Recettes

Kafteji

Kafteji is Tunisian street food built on a single idea: fry a range of vegetables separately so each one is properly cooked, then chop them together and serve the result with bread. Potato, courgette, pepper, tomato and aubergine are the usual cast, and the chopping at the end is what makes it kafteji rather than a plate of fried vegetables. It is sold from small counters and casse-croûte shops across Tunisia and eaten at any hour, most often stuffed into bread as a sandwich. It is inexpensive, which is part of its identity: kafteji is what you eat when you want something substantial and hot without a restaurant. Fried egg is a common addition, and in many Tunisian versions it is the only protein. The version here includes ground beef or lamb, which puts it at one end of a range. Kafteji is frequently made entirely without meat, and the vegetable only preparation is at least as common in Tunisia as the meat version. Harissa, olives and a squeeze of lemon are the usual finishing touches, and the dish is eaten from a shared plate with bread as the utensil.

Tunisia50 minLaila

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

Tunisian Couscous

Couscous is the national dish of Tunisia, and it is also the national dish of Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania and Libya, which tells you something about how the Maghreb understands itself. The same steamed semolina appears across all five countries under names that shift with the language: kousksi in Tunisia, taam or kesksu in Algeria, seksu in Morocco, and cuscusu in Sicily, where it crossed the water. The Tunisian version is distinguished by its heat and its colour. Harissa goes into the broth rather than being offered alongside it, and the finished couscous runs orange to deep red depending on how much broth and harissa it has taken up. Caraway is the other Tunisian signature, appearing in a quantity that Moroccan and Algerian couscous would not use. What goes with it depends on the coast. In Sfax and the other coastal cities, couscous is made with fish. Inland it more often carries lamb, sometimes with dried fruit. Turnip, carrot, courgette, potato, pumpkin and chickpeas are the usual vegetables, cooked in the broth and removed as each becomes ready. The word itself is traced either to the Arabic kaskasa, to pound small, or the Amazigh seksu, meaning rounded or well rolled, and both derivations describe the grain rather than the dish.

Tunisia2 hrBlessing

Usban

Usban is a North African sausage made from the parts of a sheep that a whole animal butchery yields and nothing else does: the stomach, the liver, the lungs and the heart, chopped and mixed with rice, herbs and spices, sewn into pouches and cooked in a sauce. It is eaten in Tunisia, Algeria and Libya, and it is written both usban and osban. Its occasion is Eid al-Adha, and the connection is structural rather than customary. The festival involves the sacrifice of an animal and the use of all of it, and usban is what the offal becomes. It cannot be made casually because it requires a quantity of organ meat that only arrives when a whole sheep is broken down at home. Tunisian households make it on the day of Eid despite the considerable labour, and the effort is part of what the dish means. The work is real. The stomach must be scrubbed, blanched, scraped of its lining until it turns white, cut and sewn into pouches by hand with a needle and butcher's twine, then filled and sewn shut. Usban is documented in Tunisian references as far back as the 13th century, and it is held up as a demonstration of skill: proof that a cook can use every part of the sacrifice properly. It is served alongside rice or couscous.

Tunisia1 hr 30 minBlessing

Dobara

Dobara is a chickpea and fava bean soup from Biskra in northeastern Algeria, and it is winter food in a place that gets genuinely cold at night despite sitting on the edge of the Sahara. It is also spelled doubara, and it is known widely enough by its region that Algerians call it doubara Biskra. It is vegan by construction rather than by choice. Meat is expensive in Algeria and many households cannot buy it regularly, and dobara is one of the dishes that answers that directly: beans, chickpeas, spices and bread, filling enough that nobody at the table is thinking about what is missing. It is also the dish that gets made when a guest arrives unannounced, because the components are always in the house. The heat is not incidental. Harissa goes in, and so do chilli, black pepper and paprika, and Algerians describe the warmth it produces as the reason to eat it in winter. What makes it distinctive is that the fresh elements go in at the table rather than in the pot: grated tomato, chopped coriander, garlic, pickled peppers, lemon slices and olive oil are added to each bowl as it is served, so the dish is finished by whoever is eating it.

