Algero -Yemeni brunch

Salam, Hello,
During Easter holiday,  my Yemeni friend and I thought about holding  a brunch at my place and prepare typical breakfast dishes from our respective countries.
 After few minutes of brainstorming our eventual menu , we were  » lost in translation!!
Me: what ? kofta , beans, liver …for breakfast !  I ‘m afraid, I can’t swallow those  dishes  at such an early hour!
She:  oh My! You can take honey soaked baklawa , jam and creamy pastry and frown upon beans and egg! ?
Well, Algerians have a lethal sweet tooth and seldom serve savory dishes on breakfast  and though  I’ve been staying overseas for more than a decade and live in a country where rice is eaten for breakfast, I stayed more or less faithful to my country’s traditions.
If I need to sum up Algerian breakfast – and by extension  North  African , I would say:carbs ( bread, buns, traditional  pancakes, cookies , pastry )
Fat ( butter or olive oil  ) and tons of sugar, honey and any thing in between!

The french influence is also very present and goes in harmony with the choice of our traditional carb/ sweet breakfast menu!.

Indeed, the concept of a heavy Middle-Eastern breakfast  called rayou/ rayoug ( ريوق) is non existent in North Africa… Breakfast is not as important as lunch , dinner or afternoon break . People are usually early birds, they drink their coffee/ mint green tea , take light sweet breakfast in order to make room for their  noon lunch  .

In Yemen, breakfast, is the most important meal of the day, heavy and savory dishes like red beans,  fried kofta, mutton liver are usually served.

So here are few shots from the goodies I managed to prepare :

crepe

-Algerian buns- chrik costantinois– stuffed half the dough with chocolate chips and flavored the rest with orange zest ( the plaited crowns),

-Algerian mssemen  served the mixture of honey and butter,

-Italian marble cake

-French crepes served with chocolate ganache, rasberry jam and philadelphia cheese.

-Individual tajine bounarine – a speciality of the city of Annaba and constantine . The recipe is similar to this tajine jben but with minced meat instead of chickrn

-Traditional ghraiba and chocolate crackles.

-Green and black olives, vache qui rit cheese.
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From the yemeni part, my friend brought :

-Yemeni  fried kofta with its salad and minty , spicy sauce

-Beans
-Bread,

-Liver and meat dips

-Yemeni doughnut called el megasgas .

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FRANCAIS

Pendant les  vaccances de paques, mon amie yemeni et moi avions decide’ d’organiser un brunch ( repas matinal ) representant nos deux pays respectifs.
Chacune de nous , devait preparer des plats typiques cosommes generalement pendant le petit dejeuner.

A notre grand amusement, nous avons decouvert qu’il n’avait rien de commun entre le petit dejeuner Algerien et son homologue yemeni.

Au yemen, on sert plusieurs mets sales comme le fois de moutons, kofta frites avec sa salade, et sa sauce epicee’, des haricots en sauce rouge….etc….

En Algerie , les gens se levent generalement tot, mangent leger et par consequent sucre’ pour laisser de la place au dejeuner, qui est souvent servi a midi ou au  plutard a  13h.

Et comme nous avons la dent plutot sucre’, un petit dejeuner algerien typique est souvent compose’ de

pains, brioches , crepes ….soit traditionnel ou occidentals, ,  …servi avec du beurre et de la confiture,
beignets ou crepes traditionnels ( mssemens, ftayers,  baghrir….., le tout servi d’un melange de beurre et de miel ou bien d’huile d’olive surtout dans les regions amazigh..

gateaux traditionnels ( sables, croquants, ghraibas, makroud, baklawa…..etc)
Ou bien pains, brioches et patisserie occidentale…

Ceci- ci dit, voici ce que j’ai pu preparer pour ce brunch

table

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-Brioche Algerienne ( Chrik Constantinois) ..faconne’ la moitie’ en ruche d’abeilles et fourree’ de pepites de chocolat et aromatise’ le reste avec le zeste d’orange en lui donnant la forme de couronnes tressees.

Tajine bounarine en forme individuele- c’est un tajine , typique aux villes d’annaba et de constantine et se prepare comme un tajine jben   mais avec de laviande hachee’, a la place du poulet
Ce tajine n’est jamais consomme’ au petit dejeuner mais comme c’est un brunch je voulais introduire des mets sales tout en restant  dans le traditionnel.

Graiba traditionnelle et crackles au chocolat

Mssemens servis avec un melange de beurre et de miel

Un marbre‘ italien

Des crepes francaises servi avec de la ganache au chocolat, confiture de murre et fromage philadelphia

Des olives vertes et noire et fromage en portions

Cote’ yemeni, mon amie a ramene’ :

Du pain iranien , des haricots en sauce rouge, kofta frite avec sa sauce epicee’ et salade

Des beignets yemeni , appelles el megasgaz  ,

Du foi de mouton  et du veau epices.

