Recettes

Potjiekos, a South African stew cooked in a three legged cast iron pot over an open fire

Potjiekos (Afrikaans Stew on the Fire)

Potjiekos takes its name from its vessel. A potjie is the round, three legged cast iron pot that sits directly in the embers, and potjiekos, pronounced poi-key-kos, is simply the food that comes out of it. The pot is a descendant of the Dutch oven brought to the Cape in the 17th century, and it is now found in households across southern Africa. The defining rule of a potjie is that it is not stirred. Ingredients are layered, meat at the bottom, vegetables above it in the order of how long they need, and the lid stays on. What comes out is not a stew in the ordinary sense: the layers hold something of their own identity rather than dissolving into a common sauce, and that separation is the point of the method. It is also a social form. A potjie runs for three to six hours, and the cooking is the occasion rather than the preparation for one. People sit around the fire while it happens. South Africans distinguish it from a braai, which is the other great outdoor cooking institution, and rank the two as the country's twin claims on the fire.

South AfricaAmara

Ablo, a steamed rice cake from Benin and Togo, served warm alongside a stew

No Corn Starch Rice Cakes (Ablo)

Ablo, also written abolo, is a steamed rice cake with a light, springy crumb, eaten across the coastal stretch of West Africa where Togo, Benin, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire meet. It is white, faintly sweet, faintly sour, and built to be torn and dipped. Its texture is the result of fermentation rather than of any raising agent alone. Rice is soaked, ground and left to rise, and the sourness that develops in that time is the difference between an ablo and a plain steamed dumpling. In Benin the cakes are steamed wrapped in banana leaf bundles, which leaves a green, faintly grassy note that a metal mould cannot give. Ablo occupies the position that bread occupies elsewhere: it is the mild thing on the plate that the sauce is for. It is eaten with thick stews and grilled fish, and it belongs equally to a party table and a home meal. In a food culture where most starches are pounded or stirred, a steamed and leavened cake is a distinct approach, and one that Togolese, Beninese, Ghanaian and Ivorian cooks share across their borders.

Benin2 hr 10 minAnthonyJ

Tarb, Egyptian kofta wrapped in lamb caul fat and grilled until golden

Tarb (Grilled Kofta Wrapped in Lamb Fat)

Tarb is kofta wrapped in caul fat and grilled, and the caul is what the dish is named for. Tarb is the Egyptian word for the lacy membrane of fat that surrounds a lamb's stomach, and wrapping seasoned minced lamb in it produces something that ordinary kofta cannot: the fat renders during cooking, bastes the meat from the outside in, and crisps to a golden shell. Its occasion is Eid al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice, and the connection is direct rather than customary. Eid al-Adha involves the slaughter of an animal and the distribution of its meat, and caul fat is one of the parts that becomes available when a whole lamb is broken down at home. A dish built on caul is a dish that belongs to the moment when a whole animal is being used, which is why tarb appears then and rarely otherwise. Kofta itself runs across Egypt and the whole Middle East, minced meat with onion, parsley and spices, formed and grilled. Tarb is the version that takes it somewhere richer, and Egyptians treat it as a heavy dish for a family celebration rather than everyday food. It is found in the grilled meat restaurants that specialise in kofta, kebab and grilled chicken across Egypt, served with rice or pasta.

Egypt1 hr 55 minBlessing

Alkubus

Alkubus is a Hausa steamed wheat bread from Northern Nigeria, plain by design and made to be eaten with something else. It is soft, faintly sour from the yeast, and it holds its shape well enough to be cut into rounds or wedges. Its role on the plate is the role bread plays across the north: the thing that carries the soup. Alkubus is eaten most often with miyan taushe, the pumpkin and groundnut soup, and it also goes with agushi soup, vegetable soup, cabbage stew or a plain tomato sauce. That pairing with miyan taushe is the one Northern Nigerians name first. There are two ways to make it and they produce different things. Baked in a greased pan and topped with carrot and onion, it is a loaf to be cut and eaten in slices. Portioned into wrappers and steamed over boiling water, it comes out softer and denser, closer to a dumpling, and that is the method the recipe here follows. Steaming rather than baking runs through a great deal of Hausa cooking, from dambu to danwake to masa, and alkubus belongs to that family more than it does to any oven tradition.

