A few weeks ago I was interviewed by Marian Scott of The Gazette (Montreal) for an article about Algerian cuisine. I volunteered to test recipes for her, two of them looked fine as is, but the tagine recipes needed more details about cooking techniques and some of the quantities didn't look right.
Montreal has a sizeable Algerian community, "In Montreal, 30.8 per cent of residents were born outside of Canada, by far the biggest proportion of any Quebec city. Across the province, only 11. 5 of residents are foreign-born. Montreal's biggest sources of immigrants: China, Algeria and France. Before 1996, Italy, Haiti and France were tops."
Marian and I agreed that Algerian cuisine is delicious and accessible, not as "exotic" as Moroccan or incendiary as Tunisian. Overall, Algerian cooking is more varied and subtle than its North African neighbors. I've often described it as a "Mediterranean Mix" kissed with spices.
I took these photos midway through cooking, the cooking liquid will reduce and the finished dishes will have thicker sauces.
Tajine aux Poulet, Olives et Citron Confit cooked in a tagine purchased at Sur La Table
My friends usually ask me to cook French, Korean or North African dishes for them. Of the three cuisines I find North African the easiest to prepare ahead of time for a dinner party. To be fair, French home cooking tends to be rather simple, but most of my non-French friends expect me to prepare elaborate and extravagant French chef or restaurants dishes at home. I don't even know French chefs who cook like French chefs at home. Korean upper class cooking and service are impossibly time consuming and labor intensive. Good luck.
So, I make one version or other of chicken with olives and preserved lemons for almost all my first time dinner guests. I usually add some form of tomato to my versions-- tomato sauce, grated fresh tomato, tomato paste, or tomato jam (In Algerian cooking tomatoes are often used to add color and body to sauces).
When I first started cooking North African dishes about twenty years ago, the things I found most intriguing were the use of very familiar ingredients in novel ways and a style of cooking that seemed very intuitive and sensual.
The recipe I tested for The Gazette was sans tomates and the spice profile was a bit different from what I typically use. The simple omission of tomatoes and the addition of fresh ginger heightened the bitter, salty, and pungent flavors of preserved lemon and olives. I used a bit less of those ingredients than usual.
Tajine aux Coeurs d'Artichaut et l'Agneau cooked in an Emile Henry casserole purchased at William Sonoma
Egg, lemon and parsley mixture used to thicken the lamb tagine sauce
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