Recipes

For the recipes proposed here, I used an aluminium cake tin with a diameter of 28 centimetres. Some of the recipes, such as rice cake, are well known around the world, others such as Kalb Ellouz are pure Algerian recipes.
For unfamiliar words click on lexicon & terms.

Galettes de pain

Round cake of bread

300 g of corn semolina
1 teaspoon of salt
4 decilitres (dl) of water.

Put in a terrine the semolina and the salt. Wet it and mix it until obtaining a soft dough but not too liquid. Before that, you will have to heat the Tadjine made of cast iron then reduce the fire to cook cakes gently without burning them.

Pour this dough directly on the Tadjine by making 3 small cakes. When they will be dry over, return them and let cook the other side. When they are cooked remove them from fire and put them in a towel. Do not preserve it in plastic.

Put in a terrine the egg, oil and the salt and well beat to obtain a kind of mayonnaise. Then, add milk, and mix. After that pour the Maizena. Mix the whole and just before to make in the oven, incorporate the chemical yeast and put it in a well oiled cake tin. Finally, put rapidly in the oven to avoid that the maïzena deposits inside. The oven must be well heated (thermostat 7) and thecooking will last 45 min approximately.

Mix all ingredients in a terrine and let it rest at least 6 hours before the cooking (to prepare preferably before the cooking). Heat the oven in thermostat 8. Stir the mixture before pouring it in the oiled cake tin then put it in the oven. Let it cook approximately 1 hour until the Karantita is browned over. Consume it hot or cold.

Mix the maizena, oil and salt between the palms of your hands to impregnate flour with oil. Add the eggs directly to the mixture. Work with your hands to gather all the paste. It has to be light and not sticky.

Lower with the rolling pin sprinkled with maizena, otherwise display directly the paste in the oiled cake tin by flattening with hands because the dough is not very elastic. Sting with a fork and put in moderate oven (thermostat 5). Well cook during 30 min approximately. It will not resemble, surely, to the dough or ordinary pizza but will adapt to all fittings of pizzas that you will add to it.

To work as for the dough to pizza: the Maizena, the salt and the soft margarine until the mixture is well impregnated with fat. Add the eggs. Gather the dough and display it in the buttered cake tin and proceed as for the dough to pizza. Cook it during 30 min approximately in the oven (thermostat 5).
With this dough, all creams that you will add are allowed if they are thickened with the maizena.

2 eggs
50 g of melted margarine
3 dl of milk
130 g of maizena
1 pinch of salt
1 packet of yeast.

Mix the eggs with the margarine and the salt. Add the milk then the Maizena. Well mix and then add the yeast. To make sugared pancakes, add to the dough 2 spoons of sugar and 2 spoons of orange flower water.

For the cooking, use an anti-adhesive frying pan. Melt a few fat at the beginning of the cooking and display it on all the surface of the frying pan. Heat it in advance. And then, pour the dough in the frying pan with a ladle. When the dough is dry over, return it and cook the other side.

To make Boureks, do not cook too much the pancakes. Let them white enough as the leaves of "diouls". They will continue their cooking in the oven. You can stuff pancakes with all stuffing of Boureks : meat, potatoes, etc. but do not fold them. Roll them and put them on a buttered plate to make them brown in a hot oven (thermostat 7), during 10 min on each side. They will be as crusty as Boureks made with "diouls", but they harden rapidly if they are not rapidly prepared. Also, you have to cover them after removing them from the frying pan before stuffing them.

3 beautiful oranges
100 g of sugar
3 spoons of maizena
3 eggs
a glass or 2 dl of water.

In a pan, well beat the yolk with sugar. Add the maizena and the juice of the 3 oranges and water. Put on a sweet fire and stir until obtaining an unctuous cream. Remove from fire and incorporate the 3 whites of the eggs beaten in snow. Finally, pour in saucers and put in the refrigerator at least two hours.

2 big lemons
150 g of sugar
2 spoons of maizena
3 eggs
a glass or 2 dl of water.

Mix all ingredients in a pan then cook it gently by stirring to avoid lumps. It is necessary to obtain a thick cream but smooth. Remove from fire and pour in saucers. Put in the refrigerator at least two hours. This cream can be prepared with different aromas. One can equally instead of sugar put a fruit syrup.

Cool down 1 litre of water with sugar. Mix the powder of milk and 2 pots of yoghurt in one half-litre of water remaining. Mix the two preparations by pouring one into the other. Filter the mixture and put it in pots in a warm place during one night.

7 eggs
1 grated lemon peel
250 g of sugar
150 g of smelted margarine
1dl of oil
0.75 dl of milk
550 g of corn semolina mixed with 500 g of Maizena
2 packets of yeast.

Work the eggs, the peel of lemon and the sugar. Add the margarine and oil and work the mixture again. Then add the milk and begin to pour the mixture of semolina-flour with the two packets of yeast. Add little by little the semolina-flour to obtain a soft dough.

Proceed then as for the ordinary Halwat Tabaa. Lower the dough with the rolling pin and detail it into pieces (shaping). Put on a buttered plate and cook in the oven (thermostat 6) during 15 min.

All dry cookies made usually with the flour of wheat can be prepared for the Diet without gluten, by mixing corn semolina and the Maizena.

1 egg
125 g of margarine
100 g of sugar
100 g of candied fruits
1 grated lemon peel
1 packet of yeast
200 g of corn semolina mixed with 200 g of Maizena.