Nigeria25 minNympha

Akod

Akod is a tripe dish and it is the emblematic dish of Tunisian Jewish cooking. Beef tripe and a cow's trotter are cleaned, blanched through several changes of water, then cooked for hours with garlic, cumin, tomato paste and harissa until the sauce is thick and the tripe has surrendered completely. Its place is at the kemia, the Tunisian Jewish spread of small dishes that opens a meal, alongside banatages, briks, fricassés and minina. A host laying out a proper kemia would be expected to have made it. Tunisian Jewish cooking developed over centuries in Tunisia and has since largely relocated to France and Israel with the community, which makes recording dishes like this more urgent than recording better travelled ones. The wider family is large and worth knowing. Moroccan douara, also called t'qualia or kercha, uses mutton tripe. Algerian bakbouka includes carrots, courgette and chickpeas. Chkamba in Oran and chmenka in Tunisia are seasoned differently again, and the Moroccan Jewish version, tajine al guezar, meaning the butcher's pot, uses cumin and paprika without tomato paste and is cooked for close to ten hours over coals at Pesach. Offal has fallen out of favour with younger generations across the region, which the source for this recipe notes with some regret.

Tunisia6 hr 30 minBlessing

Domada (Gambian Peanut Stew)

Domada, also written Domoda, is Gambia's national dish and one of West Africa's most comforting stews, a rich, thick groundnut (peanut) based stew cooked with chicken or beef, tomatoes, sweet potato, and cabbage. The peanut paste dissolves into the broth as it cooks, creating a silky, deeply flavoured sauce that coats every piece of protein and vegetable in the pot. The dish belongs to the family of West African groundnut soups found across Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon, but Domada has its own character, sweeter from the potato, more mellow than the spicier Ghanaian versions, and always generous in the quantity of groundnut used. In Gambia it is eaten at celebrations, family gatherings, and as everyday home cooking.

Pan-AfricanNympha

Senegalese Chicken Yassa

Chicken Yassa is one of Senegal's most internationally celebrated dishes, a deeply flavoured stew where chicken is marinated in an aggressive mixture of lemon juice, mustard, and onions, grilled or seared until charred, then slowly cooked with an enormous quantity of caramelised onions until they collapse into a rich, tangy, slightly sweet sauce. The dish is a masterclass in the power of onions as a flavour base. Five or six large onions per chicken is not unusual, they cook down dramatically and transform into a completely different thing: sweet, golden, and complex. The lemon keeps the sauce bright and the mustard adds a subtle depth. Yassa is eaten across Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau and wherever Senegalese communities have settled globally.

SenegalNympha

Chicken Suya

Suya is skewered meat coated in yaji, a dry peanut based spice blend, and it is the best known street food in Nigeria. It comes from the Hausa people of the north, where it is also called tsire, and it spread from there across West Africa. Sudan has a close relative in agashe. Yaji is what makes it suya rather than grilled meat. The blend is built on ground peanut, usually in the form of kuli kuli crushed to a powder, with ginger, chilli, onion powder and other seasonings, and the peanut is what gives suya its particular nuttiness and the slightly gritty coating that clings to the meat. Meat without yaji is not suya, whatever else is done to it. Beef and ram are the traditional cuts, along with kidney, liver and tripe, and chicken is the newer arrival that has become common. It is sold at night from roadside grills, cut on a board and handed over in newspaper with sliced raw onion, tomato and cabbage, and the raw onion alongside the hot spice is not a garnish but part of how it is eaten. The one thing worth knowing before making it is that yaji contains peanut, which matters to anyone with an allergy.

Nigeria1 hr 25 minNympha

Oven Baked Tilapia

Tilapia is native to Africa, including Ghana, and it is one of the fish Ghanaians eat most. It belongs to the Cichlidae family, grows fast, and has a mild flavour and tender flaky flesh that takes on whatever seasoning it is given, which is why it appears in so many different preparations. In Ghana it is most closely associated with banku, the fermented corn and cassava dough. Grilled tilapia with banku and a fierce pepper sauce is one of the country's defining meals, sold from roadside grills and chop bars and eaten with the fingers. The tang of the fermented banku against the mild fish is the whole reason the pairing works. This version bakes rather than grills, which is the practical domestic method and gives a cleaner result without a charcoal grill. The seasoning is a marinade rather than a rub, built on oil, garlic, ginger, chilli and soy sauce, and the source names two commercial Ghanaian spice blends among the ingredients. Any all purpose seasoning stands in. Banku and tilapia is generally eaten as lunch or dinner rather than breakfast, though the source is relaxed about that, noting there are no strict rules.

