Country 3 - Algeria

Algeria is in North Africa on the Mediterranean coast. It is the tenth largest country in the world and the largest in Africa. It is bordered by Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali, Niger and the Mediterranean Sea.
Algeria is an ancient country and has been inhabited by Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans and the French. Berbers are the indigenous inhabitants. 99% of the people are Muslim and are of Arabian descent although there are also some Turkish and a few French, Spanish and Italian.
The food of Algeria is influenced by the Arab, Berber, Mediterranean  and Ottoman (coming from Greece, The Balkans and the Middle East) cuisine. Most cooking is centred round a spicy couscous which is served with long simmered lamb, beef or chicken stews. Tomatoes, olives, aubergines, lentils, oranges and lemons as well as spicy Algerian Merguez sausage are also commonly eaten.

Our plan had been to go to an Algerian restaurant while we were in London but in the end we changed our minds in favour of crispy duck at our favourite Chinese restaurant!
So Friday evening saw us attempting an Algerian meal at home in Nova Scotia.

A traditional Algerian family dish is Chakhchoukha - a stew eaten with flat bread. We had found Nova Scotian stewing lamb in a local supermarket so this was going to be ideal for this recipe.
We decided to make a few changes to the recipe - we were going to cook it with couscous rather than on flat bread and it seemed as if the bread would just go soggy. Also we changed the flat bread recipe to one which sounded more exciting to make.

First I had to make the Algerian spice mix - Ras El Hanout.

The recipe for Ras El Hanout contains 14 different spices - it smelt delicious!

I made the bread first as although it doesn't contain yeast it still needed an hour to prove. A food mixer is an enormous help when the recipe requires you to knead for 15 minutes!

The dough had to be divided into 12 and each part rolled out thinly and brushed with a mixture of oil, ground cumin, paprika and turmeric. This was then rolled up and tightly curled into a spiral.

Finally the spiral is rolled flat and cooked quickly on a skillet.

Meanwhile the Chakhchoukha is cooking away on the hob.

I was surprised at the recommended vegetables as I think of swede (turnip), and parsnip as cold weather vegetables. I didn't include them in this recipe because originally we were going to be making another dish that called for squash - so I used that instead!

Chopping the vegetables. I added the courgette (zucchini) later than suggested so that it didn't go too mushy.

Browning the onion, garlic and cubed lamb. 

The smell once I added the Ras El Hanout was delicious!

The stew simmering away.

 Our Algerian meal is ready!

 Chakhchouhka - lamb and vegetable stew. We added more of the spices as it was a little bland. I think we could have used more chilli too.

Click here for the recipe we used.

Msemmen - Algerian Flat bread - great fun to make.

Click here for the recipe we used.

Plain couscous cooked in a vegetable stock.

Our finished meal.

It was ok - nowhere near as spicy as we were expecting but still quite tasty. We used the bread to scoop up the stew - this would have been difficult to do if we had served the stew already on top of the flat bread. 

Being Muslim, Algerians would drink flat lemonade with their meal - we shared a bottle of red wine, and very nice it was too!