One of the things I'd like to keep up from my days in Algeria is my salad intake. The salads need not be boring. I particularly LOVE salad with steamed veggies: carrots, beans, beetroot, potatoes, fennel, etc. etc.!

Here's my simple, easy peasy vinaigrette. I love recycling glass jars and always have a couple or a few lying around!

That's white vinegar and olive oil. Equal parts, as you can see.

A bit of salt and pepper.

And a good old shake! Pour it over the salad and keep the rest in the fridge for another time.

For a less exciting salad, you could always add a more exciting dressing, add a little mayo or mustard and honey, or lemon instead of vinegar. The possibilites are endless!

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algiers: the food

You thought I was done with my posts about Algeria, didn't you? But how could I have gone to North Africa in Ramadan and come back not say anything about the food?

Generally, North African cuisine is quite different from Middle Eastern, but then that is the case with everything not just the food. It tends to be a little simpler with less use of spices and occasionally, a little bland for an Asian palate like mine. But the vegetables are almost always fresh and bursting with natural flavour. The history of the region, it's heritage and culture has a range of facets to it. Even amongst the Algerians, there are certain things that families do differently from each other based on their backgrounds and experiences. Most of the older generation was directly involved in war. Many families left their towns and villages and moved to Algiers, the capital city, bringing with them their personal traditions. So the same dish may have a few different names or the method used to prepare it is different from the way it's done by another family from another area. But there are some things that most people do, pretty much the same way. Breakfast is usually hot milk, with coffee and bread, croissants, biscuits or anything like that. Every day at around 'Asr time (around 4pm) the smell of strong coffee fills homes (and even streets) and there is always something to go with the coffee. All families will have bag-loads of bread for the day or home-made breads and lots of it. 

Of course the Maghreb region is known for it's couscous. But the dish is usually reserved for special occasions. My mother-in-law makes it at home from scratch and by "from scratch" I mean she forms the little grains herself. Of course she made plenty of it for us to bring back, but not with the usual semolina. This time she made it with wheat.

We were also gifted the light pastry sheets (Ftir) that are ripped up in to smaller pieces, steamed and served with a broth (like the one made for couscous), otherwise known as Shakhshoukha. Then there were the thin strips of semolina dough (Rishta) which is just a like a lighter fettucini. None of these dishes are generally served in Ramadan though. Ramadan is different!

Some may eat sweet couscous with raisins for suhoor, but that's about it. After breaking the fast, they tend to opt for lighter dishes like a little meat cooked with carrots and olives or chicken cooked with potatoes (well, chips really, they do eat a lot of chips!). But the fast is always broken with Algerian soup or Shorbah and Borek (the Algerian spring roll). Of course some might deviate from this and cook different soups and while I was there, I made samosas upon the request of family members. My sister-in-law shocked us all with Rishta one evening, just because she knows I like it! And my friend over at Seeking Jannah, made rice and curry in my honour ma sha Allah!

Usually, a lot later, after taraweeh, coffee and sweets are served. Some very sweet sweets, I might add. And then comes 'Eid day and all the couscous, rishta, shakhshoukha and other non-bread carbohydrates(!) make an appearance. They, along with many, many sweets!

Some, home-made ...

... and some, shop-bought.

Back in my own little space, I decided to do couscous a little differently.

I steamed some brown couscous with peas. Then I sauted some onions, garlic, prawns and chillies in a little butter and tossed it all together! Traditional dishes are nice sometimes, but I do believe that "variety is the spice of life" and I like mine spicy. 

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cal 2009: august squares

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

I'm behind on my CAL squares, but did a little while on hols. These are the August squares:


Popin' Square (top right)

August Aran Square (top left)

Jupiter

Now that there aren't that many months left, I'm wondering what my crazy blanket or blankets are going to look like. I have so many colours going on that I think I have group them together according to colour and play around with the layout a bit. I'm wondering if the small squares should go together to form a small blanket or whether it might be nicer to just incorporate them in to a bigger blanket with the big squares.

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hooks out again!