Algeria1 hrBlessing

Egyptian Kofta

Kofta is minced meat, seasoned and shaped by hand, and it runs across an enormous stretch of the world: from the Balkans through Turkey, the Levant and Egypt, across the Arabian peninsula, into Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, and along the North African coast. The Egyptian version is lamb or beef with onion, parsley, mint and a warm spice mix, moulded onto skewers and grilled. Its written history is old. Recipes appear in the earliest surviving Arab cookbooks, where large ground lamb meatballs were glazed in saffron and egg yolk, a technique that later reached Europe and was known there as gilding or endoring. From the Arab world it travelled east, and nargisi kofta was served at the Mughal court in India. In Egypt, kofta belongs to the grilled meat restaurants that exist in every town, where it is cooked alongside kebab, grilled chicken and tarb and served with rice, bread and salad. The distinction Egyptians draw between kofta and kebab is worth knowing: kebab is cubed meat on a skewer, kofta is minced meat shaped by hand. It is essentially sausage without a casing, and the comparison to a hamburger, sometimes made, misses that it is almost never served in bread.

Egypt1 hrCuisine228

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.

Algeria45 minBlessing

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

Mbakbaka, a Libyan one pot pasta stew with lamb, potatoes and North African spices

Mbakbaka (Libyan Pasta Stew)

Mbakbaka, also written imbakbaka, is Libya's one pot pasta stew and it is a direct product of Italian colonisation. Italy occupied Libya from 1911 to 1943, pasta arrived with the occupation, and Libyan cooks absorbed it into a North African spice framework rather than adopting Italian technique alongside it. The result is a pasta dish that no Italian would recognise. Turmeric, ginger, curry powder, chilli and mixed spices go into a tomato base with lamb or beef, and the pasta cooks directly in that liquid rather than being cooked separately and sauced afterwards. Potatoes go in too. Cooking the pasta in the sauce is the defining decision: the starch thickens the liquid and the pasta absorbs the spice, which is what makes it a stew rather than pasta with sauce on it. Macaroni elbows are the traditional shape, and ditalini, gemelli and other small pastas all suit it for the same reason: the tubes and twists hold the sauce. Harissa is a common addition for heat. The comparison people reach for is minestrone, which captures the one pot logic and misses the spicing entirely. It is winter food and family food, and it is eaten across Libya and among the Libyan diaspora.

Libya28 minBlessing

Mhajab, a North African stuffed flatbread folded into layers and cooked on a griddle

Mhajab - A Traditional North African Dish

Mhajab is a stuffed North African flatbread, and the technique is what makes it. A soft dough is stretched out until it is thin enough to see through, folded in from the sides and then from the top and bottom into a square parcel around a filling, and cooked flat on a griddle. The folding creates the layers, and the layers are the dish. It belongs to Algeria and Morocco and is closely related to the Moroccan msemen and rghaif, which use the same stretch and fold method without a filling. Mhajab is street food and it is household food for special occasions, which is a combination that usually indicates something that takes skill but not money. The filling is conventionally a cooked mixture of onion, tomato and pepper, sometimes with meat, and the version here uses beef with potato and carrot. Vegetable fillings are as common as meat ones. It is eaten on its own, or served alongside couscous, harira and salads with mint tea. Cooked on a griddle it comes out crisp outside and soft within; baked it is softer throughout and takes longer, which is the trade the source lays out honestly.

Algeria50 minDebby

Mtewem

Mtewem is an Algerian dish of meatballs and meat cooked together with chickpeas in a garlic heavy sauce, and the name says exactly what it is. Mthawem derives from the Arabic for garlic, and the quantity used is the point rather than an aromatic detail. It belongs to Algiers, where the original preparation is made with a white sauce, and it appears at the occasions that matter: Ramadan evenings, weddings and celebrations. Most families now make it with a red tomato based sauce, which has become the more common version, and cooks disagree about which is correct in the way that families always do about a dish attached to celebration. Cumin carries it alongside the garlic. The meatballs are formed small, about the size of a walnut, and are added to the sauce only after the meat and chickpeas have already cooked, so they poach gently rather than breaking up. Some households press a blanched almond into the centre of each one, a touch that belongs to the wider North African habit of hiding something in a dish for the person who finds it. Cinnamon divides opinion and is entirely optional.

