Kaoutar North African cuisine is a reflection of the diverse cultures that come together. The flavors comprise a mix of Berber, Arabic, Andalusian, Mediterranean, European and sub-Saharan characteristics, with spices and fruits combined in recipes for salads, soups, and stews, often with lamb or chicken, and couscous. While a modest cook can create memorable meals using only a basic variety of utensils and tools, middle- and upper-class kitchens in North Africa and the Mediterranean typically have a wide range of tools, appliances, and cookware.
Tagine
A tagine is a type of Moroccan cookware the base also serves as a dish to serve and the name of the dish that is prepared in it. Although many recipes include instructions for cooking in a conventional pot, you’ll likely want to buy tagine cookware if you plan to make tajines even if it’s only occasionally. They are almost easy to use, but require additional time for the traditional slow cooking process. If you buy clay or ceramics, the tagine should be seasoned before its first use.
Skewers
Middle Eastern cuisine involves a lot of meat cooked on skewers, so it’s crucial to keep some on hand. Wooden skewers are fine if they are pre-soaked, but stainless steel skewers will always be safer and will not have to be thrown away after each use.
In North Africa as well, there’s nothing more tempting than the sound of sizzling roast beef, and you can find some of the best in Morocco. If the smell of grease and skewer smoke floating in the air from street carts won’t make you drool, nothing will. To recreate that divine experience at home, you’ll need a set of skewers, called qodban or m’ghazel in Arabic. Look for those that have beautiful carved wooden handles; they make your food look even more irresistible.
Although they are easy to find year-round, you’re more likely to see skewers in a prominent spot in the shops on the surrounding Eid Al-Adha days, when skewers and other grilled meats are especially popular.
Scented water dispenser
A scented water dispenser isn’t essential, but it’s lovely décor and a topic of conversation and adds a distinctive North African style to your home or party. The dispensers are filled with orange flower water or rose water, which can be shaken out of the dispenser to refresh your hands before or after eating, in Algeria, the scented water dispenser is usually served with coffee for guessed to sprinkel a little bit of orange flower water onto thier coffee for added flavor. Both aromas also have culinary value in Moroccan and Algerian cuisine.
Gsaa
Also sometimes called Jefna, these shallow sources can be used as workstations and as serving dishes. Whether you’re kneading dough, rolling couscous, or presenting a spicy stew to your guests, these containers are large enough to hold enough food for a crowd. Some gsaa are quite simple, but we love the ones that have intricate hand-painted designs recognized in north Africa.
A beautifully crafted gsaa wood is becoming harder to find; clay and ceramics are the standards and most affordable materials. The flat interior of a gsaa makes an excellent working surface for kneading, shaping msemen or other baked or fried delicacies, and the container itself is great for mixing and containing couscous while steaming.
Seive
When a lot of couscouses, bread, and baked goods come out of the kitchen, it is not uncommon to find several sieves in different sizes and materials in a North African house. A ghorbal is traditionally made of perforated leather or wood. It’s very hard to find the real deal outside of a bustling bazaar, but a traditional mesh sieve like this will work well.
Sieves are used to hand knead couscous, to separate bran or impurities from whole wheat and other flours, and to sift through ingredients before baking.
Couscoussier
In Algeria, Morocco, or Tunisia, almost no one uses instant couscous. Instead, they steam couscous several times in a couscoussier, which can be made of aluminum, clay, ceramic, or stainless steel. This traditional two-piece Moroccan cookware consists of a base pot called a gdra, barma or tanjra for stewing and a large, deep kesskes basket for steaming.
To steam your couscous, you’ll need a couscoussier, a large double-chamber pot with a built-in steamer. With a couscoussier, you can simultaneously steam the couscous in the upper chamber and cook a stew to serve with it at the bottom of the pot, infusing your couscous with its aromas.
In addition to using them for dishes such as couscous with seven vegetables, couscoussiers are also used to cook steamed rice, spinach
Majmar
Any tagine enthusiast will need majmar to get the best results. These clay braziers hold the burning coal, raising the tagine so that the meat does not cook too quickly, and they can also be used as a source of light or heat
The mehraz
North African cuisine is famous for its complex and diverse combinations of spices, so you’ll want to have a mehraz, a mortar, and a traditional brass hand, to help prepare them. Cooks usually use a mortar and a hand to grind herbs and spices and mix paste such as harissa. You may be tempted to buy your pre-ground spices, but grinding the fresh ones yourself will give you a bolder flavor.
It’s used to effectively grind spices and herbs. The latter will then be mixed with the pasta to obtain a particular taste and new scents.
Berrad
Offering tea in Moroccan culture is an act of hospitality as well as a ritual that is impossible to ignore. Without this rite, a Moroccan meal would no longer be the same. This tradition makes the Moroccan teapot, a kitchen accessory of great importance in Moroccan culture.
Order a Moroccan teapot, if you want to be inspired by the culture of this country during your family meals. Called berrad, this north African teapot is decorated with silver or decorated glass. It is used to offer mint tea which is the most popular in Algeria and Morocco.
Following Moroccan etiquette, tea is offered to guests at all times of the day. A berrad does not need to be elegant, but tea should be served in glasses, not cups.
