Algerian Cuisine Cuisine Algerienne by Farid ZADI

A Little Update

I haven't been able to keep up with my blog posts for a very long time. Yes, I am still working on all my projects and products. These things take time. I am also on Facebook, if you'd like to join me there. Just search for my "Farid Zadi" to find me.

Food and Diversity Commercial Sponsored by America.gov and Produced by Caleb Stewart

Caleb Stewart was kind enough to send me links to a video he completed for America.gov

About America.gov

State Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP) engages international audiences on issues of foreign policy, society and values to help create an environment receptive to U.S. national interests. IIP communicates with foreign opinion makers and other publics through a wide range of print and electronic outreach materials published in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Persian, Russian, and Spanish. IIP also provides information outreach support to U.S. embassies and consulates in more than 140 countries worldwide.

My favorite part of the video is that the first dish featured is a tagine!

Montreal Gazette: Algerian Cuisine Articles

A few weeks ago I was interviewed by Marian Scott of the Montreal Gazette for articles about Algerian cuisine.

Ta-jine

Recipes

Mechoui Master™ coming to Pasadena soon...

I found a location for my Mechoui Master™, North African street food. The menu is still in development. So far I have Algerian style doner kebab served on a mini kesra. Toppings included tomato and cucumber salsa (yes, we use the term "salsa" in Algeria), Algerian style cole slaw dressed with a creamy chermoula, harissa, garlic mahonais, and frites (potato chips with spiced salt).

Mediterranean Creole™ North African Spice Blends

Merguez Blend



Tagine Blend l



Mechoui Master Blend



Ras el Hanout l

Spiced Salts

Available online soon.

Chef Zadi's Mediterranean Creole Spice Blends

I'm preparing samples of my Mediterranean Creole Spice Blends. If you'd like some for testing email me your address. Supply is limited and I will not be able to send them out to everyone who requests them.

Cooking Show

I've been busy with work and pre-development for my cooking show. I really don't know when I'll have the time to start posting more consistently.

There are a lot of meetings involved before a show even gets off the ground. Overall, I'm happy with how things are going. The waiting is the hardest part.

Algerian Argan Trees in Tindouf Algerian Argan Oil

I've been collecting seeds for Dr. Van Cotthem's Seed Bank. And I found a post he made with photographs of Argan trees in the Tindouf region of Algeria.

Arganiers en Algérie/ Argan Trees in Algeria
Click the link for more photos of old, magnificent trees.

The possibility of bringing Algerian argan oil to market for the people of the Tindouf region is an interesting idea. I don't see why it can't be done.

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.

Gourmet Magazine, February 2008 Issue- Algerian Recipes!

Online preview I haven't received my preview copy yet. I've been told the article with recipes and photos is about 9 pages long. More later...off to work for now. Edited to add: I finally received a copy. The article is about 12 pages long, the photographs of the recipes are beautiful. Wow! It was wonderful working with the editors and staff of Gourmet Magazine.

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.

My Spice Blends

You asked for it! I've been carefully sourcing my ingredients and testing my spice blend recipes. I'm planning on debuting at least least three blends by the end of December 2007 or mid January 2008. I chose the date because there will probably be a very nice selection of my recipes in a national food magazine at about the same time. My spice blends will be available in stores around the country, to the wholesale trade and via online. I've been talking to buyers from gourmet chains, as well as "ethnic" stores. As regular readers of my blog know I take a cross-cultural approach to not only teaching, but with publicity as well. If you'd like to placed on a pre-order waitlist, please email me with the subject header "Spice Blends".

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.

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.

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.