Algeria1 hr 30 minBlessing

Aslooz, a Libyan steamed couscous dish with asparagus, dill and a spiced tomato sauce

Aslooz (Libyan Couscous-Based Dish)

Aslooz is a Libyan couscous dish named after a plant, and the plant is the reason it belongs to a season rather than to a calendar. Aslooz is a wild weed that grows across the countryside and the mountain regions of western Libya, gathered rather than farmed, and harvested in a narrow window through January and February. It is picked from roadsides and hillsides in the Nafusa mountains and the western districts, and only the tender twigs and flowering branches are used. Because it grows wild and its season is short, aslooz has never been a commercial crop, and it is effectively unavailable outside Libya. Libyan families abroad substitute, most often asparagus with dill, sometimes carrot with cumin leaves, and this recipe is written that way. Everything about it is plain: steamed couscous, a tomato base, a wild green and a carrot sauce sharpened with lemon and chilli. Libyans describe it as cheap and cheerful and treat it as a family dish, made and eaten together rather than served to guests. The couscous is steamed over the greens so it takes their flavour from below, which is the technique that separates it from a couscous simply mixed with vegetables, and it is what a Libyan cook would notice first if it were skipped.

Libya1 hrBlessing

Chekhchoukha

Chekhchoukha, also written chakhchoukha, is torn flatbread under a spiced meat and chickpea sauce, and the name describes the tearing. It comes from tacherchert in the Chaouia language, meaning to crumble or to tear into small pieces, and the bread is broken by hand rather than cut. It is a Chaoui dish, from the Aurès mountains of eastern Algeria, and it spread from there into Constantine, Biskra and the rest of the country. Its origin is in shepherds' food, the substantial thing eaten on returning home on cold winter nights, and it kept that character even as it became a dish for festive occasions and celebrations rather than everyday eating. The bread is rougag, also called trid, a very thin round flatbread made from fine semolina. It is torn, steamed briefly to soften, then heaped on a plate and covered with marqa, the sauce of diced lamb, tomato, onion and chickpeas spiced with dried red chilli, caraway, ras el hanout, black pepper and cumin. Two versions are recognised: chakhchoukha of Biskra, which is this one, and chakhchoukha dfar, which uses a different flatbread and differs in taste and thickness. Which pot it is made in also varies, with some cities using clay and others iron.

Algeria1 hr 10 minBlessing

Kunafa

Kunafa, also written kanafeh or knafeh, is a dessert of shredded pastry layered with a filling and soaked in syrup, and it belongs to a region rather than a country. It is eaten across Egypt, Libya, the Levant and the wider Arab world, and Palestinian cuisine in particular claims it as its defining sweet. The pastry is kataifi, phyllo dough shredded into fine strands, sold frozen at Middle Eastern and North African grocers. It is coated in melted ghee or butter, pressed into a tray as a base, filled, topped with more of the same and baked until the strands turn deep gold and crisp. Syrup goes on at the end. The filling is where regional versions diverge most, and where this recipe departs from the classic. Traditional kunafa is made with a mild soft cheese, Nabulsi or Akkawi, which stretches when hot and gives the dessert its characteristic pull; mozzarella is the common substitute. The version written here uses a thickened milk and cream filling instead, which is a legitimate variation eaten in Egypt but produces something quite different from a cheese kunafa. In Libya it is made in large quantities during Ramadan, and across the region it is a dessert for occasions rather than an everyday sweet.

