Algerian Cuisine Cuisine Algerienne by Farid ZADI

Making Algerian Merguez at School

I made this batch a few terms back at school for Garde Manger class. Algerian style merguez is used at school for non-Algerian dishes as well. The chef at the school bistro incorporated merguez into a clam dish with a "spicy Portuguese" broth. The school cafe occasionally serves merguez sandwiches.

Translating Algerian Recipes or Ingredients for Restaurants

My student Korn emailed me these photos. He made my layered flat bread and shrimp charmoula (recipes in February, 2008 issue of Gourmet Magazine) and interpreted the plating for restaurants.

My shrimp charmoula recipe in Gourmet is actually a skabetch (Algerian for escabeche) in a charmoula marinade. Scallops, lobster, crayfish, tuna or swordfish can be prepared in a charmoula escabeche.

 Another option for restaurant service is to serve the shrimp with a brick croustillante instead of the flat bread. The brick pastry (warka) can be formed into nests or cups or cut into strips, brushed with olive oil and spices and baked. Basically the same technique used for filo pastry.

I'm sure there's a chef out there who would cut up the seafood into small pieces and place it in a shot glass with a strip of brick tuile layed across the rim or serve the charmoula escabeche in Chinese soup spoons.

Cooking Show

I spoke to my agent at Endeavor last week. We're moving forward with a cooking show. Stay tuned...

Los Angeles Times Best Recipes of 2007 Runner Up List

Click! A student of mine told me about the list this morning. My Lamb shank with fruits and nuts recipe received an honorable mention in the runner up list for best recipes for 2007. I have to point out a minor error in the story- my recipe is referred to as "Tunisian". It's an ALGERIAN recipe! But, as readers of this blog know I find it generally more useful to speak of North African cooking in general since it's really a single culinary region. I use Algeria as the center because that is my heritage.

Tagines Dreams- Saudi Aramco World

Thanks to blog reader Lalla Lydia who told me about Charles Perry's article about me in this month's issue of Saudi Aramco World. I wasn't aware of the Los Angeles Times article being reprinted. I have to say it's an honor. As many readers of this blog know Saudi Aramco World is highly respected for the quality of their articles and photographs. And thank you again to Charles Perry. That article really helped propel my career to the next level.

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.

Changes in Algerian and North African recipes over the past 30-40 years

I have a decent collection of Algerian and North African cookbooks published in French in North Africa or in France. Next time I go to France and Algeria I'll have access to more through libraries and general bookstores. In studying recipes printed in cookbooks and magazines over the past 30-35 years the most significant differences I see are listed below.

I'm not including North African cookbooks that are heavily Frenchified for a mainstream audience. I'm saving that for a separate post. However, I am including North African cookbooks published in France for a Maghrebine audience. They are for the most part the same as North African cookbooks published in North Africa for the obvious reason that the same books are often distributed in France and North Africa. I'll break down the different kinds of cookbooks in a later post.

1. Higher production values in both French and Algerian published cookbooks. The photographs of food look much cleaner, brighter and fresher than they did 30-35 years ago. This isn't a distinctive feature of North African cookbooks, go back and look through old cookbooks from various food cultures and you'll see what I mean: dark, heavy, dense looking photos of food.

2. More recipes with fresh dairy products: milk, cheese, fresh butter, whipped cream, sour cream, etc... Note, I say MORE, because the use of the ingredients existed before but not as commonly. Smen or fermented butter is used less and less. Margarine is a relatively inexpensive substitute for butter and is a French influence (it was invented in France). It's less expensive than fresh butter and has a longer shelf life.

3. Recipes that call for the use of chicken breasts for dishes such as bricks or boureks. I thought this was more for a French audience or a Franco-Maghrebine audience, but I'm seeing this more often in recipes published in North Africa. A by-product of industrialization, I think.

4. The most dramatic effects seem to be on pastry recipes. I see more recipes with a croissant dough base and vienoisserie type pastries. More chocolate and glaçage too. Vanilla instead of flower waters. Sponge cakes or genoise and tarts are also more common. For example an Algerian balkawa is now also made in the shape of a round tart with a lattice crust. An Algerianized mille-feuille is made with layers of fried warka leaves, rosewater scented pastry cream and garnished with candied almonds.

