Recettes

Rwandan Banana Beignets

Bananas are central to Rwandan agriculture and to Rwandan eating in a way that has no equivalent in most of the world. The country grows dozens of varieties, distinguished by whether they are for cooking, for eating fresh or for brewing, and the plant occupies hillside smallholdings across the country. A snack built on ripe banana is not a novelty in Rwanda; it is the obvious use of what is there. These beignets are small fried cakes of mashed ripe banana in a light batter, crisp at the edge and soft through the middle, sometimes spiced with cinnamon or nutmeg. They are sold from street stalls and market stands, fried in batches through the day, and eaten hot and standing up. At home they appear at gatherings and family celebrations. The variety of banana matters to the result. Rwandan cooks use small, sweet local bananas rather than the large export Cavendish, and the difference is not cosmetic: the smaller fruit is sweeter and denser, which means the batter needs less sugar and the finished beignet is less wet. Where those bananas are not available the recipe still works, but it works differently, and that is worth knowing before judging the result.

Rwanda1 hr 20 minLaila

Kac kac, Somali fried sweets cut into diamonds and served with spiced milk tea

Somali Doughnuts (Kac Kac)

Kac kac, also written ka'ka, are Somali fried sweets: crisp on the outside, soft within, and cut into diamonds or squares rather than shaped into rings. They are closer to a biscuit than to a raised doughnut, because they use baking powder rather than yeast and the dough is rolled and cut rather than proved. Their setting is tea. Kac kac go with shaah caddeeys, the spiced milk tea that anchors Somali hospitality, and the pairing is fixed enough that one implies the other. They are sold in the maqaayo Soomaali, the traditional restaurants of Mogadishu and other Somali cities, where they are made in large batches in the morning and generally sold out well before the day is over. They also belong to Ramadan. A dense, sweet, portable fried thing that keeps for days is exactly what is wanted for iftar, and kac kac appear on Somali tables through the month in quantity. The marking on the surface, a light score with a knife before frying, is not decoration alone: it helps them cook through evenly and gives the piece its characteristic look. Somali communities across the diaspora have carried them intact, and they are among the first things a Somali household abroad will make for visitors.

Somalia30 minCuisine228

Meshabek, an Egyptian sweet of piped fried batter soaked in syrup

Egyptian Meshabek

Meshabek is a fried batter sweet, piped into loops through a narrow nozzle, fried until it turns brittle, and dropped straight into cold syrup while still hot. The name translates as twisted, and that is precisely what it looks like: a tangle of thick threads holding syrup in every gap. It is street sweet rather than restaurant sweet, and it is cheap enough that half a kilo costs under a dollar in Egypt. Its documented origin points to Tanta and Damietta in the Nile Delta, from where it spread across the country, and it now turns up at sweet shops and street stalls nationwide. The hot into cold step is the technique and the whole reason it works. Batter fried to brittle and then plunged into cold syrup absorbs it in seconds without going soft, which is what gives meshabek its particular quality of being simultaneously crunchy and soaked. The same principle appears in fried syrup sweets across the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. As with most Egyptian home sweets, the recipe moves between families rather than from books, which is why the proportions shift from one household to the next.

EgyptBlessing

Nigerian cheese shawarma, a flatbread wrap filled with fried protein, sausage, slaw and melted mozzarella

Quick and Easy Cheese Shawarma Recipe

Nigerian shawarma is its own thing. The name and the flatbread wrap come from the Levant, brought to Nigeria largely through Lebanese communities in Lagos and Kano, but what happens inside the wrap is Nigerian and would not be recognised in Beirut. The differences are consistent enough to constitute a style. Nigerian shawarma carries a cold, crunchy cabbage and carrot slaw dressed in mayonnaise, ketchup and chilli sauce rather than the tahini, pickles and garlic sauce of the original. It very often includes a sausage alongside the main protein, which is a purely Nigerian addition. And it is pressed on a hot griddle at the end so the wrap seals and crisps, which is closer to a toasted sandwich than to the Levantine service. This version includes mozzarella, which is a further step in the same direction. Shawarma stands are a fixture of Nigerian nightlife and are found outside bars, at filling stations and along busy roads in every large city, usually operating from a cart with a vertical rotisserie and a griddle. It is late night food above all, and the mayonnaise and ketchup dressing that a purist would object to is exactly what Nigerians mean when they order one.