Ghana40 minSandynanayaa

Chicken Kebabs

Kebab is a Middle Eastern preparation, and the source says so directly. Cut or ground meat cooked on a skewer over open flame is one of the oldest cooking methods there is, and the word and the technique both come from that region before spreading almost everywhere. Mutton and lamb are the traditional meats. Regional versions use beef, goat, chicken or fish, and pork rarely, given religious constraints across much of the region where kebab originates. Not every kebab involves a skewer either: tas kebab is baked in a skillet or served as a stew, which shows how loosely the word travels. Africa has a great deal of skewered grilled meat of its own, and this recipe is not it. Nigerian suya is coated in yaji, a peanut based spice blend. Sudanese agashe works the same way. Moroccan brochettes are marinated in cumin and paprika. Egyptian kofta is ground and shaped rather than cubed. This version is marinated in soy sauce, olive oil, oregano, garlic and lemon, which is a Mediterranean and Levantine profile, so it sits in the Worldwide Recipes collection rather than being presented as African.

30 minAmara

Romazava

Romazava is the national dish of Madagascar, and the name describes it exactly: ro means broth or soup in Malagasy, mazava means clear. It is meat simmered with leafy greens in a clear broth, served over rice, and it is one of the seven royal dishes known collectively as tatao. It was once food for the Malagasy sovereign specifically. That association with royalty is part of why it holds the position it does, and it is now eaten by everyone rather than reserved for anyone. Three meats together, beef, pork and chicken, is characteristic of the fuller version, though households vary it. The greens are what make it Malagasy and they are the hardest part to reproduce elsewhere. Anamamy, paracress and mustard greens are what is used on the island; paracress in particular produces a tingling, numbing sensation on the tongue that is central to the authentic dish and has no European equivalent. Spinach and rocket are the usual substitutes and give a good soup that is missing that specific quality. Zebu, the humped cattle of Madagascar, is the traditional beef. It is served with sakay, the Malagasy chilli condiment, and small eggplants, ginger and tomato are common additions.

Madagascar1 hr 15 minBlessing

Yassa Fish and Shrimp

Poisson yassa is the fish version of Senegal's best known dish, and it works on the same principle as chicken yassa: a marinade of lemon, mustard, garlic and onion that becomes the sauce, with a very large quantity of onion cooked down into it. Yassa comes from the Casamance region in southern Senegal and is now made across the country and throughout the Senegalese diaspora. The mustard is a French ingredient absorbed entirely into a Senegalese idiom, and the resemblance the source draws to a French sauce à l'onion is fair as far as it goes, though yassa is sharper and carries far more onion. Four large onions to two and a half pounds of fish is the ratio, and it is not a mistake. The onions cook down into a soft, tangy mass that is as much the dish as the fish is. The technique is straightforward: marinate, cook the fish and set it aside, cook the onions in the leftover marinade, then return the fish to warm through in the sauce. Shrimp can go in alongside. It is served with rice most often, though this version suggests potatoes.

Senegal40 minCuisine228

Doro Wat (Ethiopian Spiced Chicken)

Doro Wat is Ethiopia's most celebrated dish, a deeply spiced, slow-cooked chicken stew made with the country's signature berbere spice blend and niter kibbeh (Ethiopian spiced clarified butter), enriched with whole boiled eggs that absorb the complex, fiery sauce as they cook. It is the dish that defines Ethiopian cuisine for the world. Preparing Doro Wat properly requires patience. Caramelising a large quantity of onions for up to an hour in niter kibbeh forms the foundation, this long-cooked onion base is what gives the stew its extraordinary depth and the sauce its thick, velvet-like body. The berbere adds heat, complexity, and colour. The result is one of the most flavourful chicken dishes in the world.

EthiopiaNympha

Moroccan Chicken Tagine

Chicken tagine is Moroccan slow cooking at its most recognisable: chicken with preserved lemon, olives, onion and a warm spice blend, cooked gently until the meat falls apart. The name belongs to the vessel as much as the dish. A tagine is a shallow ceramic or unglazed clay pot with a tall conical lid. The cone is not decorative: steam rises, condenses against the cone and runs back down into the base, so the dish cooks in its own recirculating moisture with very little added liquid. It works like a slow cooker and gives the same result, meat that is tender and a sauce that has concentrated rather than evaporated. The spice profile is the Moroccan signature: paprika, cumin, ginger, coriander, cinnamon and cayenne together, with honey for balance and lemon for sharpness. Cracked green olives and preserved lemon go in at the end so they keep their character. It can be made in a tagine, in a Dutch oven, or on the stovetop, and this recipe uses the last. If you cook in an actual tagine on a hob, use the lowest setting you can: raising the heat cracks the clay.

