World Cup Dinners #1 Algeria - 32 different meals from around the world cooked in my little Paris kitchen

This summer I am going to be a World Cup widow (like so many of you out there).  My husband is the biggest (literally) football fan ever, and he has always wanted in the build up to the World Cup to have an evening representing every nation in the World Cup - eating national dishes, listening to music and carrying out some of the traditions. However there was one tiny little glitch in his plan - he can't cook very well (read: can't cook at all).... Therefore, he has asked if I would help him achieve this dream by cooking one dish each week from each of the 32 different nations.

At first I wasn't too thrilled about this idea, as I don't like being told what to cook or do in my kitchen. After a while I realised that this could be something fun that me and the Mr can do together, and get to discover some of the beautiful and exotic epiceries of the city, and try some really delicious food along the way.

The first on the list was Algeria.

The traditional foods in Algeria are:

Lamb, merguez (spicy beef or lamb sausages), dried fruits and nuts, spices like cumin, pepper and chilli, olives, cous cous, flat breads and pastries made from pistachios, almonds and honey.

For our Menu tonight I decided to make the following:

Starter - Merguez with olives

Main Course - Slow-cooked fruity lamb tagine with Harissa cous cous, served with kesra flat bread

Dessert - A selection of patisseries from our local Algerian boulangerie (bakery)

And to wash it down a bottle of Algerian red wine.

The Verdict


The Merguez that we bought from a local independant butcher was really good, very tasty.

The tagine was delicious, although I was very skeptical as I'm generally not a fan of meat and fruit together, but it was surprisingly nice, as was the cous cous.

The desserts were nice but all tasted very much the same.  The two disappointments were the kesra flatbread which is made from semolina and was very hard, and the red wine tasted very vinegary.

Overall quite nice and if I had to score it out of ten (Come Dine With Me style) I would say it was a 7 out of 10, losing points for the red wine, the kesra and the pomegranate in the tagine.

For the recipes please go to the BBC Good Food website:
Tagine Cous cous

Where I bought the ingredients from:
Marche d'Aligre
Boucherie Syr, Rue d'Aligre
La Bague de Kenza,  Algerian specialties and patisserie, 173 Rue du Faubourg Saint Antoine
Sabah - Middle Eastern and Mediterranean epicerie on the corner of Rue d'Aligre and Rue Crozatier