Tunisian cuisine is a blend of European, Oriental and desert dweller's culinary traditions. Its distinctive spicy fieriness comes from neighbouring Mediterranean countries and the many civilizations who have ruled Tunisian land: Phoenician, Roman, Arab, Turkish, French, and the native Berber people.
Many of the cooking styles and utensils began to take shape when the
ancient tribes were nomads. Nomadic people were limited in their
cooking by what locally made pots and pans they could carry with them.
A tagine is really the name of a conical-lidded pot, although today the same word is applied to what is cooked in it.
Like all countries in the Mediterranean basin, Tunisia
offers a "sun cuisine," based mainly on olive oil, spices, tomatoes,
seafood (a wide range of fish) and meat from rearing.Unlike other North African cuisine, Tunisian food is spicy hot. A
popular condiment and ingredient which is used extensively Tunisian
cooking, harissa
is a hot red pepper sauce made of red chili
peppers and garlic,
flavoured with coriander,
cumin, olive
oil and often tomatoes.
There is an old wife's tale that says a husband can judge his wife's
affections by the amount of hot peppers she uses when preparing his
food. If the food becomes bland then a man may believe that his wife
no longer loves him. However when the food is prepared for guests the
hot peppers are often toned down to suit the possibly more delicate
palate of the visitor. Like harissa or chili peppers, the tomato is
also an ingredient which cannot be separated from the cuisine of
Tunisia. Tuna, eggs,
olives and various
varieties of pasta,
cereals, herbs and
spices are also ingredients which are featured prominently in
Tunisian cooking.
Tabil,
prounced "table," is a word in Tunisian Arabic meaning
"seasoning " and refers to a particular Tunisian spice mix,
although earlier it meant ground coriander. Paula Wolfert makes the
plausible claim that tabil is one of the spice mixes brought to
Tunisia by Muslims expelled from Andalusia
in 1492 after the fall of Granada.
Today tabil, closely associated with the cooking of Tunisia, features
coriander seeds and is pounded in a mortar and then dried in the sun
and is often used in cooking beef or veal.
Thanks to its long coastline and numerous fishing ports, Tunisia
can serve abundant, varied and exceptionally fresh supply of fish in
its restaurants. Many diners will be content to have their fish
simply grilled and served filleted or sliced with lemon juice and a
little olive oil. Fish can also be baked, fried in olive oil,
stuffed, seasoned with cumin
(kamoun). Squid, cuttle fish, and octopus are often served in hot
crispy batter with slices of lemon, as a cooked salad or stuffed and
served with couscous.
Main dishes
Couscous is
the national dish of Tunisia and can be prepared in many ways. It is
cooked in a special kind of double boiler called a kiska:s in
Arabic or couscoussière in French. Meat and vegetables
are boiled in the lower half. The top half has holes in the bottom
through which the steam rises to cook the grain which is put in this
part. Cooked this way the grain acquires the flavour of whatever is
below. The usual grain is semolina.
To serve, the grain is piled in the middle of a dish, and the meat
and vegetables put on top. A sauce can be then poured over before
serving.
Like in the rest of North Africa, couscous is served on all
occasions. It is traditionally eaten with lamb, the semolina must be
very fine, and the vegetables (carrots, little white cabbages,
turnips, chick peas) only lightly cooked. Depending on the season,
the vegetables change: there may also be cardoons, cold broad beans,
or pumpkin.
Unlike Moroccan tajines, a tagine in Tunisia usually refers to a
kind of "quiche"
made from beaten eggs and grated cheese consisting of meat and/or
various vegetable f
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About Tunisia 