Egypt1 hr 5 minBlessing

Ta'ameya, Egyptian fava bean falafel coated in sesame seeds and fried golden

Ta'ameya (Egyptian Falafel)

Ta'ameya is Egyptian falafel, and the difference from every other falafel is the bean. Egypt makes it from dried split fava beans; Lebanon, Israel and most of the Levant use chickpeas, or a mixture. The fava gives a paler, softer, greener interior and a distinctly different flavour, and Egyptians will tell you theirs came first. It is breakfast food above all. Ful wa ta'ameya, fava bean stew with falafel, is the standard Egyptian morning meal, and the phrase names the pair together. The ful is cooked overnight in a large round pot called a qedra, and the ta'ameya is fried fresh in the early hours, so the smell of hot oil on the way to school or work is a shared memory rather than an individual one. Herbs are the other distinction. Parsley, coriander and dill go into the paste in quantity, which is what gives the interior its green colour, and the whole mixture is traditionally pounded in a large stone mortar. Sesame seeds are pressed onto the outside before frying in many versions, giving a crust that chickpea falafel does not have. It is eaten with tahini and baladi bread, and it is one of the cheapest complete meals in the country.

Egypt50 minFoodChef

Tajin sibnekh, a Tunisian baked egg dish with chicken, potato, spinach and harissa

Tajin Sibnekh (Tunisian Chicken and Egg Bake)

A Tunisian tajine is not a Moroccan tagine, and this dish is the clearest illustration of the difference. Moroccan tagine means a stew cooked slowly in a clay pot under a conical lid. Tunisian tajin, or tajin sibnekh, means a baked egg dish, set firm and cut into squares, much closer to an Italian frittata or a Spanish tortilla. The confusion is entirely reasonable and entirely common. The same word travelled to two North African countries and attached itself to two different things. In Tunisia the dish is built from eggs beaten with whatever else is going: potatoes, chicken, spinach, peas, cheese, and the North African spices that mark it as Tunisian rather than European. Harissa and ras el hanout do that marking. Harissa is Tunisia's chilli paste and its most exported product; ras el hanout is the layered spice blend used across the Maghreb. Together they give an egg bake a warmth and heat that a frittata does not have. It is usually served as a starter, though it is substantial enough to be a meal, and it is as good cold the next day as it is hot, which makes it packed lunch and picnic food across the country.

Tunisia50 minFoodChef

Ojja, Tunisian eggs poached in a spiced tomato, pepper and merguez sauce

Ojja (Shakshuka)

Ojja is a Tunisian dish of eggs cooked in a spiced tomato and pepper sauce, and it is one of the country's most eaten meals. The name comes from Tunisian Arabic slang meaning mixture, which describes it accurately: tomato, pepper, onion, garlic and spice, with eggs finished in the sauce. Whether ojja and shakshuka are the same thing is genuinely disputed, and the disagreement is worth stating rather than resolving. Some Tunisians hold that ojja is made with garlic and no onion while shakshuka uses both. One published account draws the line differently, arguing that in ojja the eggs are stirred through the sauce while in shakshuka they are poached whole on the surface, which would make ojja a close relative of Turkish menemen. Others say the two words name one dish. The recipe here allows both egg treatments and notes that both are used in Tunisia. Its origin is generally placed in Tunisia or Yemen, and it is eaten across North Africa. It has also become a fixture of Israeli cooking over the past few decades, where it is eaten at any meal. Merguez, the North African lamb sausage, and harissa are what mark this version as Tunisian rather than anything else, and toasted whole coriander, caraway and cumin ground fresh give it a depth that pre-ground spice does not.

Tunisia45 minBlessing

Tajine Zitoun

Tajine zitoun is an Algerian chicken and olive dish, zitoun meaning olives in Arabic, and it is a fixture at iftar during Ramadan and at occasions generally. Chicken, green olives, onion and carrot are cooked together and the sauce is finished with lemon juice and, in most versions, a little flour to thicken it. It looks like a Moroccan tagine and is not one, though both countries cook in earthenware and the resemblance is real. What distinguishes Algerian cooking, and this dish in particular, is the spice handling: restrained rather than layered, letting the olives and lemon carry the flavour instead of burying them under a heavy blend. Saffron or turmeric provides the colour. The olives need attention. Two cups of green olives brings a lot of salt with it, and the recipe is explicit about washing them well before use. Some cooks blanch them briefly for the same reason. Cooking the chicken bones in the broth and removing them before serving is the other technique worth noting: the source describes deboning the breast first, using the bones to build the sauce, then returning the browned meat at the end, which gives depth without anyone having to negotiate bones at the table.

