I had the opportunity to join my Arabic teacher to her home town this past Wednesday morning where I got to meet her family. Her mom is a very strong, hardworking women who, at nearly 70 years old, still insists on making everything the old way.
She had a large amount hot peppers drying in the sun while we were there which she’ll use to make her own chili powder and special red pepper paste called harissa (a mix of hot chilies, garlic, cumin, coriander, caraway, and olive oil). She also makes her own couscous but I really can’t imagine how. She sent us to a small mill with four large bags of wheat grains, when we brought back the milled grain she explained that she’ll boil it and do some other stuff to it which will take about 4 to 7 days. After that long process she’ll have enough couscous to last her all year!
She also gave us some really good Chakchouka, bread and grapes for breakfast. This chakchouka was made from some kind of beans (pictured below), onions, olive oil, tomatoes, chili powder, salt, and chilies. I’m going to try to make some this weekend, but I was told that I have to break off the hard outside of the bean which I’m finding extremely difficult. I’ll do my best though!
Chakchouka is one of my favorite Tunisian dishes. I didn’t notice last year, but Chakchouka has many different varieties; sometimes it’s made with just vegetables, other times they add eggs, and sometimes they make it with beans or potatoes. It’s considered a poor person meal because it doesn’t have meat in it, but it’s so, so tasty. I didn’t know at first, but my teachers mom was embarrassed that she could only offer me Chakchouka…. little did she know that I actually prefer it to a meat dish!
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