Tunisian kesra bread

I believe that everyone should be able to make homemade bread. Not necessarily difficult artisan bakery style bread; just a simple recipe will do. Baking bread, in my opinion, is an essential life skill or at least something that can come in very handy.

Today I'm sharing my kesra recipe. Kesra is a Tunisian bread that's made on the hob and very delicious. It's also known by other names in some countries, such as tachnift or batbout in Morocco. 

I learned how to make it many years ago from my mother in law and my sister in law, and tweaked it a little bit to suit our taste, but other than that it's the same as theirs. And my mother in law, on her turn, also learned it from her mother- so I'm proudly sharing a real family recipe here! 

For 6 medium sized round breads, you'll need: 

9 cups of fine semolina flour 

2 heaped spoons of instant yeast 

2 teaspoons of salt, or more depending on your quality of salt 

5 cups of warm water (could be more depending on the quality of the flour) 

Oil to grease your bowl 

Some seeds, such as sesame or nigella seeds (optional) 

Start by mixing the dry ingredients in a big bowl. Add the water until you're able to make a dough that isn't sticky. 

Knead for 10 minutes. Ideally more, but I've found 10 minutes of kneading to be sufficient. 

It should look like this: 

Then devide it into 6 equal pieces. I don't have a dough scraper or other special equipment, so I just use a good old knife. 

Then I formed nice round balls from the dough, rubbed it with a bit of oil and devided it in two bowls: 

I covered both bowls with big round trays, as I try to avoid disposable plastic as much as possible, but you could also use plastic wrap. Or don't grease it and cover with a clean dish towel. Now let it sit and rise until it's at least doubled in size. The bigger the better, so don't do this when you're in a rush! Since my kitchen is very warm during the summer, it didn't take long. 

It's good when it looks like this: 

(Now compare it to the picture with the two small balls of dough in it...) 

Get the dough out, punch the air out and make two balls again. Now heat your pan on the hob. I have two cast iron pans that are purposely used for baking breads, but you can use a "regular" cast iron pan or just a regular frying pan. Just whatever you have will probably work, although I would recommend cast iron (some people here even bake their kesra in clay pans, especially in the villages)

Make sure there's enough room on your counter and that it's clean. 

I always thoroughly clean my counter after making dough 🙂

If your pan is ready (it shouldn't be really really hot!), you can start to form your bread. Just gently push it down in a rotating way so you end up with a nice round bread. Prick a few times in the dough with a fork.

Now you can transfer it into the pan. I usually fold my bread and then when it's the pan immediately turn back the piece of dough that was folded over, to make picking up the dough a bit easier. 

When it's starting to bubble, it's probably time to turn around the bread. I used a spatula for this.

Then bake the other side as well. 

Then, and this is optional, when the other side has browned enough, it's time to bake the sides. Some people prefer the sides to be more on the dough side but we like them a bit more cooked. 

It's a bit of a blurry picture lol. This was the best picture I could take with using just one hand. Just turn the bread little by little until the whole side has a nice golden brown colour too. 

Now bake all your breads like this. I use two pans at the same time so it's a bit faster, but one pan definitely works fine too. Pile them up on a tray/plate with some towels (I use old t-shirts) and try to let them cool off completely...which is probably the most difficult part! 

Makarouna bel salsa - Tunisian pasta recipe

Tunisians LOVE pasta. It's their main staple food (along with bread), even more so than couscous. According to the statistics, Tunisia is the second largest pasta consuming country in the world, right after Italy. It's the Sicilians that originally brought pasta here and people have been eating it in large amounts ever since.

It's interesting that people don't associate pasta with north African cuisine when it's consumed that much (Libyans also love their pasta). Perhaps that's the interesting thing about north African cuisine anyway- it's not always what you'd expect, being an interesting mix of indigenous (Amazigh), Turkish/middle eastern, Italian and, due to the colonization, French foods. The pasta that people usually eat here does have a different flavour profile when compared to its Italian counterpart. It really does have that typical "north African taste" (a bit of a vague explanation, I really don't know how else to put it!). There are various pasta dishes that people eat here, but makarouna bel salsa ("pasta with sauce", translated) is the one that's eaten most.