Algeria55 minBlessing

Balah El Sham

Balah el sham is fried choux pastry soaked in syrup, and it is one of the desserts Egyptians most associate with childhood. It is piped into short lengths through a star nozzle, fried until golden and ridged, then dropped into cool sugar syrup, which seeps into every groove. The name translates from Arabic as Levant dates, and it contains no dates at all. It is called that for its size and shape, and Sham for the Levant region where it originated. It is eaten across much of the Middle East and in parts of Eastern Europe under other names, and the closest familiar comparison is churros, with one important difference: churros are rolled in cinnamon sugar, while balah el sham is submerged in syrup. Choux is the technique, and it is the same pastry used for éclairs and profiteroles. Flour is cooked into hot liquid until it forms a ball and turns glossy, then eggs are beaten in off the heat, one at a time. What is unusual here is that it is fried rather than baked, which gives a crisp ridged shell around a hollow, airy centre. It is often split and filled with cream, custard, mascarpone, chocolate or nuts, and pistachios on top are standard. It can be eaten hot or cold.

Egypt50 minFoodChef

Kesra

Kesra is the Algerian flatbread: round, soft and chewy, cooked on a flat pan and marked by the rings of the pan it is cooked on. It is eaten with savoury and sweet meals alike, and it is the domestic alternative to the French baguettes that fill Algerian and Tunisian bakeries as a legacy of colonisation. Its names change across the country. It is khobz ftir in Algiers, kesra in the east, and aghroum n'tajin in Kabylia. It is native to eastern Algeria and is traditionally made with semolina rather than plain flour, along with oil, salt and water and nothing else. This particular recipe uses all purpose flour instead, which is a departure from the traditional semolina base and will give a softer, less characteristically grainy bread. It is unleavened. There is no yeast, no rising, only a rest of twenty minutes or so to relax the dough so it stops springing back when rolled. A heavy pan works best, and a cast iron one with embossed rings gives the circular pattern kesra is recognised by. Sesame or nigella seeds are a common addition worked into the dough. It is served alongside Algerian soups and stews, and berkoukes in particular is conventionally eaten with it.

Algeria1 hr 10 minBlessing

Om Ali (Egyptian Bread Pudding)

Om Ali is Egypt's most beloved dessert, a warm, sweet pudding made from torn pieces of puff pastry or bread baked in sweetened milk with nuts, coconut, and raisins until golden and bubbling. It sits somewhere between a bread pudding and a milk-soaked pastry and manages to be simultaneously comforting and festive. The dish is a fixture of Egyptian restaurants, home celebrations, and Ramadan gatherings, where it is often served in communal baking dishes at the end of a large meal. Despite its simplicity, Om Ali manages to taste luxurious, the puff pastry creates layered, crispy edges while the centre remains soft and creamy with the absorbed milk.

Egypt1 hrFoodChef

Tunisian Brik

Brik is a thin pastry folded around a filling and fried, and the Tunisian version is defined by the whole egg inside it. The yolk stays runny, and eating one without spilling it is a small skill Tunisians acquire early. It is an Ottoman inheritance, and its relatives survive across the former empire: bourek in Algeria, burek in the Balkans. What makes the Tunisian version specific is that egg. Other fillings are entirely standard, tuna, chicken, chicken liver, beef, turkey, anchovies, capers, cheese, and this recipe uses tuna with gouda and parmesan, which is the most common contemporary combination. Cheese in brik is a fairly recent addition that has become popular. The pastry is malsouka, a very fine partially cooked sheet of Tunisian origin, sold across France and North Africa but hard to find elsewhere. Phyllo is the substitute this recipe uses. Triangles and cigars are the two standard shapes, with triangles conventional for tuna brik. It appears at iftar during Ramadan and on the assiettes anglaises served at celebrations, alongside minina, pickled vegetables and fava beans. It cooks in one to two minutes and is eaten immediately.

Tunisia35 minBlessing

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.

Tunisia20 minBlessing

Berkoukes

Berkoukes is both a pasta and the dish made from it. The pasta is hand-rolled semolina in small balls, larger than couscous and smaller than a pea, and the dish is the Algerian Berber stew built around it with meat, seasonal vegetables and pulses. It has several names depending on region: aïche, m'hamessa, abazine. The distinction between berkoukes and m'hamsa is size, with berkoukes the larger balls and m'hamsa the smaller. The grains are rolled by hand in a wide dish, traditionally wood or earthenware and now usually metal, which is slow work and why most households buy it ready made. It is winter food and it carries a season. Berkoukes is eaten in Algeria and northeastern Morocco through the cold months and particularly in January, when it marks the harvest of beans, dried fruit and meats, and it reads as a dish of abundance and generosity. The Kabylia version includes quedid, the dried meat also called achadhelouh, along with khlili, the dried mutton fat, and cultured smen. It is served with kesra or another rustic country bread. The source struggles for a word for its consistency and settles on scoup, which is fair: it is too thick for soup and too brothy for stew.

Algeria1 hr 20 minBlessing

Haraimi, Libyan fish steaks cooked in a spicy tomato and caraway sauce

Haraimi (Libyan Spicy Fish Stew)

Haraimi is fish cooked in a fiercely spiced tomato sauce, and it is among the dishes most identified with Libya. It is quick, it is hot, and it is eaten with bread to mop the sauce, which is generally reckoned to be the best part. Its origins lie with the Libyan Jewish community. Libya had a Jewish population of several thousand within living memory, and haraimi was their dish before it became a staple in every Libyan household. Very few Jews remain in Libya today, and the dish has outlasted the community that created it, which is worth recording rather than passing over. Italian colonial rule is the other influence the source points to. Caraway is the spice that makes it. Added near the end so its aroma survives, it gives haraimi a warm, slightly aniseed note that distinguishes it from the many other Mediterranean fish-in-tomato dishes. Lemon juice goes in at the very end for the same reason. Tuna is used here, and any chunky firm fish works, since the flesh has to hold together in the sauce. It is served warm or at room temperature as an appetizer, or as a main with couscous or rice.

Libya35 minBlessing

Maakouda, Moroccan fried potato cakes with coriander and turmeric

Maakouda (Moroccan Potato Cakes)

Maakouda is a Moroccan potato cake, mashed potato bound with egg and herbs, floured and deep fried until the outside crisps and the inside stays soft. It is street food, sold cheap and eaten either on its own or stuffed into a small baguette. Meknes is where it is most associated, and the city is described as the wine capital of North Africa. Maakouda is sold from stalls there and across the country, and it appears in Algeria and Tunisia too under the same set of spellings: maaqouda, maqouda, makouda. The comparison the source draws is with falafel, and it holds up: a cheap fried snack, sold from a stall, eaten in bread. It has simply never travelled the way falafel has. Ras el hanout is what marks it as Moroccan rather than a generic potato cake. The blend is optional in this recipe and the source strongly recommends it, and turmeric gives the colour. It is also a practical way to use up leftover mashed or baked potato, which is much of how it is made at home. Deep frying is traditional; the oven and the air fryer both work and are given as alternatives.

