To prepare ourselves for Algeria, we watched the movie, The Battle of Algiers, a classic black and white movie about the Algerian War of Independence from France. It’s a remarkably even-handed movie, at times showing atrocities committed by France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) rebels, and at other times being sympathetic to both sides.
There was one wonderful sequence that showed why [rebels, guerrillas, freedom fighters, terrorists, revolutionaries, patriots - call them what you will] have to resort to acts that we consider despicable. Ben M’Hidi, one of the leaders of the FLN, has been captured and is being paraded in front of a group of journalists.
Journalist: M. Ben M’Hidi, don’t you think it’s a bit cowardly to use women’s baskets and handbags to carry explosive devices that kill so many innocent people?
Ben M’Hidi: And doesn’t it seem to you even more cowardly to drop napalm bombs on defenseless villages, so that there are a thousand times more innocent victims? Of course, if we had your airplanes it would be a lot easier for us. Give us your bombers, and you can have our baskets.
The Battle of Algiers ended in 1957 with the death of the leaders of the FLN, but the writing was on the wall for France, and 5 years later, in 1962, Algeria became an independent nation.
Watching the movie did make me wonder about the possibility of successfully occupying another country, and whether there’s really any hope for a good outcome of the U.S. occupation/wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I suspect not.
Okay, with that introduction, let’s move onto the food. It seems that couscous (or kuskus in Algeria) is probably the most classic Algerian dish, and interestingly, the same recipe turned up in many different web sites. So that’s the one we went with.
Although it looks very similar to quinoa and bulgur wheat, couscous is not a natural grain, but is made from ground semolina which is formed into tiny granules. Traditionally it’s been a labor-intensive and time-consuming operation, but these days most couscous is made through a mechanized manufacturing process.
Similarly with the cooking. Traditionally couscous took a while to cook in a steamer, but modern packaged couscous has been pre-steamed and dried, and now only requires boiling water or stock to be poured on it and to be left covered for about five minutes.
But enough of the lesson, and on with the meal. It’s a purely vegetarian dish, but it would be easy to add meat to it. The recipe is for 6 people – we tried to cut it down for 2, but were constantly faced with thoughts such as “zucchini isn’t very filling, so let’s use all these zucchinis” and “we might as well use the whole onion since we’ve already used half.” In the end we pretty much made the full thing and had a lot left over.
Algerian Couscous with Vegetables
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/4 tsp cayenne
- 1/2 cup vegetable stock
- 1 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 small can tomato paste
- 4 whole cloves
- 3 medium zucchini
- 4 small yellow squash or yellow zucchini
- 1 large carrot
- 4 medium yellow or red potatoes, skins on
- 1 red or green bell pepper
- 1 15-oz. can garbanzo beans
- A dash of cinnamon
Veggies: Saute the onion in the vegetable stock (or some olive oil) until translucent. Add all the spices and cook for a few more minutes, stirring as needed. Add tomato paste, stir and simmer for two minutes. Cut the vegetables in large chunks and add all except the garbanzo beans, and a dash of cinnamon, then add water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for an hour or so. Add the drained garbanzos about five minutes before you take the veggies off the heat.
Couscous: Put the couscous in a bowl. Pour boiling water over the couscous and wait about 5 minutes. Fluff with fork. Use a ratio of about 1 1/2 : 1 of water to couscous. For added flavor, add some of the liquid from the veggie stew to the couscous in place of some of the water.
Serving: Serve the vegetable stew over the couscous.
We pretty much followed this recipe, although we did have more carrots (misread the original 3/4 carrot as 3-4 carrots). The great thing about the recipe is that it’s so easy to make, and so easy to add other things. Put in different vegetables. Add some meat. The veggies are all pretty mild tasting so what seems like very small quantities of spices do in fact have an effect. We probably put in 1/2 tsp of cayenne, and T found the dish almost too hot.
We also made Algerian tea, which is basically tea with mint leaves thrown and extra sugar added (no milk). Quite delicious.
