Cooking – mergueze.info

Kabyle olive oil is ranked among the best in the world in an international competition in Paris

Sun, 17 May 2020 09:19:59 +0000

Kabyle olive oil is ranked among the best in the world at an international competition in Paris.
Four olive oils from Kabylia have been awarded the best product in their category. It is a real achievement when we know that Algerian colonialism is a brake on all economic activities in Kabylia. Algeria, which in Kabylia only invests in military barracks, prisons, and mosques.

The results of the international competition “Oils of the world” organized in Paris by the Agency for the Valorization of Agricultural Products (APVA) fell this Thursday, May 14.

Four Kabyle products were awarded in two categories: “Intense ripening” and “Light ripe”.

In the “Intense ripening” category, the brand “Azemmour” (olive in Kabyle) won the gold medal. The “Baghlia” brand obtains the Gourmet distinction in the same category.

In the “Light ripe” category, “Arbolive” oil obtains the silver medal while “Acvali Ath Ghobri” produced by the Amazit-Ifigha oil mill obtains the Gourmet distinction.

“AVPA has found a recognized place in the vegetable oils sector where it has been carrying out a competition for 17 years which has become the benchmark in the profession. There are in the running more than 400 oils representing twenty countries”, said the organizer on its website.

It is clear that the question which anguishes a certain number of Kabyle on what to eat to the replacement of the Algerian petrol oil mane is of no meaning. The sap of the Kabyle land is a source of unsuspected wealth so the products which are cultivated on this ground are of better quality.
Welcome to the independence of Kabylia

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Pork in the Merguez sausage

Mon, 18 Nov 2019 19:22:50 +0000

The Merguez is one of Kabylie’s many contributions to universal gastronomy. Together with the couscous Merguez are an open window giving a view of the Kabyle table. A sausage with the same fame as the Spanish Chorizo or the sausage of Toulouse for example. The Kabyle sausage is eaten fried or grilled, a real treat. The word merguez comes from the Kabyle word “amrguaz”, “am” meaning “like” and “rguaz” meaning “the man”. Thus, you will understand, the merguez designates nothing but the virile limb of the man. Like all good things or works of which their origins belong to peoples without states, the Kabyle sausage is phagocytized in the same way that is phagocyted the couscous. By the same people in search of identity and culture. I am talking about mutants Arabized by Islam, Turks, and Jews. But that does not hold. The merguez will remain like a bone in the throat. Even worse than a bone: A pig! Below is good news for the Kabyle, who are used to eating wild boar, and know that pork highlights the taste of the sausage.

Porc in the merguez.
According to the results of a national survey of the French Fraud Control conducted in 2007, 53% of merguez samples analyzed contain pork. According to the code of practice of cold cuts, the “merguez”, or “real merguez”, is composed exclusively of beef and mutton. In practice, there is some tolerance for merguez containing pork, but the word “pork merguez” must be present. Otherwise, “to the extent that sausage is called merguez, it should not contain pork,” says one to the DGCCRF. However, a survey in 52 departments, conducted in 2007, showed that 53% of the samples analyzed in 206 establishments contained pork. Porc being less expensive than other meats, this widespread fraud drastically reduces the cost of production, but is a “deception on the substantial qualities of the product”, especially for consumers of halal meat. The results of the 2006 survey were even more alarming: 71.4% of the samples analyzed contained pork.

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COUSCOUS – MAGHREB – UNESCO: WHICH GAME ARE THE FRENCH PLAYING?

Fri, 26 Jan 2018 21:55:20 +0000

COUSCOUS – MAGHREB – UNESCO: WHICH GAME ARE THE FRENCH PLAYING?

UNESCO, acronym for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, is a specialized agency in the United Nations (UN), established November 16, 1945, to promote Education, Science and Culture among all the people in the world, each with its own language, heritage, habits and customs.

The fact that UNESCO’s headquarters are located in Paris, France, means that France has the opportunity to easily manipulate the institution. Espeacially regarding everything relating Kabylia, the Kabyle people and the Amazigh world in general.

According to the website for the “France 24” television channel, UNESCO is considering the inclusion of couscous as a part of the world heritage, as a “Maghrebin” dish rather than an Amazigh dish.

My friend Hélène E. Hagan, anthropologist, director of the Tazzla Institute for Cultural Diversity and producer of the Amazigh Film Festival in the United States of America, warned the UN institution that by doing this they are committing a major historical error, and an affront to the Amazigh populations of North Africa.

It is in this way that she (Masa Hélène E. Hagan) has just called on Ms. Audrey Azoulay, the director of UNESCO on the subject, in an official letter. As a reminder, Azoulay was the French Minister of Culture from 2016 to 2017. She was born in Paris to a Moroccan Jewish family from the Mugadu amazigh city (Essaouira), and she is the daughter of André Azoulay; a current adviser to King Mohammed VI of Morocco.

In her letter, Masa Hélène E. Hagan informed Audrey Azoulay of her dissatisfactions by stating that all the archaeological data reveals that the creation of couscous in North Africa precedes the arrival and installation of Arabs in the region.

Indeed couscous was a staple of the Amazigh population, for several millennials in the region from Libya to the Atlantic Ocean and covering Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Hagan specifies in her letter, that the notion of “Maghreb” that the UNESCO organization intends to use to design this Amazigh dish, (according to the article of France 24) is of Arab origin. It is an Arabic word that has been stamped on the region, meaning “sunset country” in relation to an Arab orientation of the Middle East.

And further more:

“North Africa is the” Maghreb “only for these Arabs, not for the Amazigh indigenous people. Therefore, the couscous that existed in this region that the locals call “Tamazgha” can not be described as “Maghrebin” only out of ignorance and bad faith.”

Masa Hélène E. Hagan ends her letter by asking Mrs. Audrey Azoulay not to follow up on such an unfortunate idea by thanking her for not mystifying the story once more regarding the Amazigh heritage and culture of North Africa.

Racid At Ali uQasi

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Kabylian pancakes (Thighrifines)

Wed, 04 Oct 2017 19:50:47 +0000

Kabylian pancakes (Thighrifines)

You will need:

750 grams of semolina flour

250 grams flour

Yeast

Olive oil (to brush on top of the pancakes)

Salt

Water

Instructions:

Activate the yeast and salt in some water.

In a large bowl, sift the semolina flour and plain flour. Make a well in the middle and add your yeast and salt.

Gradually pour warm water into the mixture and blend it in with your hands. Use circular motions to avoid getting any lumps. The batter should be light and quite runny.

Cover the batter with a towel and let it rise in about 1-2 hours (it depends on the temperature). The batter is ready to be cooked when it has a shiny surface and has doubled in size.

(You can also use a hand mixer to speed up the process. You will then end up with a foamier and more even batter).

Heat your pan and add olive oil or butter. You should give the batter a quick stir before you add it to the pan.

Use a ladle and pour a scoop of the batter in the middle of the pan. Spread the mixture with circular motions by using the back of the ladle.

When you fry it on one side and can see small bubbles form at the surface, it means the pancakes are done. You are only going to fry it on one side.

Carefully separate the pancake from the pan using a spatula.

Place the pancake with the smooth side facing down on a large plate.

Repeat the same process until there is no more pancake batter left.

You can brush oil over the pancake, but this is optional.

Do not place the pancakes on top of each other while they are still hot. Take a plate between each pancake to separate them. This is to avoid them sticking together

Kabylian pancakes are often eaten with honey, jam or sugar added on top.

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