Characteristic products
Local cuisine makes good use of cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, ginger, paprika, coriander, saffron, cloves, fennel, anise, nutmeg, pepper, fenugreek, caraway and sesame seeds. Twenty-seven spices are traditionally combined to create the famous ras el-hanout (literally "at the head of the spice store"). They range from the most common spices, such as cinnamon or cumin, to the more unusual, like dried rosebuds or iris root powder. Watch out for fake saffron (marigold) in the souks. Common herbs include mint, parsley, coriander, oregano, peppermint, verbena, sage and laurel. Although the local cuisine is not very spicy, harissa - a fierce paste of chilli and garlic - is popular.
Apart from the Sahara and the Atlas peaks, Algeria has a mild climate all year round, offering a wide variety of produce: eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, zucchinis, pumpkins, cucumbers, carrots, turnips, artichokes, onions and more. Olives and olive oil are also essential to the local cuisine. Cereals such as wheat, barley and rice, as well as legumes - chickpeas, lentils, beans and split peas - are used extensively.
Bread is a very important part of the Algerian diet, and is eaten in various forms (round or baguette), made from semolina or flour, with or without yeast, dry or brioche, topped with seeds (aniseed, sesame, etc.). Kesra(aghroum in Kabyle) is a round, flat, thin, dense cake of wheat or barley semolina, eaten as bread or crumbled in a sauce. Dioul or brick sheets are very thin pancakes used for frying.
A cross between an orange and a tangerine, the clementine was born in Misserghin, a suburb of Oran, in the garden of the orphanage run by Father Clément. Its name was accepted by the Horticultural Society in 1904. Other fruits include plums, figs, dates, apricots, melons and grapes, which are used in both sweet and savoury dishes. Candied lemons, preserved in salt and water, are appreciated for their particularly powerful taste.
An essential pillar of Islam, Ramadan is strictly observed in Algeria. From sunrise to sunset, no food or drink is allowed. The date of Ramadan changes each year according to the new moon, but its duration is always around thirty days. At sunset, the fast is broken(ftour or iftar) with rather rich snacks such as soups, honey pastries or dates. This "light" snack allows you to wait for the real dinner, which takes place later in the night. Ramadan ends with Eid el-Fitr (literally "Feast of Breaking").
Classics of Algerian cuisine
In Algeria - as in Tunisia - a meal can begin with kemia, known in Lebanon as mezzé. This assortment of appetizers includes olives, almonds, lupin seeds, torshi (vegetables in brine), calentica (chickpea flour flan) and fish or seafood preparations, such as supions au noir (small cuttlefish with ink) or caracoles (snails). Tuna in oil is particularly popular. Small portions of more classic dishes such as meats in sauce and various salads are also available.
In the Maghreb, many salads are based on vegetables cooked with a generous dose of olive oil, such as zroudia mchermla (carrots preserved in cumin) oromek houria (carrot purée with garlic and harissa). Hmiss or mechouia is a salad made with grilled and chopped peppers and tomatoes. Chakchouka or tchektchouka is a hot compote of peppers, tomatoes and onions, into which eggs are broken at the end for cooking. N'tchouba is a salad with anchovies, fresh tomatoes and parsley.
There are also many fried dishes, such as Algerian-style cauliflower fritters or maakouda, potato croquettes. Boureks are fried brick pastry turnovers in the shape of cigars, squares or triangles, with various fillings. Bourek annabi is stuffed with mashed potatoes and minced meat, with a raw egg whose yolk remains runny after cooking. Bourek laadjine is a variety of shortbread turnover with minced meat.
Also worth mentioning are mghellef fi ghlâfou, fried cigars with minced meat, eggs, onions and cinnamon, topped with a spicy chickpea sauce before serving. Cocas are turnovers filled with candied vegetables and olives - not to be confused with the Catalan coca, more akin to a pizza. Finally, kaldi is a tuna and vegetable puff pastry, often with peppers.
Soups are very popular, especially during Ramadan. One example is chorba, a rich soup made from mutton, vegetables, herbs, spices and tomatoes, simmered over a low heat for several hours. At the last minute, a handful of maktfah (hand-rolled vermicelli) or frik (cracked wheat kernels, bulgur) is added. There are many versions, such as chorba frik with cracked green wheat and meat, chorba bahriya with fish and chorba lardess with lentils. Chorba beida is a light soup based on onion, parsley, lemon and chicken stock, often used to lengthen meat dishes under the name of "white sauce". Harira, traditionally served during Ramadan, is made with meat and offal, onions, spices, chickpeas or lentils, topped with rice. Harira tchicha bel zaatar contains barley semolina instead of rice.