Nigeria35 minAmako Blessing

Swabaa Zainab

Swabaa Zainab means Zainab's fingers, and the name is the dish. Ridged fingers of semolina and flour dough are fried until crisp and dropped into cold sugar syrup, coming out crunchy outside and soft within. Two stories attach to the name and Egyptians tell both. In one, a clever girl invented the sweet and guests praised it by saying teslam sawabe' Zainab, may God bless Zainab's fingers. In the other, it is named for Sayyida Zainab, granddaughter of the Prophet, who is deeply venerated in Egypt and after whom one of Cairo's central districts is named. Neither account can be verified and both are held affectionately. Its occasions are Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr above all, and it appears at popular celebrations through the year. It belongs to the family of Arab syrup sweets that also produces meshabek and basbousa, and it is described as among the oldest of them, mastered by Arab cooks and carried outward from there. Egyptian households share the recipe between families rather than from books, which is why the proportions shift from one kitchen to the next. It is eaten in the morning as readily as in the evening, with tea, coffee or juice.

Egypt45 minBlessing

Asun, Nigerian smoked goat meat tossed with habanero, onions and bell peppers

Asun (Peppered Goat Meat)

Asun is smoked or roasted goat meat tossed through a fierce pepper and onion mix, and it is one of the fixtures of the Nigerian owambe, the large Yoruba party that runs on food and music. It arrives as part of the small chops circuit, alongside puff puff and peppered snails, and it disappears fast. Goat is the whole point. Yoruba speakers call it ogunfe, and it carries a stronger, more mineral flavour than beef that stands up to the quantity of scotch bonnet involved. The meat is simmered until tender before it ever meets fire, then roasted or grilled to dry the surface and pick up smoke, and only then does it go into the pepper mix. Skipping the first stage is the most common way it goes wrong, since goat that has not been softened stays tough no matter how long it spends in the pan. Sliced onions and bell peppers go in for sweetness against the heat rather than for bulk. Whether asun is a starter or something else is a matter people disagree about: the source archive files it under both appetizer and dessert, and Nigerians treat it as a small chop, a side to jollof rice, or a main course with plantain, depending entirely on the occasion.

Nigeria1 hr 15 minDebby

Sonhos de Banana

Sonhos de banana means banana dreams in Portuguese, and they are small fried fritters from São Tomé and Príncipe, the island nation off the coast of Central Africa. Mashed banana is worked into a batter with flour, egg, milk and sugar, dropped into hot oil and dusted with cinnamon sugar while still warm. The Portuguese connection runs through everything about them. São Tomé and Príncipe was a Portuguese colony from the late fifteenth century until 1975, and sonhos are a Portuguese sweet in their own right, a fried dough eaten particularly at Christmas. What the islands did was put banana into them, which is what the archipelago grows, and the result is closer to a beignet than to a doughnut. The same sweet, under the same name, is eaten in Brazil, which shares the Portuguese colonial inheritance from the other side of the Atlantic. That triangle of Portugal, São Tomé and Brazil is visible in a great deal of the islands' food, and sonhos de banana is one of the clearest examples. They are eaten as a dessert or simply as something sweet in the afternoon, and they are at their best within minutes of leaving the pan.

São Tomé and Príncipe30 minNympha

Cassava Fritters

Cassava fritters are grated cassava bound with a little flour, seasoned and shallow fried, and they are street food across a wide stretch of the world. The source names no country, and that is defensible here in a way it is not for most dishes: cassava fritters are made across West Africa, Central Africa, the Caribbean, Brazil and Southeast Asia in closely related forms. Cassava itself is not African in origin. It came from South America and reached West Africa through Portuguese Atlantic trade from the sixteenth century, where it was adopted so completely that it is now the continent's second most important source of dietary energy. Nigeria grows more of it than any other country in the world. The texture is the point: crisp on the outside, chewy and slightly dense inside, quite unlike a potato fritter. That chewiness comes from cassava's starch behaving differently from potato's under heat. Gram flour binds it here, which is one option among several. The fibrous woody core running down the centre of each root has to come out, and so does the skin, which is thick and tough and needs a firm hand with a peeler.