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Enjoy!

Anniversaire de ma fille

Bonjour…

Juste pour le partage , au cas ou ca pourrait etre utile et  inspirer quelqu’un ……….voici quelques photos de l’anniversaire de ma fille qui  a fete’ ses sept ans, le mois passe’.

Comme il n’yavait pas beaucoup d’invites, la liste des mets n’etait pas tres longue. il yavait entre-autre;

– chawarma maison avec pain a base de pate a mssemens

-feuilletes thon, fromage, olives…

– cupcake au chocolat avec des images cosmetibles de ‘Monster-high’ , la poupee’ preferee’ de notre Miss

-tranches de genoise au lemon curd ( recette inspiree’ de chez Ratiba )

-tartelettes a la ganache de chocolat

gateau d’anniversaire ( un fraisier )

et une premiere pour moi; une piece-montee’  bonbons

je vous laisse avec les photos…….

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Vous pouvez par la meme occasion  consulter les anniversaires que j’ai realise’ l’an passe’  ( ici )  et ( la )

A bientot….

Tea-time gatherings with An Algerian twist

Hello/ salam out there
How are you doing? Hope every one has spent great holidays and Eid
I apologize for not being much on line the last couple of months.
It was the children long holiday break in my part of the world, and I didn’t have time and energy to blog, as I was busy spending quality time with them .
But this didn’t stop  me from cooking and baking…I have so   many recipes and pictures  waiting to be to shared  ,so  just stay tuned… 
and  let’s go straight to the core of today’s post…..

Through the past few months, my family and  friends shared with me some pictures of different gatherings on diverse occasions, so I thought about sharing with you some elements of Algerian tea-time culture .

Do you have any idea  about how a typical Algerian  tea time gathering  woud Look like, or mean  ?

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One of the most important social gatherings  in Algeria  is the daily session of tea or coffee drinking.as it firmly bonds the family and friendship ties and get people  to chat, lough or gossip about life hilghlights.

Yasmina khadra( Algerian novelist of French expression) and Ahlam mostghanmy ( Algerian novelist of Arabic expression) sum up the importance of tea time gathring in Algeria …..

« Nous ne sommes pas paresseux. Nous prenons le temps de vivre ,ce qui n’est pas le cas des occidentaux. pour eux, le temps, c’est de l’argent, pour nous, le temps n’a pas de prix. un verre de the’ suffit a notre bonheur, alors quaucun bonheur ne leur suffit. toute la difference est la, mon garcon.. » YASMINA KHADRA….. extrait du roman  » Ce que le jour doit a la nuit »

لتعود بعد لحظات, بصينية قهوة نحاسيه كبيرة عليها إبريق، وفناجين, وسكريه, ومرشّ لماء الزهر, وصحن للحلويات
في مدن أخرى تقدم القهوة جاهزة في فنجان, وضعت جواره مسبقاً معلقه وقطعة سكر
ولكن قسنطينة مدينه تكره الإيجاز في كل شيء .

Ahlam mostghanmy,extract of ….. « dhakirat jassad »   / »memory of a body »

unlike middleastern and Turkish traditionion  where savoury pastries and fingerfood can be served   during social gatherings, 
Algerians ( and North African in general),  are   great sugar addict…. the key  ingredients for their morning and afternoon treats  are sugar, honey, butter and  a large variety  of  sweet pastries , either of  Algerian origin  like traditional cookies and pastries or of  French origin  such as les tartelettes, millefeuille, etc….

Here are few examples of Algerian traditional delicacies, usually served with a mixture of honey /sugar and butter

Mchelwech: click  HERE  for the recipie  

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Mssemen: click  HERE for the recipie

mssemen

Sfenj : Algerian doughnut:

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Chrik : Algerian buns from the city of Constantine,  click  HERE  for the recipe

chrik

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Traditional sweets like  halwa tourk -Turkish halva- and jawziya ( Algerian nougat made with natural honey and nuts, very much appreciated in the city of Constantine )

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 Huzelnut stuffed dry figs

halwa7Jawziya, dates, and mssemens

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Caprices ( left) Algerian toffee sweets

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Green mint  tea, black coffee and cafe’ au lait ( french influence for the latter ) are usualy served along trays of homemade delicacies.
Cookies,  and traditional pastries are prepared all year  long  and kept in the freezer in case of unxpected guests as it’s extremely rude in Algeria to serve coffee on its own…..

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sables

fruits

In my region, and though copper ustencils are no longer widely used as in the past ,  the big ,one- meter  large copper trays  called siniya bou mitra  are still used as they are very practical to carry the different thermos of coffee, cafe’ au lait, sugar , napkin holder, orange blossom water holder ( m’rach, مرش) and of course the different trays of cookies and pastries.

siniya

M’rach : orange blossom water splasher

mrach

This is  typical siniya(copper tray )  covered with a cloth with thermos of black coffee,  cafe’ au lait , and a »  mrach  » ( splasher )  filled with orange blossom water for those who  like  blossom flavour in their coffee.