An emblematic Algerian dish, couscous refers to both the dish itself and the durum wheat semolina that accompanies it. Generally composed of meat and vegetables, it comes in dozens of different varieties from one region to the next, with a variety of ingredients. Examples include couscous kabyle(amekfoul) with steamed vegetables and hard-boiled eggs, or couscous aghmoudh, with broad beans. Bel maamar couscous is garnished with minced meat and chicken. There's also kabouya couscous with squash and lamb, and belboula couscous with barley semolina. Mesfouf and seffa are two types of sweet couscous, topped with raisins, dates, walnuts, pomegranate seeds and more.
Algerian rechta or rechta dzirïa contains actual rechta (noodles) that are topped with meat or poultry, chickpeas and various vegetables, couscous-style. Closely related to this is tlitli, a pasta dish from Constantine, which is shaped like grains of rice and served with chicken, meatballs and chickpeas, sometimes with tomato and hard-boiled eggs. Batata kbab is a dish of chicken or lamb with potatoes simmered in a white sauce. Mderbel badenjane is a dome of eggplant slices topped with finely spiced minced meat and served with potatoes and chickpeas.
Other tajine recipes include tajine el-khoukh, with lamb or chicken, garnished with mashed potato dumplings stuffed with minced meat. All served with a white chickpea sauce. Closely related, sfiria is a recipe for bread croquettes filled with chicken in a light sauce. Kebda mchermla, or lamb liver à la chermoula, consists of liver simmered in a sauce with tomato, harissa and coriander.
Desserts and drinks
On the sweet side, you'll find classic oriental pastries such as baghrir or crêpe mille-trous (a spongy pancake served hot with melted butter and honey), makroud (a semolina-based pastry filled with date paste, fried and soaked in syrup) or z'labiya (a spiral-shaped orange fritter with syrup). In Algeria, gazelle horns (shortcrust pastry croissants filled with marzipan and orange blossom water) are sometimes called tcharek msaker and covered with a thick layer of powdered sugar. Originating in Greece and Turkey, baklava (a layer of filo pastry, walnuts, pistachios and crushed almonds, soaked in syrup) is common in Algeria.
But there are of course other, more typically Algerian specialties. These include mhalbi (rice flour and orange blossom flan, topped with dried fruit), mouskoutchou (lemon crown cake), boussou la tmessou (toasted lemon-sesame cookies rolled in powdered sugar), khobz el-bey (small cakes made from almond powder and breadcrumbs, with orange blossom syrup), mchewek (almond boulders), mkhabez (almond cookies with colored icing) and mbardja (diamond-shaped cookies filled with ghers, date paste).
At the heart of social life in the Maghreb, mint tea is traditionally prepared by the head of the family and offered to guests as a sign of hospitality. Tea is consumed at every social interaction throughout the day. Although the arrival of tea, originally from China, in the Maghreb is open to debate, it is thought that the plant began to be consumed in the region towards the end of the 18thcentury . Made from green tea, fresh mint leaves, boiling water and lots of sugar, the proportions and brewing time can vary considerably. In the desert, tea is "cooked" for a long time over coals in metal teapots.
As a former Ottoman territory, Algeria will often offer Turkish coffee, more or less sweetened, sometimes with cardamom. The French also introduced the equivalent of café noisette: a full-bodied espresso with milk, nicknamed noss-noss (half and half). As in most Mediterranean countries, cafés are at the center of social life, and tend to be frequented by men. They serve coffee, tea, soft drinks and, as night falls, verbena infusions. Fruit juices and sodas(gazouz) are also popular, as is leben (fermented milk).
Although alcohol is forbidden by religion, it is readily available legally, particularly beer(tango) and wine, although alcoholic beverages are much rarer in rural Algeria than in the big coastal towns. Probably brought to Algeria by the Phoenicians, vines were cultivated early on for table and wine-making purposes, notably by the Romans, but it was with French colonization that new grape varieties from southern France and Spain were introduced. There are seven appellations d'origine garantie (AOG): Coteaux de Mascara, Coteaux de Tlemcen, Dahra, Monts du Tessalah, Aïn-Bessem-Bouïra, Coteaux du Zaccar and Médéa.