50 minNympha

Zlabia

Zlabia, also written zalabia, and a close relative of the jalebi of South Asia, is a spiral of fermented batter piped into hot oil, fried until crisp, then dropped straight into cold syrup. In Algeria it belongs to Ramadan almost exclusively. Through the fasting month it is made and sold in quantity, and it is one of the sweets that appears on the table at iftar alongside the dates and the soup. Its bright orange coils are one of the visual markers of the month. The dish travels across an enormous stretch of the world under variations of the same name, jalebi in India and Pakistan, zoolbia in Iran, zalabia across the Arab world, which reflects centuries of movement along trade and pilgrimage routes. Algerians make it their own way, built on flour, starch and yeast, and scented with rose water and lemon in the syrup. The technique has one governing rule, the same one that decides kanafeh: temperature contrast. Hot fried batter into cold syrup gives a shell that stays crisp while the inside takes on sweetness. Both hot, and it goes limp within minutes. The batter also needs a genuine rest. It is yeasted, and that fermentation is what gives the finished spiral its faint tang against the sugar.

AlgeriaBlessing

Fried Whole Tilapia

Frying a tilapia whole is one of the most common ways it is eaten across West Africa, and it is a different proposition from cooking fillets. The skin crisps, the flesh stays moist against the bone, and the head and tail crisp up alongside, which many people consider the best part. Tilapia is a freshwater fish of shallow streams, ponds, rivers and lakes, native to Africa and now farmed on an enormous scale worldwide. That scale is why it is cheap and widely available, and it has become one of the most consumed fish in the world. It is bony, which puts some people off, and worth the small amount of care that eating it requires. The technique here is scoring and shallow frying rather than deep frying. Diagonal cuts across both sides let the spice paste reach the flesh rather than sitting on the skin, and they help the fish cook evenly through the thickest part. Turmeric, garlic, black pepper and habanero form the rub. Tilting the pan so the head and tail are submitted to the oil in turn is a small detail that matters: those parts sit above the oil line otherwise and stay soft while the middle crisps.

Nigeria30 minAnthonyJ

Twisted Doughnuts

Twisted doughnuts are yeasted dough rolled into ropes, twisted on themselves and deep fried, and the source names their homes clearly: kkwabaegi in Korea, shakoy and pilipit in the Philippines, mahua in China, sakubei in Japan. That is an East and Southeast Asian family of pastries rather than an African one. The twist is not decoration. Rolling the rope with one hand moving up and the other down puts tension into the dough, and when the two ends are brought together and the rope is allowed to hang, it twists itself. That structure is what gives the finished doughnut its ridged surface and its particular texture: crunchy outside, light and pillowy inside, deflating slightly under the bite and springing back. The version here is the cinnamon sugar one, which is the most common way they are finished. The source claims the form runs "from Africa to Asia", and while there are certainly twisted fried doughs in North Africa, Tunisian and Algerian yoyo, Moroccan sfenj in its own way, and the syrup-soaked mkhabez family, this specific recipe is the Korean and Filipino one. It is filed under Worldwide Recipes for that reason, with its URL unchanged.

2 hr 40 minCuisine228

Chebakia, Moroccan flower-shaped sesame pastries soaked in honey and orange flower water

Chebakia (Moroccan Sesame Cookies)

Chebakia is the Moroccan pastry of Ramadan. Spiced dough is rolled thin, cut into rectangles, slashed and folded through the fingers into an elongated flower shape, fried until golden, then dropped into hot honey scented with orange flower water and finished with sesame. Its association with the fast is close to absolute. Moroccans break the fast with harira soup and chebakia together, and the two are made in quantity in the weeks beforehand. It also appears at weddings and baby showers, and is sold year round at bakeries and market stalls. It goes by other names in other regions, including griouech and mkharka. The folding is what makes it difficult and what makes it recognisable. Each rectangle is cut into five attached strips, threaded onto a finger, and turned inside out around a pinched centre, which produces the rose shape. It takes practice and it is why chebakia is often made communally, several women working through a large batch together. The dough itself is heavily spiced, with anise, cinnamon, saffron and ground toasted sesame, and mastic gum, a resin used across North Africa and the Middle East, gives it a distinctive aroma.