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

I've been back a while but with all the re-settling, tonsilitis and kids going back to school, I haven't been able to craft much let alone organise it all. We had a nice break away in Algeria:


Now I'm playing catch-up with the CAL squares, doing little things and a bit of granny-ing too.



Have I forgotten something? Hexalicious! She's fine, but I haven't spent any time with her since being back. I have to wait for the right moment!

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algiers: botanical beauty

We don't have a garden. We have a balcony though and we do use it. We dry our washing in it, we occasionally have breakfast in it, sometimes tea or coffee and I've even tried planting things in it. That didn't work out well for me. It gets very dirty and dusty and the construction work infront of us doesn't help. So we have our balcony-washing ritual, where the kids get to splash about and pour water on each other. But still, it's not a garden, which is why the kids were more than happy to play out in grandma's garden in Algiers. They walked about and ran around and got there slippers all muddy. They took seeds to sow and watched the shoots grow. And my first-born took my phone and took some photos:

             

My mil has a whole host fruit trees ma sha Allah. The oranges were not yet ready, but we caught some grapes, pomegranates and figs.

And I got a shot of these red chillies in my sil's garden.

We got to visit a beautiful botanical garden called Jardin D'Essai. It's a garden in which they conduct botanical experiments and the like and they have a little zoo in it too. The French set it up many moons ago and it has recently been "tidied up" and re-opened. Here are some of the photos:

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'flued under

So we need a lot of ...

Lemons always have a "feel good factor" to them. The vibrant yellow and that sharp tang!

And some ...

This honey is from ... yes, you guessed it, Algeria!

And we chose other forms of vitamin C, like these little jewels ... 

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algiers: can i live there?

We didn't stay in Jijel too long and made our way back to Algiers. Once there, we only had a few days before Ramadan started. But unlike Saudi, everything remains open during the day in Ramadan.

We managed to get out and about a little before the month of fasting began but we did a fair bit during the month too (a bit like getting out and about in slow motion though due to the heat and longer days). Nevertheless, it was nice to get out and walk to the market, walk to the train station, walk up and down hilly roads, walk around the parks, walk, walk, walk because we know we don't get that much of chance to walk everywhere in Jeddah! 

Ben Aknoun Park

And the view from one of the rides!

 

Occasionally we were blessed with a breeze during a hot day and of course siestas are "in" in Algeria! I did miss Ramadan in Saudi though. 

Algiers Centre

 

The Monument 

I thoroughly enjoyed the colourful markets selling fresh vegetables and fruits. And when I was in need of that little imported goody, there were always the supermarkets! The hairdressers impressed me too!

When we needed some country air, we got that too ma sha Allah.

And fresh cow's milk while we were at it!  

One of the funniest things I watched while I was there, was a video recording of the streets after Algeria won the football match against Zambia. It's a football-crazy nation and they went all out to celebrate! Of course I could hear a lot of it while I was trying to get some sleep in the middle of the night! We'll have to wait and see if they make it to the World Cup!

Outside of Algiers

 

Another funny thing was that I saw more England shirts while I was there than I've seen in England! I also spotted lots of "ENGLAND" graffiti-ed on the walls AND quite a few GB registration cars!!!

One of the most important aspects of this trip, for me, was to pool together information about living in Algiers. I got to meet and chat with other women, foreign and Algerian, relatives and friends and all in all they gave me a a very realistic and well-rounded view of moving to Algiers. Algiers is not like Jeddah. It's harder to get things, but then you find alternatives (and failing that London is a 2 hour flight away!). [Sometimes little supermarkets in little places will stock the most surprising things, I discovered when one of my dear friends gave me a packet of Digestives her daughter had found at their local supermarket!] Everything is not air-conditioned, but then you don't get sick because of it and the heat doesn't last as long because the other seasons roll round. The streets can be quite dirty but you know that the people cleaning are not part of the cheap labour force from other countries that don't get paid a lot of the time. The culture is different and the mentalilty of people is as well but that doesn't mean it's all bad and you can do as you please in your own home which is the way it is here too! Life doesn't seem to be as materialistic there and I think that would be a welcomed break. Algiers is not AT ALL like Jeddah! But I think I can get used to it, for a while atleast. 

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