened with milk and honey and mixed with dates, raisins, nuts and banana, layered with a vanilla custard. It is Tunisian and it belongs to Ramadan. It is the sweet counterpart to Tunisian couscous, which is otherwise a savoury dish, and that inversion is the whole idea, the same grain, the same steaming technique, turned into a dessert or a breakfast. During Ramadan it appears at suhoor, the meal before dawn, because it is filling and sustaining, and at iftar as a sweet. Geranium water is the ingredient that places it. Distilled from scented geranium leaves, it is used across Tunisian sweets in the way rose water and orange blossom water are used further east, and it has a green, faintly citrus perfume that neither of those reproduces. Middle Eastern and North African grocers stock it. Steaming the couscous properly rather than pouring boiling water over it is what the recipe asks for, and it is the difference between light separate grains and a claggy mass. This is a dessert made from properly cooked couscous rather than instant. **It contains almonds and walnuts, which the title gives no indication of.** The source's ingredient list repeats milk, honey and geranium water without indicating that the second set belongs to the custard.

1 hrMediumTunisia

Recette de Blessing · Africook