Sunday night’s International Table Adventure was Algeria. This is my favorite meal so far. The meal consisted of Hummus bi’l Kammunm (Algerian Chickpea Soup), Algerian Sunset Salad, Artisan French Bread, Hot Algerian Lasagna, Algerian Green Beans and Bil Zbib (Sweet Couscous with Dried Fruit).
Algeria was a French colony from 1830 until 1962, thus the French bread on the menu. It took 3 days to make the French bread, but it was simple. Mixing together flour, salt, yeast and water and leaving in a cool place. Mixing in more water, flour and yeast and letting sit again. My favorite part was the slap and fold method of kneading the bread. The instructions said to slap the dough around a little. The bread is really dense and so yummy warm with butter.
The sunset salad is a mixture of blood oranges, fresh fennel, black olives, and mint. I love it. Rob not so much. I like the licorice flavor of the fennel.
Sasha Martin who created the Global Table Adventure site said, “Hot Algerian Lasagna blends traditional Italian lasagna with chickpeas, potatoes, ground lamb, and a healthy dose of cayenne pepper.” We made it with ground turkey instead of lamb and it is delicious! We still have a ton in our freezer.
The Bil Zbib was so good. Not too sweet. Couscous with golden raisins, dried apricots, prunes, cinnamon and butter. Yum. We had the leftovers for breakfast with some toasted pecans on top. Oh man.
The only item we bought that was unusual is harissa, a peppers, garlic, caraway and coriander paste. We could have made it from scratch, but we found it at Giant Eagle!
