Harissa comes in varying strengths from hot to fiery. Mezze, or kemia as they are called in Tunisia, include a variety of raw and cooked salads. The most well known are mzoura (a cooked carrot salad spiced with harissa and cumin) and salada mechouia (a roast pepper and tomato salad).
Breiks – deep fried savoury or sweet pastries – are the pride of the Tunisian kitchen. Breiks are similar to the Algerian boureks and Moroccan briouats except they are prepared with a paper-thin pastry called malsouka that is made with semolina instead of flour. One of the classic fillings for breiks is a whole egg but they may also be filled with potatoes, cheese or tuna. Sweet breiks are usually filled with dates or almond paste, dusted with sugar and served hot or cold.
In Tunisia couscous is usually served with harissa or hhlou, a sweet and sour condiment made with dried apricots, chestnuts or pumpkin. Qalib kesksou, a Libyan dish, consists of couscous topped with a beaten egg, tomato sauce and grated cheese and baked in the oven. Other Libyan specialties include roz bil-tamar (rice with dates and pistachios) and sansafil maghli (salsified fritters).
Tunisian pastries and cakes clearly demonstrate the mix of Italian and Ottoman influences, especially boka di dama (an almond sponge cake), manicottis (deep-fried pastries coated in sugar syrup) and scoudilini (a sponge cake dredged in sugar syrup and filled with a rich almond cream). Scoudilini is a Passover specialty of Sephardic Jews who originally came from Livorno. Libyan pastries include lugmat el quadi (doughnuts coated in honey) and dableh (deep-fried pastries similar to Moroccan shebakia). Halva ditzmar is a rich sweetmeat made with dates, figs, walnuts, honey, aniseed and grated chocolate.
Andalusia The Levante Catalonia The Balearic Islands
For Spain is a mystery … but that we all love the wild, contradictory, passionately beautiful land there can be no doubt.
– James Michener, Iberia
Spain
Spain is a country of extremes – of climate, terrain and temperament. Spaniards have hot tempers, high spirits and a strong sense of individuality. It is a unique land cut off from the rest of Europe by the Pyrenees. As Jan Morris writes: ‘Whichever way you enter her, from Portugal, France, Gibraltar or the open sea, instantly you feel a sense of separateness, a geographical fact, exaggerated by historical circumstance.’
Throughout its history Spain has been a melting pot of cultures: Iberian, Celtic, Phoenician, Roman, Arabic, Berber, Jewish and many others. In the first millenium B.C. the Phoenicians settled along its southern shores and called the land Shapan, the Hidden Land (sometimes translated as the ‘Land of Rabbits’), from which España is derived. Although the Carthaginians first introduced the olive and the vine to Spain, it was the Romans who planted olives on a grand scale. Spain produced such vast quantities of olive oil, wine, wheat and raisins that Baetica – as the Romans called modern day Andalusia – became one of the riches provinces of the Roman Empire.
In A.D. 711, the Arab Muslims – sometimes called the Moors – crossed the straights of Gibraltar and swept through Spain, gaining control of most of the land, except for a few states in the north. Arab rule lasted over 700 years. The Arab influences were profound on all aspects of Spanish culture – art, architecture, literature, philosophy and, in particular, its cuisine.
The Moors introduced a wide range of new foodstuffs: oranges, lemons, aubergines, asparagus, artichokes, spinach, figs, dates, apricots, pomegranates, almonds, pistachios, rice and sugar, as well as new spices from the orient – cinnamon, nutmeg, cumin, aniseed, ginger, sesame, coriander and saffron. New irrigation systems were set up – aquaducts, underground canals, waterwheels and windmills. Rice was cultivated along the coast, especially around Valencia. Orchards of apples, peaches, cherries and citrus fruit were planted. New sweetmeats were introduced and fine pastries soaked in honey and flavoured with rose and orange blossom water.
Spain prospered and Cordoba, the seat of the Caliphate, became the most cultivated city in Europe, next to Constantinople. The Jews also thrived under Arab rule. Jews have lived in Spain since the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. They called the land Sepharad, which means ‘Spain’ in Hebrew. Before the Arab conquest of Spain, the Jews had suffered 100 years of persecution by the Visigoths, but under Muslim rule many Jews rose to prominence as poets, philosophers, scientists, financiers, doctors of medicine and statesmen. However, in 1492, after Ferdinand and Isabella defeated the last Moors in the Kingdom of Granada, the Jews, except the conversos, were expelled from Spain, taking their language and their culture with them. Most fled to North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean, mainly to Constantinople and Thessalonika. Many of their descendants today still speak ladino – a fifteenth-century Spanish – and cook dishes that date back to fifteenth-century Spain.
It was no coincidence that Columbus discovered America in the same year of the Christian reconquest of Spain. Columbus was sent by Ferdinand and Isabella to seek out new trade routes to Asia in order to avoid trading with the Muslim Middle East. The discovery of the New World brought the introduction of a whole range of new foodstuffs to Spain: potatoes, tomatoes, maize, squash, all kinds of beans, sweet and hot peppers, avocados and chocolate.
After the accession of the Hapsburgs to the Spanish throne in the sixteenth century, Spain became the most powerful country in the world, ruling Austria, the Netherlands, and the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, with colonies in North and Central America and most of South America. As a result, Spain had one of the world’s richest and most varied cuisines.
Unfortunately, when the Spanish throne was bequeathed to a Bourbon king in 1759, French cooking was adopted by the Spanish court and the upper classes, and Spanish cooking was considered inferior. However, traditional Spanish cooking was never totally eclipsed. In the nineteenth century a new element – tapas – was introduced into the Spanish culinary heritage. Tapas means ‘lid’ or ‘cover’. Originally a slice of bread was placed over a glass of sherry or wine to keep off dust or flies in summer. Later, a piece of cheese was added to make it more appetising. Tapas bars originated in Seville, but today they are found all over Spain.
Spanish cooking is regional cooking. The Mediterranean cuisines of Andalusia, The Levante, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands have little in common with the cooking of Galicia or Asturias in the north. Andalusian cooking is based on olive oil, garlic and plenty of vegetables. The most famous dish is gazpacho – a chilled vegetable soup or liquid salad. Originally, gazpacho was made with olive oil, garlic, wine vinegar and bread, all pounded together in a mortar and thinned with water. Later chopped tomatoes and peppers were added. Today there are many versions. José Carlos Capel gives at least sixty recipes for gazpacho in his book on Andalusian cooking. Andalusians love fried vegetables, especially potatoes, aubergine, courgettes and peppers, which are usually served as a separate course. Flavours reflect the Arab influence: habas a la andaluza (broad beans simmered with onions, tomatoes and cumin), acelgas a la sevillana (Swiss chard with raisins and pine nuts), and alcachofas a la sevillana (sautéed artichokes and potatoes in a garlic and saffron sauce). Malaga wine and sherry from the Bodegas of Jerez-de-la-Frontera are widely used in cooking.
Eggs are prepared in a variety of ways – boiled, fried, baked, scrambled with all kinds if vegetables, and, of course, made into tortillas. The Spanish tortilla, or omelette, like its relative the Italian frittata, is round and flat like a pancake and usually contains potatoes or some other vegetable. The tortilla andaluza de cebolla is made with