Morocco35 minBlessing

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

Mazagran

Mazagran is strong coffee poured over ice with lemon and sugar, and it has a fair claim to being the original iced coffee. It takes its name from Mazagran in Algeria, and it is Algerian in origin even though it is now far better known in Portugal. The lemon has a practical history. It was added to improve the flavour of low quality coffee beans, which is a origin story shared by a good many drinks, and it turned out to make something worth drinking in its own right. The combination of citrus acidity against the bitterness of strong coffee is what the drink is, and good beans are not wasted on it. It is traditionally served in a tall narrow glass, and there is an eponymous porcelain or clay vessel of the same name. The Portuguese version is the one most people encounter, sometimes made with espresso and lemon, sometimes with rum added. The recipe here is a Nespresso-branded version, which is worth noting: it specifies particular capsules, and any strong espresso or very strong brewed coffee substitutes. What it does not include, oddly, is the lemon that the article itself identifies as the defining ingredient.

Algeria5 minBlessing

Tunisian loubia, a spiced white bean stew with chicken and tomato

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.

Tunisia1 hr 45 minBlessing

Belila, Egyptian wheat berry porridge served with hot milk, almonds and cinnamon

Wheat Porridge (Belila)

Belila is Egyptian wheat porridge: whole wheat berries cooked until they burst, served warm in hot milk with toasted almonds and cinnamon. It is a breakfast dish, and it is equally at home as a snack or a filling dessert. Whole wheat berries are the point, and they are quite different from any milled grain. Left whole, they hold their shape and burst open rather than dissolving, giving a chewy, almost popping texture that no flour or flake reproduces. The fuller Egyptian version carries anise seed and golden raisins in a light syrup alongside the milk and almonds, which is worth knowing since neither appears in this recipe's ingredient list. The method is soaking rather than long cooking. The berries are covered with boiling water and left overnight, then cooked briefly and rested off the heat until they pop open. Cooked wheat berries should be kept in the fridge undrained, and portions warmed with hot milk poured over as needed, which makes it a practical thing to have prepared in advance. It is eaten by children and adults alike and is regarded as comfort food at any hour.

Egypt40 minFoodChef

Asida, a Libyan cooked flour pudding with date paste, saffron and walnuts

Asida (Flour Pudding)

Asida is a cooked flour pudding from the Maghreb, eaten with honey or date syrup and melted butter. Its first recorded appearance is in the Arabic cookbook Kitab al-Tabikh, around the tenth century, which makes it one of the older dishes in this collection with a documented date. It is communal food. Like bazeen, asida is served on a large flat plate called a gas'a and eaten with the fingers, though spoons are used. The distinction the source draws between the two is worth keeping: bazeen has Amazigh origins and is purely North African, while asida has an Arabic name and versions of it are made across the Arabian Peninsula as well. In Libya it is a breakfast dish, eaten to carry someone through a working day, and it appears at celebrations: births, Eid, Mawlid. The plain version is simply flour cooked in water, turned out, and served with a hollow pressed into the top for honey or date syrup, with melted butter or ghee poured around it. This particular recipe is a considerably richer version built on a date paste with cardamom, cinnamon, fenugreek, saffron, rose water and walnuts, which is a celebration preparation rather than the everyday one.

Libya35 minBlessing

Shlada, a Moroccan salad of finely chopped tomato, cucumber and onion with cumin

Shlada (Moroccan Tomato Salad)

Shlada is the Moroccan tomato and cucumber salad, dressed with lemon and olive oil and seasoned with cumin. It goes by shlada 'arobiya, meaning country salad, and shlada Nationale, the national salad, which tells you how ordinary and how ubiquitous it is. Everything depends on the knife work. The tomatoes, cucumber and onion are chopped very small, so that a single spoonful carries all three rather than one at a time. The contributor is emphatic that this is the secret of the salad, and it is a fair claim: the same ingredients in rough chunks make a quite different and much less interesting dish. It also needs to sit. Ten minutes before serving lets the flavours combine, and up to an hour improves it further, which is unusual for a salad. Preserved lemon peel is the optional addition that makes it unmistakably Moroccan, and only the peel is used, never the pulp. It is eaten as a side, as a light lunch, and as a dip scooped up with khobz, the Moroccan bread. Parsley substitutes for mint, vinegar for lemon juice, and vegetable oil for olive oil, all of which are made.

Morocco15 minBlessing

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