Morocco2 hr 30 minNympha

Makroud

Makroud is a North African semolina pastry, filled, cut into diamonds, fried and then soaked in honey syrup. Diamond is the literal meaning of the word, and the shape is the point of the name. It belongs principally to Algeria and Tunisia, and it is also made in parts of Morocco, Libya and Malta. Where exactly it began is contested. Some accounts place it in the oases of Mzab and the steppes of Sétif in Algeria; others link it to Kairouan, the spiritual capital of Tunisia, which hosted the first national makroud festival in May 2008. It is written variously as makrout, maqroudh and maqrouth. The filling is the thing that varies most and the thing this recipe departs on. Traditional makroud is packed with dates, and figs and almonds appear as alternatives. **This recipe uses an almond filling rather than the date one**, which is a legitimate variation but not the classic. The semolina base is where the technique lives: it is rubbed with oil and butter and rested for at least two hours, ideally overnight, until it resembles wet oily sand. That rest is not optional. It is what allows the dough to come together with very little water and stay tender rather than tough.

Algeria1 hr 45 minBlessing

Nigerian Yam Brownie

This is a brownie made with mashed yam in place of much of the flour, and it is a deliberate fusion rather than a traditional dish. The contributor presents it as exactly that: a twist on a familiar dessert using a Nigerian staple. Yam is not a substitute ingredient in Nigeria; it is a central one, eaten pounded, fried, roasted and in porridge, and it carries cultural weight that potatoes do not. Using it in a brownie is a contemporary move, and it works on the same principle as sweet potato or black bean brownies: the starch gives body and moisture while the cocoa carries the flavour. What results is denser and fudgier than a flour brownie, with an earthy background note from the yam. Two cups of mashed yam against half a cup of flour is a high ratio, so the texture is closer to a baked pudding than a cakey brownie. There is no tradition behind it and this entry does not invent one. It belongs to the growing body of Nigerian home baking that treats local staples as ingredients for Western formats, alongside plantain cakes and yam flour breads.

Nigeria50 minLaila

Gizpotato

Gizpotato is gizdodo with potato in place of plantain, and the contributor presents it as exactly that: an alternative for people who want the dish without the sweetness. Gizzards, diced Irish potato, carrots, onion and bell peppers are seasoned and combined. Irish potato is the Nigerian term for the ordinary white potato, used to distinguish it from sweet potato and from yam, both of which are far more central to Nigerian cooking. Its use here is deliberate: potato is neutral where plantain is sweet, so the dish reads as savoury throughout rather than balancing sweet against spicy. The seasoning departs from Nigerian convention. Worcestershire sauce and bottled chilli sauce are not standard in a dish of this kind, and they place this firmly in contemporary home cooking rather than tradition. Worcestershire also contains anchovy, so it is neither vegetarian nor suitable for anyone avoiding fish, and most brands are not gluten free. The source is very sparse: no quantities at all, and it is filed under dessert and suya recipes in WordPress, neither of which is correct.

Nigeria50 minErmanuella Ben

Kilishi Noodles

Kilishi noodles is a modern Nigerian dish, instant noodles cooked with kilishi, the northern Nigerian beef jerky, along with peppers, carrots and green beans. Kilishi is the part with the history. It is northern Nigeria's dried spiced beef, most closely associated with Bauchi State but made and eaten across the country. Beef is sliced extremely thin, dried, then coated in a paste built on groundnut, spices and pepper, dried again and finally roasted over fire. The result keeps for a long time without refrigeration, which is the whole reason the technique exists, and it is why kilishi has traditionally been sold wrapped in brown paper or newspaper, which keeps moisture out and mould from forming. That dryness is also what governs this recipe. Kilishi is genuinely hard to chew straight from the pack, so the first step is softening it in water before anything else happens. Skipping it produces a dish nobody enjoys. The noodles themselves are the modern half. Instant noodles have become thoroughly embedded in Nigerian home cooking, and pairing them with kilishi is exactly the kind of adaptation that produces new everyday dishes: something imported and cheap, cooked with something local and prized. **Note:** this recipe sits under the dessert category on the site. It is not a dessert.

