The Maghreb:
Northern Africa
The Jews of North Africa ate spicy, aromatic foods, usually with couscous.
By Copeland Marks
Excerpted and reprinted with permission from Sephardic
Cooking, published by Donald I. Fine, Inc.
Morocco
The Moroccan cuisine is considered the most inventive,
flavorful and perhaps ingenious of the cooking styles of the Maghreb; at least
the French say this about their former colony. Frequently, it is included in
the world’s 10 greatest cuisines, which is an indication of its reputation in
culinary circles. Jewish cooking is an amalgam of traditional local dishes
married to Sephardic ideas brought to Morocco at the time of the Inquisition
and, importantly, guided by kashrut (the Jewish dietary laws). From
these various influences, a universal Jewish style emerged and was polished
over the centuries.
The hallmark of Moroccan cooking
is the use of aromatic spices such as cinnamon, coriander, ginger, saffron,
turmeric, and paprika for color. Dried fruits—figs, apricots, prunes,
raisins—are included in meat dishes and complement the spices that emphasize
the sweet fruits. Almonds, walnuts, and olives, the produce of a rich
agriculture, are lavishly incorporated in many dishes. To top if off there is
the famous harissa, a chili‑hot condiment, available for a sharp
contrasting impact.
Salads in their numbers, both
fresh and cooked, are some of the most popular concoctions in a semidesert
atmosphere. From the Jewish point of view they are pareve and can be served
with both dairy and meat dishes. Couscous is the single preparation most
closely identified with Morocco and other Maghreb countries.
The Sabbath and its admonishment
to pray and rest has also produced an assortment of scheena, those all‑inclusive
one‑dish meals that are prepared late on Friday, cooked all night over
smoldering coals, and are ready for dining after synagogue at noontime on the
Sabbath. They are generally meat, potatoes, chick‑peas and seasonings,
very slowly baked and melting in flavor and aroma.
Tangier
Pointed toward Spain but politically ruled by the whims of
sultans, the town of Tangier lived a life of its own, distinct from both Spain
and Morocco but dependent on both. The Jewish community, religious and poor,
nevertheless developed a variety of dishes: some to celebrate the Sabbath, some
for daily use, and many based on the inevitable couscous.
Fish was the principal food, the logical outcome of living
in a port town with such quantity and variety of fish from the Mediterranean.
The seasonings were mostly garlic, onion, tomato, herbs and the occasional
cayenne pepper to stimulate the taste buds. No dramatic culinary styles were
uncovered, but the sweet couscous of the Tangerines is unique. Homestyle
cooking, leaning toward Spanish taste, is the key to the cooking of Tangier.
Tunisia
Following their expulsion from
Spain in 1492, Jews crossed into North Africa and filtered into Tunisia,
principally Tunis, joining the already‑settled community there in the
Hara, the Jewish quarter, which had been established in the 11th century. An
additional community from Leghorn (Livorno), Italy, joined the Tunisian Jews in
the 16th and 17th centuries, thereby adding the Italian flavors and style of
cooking to the existing cuisine.
A brief intrusion occurred in
1535, when the Spanish conquered Tunisia and ruled for about 40 years. They
were fresh from their conquest of Mexico and Guatemala and it is logical that
they may have brought the hot chili with them as well as other New World
botanical discoveries, which profoundly influenced the cuisine. Hot chilies
were incorporated into harissa, the ubiquitous spicy table condiment beloved by
Tunisians.
The Turks conquered Tunisia from
the Spanish in 1574 and introduced their celebrated pastries, which are the
backbone of Tunisian sweets to this day.
No cuisine develops in isolation.
The stage was now set for the assembly and evolution of a cuisine that included
disparate but compatible ideas from the Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, Spanish,
Portuguese, Turks, Italians, and finally the French, when they established a
French Protectorate in 1881. Tunis, the capital city, became an important
center of Jewish learning.
It was the French, with their
genius for culinary adventures, who pulled all the components of the existing
cooking styles together. The presentation of dishes was of special importance
in developing a sophisticated culinary environment and the French stressed this
facet of food preparation.
A worldwide dissemination of
foodstuffs resulted in such imports as the tomato from the Valley of Mexico,
turmeric from India, the artichoke from the Romans—all for the delectation of
the 19th‑century Tunisians.
Tunisian Jewish cooking in the
20th century is based on religious dietary laws, married to the existing
established style of cooking that the Jews found upon their arrival from Spain,
the use of this wealth of ingredients, plus their own intrinsic ingenuity in
inventing or modifying local foods. Cooking for the Sabbath resulted in the t’fina
of many varieties—that exclusively Jewish pot‑au‑feu, which
obviates the necessity of cooking on the Sabbath. Then there is the couscous,
the national dish of Tunisia, which the Jewish cook glorifies with several
modifications.
Personal preferences in dining
are not due to political exhortations but are reflections of a culture, a way
of life, sometimes based on one’s economic status. The Jewish cooking of
Tunisia, as in other countries of the Maghreb, often makes something out of
nothing or more frequently places an individual stamp on the country’s existing
style of cooking.
Libya
Jews from Leghorn, Italy, arrived
in Libya in the 17th century. They settled in Tripoli, the capital, and the
Italian influence on the cuisine began.
How would one describe Libyan
Jewish cooking? Greatly influenced by Italy, it still relies on the basic
practices of the Maghreb (North Africa). Couscous, chick‑peas, white
beans, lamb, beef, fish, hot chilies, parsley, basil, tomato paste, cuminseed,
caraway, turmeric, and nutmeg add flavor to foods that are hearty, simply
seasoned and imaginatively combined. The kosher dietary laws are paramount to
the cookery.
Couscous, a pasta, is the
national food of Libya and of the Jews. It is prepared at home. Arab influence
contributed cinnamon and other spices, which are used with meat, especially the
use of the cinnamon stick, as being more subtle than the ground cinnamon.
Italian influence inspired the use of tomato paste and sauces, which, in turn,
came from Central America via the Spanish.
The hot red chilies especially
took firm hold in the area and these are used generously although often subdued
by lemon juice. Hot and pungent flavors are hallmarks of the cooking.
Libyan cooking is seasonal and
depends upon the availability of vegetables and fruits. Jews had an obsession
with the freshness of the foods, fish and fowl. Jewish men were the shoppers
for the Sabbath and holidays, buying up the necessary quantity and variety of
foods in the bazaar. The women stayed home and cooked.
T’fina, dishes prepared for the
Sabbath, can be translated as “buried in the coals”—the way they once cooked
the food and kept it warm until the families returned from the synagogue to
partake of the Saturday noonday meal. Ashkenazis had their cholent and the Jews
of Libya (and Tunisia) their t’fina. A grand illustration of this is the Lamb
with Kishke and Peas. (Everyone has a word for it—in Morocco it’s scheena and
in Baghdad, hameen.)
Copeland Marks has written numerous cookbooks, including The
Great Book of Couscous and The Exotic Kitchens of Peru.
