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Published on Tuesday 30th of November 1999 by Valerie

French conversation with a taste of Algeria

Nothing gets a French conversation going like the titillating of taste buds. A few weeks ago, French Ignition organised a Algerian cooking demonstration and food tasting at Studio 93, in the West-End of Glasgow. The event was a great success and the venue was superb. Our French native speaker and Algerian-born Nadjia did a fantastic job demonstrating her cooking skills to the 16 people assembled there.
Okay, Algerian cooking isn’t French cooking but with a strong colonial history between France and Algeria (not something to boast about from a French perspective), North African cooking has always been prominent in France thanks to its substantial North African community.

Nadjia started us off with a delicious harira soup accompanied with carrots in coriander. Harira is a traditional Algerian or Moroccan soup served all year, except during the Ramadan month. Nadjia started by peeling and cutting the onions into quarters and chopping a big bunch of parsley before putting it into a pressure cooker, uncovered, over a low heat She then peeled and cut the vegetables into chunks (potatoes, carrots and turnips) and added them to the onions and parsley along with the spices (cumin, saffron and a typical North African spice called ras-el-hanout) and peeled tomatoes. She then added the meat (mutton), chick peas and water before putting the lid on and cooking for 60 minutes over a low heat. Near the end of the cooking, she took out the meat and put to one side and she lifted the vegetables and put them into the mixer before putting them back in the soup. To prepare the accompaniment, Nadjia peeled and cut the carrots into strips and put them in a frying pan with olive oil, cumin, salt and pepper before adding water to cover half way. She then cooked them over a high heat until the liquid disappeared. She added lemon juice and coriander to the carrots and served them alongside the soup with some fresh bread. This was the moment where all French conversation momentarily died down, a sure sign that the soup was delicious…

The main course consisted of a prune and dried apricots tajine. It sounds vegetarian but make no mistake, there’s always a piece of meat lurking somewhere in Algerian cooking. I must admit, at this stage I was far too busy helping out Nadjia to fully follow her cooking but plenty of nice recipes for tajine can be found on the Net. Traditionally, the tajine refers to the ceramic dish used in Moroccan and Algerian cooking. Surmounted by a conic ceramic top, it is placed directly over the fire to slowly stew meat, fruit and spices. The meal was delicious and once again momentarily killed the French conversations that were taking place over the kitchen bar a minute earlier. A sure sign of success!

We finished off with oranges with cinnamon and orange blossom water, a typical dessert in North Africa, followed by traditional mint tea. The French conversation was back on at this stage and the common theme was definitely how good the food was…

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