Algeria

Algeria was a great meal, especially because I decided to do a Tagine dish, and I love Tagine dishes. A dear family friend once cooked us a delicious Moroccan meal with a Tagine and the rest, as they say, was history. Anyways, I found the recipe on this blog called La Petite Paniere, which I need to investigate further as it seems like a great blog. The recipe was for a ‘Lamb with Peas and Artichoke Tagine’, and it pleasantly surprised me. Since finding decent lamb where I live is about as easy as nailing Jell-O to a wall, I used a cheap but actually quite nice cut of beef instead. 

I will direct you with great pleasure to the recipe linked below, with the suggestion to use less water than directed and to be liberal with the spices. At one point in the cooking, around 20 minutes in, I lifted the lid of my Tagine to find a watery broth that tasted vaguely of chicken noodle soup, for reasons unfathomable to me since it contained neither chicken nor noodles and was not meant to be a soup. I turned up the heat, added more Rag el Hanouk and threw in an eye-watering dose of cayenne for good measure. Things improved radically after that. Also, I didn’t add the peas and artichoke until halfway through the meat’s cooking time, instead of at the start, partly because my mother suggested it and she is always right about these things, and also because my Tagine would have overflowed (dramatically) if I did. As it was, there was hasty use of a turkey baster. Fun times!

I served this Tagine with buttery couscous (yum) and a smashingly flavorful eggplant recipe that can be found in a subsequent post. It was a pretty decent meal, though I do say so myself!

Up next: Andorra! (Drumroll please….)

Lamb Tajine with Artichoke and Green Peas:
http://lapetitepaniere.com/2014/11/08/lamb-tajine-with-artichoke-and-green-peas/

Albania

I have to say I was a tiny bit skeptical of Albanian food, mostly out of ignorance I think. But I found Albanian cuisine to actually be quite healthy, tasty and to use a lot of the same ingredients my family cooks with on a day to day basis. With, perhaps, a more liberal use of mint; seriously, there was mint everywhere. It tasted good though.

For my Albanian meal I prepared a spinach Byrek, some meatballs, and Pasul.

To start with we have the Pasul, which is a very filling, thick bean soup. It had great flavor and would be great for the winter on a cold night. In fact, after a decent bowl of it we really didn’t need any other dishes, but we made a valiant effort and pressed on.

Next on our plates were the Byrek and meatballs. The spinach Byrek (or Burek) is a dish I will definitely be making again. It was, in essence, a pie with a phyllo pastry crust and top, and a filling made of fresh spinach, raw egg, and cheese. It was really, really tasty. The meatballs were also good, with lots of flavor and a good deal of mint (something the Pasul was also notable for).

I think this was probably my favorite meal so far. The Pasul was good, but the other two dishes were even better and I have linked all three below. Give them a try!

Pasul: kuzhinashqiptare.com/en/traditional/pasul-recipe/

Byrek with Spinach: kuzhinashqiptare.com/en/traditional/byrek-burek-spinach/

Meatballs, Recipe 6 in this collection: albaniantranslators.com/recipes.html

Afghanistan

 After our Afghanistan meal, we had leftovers for quite a while. It was a really solid meal, so filling that I think I could have done just one of the two main dishes and easily made a meal of it. But it was fun to try them both, and the dessert was very interesting.

The main dish was Dolmeh-e-Kadoo, or Afghan Stuffed Squash. Luckily it was the right time of year and we had some Patty Pan Squash from our garden, so I used those and they worked very well. The ingredients were all very flavorful; the only one I didn't have was advieh, a spice mixture that can be found in Middle-Eastern markets, presumably. So instead I threw in some cinnamon, turmuric, ground cloves, cumin, dried coriander, and ground ginger, which worked rather well.

The side dish was Bolani Katchalu, or savory pastry turnovers with a potato filling. These were almost like an Afghan version of quesadillas. If I could go back in time I would make them rather smaller, since they were quite imposing and took up more than half of a dinner plate, But they tasted good despite my overzealous portioning. I'm actually getting hungry thinking about them, all golden and crispy. Moving on!

For dessert we had Sheer Yakh, an Afghan recipe for ice cream. Since it did not require sugar as an ingredient, I was expecting it to be on the edge of savory, barely sweet at all. You should have seen my surprise when I first tried it - it was one of the sweetest things I have ever tasted. Apparently the condensed milk was quite sweet...anyways, I wasn't used to the saccharine intensity and so it wasn't my favorite dessert. But others with a raging sweet tooth may find it very nice!

As always, the recipes are linked below, go have a poke around...

Dolmeh-e-Kadoo (Afghan Stuffed Squash):
afghankitchenrecipes.com/recipe/dolmeh-e-kadoo-afghan-stuffed-squash/

Bolani Katchalu (Potato Filled Turnovers):
afghankitchenrecipes.com/recipe/potato-bolani-fried-afghan-flatbread/

Sheer Yakh (Afghan Ice Cream):
afghankitchenrecipes.com/recipe/sheer-yakh-or-kulfi-afghan-ice-cream/