NigeriaMaryam

Ghoriba Bahla

Ghoriba bahla is a Moroccan shortbread, crumbly and cracked across the top, made with toasted sesame, fried almonds and a great deal of fat. It is eaten with Libyan tea, Maghrebi mint tea and Arabic coffee, and versions of it are made across Egypt, Morocco and Libya. Ghoriba is simply the Arabic word for cookie, and it names a whole family rather than one biscuit. What identifies this one is the cracks. Bahla loosely translates as silly, or silly stranger, and the name refers to the fissures that open across the surface as the cookie bakes. One Moroccan guide is quoted rendering it as stupid cookies, which gives a fair sense of the affection in the name. Two fats and two nuts do the work. Butter and neutral oil together, with a little sesame oil, give a texture that neither alone produces, and the sesame is toasted while the almonds are fried, which are different treatments producing different results. The dough is deliberately crumbly and cannot be rolled: each cookie is formed by hand into a ball and pressed flat between the palms so the edges are thinner than the middle. Traditionally a special pan gives them concave backs and encourages more cracking.

Morocco45 minBlessing

Peanut Butter Cheesecake

A no-bake cheesecake with a digestive biscuit base, a cream cheese and mascarpone filling loosened with peanut butter, a layer of peanut butter fudge, and a chocolate ganache on top. No country is named and none applies: this is a modern dessert of the kind made everywhere. It sits in Worldwide Recipes for that reason. Nothing in it is regional. Digestive biscuits are British, mascarpone Italian, and the peanut butter and chocolate pairing is North American in origin. That combination is now international and belongs to no particular kitchen. Africa's own peanut desserts are quite different and worth naming, since peanuts are one of the continent's defining crops. Kuli kuli is the Nigerian fried peanut snack. Meni-meniyong is the Malian sesame and honey brittle. Nkate cake is Ghanaian peanut brittle. None of them resembles a cheesecake. Two practical notes: nothing here is baked, so the times are chilling times rather than cooking, and the source's ingredient list has section headings tangled into it, which has been reconstructed against the method. Contains peanuts.

South Africa1 hrChef.donkey

Donut Balls

Donut balls are small round doughnuts made from a batter that is mixed and fried immediately, with no proving stage at all. That absence is the whole point of the recipe, and the source draws the comparison directly: unlike puff puff, this needs no resting time. Puff puff is yeast-raised, which means an hour or more of waiting while the dough rises. These use a chemically raised batter, so the time from deciding to make them to eating them is about fifteen minutes. The name has a history worth knowing. Traditionally, doughnut holes were made from the dough cut out of the centre of ring doughnuts, a by-product rather than a product, fried alongside the rings so nothing was wasted. They became popular enough in their own right that they are now made deliberately. They are finished however you like: rolled in sugar, dipped in chocolate ganache, glazed, or filled. **Filed as Worldwide.** This is a Western doughnut recipe rather than an African dish, though it sits close to puff puff, which is genuinely West African and is the better comparison.

Cuisine228

Grilled tilapia with a green pepper, herb and ginger base

Grilled Tilapia with Lemon, Garlic and Ginger

Whole tilapia scored, marinated in an oil-based spice mixture, oven-grilled, then coated in a fresh green pepper base and returned to the heat. The two-stage seasoning is what makes it, and it is a West African approach rather than a simple marinade. The first stage is a dry-spice oil: vegetable oil with fish seasoning, white and black pepper, ginger, garlic, onion powder and lemon juice, worked into the cuts. The second is a green pepper base built in a food processor from green and red scotch bonnets, bell peppers, spinach, dill, coriander, ginger, garlic and onion, fried briefly in oil and then smeared over the part-cooked fish. That green base is the interesting part. Blending leafy greens and fresh herbs into a pepper sauce is characteristic of Ghanaian and wider West African fish cookery, and it gives colour and a fresh, sharp finish that a marinade applied only at the start cannot. The scoring is not decorative either: two or three cuts on each side let both stages of seasoning reach the flesh rather than sitting on the skin. Tilapia is native to African fresh waters and is the fish most associated with Ghanaian grilling, usually eaten with banku.

Ghana50 minRashidatu Alhassan

Makroud el Louse (Algerian Almond Cookies)

Makroud el louse is the almond version of makroud, and it is a genuinely different cookie from the one that name usually brings to mind. Ordinary makroud is a semolina pastry stuffed with date paste and deep-fried, then soaked in syrup. Makroud el louse has no semolina, no dates and no frying: it is ground almonds, sugar and egg, shaped, baked, dipped in an orange-flower syrup and rolled in icing sugar. "Louse" is the Algerian word for almond, so the name simply distinguishes the almond one. Both are cut on the diagonal into the same lozenge shape, which is where the shared name comes from, makroud derives from the Arabic for something cut at an angle. The shape is the family resemblance; the ingredients are not. Because there is no flour in the dough, this version is naturally gluten-free, which is unusual among North African pastries and is worth knowing if you need it. One caution: the source's own instructions send you to a floured work surface, which would undo that. Use icing sugar or a little extra ground almond instead. These are keeping cookies. Sealed in a tin they hold for over a month, which is why they are made in quantity for Eid, Ramadan and weddings rather than a few at a time.

