Algerian Cuisine Cuisine Algerienne by Farid ZADI

Almost Italian- Italian-American Culinary Heritage

What does this have to do with Algerian cuisine? Well...

Almost Italian

Recipes and Stories from the ‘Little Italy’ Communities Across America-An Online Book In-Progress
by Skip Lombardi and Holly Chase

A big thank you to Charles Perry for mentioning this online cookbook. And thank you to Holly for emailing me a very thoughtful response to the comment I left on their blog.

One of the things I find fascinating about the Italian-American culinary heritage in the United States is that  so many of the immigrants came from "south of Rome" like the Italian pieds-noirs and workers who came to Algeria during French colonialism at about the same time period.

"Between 1860 and 1917, four and a half million Italians emigrated to America...Eighty percent of the Italians came from “south of Rome”—a slightly derogatory term used by Italians who came from “north of     Rome.” Most of the southerners were poor contadini and giornalieri, sharecroppers and day-laborers from Abruzzi, Campania, Calabria, Puglia, and Sicily. Many of these immigrants were also skilled artisans, but the language barriers, prejudice, and licensing restrictions they encountered often prevented them from working at their trades. So, initially, most worked at the same menial jobs as their paesani, countrymen."

 

Algerian mustard sauce

I received a question via email regarding Algerian mustard sauce and why Algerians add prepared mustard like Maille to salad dressings. We have a traditional mustard sauce based on ground mustard and verjuice or vinegar. I know that it goes back to Moorish Andalusia, possibly older than that. Refer to mustard (sinab).

"Mustard: Sinab was simply mustard as we know it, ground mustard seed made into a condiment with grape juice or vinegar; it was common in Andalusian cooking but not known in the Levant, where mustard was always a spice, never a condiment."

I don't know if mixing mustard sauce into salad dressings is a French influence. Industrially prepared mustard sauces such as Maille are obviously a French influence in Algeria.

So, we had an older simpler homemade mustard sauce and easily accepted a more convenient, ready made substitute in the form of Maille. And, non we don't have Grey Poupon.

Different Preserved Lemon Sizes

In a review I wrote about North African recipes I mentioned that we have a very small variety of lemon. I noted that a Moroccan recipe calling for several preserved lemons in a recipe could be referring to these small lemons. Thanks to food blogger Emily at What's For Lunch? I have a photo to show you.

The small lemons look like they are about 1/4- 1/5 the size of the large ones.

Algerian Soul Food- Boiled Peanuts

A few months ago I was asked to submit Algerian soul food recipes to a magazine based in the Southern U.S. I started thinking about this again after I read a recent post by Leslie Brenner on Daily Dish (L.A. Times food blog) about boiled peanuts. She includes a link to a page on What's Cooking America. According to that site the origins of boiled peanuts in the South are obscure.

I think it is an African influence in the Southern U.S.. In Algeria we also boil green peanuts. It's more of a Saharan and Sub-Saharan dish. Sometimes spices are added to the boiling water. So, there you have it: the same dish, ingredient and method found in two different parts of the world connected by West Africans and the diaspora.