Morocco1 hr 10 minAmara

Moroccan Couscous Salad

This is couscous with roasted vegetables, chickpeas, raisins and almonds, dressed with lemon, cumin and olive oil. It is a salad in the sense of being served at room temperature rather than a leafy one: the couscous is the bulk of it and the vegetables are folded through. Couscous was first made by the Amazigh people of North Africa, who worked out how to turn wheat into fine granules, and it remains a staple across Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. Moroccan couscous is the smallest of the common grades, finer than Israeli or Lebanese couscous, and it is what this recipe uses. The technique is absorption rather than steaming. Hot broth is poured over the dry couscous, which has been tossed with olive oil and turmeric, and it is covered and left for five minutes. The raisins go in during that time so the residual heat plumps them. Traditional Moroccan couscous is steamed repeatedly in a couscoussier, which produces a lighter grain; this is the quick domestic method. The vegetables are roasted separately and folded in, which keeps them caramelised rather than steamed into the grain.

Morocco50 minDebby

Mujadara

Mujadara is lentils and rice cooked together and topped with deeply caramelised onions, and the source names it a signature Middle Eastern dish. It belongs to the Levant rather than to Africa, and it sits in Worldwide Recipes for that reason. The name is unflattering and accurate. In Arabic mujaddara means riddled with small holes, or pockmarked, and it describes the appearance of the lentils scattered through the rice. It is nicknamed the dish of the poor everywhere it is eaten, because it contains no meat and nothing expensive, and the source makes a fair comparison: mujadara is to the Middle East what couscous is to the Maghreb. Its age is what makes attribution impossible. The first recorded recipe goes back centuries, and as the source observes, the older and simpler a dish is, the more cultures claim its paternity. What matters technically is the onions: they need to be fried until the edges genuinely curl and darken, and the flavoured oil they leave behind is poured into the pot without them, so the onions stay crisp on top rather than softening into the rice.

1 hrBlessing

Cassoulet

Cassoulet is a slow-cooked French stew of white beans and meat, and the source is clear about that: it is rooted in the Languedoc region of southwest France and dates back to at least the mid 1300s. It was originally baked in an earthenware dish called a casserole, which is where the name comes from. The traditional version is elaborate. It calls for duck confit, the French method of preserving duck before refrigeration, along with a long list of meats: pork, sausage, lamb, salt pork, bacon, ham hocks, pork skin and pork shoulder. There are many regional versions and the source's own view is that the best come from home kitchens, which gives licence to improvise. **This recipe improvises considerably.** It uses goat meat rather than duck and pork, a bouillon cube, and a teaspoon of potash, all West African rather than French. The result is a genuine adaptation, cooking a French dish with a West African hand, and it is worth being clear about which parts are which. The dish is filed as European because that is what cassoulet is; the recipe as written is an African version of it. The one technique it keeps is the two stages: the meat is cooked and then fried before it meets the beans.

1 hr 40 minCuisine228

Salmon fillets cooked from frozen in an air fryer

Air Fryer Frozen Salmon

Frozen salmon fillets seasoned and cooked in an air fryer, without thawing. No country is claimed and none applies, it is a technique for a piece of fish, and salmon is a cold-water North Atlantic and Pacific species with no African tradition behind it. The reason it works is worth understanding rather than taking on faith. An air fryer is a small convection oven: a fan drives hot air fast around a compact chamber, which transfers heat to the surface far more aggressively than a conventional oven of the same temperature. That is enough to cook through a frozen fillet in roughly the time a thawed one would take in a normal oven, and it means the outside dries and colours while the inside is still coming up to temperature. The practical benefit is real. Thawing fish properly takes hours in a refrigerator, and the shortcuts people take instead, warm water, worktop, microwave, are the ones that cause problems. Cooking from frozen sidesteps the question entirely. One correction to the source: it says flipping is unnecessary. In a single-basket air fryer the underside sits against the basket and does not colour, so turning the fillet halfway is worth the two seconds it costs.

