Recettes

Tunisian Loubia (White Bean Stew)

Loubia is white bean stew, and it is eaten across North Africa: Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Libya. Dried white beans are cooked slowly in a tomato sauce heavy with ras el hanout, paprika and turmeric, and the result is a robust, spicy stew scooped up with bread. It works as a main course or a side, and in Morocco it is a particularly common accompaniment to fried fish. Everyone has their own touch: some cook it with olives, some finish it with parsley or coriander, and chicken, beef or lamb all appear in it. This version uses chicken, cooked in the pot and lifted out while the beans finish, then returned to warm through. Two practical points the source is clear about. The beans are dried and need overnight soaking, so it has to be planned a day ahead. And the cooking time given assumes a pressure cooker, which the source describes as essential equipment in Moroccan kitchens; without one, allow roughly double. The seasoning should be generous, since a timid hand produces a thin sauce rather than the robust one the dish is known for.

★★★★★Les mieux notées

1 hr 45 minEasyTunisia

Recette de Blessing · Africook

Moroccan Zaalouk (Cooked Eggplant and Tomato Salad)

Zaalouk is a classic Moroccan cooked salad of eggplant (aubergine) and tomatoes, gently seasoned with cumin, paprika, garlic, fresh coriander, and a touch of preserved lemon, then cooked down to a soft, almost spreadable consistency. It is served at room temperature as part of the Moroccan mezze spread that precedes most main meals. Despite being called a salad, Zaalouk is fully cooked. The eggplant is first roasted or grilled to develop smokiness, then combined with tomatoes and spices and cooked together until completely collapsed into a silky, intensely flavoured paste. It is served generously with warm bread for scooping and represents the sophisticated simplicity that defines Moroccan cooking at its best.

EasyMorocco

Recette de Blessing · Africook

Zviti

Zviti is a very hot Algerian dish from Bou Saada in M'Sila province, and it is defined as much by how it is served as by what goes into it. A semolina flatbread called rakhsis is crumbled into a tall wooden mortar, the mehrez, along with grilled peppers, tomatoes, garlic and a large quantity of chilli, and everything is crushed together with a wooden pestle. The mortar then goes to the table. Zviti is not portioned onto plates: everyone gathers around the mehrez and eats directly from it, and in some places it is presented on a special table with a hole cut in the middle to hold the pestle upright. It also goes by the name slata mehrez, which translates as the mortar salad. The heat is the point and Algerians are entirely open about the effect. Eating zviti involves sweating and gasping, and the description of it as a fire dish is affectionate rather than a warning. Some restaurants reduce the chilli or work olive oil and butter through it to soften it, which regulars regard as missing the idea. It is eaten as an accompaniment rather than a course, with a glass of lben, the fermented buttermilk, to cool the mouth between mouthfuls.

★★★★★Les mieux notées

45 minMediumAlgeria

Recette de Blessing · Africook

Moroccan Chicken Rfissa

Rfissa is chicken and lentils stewed with onions in a broth heavy with fenugreek, ras el hanout and saffron, poured over a bed of shredded msemen or trid pastry. The pastry takes up the broth and becomes the base of the dish rather than an accompaniment to it, which is what distinguishes rfissa from a tagine served with bread. It is a family dish above all else. Rfissa is what appears at reunions and at religious occasions, at what Moroccans call a zarda, and it is not a restaurant dish. Its most specific role is at childbirth: it is served to women who have recently given birth, traditionally on the third day, because fenugreek, lentils and the spice blend are held to support recovery and milk production. A dish with a fixed place in a family's most significant week carries a weight that a good stew does not. The bed underneath it has its own vocabulary. Served over crumbled harcha it becomes rfissa medhoussa; over cubed bread it is treda. Moroccan households commonly buy the trid or msemen from a souk or a local bakery rather than making it, because the pastry is the slow part and the stew is not.

★★★★★Les mieux notées

3 hrHardMorocco · Moroccan

Recette de Blessing · Africook