5. Pasta and noodle recipes now call for packaged pasta more often, rather than always insisting on homemade pasta or noodles. In Algerian cooking the word macaronne (there are regional variations in spelling and pronunciation) refers to dried semolina flour pastas in general.

 

In The Middle of The Mix- blog interview with me in French

In The Middle of The Mix  (Algerian blog in French by Jilal), click on the link to read the Q&A interview. The Algerian blogsphere has grown considerably since I started my blogs. I was surprised to find more and more in English because there aren't that many of us in anglophone countries. I did a little googling and found this page on the Algerian Embassy in the U.K's. website

By the 1980s, Great Britain came in second place, after France, as a  destination for students in training. At the beginning of the nineties,   Glasgow, Sheffield, Salford, Leeds and Nottingham universities had work     programmes with their Algerian counterparts in Blida, Tizi Ouzou,  Constantine, Annaba and Oran.

I can't resist posting a bit of trivia about Algerian Coffee Stores in London.

Algerian Coffee Stores

Did you know that the first Algerian Coffee Stores were opened in London in 1887? One can be found at 52 Old Compton Street, London W1D 4PB and continues to offer its customers teas and coffees  imported from around the world.

Trading in coffee, tea, spices, silk and gold flourished between Algeria and England for    centuries.

I wish I had known about Algerian Coffee Stores when I lived in London.  Apparently it is well known and receives quite favorable reviews. I wonder my English mates neglected to tell me about it?  But I'm digressing considerably.

Back to the Algerian blogsphere. It seems that every major Algerian region, University or cultural group has at least one website and an online forum. They're in French, Tamazight (berber languages), Arabic or English.

Almost all of the Algerian professionals I know speak at least 3-4 languages, usually French, English, Maghrebi or MSA Arabic, and a Tamazight dialect. Which makes sense considering our country's history and the trend for Algerian professionals to be educated abroad.

 

My Mediterranean Creole™ Mechoui Master™ and CamelVan™

It's Not a Motorcycle, Baby. It's a Mobile Barbecue Pit

My crew and I have been coming up with various designs for my Mechoui Master™. We were thinking of a larger kitchen on wheels with a Mechoui Master™ bbq rigged to a trailer and a motorcycle with a bbq pit for mobile cooking events, demonstrations, book signings and so on.

I'm not wild about the color of the model in the link and I want a more Italian racing style one than a chopper. I'm thinking of something like this. And, no my helmet won't be a couscoussière or a tagine vessel and I don't have a tattoo of a camel.

The Process of Writing Algerian Menus and Recipes for Different Contexts

My wife and I have been discussing Algerian menus from casual to fine dining for a work related project. Sometimes it's easier to first figure out what we don't want, before we have a grasp on what it is we do want.

Of course, it's always fun to make up parodies such as-

Amuse gueule
Single grain of couscous, speck of cinnamon, cilantro micro-green served in a Chinese soup spoon on a doily on a small plate stacked on an oversized plate

First course
Deconstructed merguez served in a shot glass- dehydrated lamb casing, spiced hard fat gelee, tea smoked ground lamb, ras el hanout "vitamin pill", harissa emulsion and housemade smen foam.

Second Course
Trio of Couscous or Couscous Tour de Force (!)- instant couscous, boil in bag couscous sous vide, and triple steamed couscous
$450 supplement for white truffles
$250 supplement for foie gras
$645.99 supplement for golden ossetra

Third Course
Wok cooked vegetable tagine- seasonal baby vegetables (leave the stems on) from my personal garden
$75 supplement for seasonal and spontaneous

Fourth Course
Molecular kebab quatro skewered four ways, suspended from "wire"

Dessert
Pastilla macaroons with chocolate veil, ghribia "dust" and cardamom fragrance

Another parody we came up with was "road map" dishes with suppliers and origins of ingredients noted on the menu. "Biskra Dates, Hand rolled Aures Mountain Couscous, Herbs from Khaled farms picked in the wild by Nesrine and delivered on a camel by Hamed".

In all seriousness the elements for various menus already exist in Algerian cuisine. There's no need to re-invent anything here when the food speaks for itself. No gimmicks or wordplay- simply delicious real food and real cooking.