Shorba Baidha, literally means white soup. It is a classic soup in Algeria & is extremely simple to make. The subtle flavours work well together to make a delcious, light soup. I have to say this is one of my all time favourite soups. It’s great all year round but especially loved during Ramadan or to eat when you are feeling ill. It is the egg yolk that makes this soup white so don’t leave it out! The chicken in Algeria is free range & has a rich taste, if you use non-free range chicken, you might need to throw in a stock cube…
This stew is a traditional Algerian recipe called “Died b’l-Qasbour.” It is seasoned with saffron and cilantro. Serve over rice or couscous.
The first time I had this stew was in a remote town in Morocco. The smell of the spices, bursting through the steam caught my attention, then, the flavours melted in my mouth. Serve with couscous or bread.
This dish is traditionally cooked in Algeria for eating during Ramadan and on special ocassions. It is hardly ever eaten as a main course, but as a small dish after the main. This recipe freezes well. In my family, it’s only my husband that eats it so I freeze individual portions for him. I tend to play around with the recipe and change the fruit around and add a little extra liquid. This is just one of hundreds of variations of this recipe, I will post a few alternatives later.
This recipe comes from Farid Zari, who adapted his traditional way of spit roasting chicken to roasting it in his Los Angeles oven. He advises that the spices are a matter of personal taste–use what you like. He says the method does approximate the really crispy skin that he remembers from Algeria, but stresses that the quality of the chicken makes a huge difference, saying that at home in Algeria all the chickens were organic, free range and very fresh, and suggests that a soak in a salt water bath overnight would improve a run-of-the-mill supermarket chicken. Interestingly this cooking method follows the basic French method for roasting a bird — and, after all, there is some cross-cultural history there.