Algeria45 minNympha

French toast made with thick slices of brioche, baked with chocolate

French Toast with Brioche

Thick slices of brioche soaked in a sweetened egg, milk and cream custard, then baked with chocolate and butter. No country is claimed. French toast in one form or another is eaten across Europe and beyond, and it is considerably older than its English name, a version appears in Apicius, the Roman recipe collection, and it is known in France as pain perdu, lost bread, because its purpose was to rescue bread that had gone stale. The bread choice is the substance of the recipe and the source is right about it. Brioche and challah are both enriched doughs, made with eggs and butter, which means they are structurally sturdier and can absorb a great deal of custard without collapsing. Plain sandwich bread turns to mush. Cutting the slices thick, around 2 cm, matters for the same reason. Baking rather than pan-frying is the other decision here, and it solves a real problem. Thick slices fried in a pan brown on the outside long before the custard in the middle has set, which is why so much home-made French toast is soggy inside. The oven cooks it through evenly. The method has a copy error worth noting: it refers to baguette slices twice, having specified brioche in the ingredients. Brioche is correct.

45 minCuisine228

Egyptian Katayef stuffed mini pancakes filled with cheese and drizzled with syrup on a plate, a beloved Ramadan dessert

Katayef (Mini Pancakes)

Katayef, qatayef, atayef, are small yeasted pancakes cooked on one side only, then folded around a filling, sealed, fried or baked, and soaked in syrup. They are Ramadan food across Egypt and the Levant. The one-sided cooking is the whole technique and it is what makes katayef katayef. The batter is poured onto a hot dry pan and left until the top surface is covered in open bubbles and has set dry to the touch, without ever being flipped. That bubbled, sticky upper surface is what allows the folded pancake to seal shut around its filling without needing anything to hold it. Fillings split two ways: sweet cheese, or crushed nuts with cinnamon. Both are traditional and households tend to make each. Once folded they are either deep-fried to a deep gold or baked, then drizzled with warm sugar syrup scented with orange blossom or rose water. Through Ramadan they are sold in enormous quantities from bakeries, often as bare unfilled pancakes for people to fill at home. Alongside konafa, katayef is one of the two desserts that define the month in Egypt.

EgyptBlessing

Sfenj, Moroccan ring doughnuts fried golden

Sfenj (Moroccan Doughnuts)

Sfenj are Moroccan doughnuts made from a very wet yeasted dough, shaped into rings by hand and deep-fried. They are crisp outside, chewy inside, and sold hot from street stalls across the country. The dough is the whole difficulty and the whole point. It is deliberately too sticky to knead or roll, closer to a thick batter than a bread dough, and that high hydration is what produces the light, chewy, open interior. Working it with dry hands is impossible, which is why the method has you keep a bowl of water beside you and wet your hands before touching it. Adding flour to make it manageable would be the obvious mistake and would give you a dense, ordinary doughnut. The street version is worth picturing. Vendors lift the finished sfenj from the oil with skewers and thread them onto a ribbon of palm leaf so customers can carry several at once. Some ask for them flattened and returned to the oil for a second fry, which makes them crisper still. Timing matters more than most fried things. Sfenj are eaten hot; cold, they go tough and lose the contrast entirely. The source's stated oil temperature is worth following, it is more specific than most.