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Green mint tea is served in a traditional tea pot called berrad  or bekraj and it’s usually served with tids bids like dry fruits and the like…..nuts like pinenuts and peanuts are put in the bottom of  the cups and float on the surface after tea is poured.

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 so, shall I serve you tea or coffee?

Table de ftour Algerienne….Algerian Iftar table

Ramadan is time to strengthen relationship with family and friends by inviting them for iftar ( breaking the fast ).

Iftar trditions and rituals  varry tremendously from one country to another depending on which part of the world we come from .

In Algeria, we usually follow the prophetic habit ( sunna) of   breaking  the fast with dates and milk which provide instant energy and help our bodies stand the hunger . . A typical Algerian table would be composed of chorba or harira ( Algerian soups) , bourek ( filo cigar), tajine hlouw,( sweet prune and raisins tajine), kesra or khoubz edar ( Algerian breads)  a main meat dish  and a variety of fresh fruits.

after the iftar is over, people would retire to their living room and have some tea with a large variety of  traditional  desserts, usually very rich in honey and nut…. baklawa, ktayefs, mhancha, zlabiya, makroud, kalb elouz, halwet tourk, halkoum, to name few…..

This weekend, I had the pleasure of receiving some friends and preparing some Algerian traditional dishes such as  tlitli , which, like the other Algerian pasta dishes is often prepared on the fifteenth or twentyseventh day of ramadan.

the pictures  were  taken quickly and clumsily , so please exuse the quality of the shots…

A genaral view of the table  where you can see, chorba frik,  bourek laajina, tajine jben, chti’ha panne’ and tlitli

une vue generale de ma table du ftour de ce weekend, ou vous pouvez reconnaitres qulques classiques plus ou moins relookes, bourek lajina, facon samsa, tajine jben, yahni ou chtitha panne’ ( recette a venir ) et notre tlitli national presente’ a la mode orientale, cad, safrane’ et  decore’ d’amandes et de pignons a la place des traditionnelles  boulettes de kefta et pois chiche.

from another angle :the white pancake -like dish from the left, is the yemeni shafout, kindly brought by my friend.

A gauche, c’est le shafout, des crepes yemenites avec une sauce au yaourt un peu piquante, un plat tres prise’ au yemen et gentillement ramene’ par mon amie.

To break the fast, according to the prophetic sunna,  , I offered   almond and cachew nut stuffed dates with small glasses of cold  milk:

Here are zoomed pictures of the menu:

bourek laajina ( facon samsa ). to view the recipe, pour voir la recette , click, HERE/ICI

Yahni,  or tajine of fried chicken ( recipe to come / recette a venir)

Algerian safron tlitli decorated with almonds and pine-nuts  instead of the more traditional chikpeas and meatballs

tajine jben: click ( ICI/HERE) pour la recette/for the recipe

j’ai pratique’ suivi la meme recette que le lien ci dessus’ sauf que j’ai remplace’ la cuillere a soupe de chapelure par une pdt  coupe’ en des, cuite dans l’eau et ecrasee’ puis incorporee’ aux restes des  ingredients.

I followed the same steps as the above link  and  replaced the tbsp of breadcrumbs by 1 mushed potato.

fruits:

I didn’t  have the time take any photos of my tea table and the desserts I prepared for my guests but I’ll show you instead    my sister’s ramadan tables that disply some of the traditional ramadan specialities in Algeria, : zlabiya, kalb elouz, jawziyat ksantina…makroud, halwat tourk…etc…

the cafe’ au lait table

saha ftourkoum ……

Gouter d’anniversaire de ma princesse…….My girl’s b’day party

Bonjour,

Apres l’anniversaire de mes deux garcons, je viens aujourdh’ui, partager quelques photos de la table d’anniversaire de ma fille , recemment celebree’.

la table etait garnie de quelques mets  sales comme les mini tajine jben, du poulet panne’ Algerien, du riz a la viande hachee’, des saucisses au poulet, et cote’ sucre’, j’ai prepare’  des truffes facons cake pops americains, des tartelettes au caramel, pignon et mousse au chocolat ( recette a venir ) des cupcakes multicolores garnis d’images et cosmetibles et le gateau barbie qui m’a donne’ du fil a retordre car c’etait la premiere fois que je l’essayais et sans moule, qui plus est..

Gateau Barbie au chocolat entoure’ de cupcakes au citron :

de plus pres:

cake pops et tartelettes caramel et mousse au chocolat :

Mini tajine jben ( un peu bronzes ):

Riz et poulet panne’ a l’Algerienne :

une vue d’ensemble :