Algeria

Menu: Harira (tomato, lamb, and lentil soup), kesra (flat bread), & zlabia (citrus-scented funnel cakes) | Recipe Source: daringgourmet.com, theodehlicious.com, and hildaskitchenblog.com

It turns out that entirely by coincidence, I made a Ramadan meal! During this holy month when Muslims (there are around 39 million practitioners of Islam in Algeria, a country of 47 million people) fast from dawn until dusk, harira is a staple dish for breaking the fast; and after having tried it, I’m not surprised at all. Seared lamb, tomato broth, chickpeas, lentils, lemon, warming herbs… it’s a literal dream come true in soup form, and also one of the heartiest meals I’ve gotten to try over the course of this project thanks to all the legumes. The semolina-based kesra bread was the perfect accompaniment for stew—crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, nuttier than standard bread, and faintly peppery thanks to the nigella seeds—and the syrup-dipped zlabia fritters (another classic dish that can almost always be found on post-fast iftar tables) were the perfect showcase of North Africa’s sweeter flavors: lemon, orange, saffron, and rosewater.

Ready to cook?

Harira: (link): There are a trillion ingredients in this recipe and I used nearly all of them in some variation! That said, I did make a ton of edits based on availability, preference, and accident.

• The author gives two choices for protein (beef or lamb) and two choices for broth (also beef or lamb), and I went with lamb shoulder for my protein and beef broth for my liquid
• Instead of mincing the ginger and garlic, I grated them directly into the soup pot (I’ve found that this allows them to incorporate into liquids better, especially the ginger, and it also guarantees that no one gets a flaming chunk of ginger while eating)
• I swapped the diced preserved lemon for a healthy squeeze of fresh lemon
• Thanks to a grocery shopping mistake, I swapped the 28oz of diced tomatoes for 28 oz of crushed tomatoes. This little accident ended up working out perfectly fine, but because crushed tomatoes are more concentrated, I opted to skip the tomato paste entirely
• I’m not sure if the Hungarian paprika I have is sweet or smoked, but I used that because I already had it on hand
• Similarly, I used 3 whole cinnamon sticks and left them in the soup for the entire duration of simmering instead of using ground cinnamon because I couldn’t find any ground cinnamon in the pantry
• I added 3 tbsp of mild Harissa (instead of 2 tsp) because it’s one of my favorite ingredients to cook with and there’s no such thing as too much (there probably is)
• I used a 15oz can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed 2 twice, instead of soaking dried chickpeas overnight
• I skipped the optional rice/vermicelli step because the soup was already so hearty with the lamb, chickpeas, and lentils
• I skipped the olives because Anthony hates them (*insert the sound of me crying*)
• I skipped the cilantro because the bunch that we had in the fridge had gone bad

Kesra (link): I only made one alteration to this recipe! Instead of brown sugar, I used white sugar because my brown sugar had hardened into a rock and I didn’t feel like grappling with it.

Zlabia (link): For the syrup, I added a squeeze of orange juice, about 1tsp each of lemon zest and orange zest, and a tiny pinch of saffron. I followed the dough recipe exactly but ended up with a mixture that resembled wet bread dough far more than pancake batter, so I ended up adding in extra water until I reached the right consistency (somewhere between 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup).