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Akod is the epitome of Tunisian Jewish cuisine. It is prepared with tripe skillfully scented with cumin, garlic, tomato paste, and harissa.
What is Akod?
Akod or akoud is an ancestral dish and the epitome of Tunisian Jewish cuisine. No Tunisian Jew will receive at his table for a royal kemia without banatages, briks, fricassés, minina, or akod!
While, on the one hand, older generations have never ceased to appreciate them, on the other hand, the youngest has seriously been shying away from these delicacies.
Yet, despite initial hesitation, often even the pickiest eaters are conquered after the first spoon. A number of them are irreversibly converted to the wonderful taste and texture of tripe.
Akod Recipe
For the akod, add some large intestine, as well as the genitals and the penis.
Most of the time, butchers offer washed and bleached tripe. So they say they are “half-cooked”. Less often, they are sold raw, so it will be necessary to scald them for at least 3 hours by changing the water many times. To prepare this recipe, beef tripe is generally used.
Recipe Variations
Many recipes identical to the Tunisian Jewish recipe can be found in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, each with its unique flavor.
In Morocco, it is called douara (dwara) or t’qualia. It is sometimes also called kercha. Douara is prepared with mutton tripe, rarely with beef tripe, and it is cooked more or less with the same spices and ingredients as akod.
In Algeria, it is called bakbouka or also douara (or dowara). It is also mutton tripe, but vegetables such as carrots, zucchini, and chickpeas are added to the Algerian bakbouka.
In Oran, in the Northwest of Algeria, people make chkamba (or chkembey), a tripe dish with cumin, paprika, thyme, cilantro, and bay leaves.
Tunisians call it chmenka. Chmenka is prepared with lamb tripe too. To prepare it, people use the same ingredients as akod but also add lamb’s heart, lamb liver, potato, and chickpeas.
The Jewish community in Morocco also has its akod. It is called tajine al guezar, which means “the butcher’s pot”. This delicious version is also prepared with cumin and paprika but without tomato paste.
In some regions of Morocco, tiny beef dumplings are added to the tripe and in others, pieces of liver and heart, or even both, sometimes in addition to the beef dumplings.
In Morocco, it is a popular dish during Pesach (Passover) when it is generally cooked for nearly 10 hours, over low heat on hot coals.
Be brave and try this sumptuous delicacy! Akod is a dish for connoisseurs and epicureans! Just give it a try and you will be very pleasantly surprised! Enjoy!
Akod (Akoud)
Equipment
- Dutch oven
Ingredients
- 4 lb tripe abomasum, bonnet, leaf tripe, large intestine, penis and genitals
- 1 cow's trotter
- 1 head garlic peeled and chopped
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 2 tablespoons harissa
- 3 teaspoons ground cumin
- ½ cup olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
Instructions
- Thoroughly rinse the tripe and cow's trotter, and rub vigorously between both hands. Drain and cut into pieces.
- Cook the tripe and the cow's trotter in a large volume of boiling salted water for 1h30 by changing 3 times the cooking water (the water must always be boiling).
- Reserve the last cooking water and drain the tripe and cow's trotter.
- In a cast iron pot or Dutch oven, pour the olive oil and heat it over medium heat. Fry the tripe and cow's trotter in this oil for 5 minutes, stirring regularly.
- Add garlic, paprika, tomato paste, salt, pepper, harissa and half of the cumin. Stir well.
- Pour the reserved cooking liquid at a height of 1 inch (3 cm) above the tripe. Reserve the rest of the cooking juices.
- Cover and cook for 30 minutes over low/medium heat.
- Then reduce the heat and cook covered and over very low heat for 4 hours.
- During cooking, if the sauce is lacking in the pot, add some of the reserved (boiling) cooking water in small amounts each time.
- If there is no sauce and no more cooking juices, add boiling water, always in small amounts.
- Ten minutes before the end of cooking, add the other half of the cumin.
- Serve very hot by placing a few pieces of mixed tripe in a dish on a generous bed of sauce.