What I also like about the pasta here is that 1) it's of good quality- legally, only 100% semolina based pasta is allowed to be sold, unless it's wholegrain pasta so no plain white flour pasta can be found here. And 2), it's about the cheapest food imaginable, being heavily subsidized to make it affordable for everyone (just to compare, rice is six times as expensive as pasta here). And since pasta is so versatile, you don't get bored quickly. It's for sure a staple in our house.

To make this typical Tunisian pasta dish, you'll need: 

Meat or fish of your choice (I mainly use chicken), tomato paste, Tunisian spice mixture, turmeric, salt, harissa or any other hot pepper condiment or even ground hot peppers, an onion (or just an onion peel), garlic, oil, some bay leaves, a few potatoes and hot peppers (optional). 

First off, mix the tomato paste with the seasonings, salt, and water. I use about 400 grams of tomato paste and 3-4 cups of water (you may want to add more water if using red meat). Then add some oil - this dish is usually a bit heavy on oil, as it really  enhances the flavours. I try to be a bit careful but still use some oil, usually a mixture of olive oil and a more neutral tasting oil. Also add the meat and some onion - the onion is for extra flavour so you don't have to add a lot. This is why I mentioned using a peel, since that is usually discarded, but works really good in recipes like these. Let it heat up until it reaches a boiling point and let simmer until the meat is tender. Some people also add in potatoes and green peppers. This seems like an odd combination but it's really delicious! My MIL also added chickpeas to her pasta. It's just a matter of preference. When the sauce isn't thick enough (it shouldn't be as thick as regular pasta sauce but not very runny either), you can let it simmer a bit more. Then boil the pasta of your choice, drain and add the hot sauce to your pasta, letting it sit for a few minutes covered with a lid. This way the pasta absorbes the sauce. Most people here prefer using spaghetti or ditali shapes, but you can use any pasta shape of your choice. When using spaghetti, keep in mind that it's OK for the sauce to be a bit runnier. 

Since there are no vegetables cooked in the sauce, you can add a salad or any other vegetable based side - some people, however, don't (and yes, they're still alive 🤭). I usually serve this with a simple tomato/cucumber/onion salad during the summer. I also like a yogurt based cucumber salad with this dish. And if you want to serve it even more traditional, make sure there's also some crunchy baguette to scoop up the pasta! Yes, carbs with carbs with carbs.

Sa7a! 

Tunisian pasta is usually made with ditalini shape pasta 

 

Douara (offal stew) recipe

As promised, here is my recipe for Douara, a Tunisian offal stew. I use the ingredients as a guide and have no strict measurements, so these are just rough estimates. 

• About one kg of offal (we used cow's offal, but sheep or goat is good too) - It's usually a mixture of  inestine and tripe, but lungs go well in this dish too        

•one onion                                                              

•a few heaped spoons of tomato paste              

•seasonings of your choice (I used a Tunisian spice mixture, garlic, turmeric, and salt)  

•vegetables I used: tomatoes, hot green peppers, potatoes, parsley, and chard              

•some cooking oil and water 

First off, make sure your meat is very clean. Our butchers clean it thoroughly, but when we home butcher we have to do it ourselves obviously. Then cut into pieces and boil in water, just until the water boils. Then drain. Don't skip this step, it will prevent the dish from becoming bitter. 

Then clean the pot (or just get another one), the remainder from the boiled offal can be a bit sticky. Chop your onion and sautee in some oil. Then add the garlic, diced tomatoes, salt, and spices*. Also add in your tomato paste and sautee for another minute or so. Now add in the meat and about three to four cups of water. It depends on how you like your stew and how long it needs to cook (the older the animal, the longer it needs to cook). About an hour into the cooking, add in your chopped vegetables and chopped parsley. You can use any vegetables of your choice, I just use what I had on hand. Leaving out the vegetables altogether (except for the onion) is possible too, I prefer some veggies in my stew though. I cooked this stew for about an hour and a half. Since it was calf offal, it didn't have to cook for hours to get it tender. 

We eat this with either baguette from the  bakery or homemade bread. 

*I use an Tunisian spice mixture called 'tabel karwiya' which consists of mainly caraway and coriander, and if you can't find this spice mixture you can make your own. (A suggestion would be caraway, coriander, turmeric, cumin, and black pepper). I've also found that Chinese 5 spice powder mixed with garam masala (a 1:1 ratio) is a decent replacement. Or you can just use the seasonings of your choice, such as Mexican spices. Also, if you dont use hot pepper (like I did), I'd recommend to add some ground hot pepper, harissa, or other condiment.