20 minDebby

Whole red snapper marinated in chimichurri and grilled

Braised Red Snapper with Chimichurri

Whole red snapper marinated in chimichurri and then grilled or baked. Chimichurri is Argentine and Uruguayan, and the fish treatment here is a departure from its usual home alongside grilled beef. Chimichurri is an uncooked sauce, parsley, garlic, oregano, olive oil and red wine vinegar, chopped fine rather than blended smooth, and it exists in two forms, verde and rojo, the red version taking paprika and sometimes tomato. Its normal job is as a table condiment for asado, the Argentine grill, where its acidity cuts through rich grilled beef. Using it as a marinade for fish is a reasonable extension of the same logic; the herbs and vinegar suit snapper well. The source's food safety notes are genuinely good and worth keeping. Marinated raw fish should be refrigerated and used within two days, never left out at room temperature, and, most importantly, marinade that has been in contact with raw fish must never be served as a sauce. Make extra chimichurri for the table rather than reusing what came off the fish. One gap in the source: the ingredient list omits parsley entirely, even though parsley is the defining ingredient of chimichurri and its own article says so. It has been restored below.

1 hr 5 minCuisine228

Gollash, Sudanese layered filo pie with spiced minced beef

Gollash (Sudanese Meat Pie)

Gollash is a Sudanese pie of spiced minced beef between many layers of filo, with a milk and egg custard poured over the top before it bakes. It is a fixture of Sudanese restaurants and a dish people make for guests. The name is confusing and worth clearing up straight away: gollash has nothing whatever to do with Hungarian goulash, the paprika beef stew. The words are similar and the source itself slips between the two spellings, but they are unrelated dishes. Gollash is a layered pie. Two things make it what it is. The first is restraint in the filling. The meat is seasoned lightly, allspice, cinnamon, garlic, salt and pepper, deliberately, so the beef itself comes through rather than being buried, which is the opposite of how most spiced mince fillings are treated. The second is the custard poured over the assembled pie before baking, which soaks down between the top layers and sets, giving a soft, savoury layer under the crisp filo. Cutting the pie before it bakes rather than after is the technique that makes it servable. Filo that has been baked whole shatters when you try to cut it. The source's ingredient list is badly scrambled and has been rebuilt from its method.

Sudan1 hr 15 minNympha

Lemon pepper chicken wings tossed in a honey and lemon sauce

Lemon Pepper Wings with Lemon Pepper Sauce

Chicken wings baked with a cornflour coating and then tossed in a sauce of lemon zest, lemon juice, honey, butter and black pepper. No country is claimed. Lemon pepper wings are American, and strongly associated with Atlanta, where lemon pepper wings from a particular style of takeaway are close to a civic institution. The cornflour is the one technique here worth understanding, and it is genuinely effective. Tossing dry wings in cornflour before baking draws moisture from the skin and forms a thin coating that dries and crisps in the oven, giving something much closer to a fried texture without a fryer. It works because cornflour contains no gluten and does not go bready, the same reason it appears in so many Asian frying batters. Two things have to happen for it to work. The wings must be patted properly dry first, because cornflour on wet skin turns to paste. And the sauce goes on after baking, not before, sugar in the honey burns over a thirty-minute bake, and a wet coating would undo the crisping entirely. The source's ingredient list is scrambled, with its section headings absorbed into it, and one entry reads "½ stick honey", which is not a unit honey comes in. Rebuilt below.

40 minDebby

Macarona Bechamel

Macarona béchamel is Egypt's pasta bake, penne layered with a spiced minced meat sauce, covered in béchamel and baked until the top browns. The dish arrived through the same routes that carried béchamel across the Mediterranean, and Egypt made it its own. It is a close relative of Greek pastitsio and of the wider family of baked pasta dishes that runs around the Mediterranean rim, but the spicing is Egyptian: the meat sauce is seasoned with cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg rather than with oregano or basil. It is comfort food in the fullest sense, and it is what appears at family gatherings, on Fridays, and at any occasion where a large dish that feeds many people is required. Most Egyptians have a strong opinion about how their mother makes it. The béchamel is the part worth getting right. It should be thick enough to sit on top rather than sink into the pasta, and it is usually enriched with egg, which helps it set into a firm golden layer rather than staying loose. It reheats well and is often better the day after, which is part of why it is made in quantity.

