بِسْــــــــــــــــــــــمِ اﷲِارَّحْمَنِ ارَّحِيم
السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته
One of the dishes, I had come to love while living in the US is chilli con carne making prepared by Mexicans and in Texas. It 's really a hearty dish good enough to warm you up on cold days, but still appearing to me to have in the heat of summer!
Today, I present my version of chilli con carne with a North African twist of adding harissa paste, Ras el hanout spice blend and also preserved lemons.
North African cuisine, while not all the same has a nice blend of flavors and spices which is one of the reasons for its immense popularity the world over. The food here in Algeria is flavorful but not spicy enough to make you sweat!
- 500g lean ground lamb
- 1 large, diced fine
- 2 ribs of celery
- 2 carrots, medium dice
- 1 cubanelle pepper, diced medium
- 1 red pepper, diced medium (optional)
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 tomatoes, skinned and pureéd
- 2 TBS tomato paste
- 3 garlic minced
- 2 bay leaves
- Harissa or hot pepper to taste
- 2 tsp Ras el hanout spice
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp paprika
- few threads of saffron
- handful of cilantro, mint and parsely
- 1 cup precooked chickpeas
- nice rounded tablespoon of apricot preserves
- Handful of choppe preserved lemons
- juice of half lemon
- olive oil
- salt /black pepper
NOW add 1 ½ cups water, tomato paste, chickpeas, apricot preserve, preserved lemons, and tomatoes; bring to a boil.
COVER with a lid, then reduce the heat, and simmer for 20 minutes.
STIR in the cilantro and juice before serving.
I serve this chilli usually with a nice and quick homestyle Algerian semolina 'cornbread' Algerian Khoubz el Dar as you can see in the picture above! I will post this bread in my next post!
Make Ahead
Prepare this chilli ahead and store in the fridge for up to a week or longer in the freezer.
Variation
Make this stew vegetarian by omitting the meat and adding more beans. Oe optionally use ground turkey instead of the lamb for a healthier version.
How do you warm up on cold nights?
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I am sending this dish to Ivy of Kopiaste's event Creative Concoctions . She will have this event monthly so please be sure to check out the rules if you would like to enter! Round-up is tomorrow so check it out!
and also to
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Heni thank you very much for linking your recipe with Creative Concoctions. As much as I love Mexican food, I don't like it very hot either. I love that you have added harissa which is one of my favourite hot spices, although I use it in moderation just for the extra kick but all the flavours in your dish are wonderful.
ReplyDeleteohhh il me plait bien plus que le vrai mexicain !!! j'aime trop Hénia, merci et bonne soirée bisous
ReplyDeleteflavourful looks delicious lovely combination
ReplyDeleteI have always perused chilli con carne recipes: it has been made to become fusion food. I never thought of the North African twist though. It is very intriguing.
ReplyDeleteis that you own invention north african chilli con carne, never heard of this in morocco or tunsia.
ReplyDeletewhy not just call it henia con carne instead.
Having read this I thought it was rather enlightening.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate you spending some time and energy to
put this content together. I once again find myself spending way too
much time both reading and leaving comments. But so what, it
was still worth it!
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