Morocco4 hr 30 minNympha

Tamina (Algerian Toasted Semolina with Honey)

Tamina is semolina steamed, toasted until golden, and worked into warm honey and butter. It is Algerian, and it is made for occasions, engagements, weddings, baby showers and Mawlid, the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. The three ingredients carry meaning, and the source explains it well: semolina for sustenance, honey for the sweetness of love, butter for blessings. That symbolism is why tamina appears at the birth of a child in particular, offering it to guests is the Algerian way of announcing a new baby, which makes the dish a message as much as a dessert. The toasting is the whole technique and it cannot be rushed. Semolina taken to a proper golden colour tastes nutty and complex; under-toasted, it tastes raw and pasty. It also burns from golden to black very quickly, so it needs constant movement over medium-low heat. The steaming step is unusual and the source explains its own reasoning: it is a safety measure, in case the semolina has not been toasted thoroughly enough. Many recipes skip it and toast alone. Economics have changed the ingredients. Margarine and sugar syrup now often replace butter and honey, which the source records without judgement. One caution: it identifies tamina with bsisa, which is a different Tunisian and Libyan preparation.

Algeria50 minBlessing

Zalabya, small Egyptian doughnuts dipped in syrup and dusted with cinnamon

Zalabya (Egyptian Syrup Doughnuts)

Zalabya are small round balls of yeasted batter, deep-fried until crisp and dipped briefly in cold sugar syrup. They are Egyptian street food, sold from kiosks all over the country for very little, and they are eaten most of all during Ramadan. The source's description is the best one: think of them as the round part that is missing from a doughnut. They are crunchy outside and light and airy inside, and the syrup is absorbed only into the outer layer, so biting into one gives a burst of sweetness against a plain interior rather than sweetness all the way through. The names travel. Loukoumades in Greece, lokma in Turkey, zalabya or zalabia in Egypt, and loqmet al-qadi, the judge's bite, across the Arabic-speaking world. Versions are eaten all around the Mediterranean and into South Asia, where jalebi is a related but differently shaped relative. The batter is very wet, closer to a thick pouring batter than a dough, and that is what makes them light. It is dropped by the spoonful straight into the oil rather than shaped. The syrup should be cool when the hot balls go in, for the same reason as koeksisters: the temperature difference draws it in. The source's ingredient list has run its headings into the list and one water quantity is malformed.

Egypt1 hr 55 minBlessing

Recettes

Nigerian Yam Brownie

Makroud

Chebakia (Moroccan Sesame Cookies)

Twisted Doughnuts

French Toast with Brioche

Makroud el Louse (Algerian Almond Cookies)

Grilled Tilapia with Lemon, Garlic and Ginger

Donut Balls

Fried Whole Tilapia

Zlabia

Plats emblématiques

Recettes les plus populaires

Rwandan Banana Beignets

Somali Doughnuts (Kac Kac)

Egyptian Meshabek

Quick and Easy Cheese Shawarma Recipe

Swabaa Zainab

Asun (Peppered Goat Meat)

Sonhos de Banana

Cassava Fritters

Zlabia

Fried Whole Tilapia

Twisted Doughnuts

Chebakia (Moroccan Sesame Cookies)

Makroud

Nigerian Yam Brownie

Gizpotato

Kilishi Noodles

Ghoriba Bahla

Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Donut Balls

Grilled Tilapia with Lemon, Garlic and Ginger

Makroud el Louse (Algerian Almond Cookies)

French Toast with Brioche

Katayef (Mini Pancakes)

Sfenj (Moroccan Doughnuts)

Tamina (Algerian Toasted Semolina with Honey)

Zalabya (Egyptian Syrup Doughnuts)

Recettes

Recettes à la une

Nigerian Yam Brownie

French Toast with Brioche

Makroud el Louse (Algerian Almond Cookies)

Grilled Tilapia with Lemon, Garlic and Ginger

Donut Balls

Fried Whole Tilapia

Zlabia

Plats emblématiques

Recettes les plus populaires

Rwandan Banana Beignets

Somali Doughnuts (Kac Kac)

Egyptian Meshabek

Quick and Easy Cheese Shawarma Recipe

Swabaa Zainab

Asun (Peppered Goat Meat)

Sonhos de Banana

Cassava Fritters

Zlabia

Fried Whole Tilapia

Twisted Doughnuts

Chebakia (Moroccan Sesame Cookies)

Makroud

Nigerian Yam Brownie

Gizpotato

Kilishi Noodles

Ghoriba Bahla

Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Donut Balls

Grilled Tilapia with Lemon, Garlic and Ginger

Makroud el Louse (Algerian Almond Cookies)

French Toast with Brioche

Katayef (Mini Pancakes)

Sfenj (Moroccan Doughnuts)

Tamina (Algerian Toasted Semolina with Honey)

Zalabya (Egyptian Syrup Doughnuts)