EgyptBlessing

Nutty Chocolate Banana Bread

Banana bread with dark chocolate, crushed almonds, Greek yoghurt and warm spices. No country is claimed; banana bread is American in origin. **It contains almonds, which the title only hints at.** The Greek yoghurt is the interesting addition and it is doing two things. Its acidity reacts with the bicarbonate of soda, giving lift, which matters because there is no other acid in the batter. And it brings moisture without more fat, which is why this loaf stays soft for several days without being heavy. Sour cream and buttermilk do the same job in other recipes. Chopping the chocolate and nuts by hand, which the method specifies, is better than buying chips. Chopped chocolate gives uneven pieces, some melting into the crumb, some staying as distinct pockets, where uniform chips stay uniform. **A contradiction to watch.** The method opens with one oven setting and then, eleven steps later, gives a hotter one for the bake itself. Those cannot both be right. The higher figure is standard for a loaf of this size and is what has been used here; the lower one would take considerably longer than the stated baking time. A separate banana bread recipe exists on this site and the two compete for some of the same searches.

1 hr 5 minSarah

Paprika and yoghurt marinated chicken, roasted until charred

Paprika Yoghurt Baked Chicken

Chicken marinated for at least twelve hours in yoghurt, paprika, cayenne, garlic and ginger, then roasted hot on a rack. No country is named, though the ginger-and-garlic-heavy marinade points broadly towards South Asian and East African cooking. The yoghurt marinade is doing real chemical work rather than just adding flavour. Its lactic acid tenderises the meat gently, which is quite different from how a lemon or vinegar marinade behaves, acid marinades are harsher and can turn the surface chalky if left too long, whereas yoghurt can sit for a full day without damage. Yoghurt also clings to the chicken where a thin marinade runs off, so the spices stay on the meat rather than pooling in the dish. Two things in the method are better than they look. The rack over a foil-lined pan lets air circulate underneath, so the chicken roasts on all sides instead of stewing in its own juices, the difference between roast chicken and half-braised chicken. And leaving the oven door shut is not fussiness: opening it repeatedly drops the temperature and the browning stalls. The marinade ingredients are not separated from the rest in the source, and the ingredient list contains no marinade heading at all. Everything except the oil goes into the marinade. Its gluten-free and low-calorie claims have not been carried across as claims.

1 hr 15 minCuisine228

Potato Hot Pot

Potatoes parboiled and browned, then finished in a tomato and pepper sauce with vegetables and shrimp. The source places it in Cameroon and identifies it as a close relation of poulet DG, which is the useful frame. Poulet DG, poulet Directeur Général, the general manager's chicken, is one of Cameroon's best-known dishes: chicken with fried ripe plantain in a vegetable-heavy sauce, named for its expense and its association with people who could afford it. Potato hot pot is the same construction with potatoes in place of plantain, and it is worth understanding the substitution rather than treating this as a generic potato stew. The technique that carries it is the one people skip. The potatoes are parboiled and then fried or browned before they go into the sauce, which means they arrive with a crisp exterior and hold their shape rather than disintegrating. Potatoes added raw to a tomato sauce break down and thicken it into mush. The source is relaxed about the protein, chicken, beef, pork, fish, shrimp or beef liver all work, and the ingredient list happens to use shrimp. Crayfish or smoked turkey are common additions. The "Mild Fresh herbs Blend" in the ingredients is not defined anywhere. A blend of parsley, celery leaf, spring onion and basil is the usual Cameroonian equivalent.

Cameroon55 minBlessing

Seffa medfouna, saffron chicken buried under sweetened vermicelli with almonds

Seffa Medfouna (Moroccan Buried Chicken with Sweet Vermicelli)

Seffa medfouna is saffron chicken hidden inside a mound of steamed, sweetened vermicelli, dusted with cinnamon, icing sugar and ground fried almonds. Medfouna means buried, and the concealment is the whole presentation. **It is finished with a cup of ground almonds, which the title gives no indication of.** It is the clearest example on this site of the Moroccan savoury-sweet axis. Saffron chicken cooked with ginger, turmeric and pepper is buried under vermicelli that has been sweetened with butter and icing sugar, studded with raisins, and decorated with cinnamon and almonds. Neither element is subtle, and the point is that they arrive in the same mouthful. This is the same tradition as pastilla, and it reflects the Andalusian and Arab influence that runs through Moroccan festive cooking. Seffa on its own is the sweetened steamed vermicelli or couscous, served as a dish in its own right. Medfouna is the version with meat concealed inside. The vermicelli is steamed four times. That is not an exaggeration in the method, repeated steaming with resting in between is what makes it light rather than claggy, and it is the same principle as double-steamed couscous. It is a dish for a table with several courses on it, not a weeknight.

