The Fast of Ramadan is usually broken with a nourishing chickpea or lentil soup called harira. Harira has many variations. Harira kerouiya – a kind of gruel flavoured with mint, lemon juice, mastic and caraway seeds – is highly prized for its digestive qualities. Another nourishing soup is bessara, a broad bean soup that is often served in winter as a meal on its own with some khobz (Moroccan bread) on the side.
Kesksou (couscous) is the national dish. The word couscous not only refers to the fine grains of semolina with which it is made, but also to the finished dish. The Berbers originally ate couscous with smen – a pungent aged butter flavoured with herbs – and a bowl of milk. Today couscous is served in a variety of ways. In fact there are probably as many couscous dishes as there are cooks.
All kinds of vegetables – peppers, aubergine, courgettes, artichokes, okra, peas, potatoes, dried beans or chickpeas – are made into maraks or tajines (stews) with onions, garlic, fruits, olives or nuts, and flavoured with fresh coriander and flat-leaf parsley and an exotic mix of spices. Tajines are named after the round earthenware pot with a conical lid in which they are cooked, but take note – most Moroccan tajines include some meat, fish or poultry. Another Moroccan speciality are briouats, deep-fried triangular or cigar-shaped pastries made with warka (paper-thin pastry similar to filo pastry) that may be sweet or savoury. Savoury fillings include spinach or Swiss chard with onions, garlic and cumin, or rice and coarsely ground almonds. Sweet briouats filled with pounded dates or figs, or almond paste, are usually served for festivals, marriages or other special occasions.
Like most North Africans, Moroccans have a sweet tooth. Rich sweets and cakes are not usually served at the end of a meal, but at any time during the day with a glass of mint tea. Traditional pastries include m’hanncha (the serpent), a coiled pastry made with warka that is filled with almond paste flavoured with orange flower water and dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon, and kaab el ghzal (literally, gazelles’s horns) – crescent-shaped pastries filled with dates or almonds. Shebbakia – deep-fried pastries in the shape of rosettes that are dipped in honey and coated in sesame seeds – are usually served during Ramadan. Jabane is Moroccan nougat.
Algerian cooking is less spicy than that of Morocco and Tunisia, although they are fond of dersa – a hot sauce made with garlic, ground caraway seeds or cumin, and sweet and hot pepper, usually served with vegetables or fried eggs. Traditional salads include h’miss (a chopped roast pepper and tomato salad) and badendjel m’charmel (roast aubergine dressed with olive oil, vinegar, garlic and ground caraway seeds). Soups – chorba, djari or harira – are usually rich in vegetables and legumes. Several kinds of pasta are made – including rechta (egg noodles) and trida (little pasta squares), as well as rice, couscous, and berkoukes and m’hamsa, both of which are similar to couscous but with a large grain. Mesfouf is a sweet couscous with raisins or dates.
Algerians are fond of eggs and pancakes especially m’hadjeb, a savoury pancake filled with fried onions, tomatoes, garlic, and hot peppers. Egg dishes include bayd maqli bil dersa (fried eggs with hot sauce) and chakchouka (a delicious vegetable stew that is cooked with eggs that has many variations). Other vegetable dishes of note are khalota, a spicy vegetable stew reminiscent of the Provençal ratatouille and yamma wicha (aubergine simmered with chickpeas, fresh coriander, cinnamon and rice).
Briks or boureks are delicious savoury pastries made with paper-thin sheets of pastry called dioul that are similar to the Moroccan warka. Briks are filled with spinach, Swiss chard, potatoes, egg or cheese along with spices and deep fried.
Meals usually end with fresh or dried fruit, a bowl of fruit salad scented with orange flower water or perhaps a light milk pudding or cream. Traditional pastries such as knidlette (little tarts filled with almond paste), sfendj (ring-shapes doughnuts) and kaak bel qaress (lemon cakes) are usually prepared for religious festivals and special occasions. Bradj (date-filled pastries) are often served with leben (a kind of buttermilk).
The cooking of Tunisia and Libya are influenced by Italian and Ottoman cuisines. All kinds of pasta dishes are made, especially in Libya, with sauces highly seasoned with chilli, cinnamon, fresh coriander and parsley. Rishtit kas kas are homemade egg noodles with a chickpea sauce. Tunisians like their food hot and spicy – Harissa comes in varying strengths from hot to fiery. Mezze, or kemia as they are called in Tunisia, include a variety of raw and cooked salads. The most well known are mzoura (a cooked carrot salad spiced with harissa and cumin) and salada mechouia (a roast pepper and tomato salad).
Breiks – deep fried savoury or sweet pastries – are the pride of the Tunisian kitchen. Breiks are similar to the Algerian boureks and Moroccan briouats except they are prepared with a paper-thin pastry called malsouka that is made with semolina instead of flour. One of the classic fillings for breiks is a whole egg but they may also be filled with potatoes, cheese or tuna. Sweet breiks are usually filled with dates or almond paste, dusted with sugar and served hot or cold.
In Tunisia couscous is usually served with harissa or hhlou, a sweet and sour condiment made with dried apricots, chestnuts or pumpkin. Qalib kesksou, a Libyan dish, consists of couscous topped with a beaten egg, tomato sauce and grated cheese and baked in the oven. Other Libyan specialties include roz bil-tamar (rice with dates and pistachios) and sansafil maghli (salsified fritters).
Tunisian pastries and cakes clearly demonstrate the mix of Italian and Ottoman influences, especially boka di dama (an almond sponge cake), manicottis (deep-fried pastries coated in sugar syrup) and scoudilini (a sponge cake dredged in sugar syrup and filled with a rich almond cream). Scoudilini is a Passover specialty of Sephardic Jews who originally came from Livorno. Libyan pastries include lugmat el quadi (doughnuts coated in honey) and dableh (deep-fried pastries similar to Moroccan shebakia). Halva ditzmar is a rich sweetmeat made with dates, figs, walnuts, honey, aniseed and grated chocolate.
Andalusia The Levante Catalonia The Balearic Islands
For Spain is a mystery … but that we all love the wild, contradictory, passionately beautiful land there can be no doubt.
– James Michener, Iberia
Spain
Spain is a country of extremes – of climate, terrain and temperament. Spaniards have hot tempers, high spirits and a strong sense of individuality. It is a unique land cut off from the rest of Europe by the Pyrenees. As Jan Morris writes: ‘Whichever way you enter her, from Portugal, France, Gibraltar or the open sea, instantly you feel a sense of separateness, a geographical fact, exaggerated by historical circumstance.’
Throughout its history Spain has been a melting pot of cultures: Iberian, Celtic, Phoenician, Roman, Arabic, Berber, Jewish and many others. In the first millenium B.C. the Phoenicians settled along its southern shores and called the land Shapan, the Hidden Land (sometimes translated as the ‘Land of Rabbits’), from which España is derived. Although the Carthaginians first introduced the olive and the vine to Spain, it was the Romans who planted olives on a grand scale. Spain produced such vast quantities of olive oil, wine, wheat and raisins that Baetica – as the Romans called modern day Andalusia – became