Cuisine of Tunisia

Tunisian cuisine is a blend of European, Oriental and desert dweller's culinary traditions. Its distinctive spicy fieriness comes from neighbouring Mediterranean countries and the many civilizations who have ruled Tunisian land: Phoenician, Roman, Arab, Turkish, French, and the native Berber people. Many of the cooking styles and utensils began to take shape when the ancient tribes were nomads. Nomadic people were limited in their cooking by what locally made pots and pans they could carry with them. A tagine is really the name of a conical-lidded pot, although today the same word is applied to what is cooked in it.

Like all countries in the Mediterranean basin, Tunisia offers a "sun cuisine," based mainly on olive oil, spices, tomatoes, seafood (a wide range of fish) and meat from rearing (lamb).

Ingredients

Unlike other North African cuisine, Tunisian food is spicy hot. A popular condiment and ingredient which is used extensively Tunisian cooking, harissa is a hot red pepper sauce made of red chili peppers and garlic, flavoured with coriander, cumin, olive oil and often tomatoes. There is an old wife's tale that says a husband can judge his wife's affections by the amount of hot peppers she uses when preparing his food. If the food becomes bland then a man may believe that his wife no longer loves him. However when the food is prepared for guests the hot peppers are often toned down to suit the possibly more delicate palate of the visitor. Like harissa or chili peppers, the tomato is also an ingredient which cannot be separated from the cuisine of Tunisia. Tuna, eggs, olives and various varieties of pasta, cereals, herbs and spices are also ingredients which are featured prominently in Tunisian cooking.

Tabil, pronounced "table," is a word in Tunisian Arabic meaning "seasoning " and refers to a particular Tunisian spice mix, although earlier it meant ground coriander. Paula Wolfert makes the plausible claim that tabil is one of the spice mixes brought to Tunisia by Muslims expelled from Andalusia in 1492 after the fall of Granada. Today tabil, closely associated with the cooking of Tunisia, features garlic, cayenne pepper, caraway and coriander seeds pounded in a mortar and then dried in the sun and is often used in cooking beef or veal.

Thanks to its long coastline and numerous fishing ports, Tunisia can serve abundant, varied and exceptionally fresh supply of fish in its restaurants. Many diners will be content to have their fish simply grilled and served filleted or sliced with lemon juice and a little olive oil. Fish can also be baked, fried in olive oil, stuffed, seasoned with cumin (kamoun). Squid, cuttle fish, and octopus are often served in hot crispy batter with slices of lemon, as a cooked salad or stuffed and served with couscous.

Main dishes

Couscous is the national dish of Tunisia and can be prepared in many ways. It is cooked in a special kind of double boiler called a "kiska:s" in Arabic or "couscoussière" in French. Meat and vegetables are boiled in the lower half. The top half has holes in the bottom through which the steam rises to cook the grain which is put in this part. Cooked this way the grain acquires the flavour of whatever is below. The usual grain is semolina. To serve, the grain is piled in the middle of a dish, and the meat and vegetables put on top. A sauce can be then poured over before serving.

Like in the rest of North Africa, couscous is served on all occasions. It is traditionally eaten with lamb, the semolina must be very fine, and the vegetables (carrots, little white cabbages, turnips, chick peas) only lightly cooked. Depending on the season, the vegetables change: there may also be cardoons, cold broad beans, or pumpkin. Unlike Moroccan tajines, a tajine in Tunisia usually refers to a kind of "quiche" made from beaten eggs and grated cheese consisting of meat and/or various vegetable fillings, prepared like a large cake and cooked in the oven.

The most sought-after seafood speciality is poisson complet: the fish is prepared, fried, grilled or sautéed, accompanied by potato chips and either normal or spicy tastira, depending on the kind of peppers used in the dish. The peppers are grilled with a little tomato, a lot of onion and a little garlic, all of which is finely chopped and served with a poached egg.

Other popular Tunisian foods and recipes

*Assida Zgougou - a sweet pudding of ground pine seeds topped by a vanilla cream and decorated with grated nuts
*Baklava - layers of whisper thin pastry interspersed with ground pine nuts, almonds, hazelnuts and pistachios, bathed in golden butter, baked and dipped in a honey syrup.
*Balbaloni - fried sweet donut-like cake served with sugar.
*Berber Lamb - Lamb cooked with potatoes and carrots in a clay pot.
*Bouza - rich and sticky sorghum puree.
*Brik - tiny parcels of minced lamb, beef, or vegetables and an egg wrapped in thin pastry and deep fried.
*Chakchouka - a vegetarian ragout similar to ratatouille with chickpeas, tomatoes, peppers, garlic and onions served with a poached egg.
*Chorba - a seasoned broth, with pasta, meatballs, fish, etc.
*Felfel mahchi - sweet peppers stuffed with meat, usually lamb, and served with harissa sauce.
*Fricasse - small fried sandwich with tuna, harissa, olives and olive oil.
*Guenaoia - lamb or beef stew with chillies, okra, and spices.
*Houria - cooked carrot salad.
*Lablabi - rich garlicky soup made with chickpeas.
*"Langues d'oiseaux" or "birds' tongues", a type of soup pasta shaped like rice grains.
*Khobz Tabouna - traditional oven baked bread.
*Koucha - shoulder of lamb cooked with turmeric and cayenne pepper
*Makroud - semolina cake stuffed with dates, cinnamon and grated orange peel.
*Masfouf - sweetened couscous, the Tunisian version of the Moroccan seffa.
*Marqa - Slow-cooked stews of meat with tomatoes and olives, somewhat similar in concept to the Moroccan tajine stews.
*Mechouia Salad - an hors d'oeuvre of grilled sweet peppers, tomatoes and onions mixed with oil lemon, tuna fish and hard-boiled eggs.
*Merguez - small spicy sausages.
*Mhalbya - cake made with rice, nuts and geranium water.
*Mloukhia - A beef or lamb stew with bay leaves, the name is from the green herb used, which produces a thick gravy that has a mucilaginous (somewhat "slimy") texture, similar to cooked okra.
*"Noicer" pasta - very thin, small squares of pasta made with semolina and all-purpose flour, flavoured with Tunisian Bharat, a blend of ground cinnamon and dried rosebuds.
*Ojja - scrambled egg dish made of tomatoes and mild green chilies supplemented with various meats and harissa.
*Osbane - pieces of animal gut stuffed with meat and offal, a specialty from Monastir.
*Tunisian Salad - diced cucumber, peppers, tomatoes, onions and seasoned with olive oil. May be garnished with olives, eggs and tuna. Analogous to the French Niçoise salad and Greek salad.
*Samsa - layers of thin pastry alternated with layers of ground roast almonds, and sesame seeds, baked in lemon and rosewater syrup.
*Zitounia - ragout of veal or other meats simmered in a tomato sauce and onions, flavoured with olives.
*Torshi - turnips marinated with lime juice.
*Yo-yo - donuts made with orange juice, deep fried then dipped in honey syrup.

External links

* [http://www.arab.net/tunisia/ta_food.htm Food of Tunisia at Arab.net]
* [http://www.tourismtunisia.com/eatingout/cuisine.html Tunisian cuisine at Tourism Tunisia]
* [http://www.focusmm.com/tunisia/tn_coumn.htm Focus on Tunisia - Cuisine]

Recipe books

*Tunisia Mediterranean Cuisine, by: Konemann ISBN 3-8331-2344-3