Morocco3 hr 15 minBlessing

Tsaramaso, a Malagasy white bean and tomato stew served with rice

Tsaramaso Malagasy (White Bean and Tomato Stew)

Dried white beans cooked until tender, then finished with red onion and sliced tomatoes into a thick, soupy stew. It is Malagasy, and it is served everywhere on the island. It is laoka, which is the useful word here. In Malagasy eating, rice is the meal and laoka is whatever accompanies it, the thing that goes on top of, or beside, a large plate of rice. Tsaramaso is one of the most popular laoka in the country, and it is eaten as a matter of course rather than as an occasion dish. It is very often not vegetarian. Zebu meat, the humped cattle that are central to Malagasy life, makes it hen'omby sy tsaramaso, and pork makes it tsaramaso sy henakisoa. The shank is the cut the source recommends. This version is the plain one, which is also widely eaten. The technique in the recipe is worth noting: the beans are cooked separately in water, seasoned only at the end, and a cup of their cooking liquid is kept back. That liquid is what the finished stew is loosened with, and it carries starch and flavour that plain water would not. The source compares it to cassoulet, which is a reasonable shorthand, beans and meat cooked long and slow, though the seasoning is entirely different.

Madagascar2 hr 15 minBlessing

Recettes

Air Fryer Frozen Salmon

Cassoulet

Mujadara

Moroccan Couscous Salad

Paprika Yoghurt Baked Chicken

Nutty Chocolate Banana Bread

Moroccan Chicken Tagine

Doro Wat (Ethiopian Spiced Chicken)

Yassa Fish and Shrimp

Romazava

Plats emblématiques

Recettes les plus populaires

Potjiekos (Afrikaans Stew on the Fire)

No Corn Starch Rice Cakes (Ablo)

Tarb (Grilled Kofta Wrapped in Lamb Fat)

Alkubus

Akod

Domada (Gambian Peanut Stew)

Senegalese Chicken Yassa

Chicken Suya

Oven Baked Tilapia

Chicken Kebabs

Romazava

Yassa Fish and Shrimp

Doro Wat (Ethiopian Spiced Chicken)

Moroccan Chicken Tagine

Moroccan Couscous Salad

Mujadara

Cassoulet

Air Fryer Frozen Salmon

Braised Red Snapper with Chimichurri

Gollash (Sudanese Meat Pie)

Lemon Pepper Wings with Lemon Pepper Sauce

Macarona Bechamel

Nutty Chocolate Banana Bread

Paprika Yoghurt Baked Chicken

Potato Hot Pot

Seffa Medfouna (Moroccan Buried Chicken with Sweet Vermicelli)

Tsaramaso Malagasy (White Bean and Tomato Stew)

Recettes

Recettes à la une

Air Fryer Frozen Salmon

Paprika Yoghurt Baked Chicken

Nutty Chocolate Banana Bread

Moroccan Chicken Tagine

Doro Wat (Ethiopian Spiced Chicken)

Yassa Fish and Shrimp

Romazava

Plats emblématiques

Recettes les plus populaires

Potjiekos (Afrikaans Stew on the Fire)

No Corn Starch Rice Cakes (Ablo)

Tarb (Grilled Kofta Wrapped in Lamb Fat)

Alkubus

Akod

Domada (Gambian Peanut Stew)

Senegalese Chicken Yassa

Chicken Suya

Oven Baked Tilapia

Chicken Kebabs

Romazava

Yassa Fish and Shrimp

Doro Wat (Ethiopian Spiced Chicken)

Moroccan Chicken Tagine

Moroccan Couscous Salad

Mujadara

Cassoulet

Air Fryer Frozen Salmon

Braised Red Snapper with Chimichurri

Gollash (Sudanese Meat Pie)

Lemon Pepper Wings with Lemon Pepper Sauce

Macarona Bechamel

Nutty Chocolate Banana Bread

Paprika Yoghurt Baked Chicken

Potato Hot Pot

Seffa Medfouna (Moroccan Buried Chicken with Sweet Vermicelli)

Tsaramaso Malagasy (White Bean and Tomato Stew)