Soften the margarine and work it with sugar. Add the egg and the peel of lemon. Add the mixture of semolina and Maizena and yeast then the candied fruits that you have macerated during 30 min in a glass of flower orange water. You filter them before adding them to the dough. Knead the dough and then put in the refrigerator during 2 hours at least.

After removing them from the refrigerator, form small pellets of dough that you will flatten between your two hands. Then, deposit them on an oiled plate and bake it in a hot oven (thermostat 7) during 15 min. You can replace candied fruits by dry grapes or dates cut in small pieces.

3 eggs
150 g of sugar
1 grated lemon peel
0.5 dl of oil
200 g of corn semolina
150 g of maizena
1 packet of yeast
1.2 dl of milk.

Beat the eggs with the sugar and the peel of lemon. Add oil then the semolina and the Maizena, then the milk and the packet of yeast at the end of the preparation. Pour in a buttered cake tin and put it in the oven (thermostat 6) during 30 min approximately.

3 eggs
100 g of sugar
1 grated lemon peel
60 g of smelted margarine
300 g of big corn semolina
1 packet of yeast
1/2 glass of curdled milk (rayeb)
100 g of grounded peanuts or almonds.

Proceed as for the cake: beat the eggs together ; the smelted margarine, the sugar and the peel of lemon. Add the corn and the peanuts or almonds and well mix it, then the curdled milk and finally the packet of yeast.

Pour in a buttered cake tin and put it in the oven (thermostat 6) during 30 min approximately. When it is baked, water it with a warm syrup made of ¼ litre of water and 500 g of sugar that you have boiled during 15 min and flavoured with a few flower of orange water.

400 g of corn semolina
150 g of sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 dl of water of flower of orange.

Mix in a terrine the semolina, the sugar and the pinch of salt. Water it with the orange flower water. Mix and work with your hands to obtain a kind of couscous but not a dough. Let it rest a little moment, then put it in a buttered cake tin by flattening the surface gently. Bake it in a hot oven (thermostat 7) during 40 min approximately. Once baked, water it with the same syrup as that for Khobzet Tounès, but the syrup must be cold.

To make a true stuffed Kalb Ellouz, display in the cake tin half of the dough then strew powder of peanuts or almonds mixed with 70 g of sugar and ½ c teaspoon of cinnamon. Then, cover with the remaining dough and bake it in the same manner.

200 g of round rice
9 dl of milk
2 eggs
1 pod of vanilla or 1 lemon or orange peel
50 g of candied fruit or dry grapes
200 g of sugar.

Wash the rice and cook it 2 min in a boiling and slightly salted water. Remove from heat, strain and cook it with milk, the pod of vanilla or the lemon or orange peel on a very sweet heat 30 to 40 min. Pull the pod of vanilla or peels and out of the heat add the sugar and the 2 yolks. Mix delicately and add the candied fruits or the dry grapes (or the two together) that you have macerated during 30 min in the orange flower water.

Before to pour it in a cake tin, it is necessary to prepare the caramel : put in a pan, the sugar, lemon juice and water. Then, cook it on a sweet heat until the mixture becomes well browned. Then, pour it rapidly in the cake tin and turn the former to caramelise the bottom and edges.

Pour the preparation of rice in the cake tin and put it in a hot oven (thermostat 7) during 45 min approximately.

After cooking, let cool the cake before removing it from mould and put it in the refrigerator for few hours.

For a more rapid receipt and if you have not much time, you can put the entire eggs without beating whites in snow and you can also avoid caramel but spread your cake with jam after removing it from the tin.

300 g of corn semolina
200 g of honey
100 g of butter or margarine
3 spoons of orange flower water
a few cinnamon.

Make brown the semolina in a frying pan, or in a Tadjine or in the oven. In a pan, smelt the butter and the honey with the orange flower water and the cinnamon. Out of the heat, add little by little the semolina until the mixture becomes consistent. Pour in a dish and decorate with a few cinnamon.

Wash the orange and the lemon. Carve them with their skins by removing pips and the large white filaments. Then mix it in order to obtain a liquid. Pour it in a thickly cooking pot and add sugar and water and cook it during 1 hour. Even if the result is still liquid after the cooking, it will be gelled rapidly after cooling. For this reason, you have to put it in pots when it is hot and then preserve it in the refrigerator.

If you have no mixer, put the lemon and the orange in the freezer and grate them after hardening.

300 g of oranges and lemon peels (or only oranges peels) obtained from 2 kg of fruit
400 g of sugar
2 spoons of salt.

Wash the fruit then cut delicately the peels with the less possible white skin. In a large salad bowl, put the water with a spoon of salt and soak the peels during 24 hours. After having pulled them from water, cut them in a small peaces.

Put the peels in a pan to boil with 1 spoon of salt during 5 seconds. To pull the peaces and strain them. In an other pan of water, boil them during 5 min. And in a third pan of water, boil them during 15 min. After that, strain them and prepare a syrup with 2 dl of water and 300 g of sugar. Dive them and put them to simmer on a very sweet heat during 40 min. Then, add 100 g of the remaining sugar in the pan and cook them again during 30 min. It is absolutely necessary to avoid that the syrup becomes caramelised. Therefore, heat has not to be vivid. To strain them and put them to dry on an iron plate during 48 hours. Finally, put them in a well closed jar and preserve in the refrigerator.