North African Food
The chief food in North
Africa is couscous made of millet-flour kneaded with milk. The flour is ground
between two stones placed one on the top of the other, the upper one having one
or two handles by which it can be moved round. Couscous and Tagines are the
principal dishes for every day, special feasts and celebrations to the Amazigh
or Berber people of North Africa.
Semolina flour is
ground from durum wheat and is usually used to make pasta. Couscous, often
mistakenly called rice, but it is actually pasta made up of tiny pearls of
wheat dough made from durum wheat. Durum wheat is very hard wheat with high
protein content. Its density, combined with its high protein content and gluten
strength, make durum the wheat of choice for producing premium pasta products.
Pasta made from
durum is firm with consistent cooking quality. Durum kernels are amber-colored
and larger than those of other wheat classes. Also unique to durum is its
yellow endosperm, which gives pasta its golden hue. One cup of cooked couscous
has about 176 calories compared to 221 calories in one cup of cooked elbow
pasta, and 360 calories in one cup of cooked brown rice.
North African Berber Lamb Recipe
Ingredients
2 pounds lamb cut into 2-inch chunks
2 cups cooked chickpeas
2 large onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cups tomato juice
2 large chopped tomatoes
4 ounce dried apricots, cut in half
2 ounce dates, cut in half
2 ounce raisins
3 ounce flaked almonds
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1½ tablespoon paprika
1½ tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon turmeric
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon saffron
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoon coriander, roughly chopped
2 tablespoon flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
3 cups vegetable stock
2 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoon argan oil
Directions
Preheat the oven to 300F. Place the cayenne, black pepper, paprika, ginger, turmeric and cinnamon into a small bowl and mix to combine. Place the lamb in a large bowl and toss together with half of the spice mix. Cover and leave overnight in the fridge. Heat 1-tablespoon olive oil and 1-tablespoon of argan oil in a large casserole dish. Add the grated onion and the remaining spice mix and cook over a gentle heat for 10 minutes so that the onions are soft but not colored. Add the crushed garlic for the final 3 minutes.
In a separate frying pan, heat the remaining oil
and brown the cubes of lamb on all sides then add the browned meat to the
casserole dish. Deglaze the frying pan with ¼ pint of tomato juice and add
these juices to the pan. Add the remaining tomato juice, chopped tomatoes,
apricots, dates, raisins or sultanas, flaked almonds, saffron, lamb stock and
honey to the casserole dish. Bring to the boil, cover with a fitted lid, place
in the oven and cook for 2-2½ hours or until the meat is meltingly tender.
Place the lamb in a tagine or large serving dish and sprinkle over the chopped
herbs.
Berber Lamb Tagine Recipe
North African food recipe Berber Lamb Tagine from Chic African Culture has a myriad of Maghreb spices and this North African tagine recipe is best served with warm couscous, pita or flatbread.Serves 6
North African Food
Did you know?
To the Berber people
spices are very important to every dish. If there is no spice then it is not a Berber
dish. Spices are the most important ingredient in Berber cooking; the most
commonly used spices are cinnamon, and cardamom.
