Algeria - Chorba Frik

Salam, Everybody!

Thanks for coming back for more soup! Today we are in Algeria! Algeria is a country on the

Algeria in the World

Northern coast of Africa, bordering Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Niger, Mali, Mauritania and the Mediterranean Sea. Algeria is the largest country of its continent, the Arab world and the Mediterranean Basin and a whopping 99% of it's population identifies as Muslim! In fact, our soup today is a testament to that; Chorba Frik is a vegetarian soup that, while consumed year-round, is eaten nearly every day during the Islamic Holy Month of Ramadan in many households. In a nutshell, Ramadan is celebrated by Muslims every summer as a month of fasting, where observers world-wide abstain from food, drink, sex and smoking from sun up to sun down.

My research on the topic led to a very interesting question: What about observers in the northern- or Southern-most cities of the world? When I lived in

All Ingredients Used, Minus the Photobombing Beer

Seattle Winter would bring nighttime darkness by 5:00 P.M. In Summer, we could play until 11 with hints of sunlight. If it stayed daylight until that late in Seattle, what about Muslims in Canada! Why, that seems pretty unfair to me! I mean, Observers of Ramadan in Australia would only have to fast for maybe 8 hours - Ramadan is technically observed in the Summer, but only in the Northern Hemisphere. Down Under, they are in the middle of their Winter and as such, have to fast for considerably less time than their northern counterparts. Lucky Ducks. (For those of you nerds still curious, Muslims with unconventional or extreme fasting hours may elect to observe fasting hours for either a nearby city or for Mecca itself.)

Anywho. As mentioned previously, our soup today is Chorba Frik, a Ramadan staple for some. It has straightforward ingredients and as expected, chickpeas - my favorite!

Chorba Frik

Ingredients

1 Onion, chopped Garlic Cloves, crushed 1 Pinch Cayenne Pepper 1 Tsp Paprika 4 TBSP Tomato Puree 1 L. Vegetable Stock

4 TBSP Frik - More on this later 1/2 Tin Chickpeas 1 Handful Parsley, chopped 1 Handful Coriander, chopped 4 Sprigs Mint Leaves, chopped Lemon Juice

Steps

1. Add about 1 TBSP Olive Oil to Stock Pot. Cook Onion until tender.
2. Add Garlic and cook for 2 minutes.
3. Add Cayenne Pepper and Paprika and cook for 1 more minute.
4. Add Tomato Puree and Vegetable Stock and bring to a boil.
5. Once boiling, add Frik and simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes.
6. Add Chickpeas and herbs and cook about 5-10 minutes until chickpeas are warm.
7. Squeeze the juice of about 1/2 of a lemon into the pot. Mix and serve.

This was perhaps the easiest soup I've made so far; Each step is just add this, add that. Easy peasy. (...

How about this one?

Easy Chick-peasy. See what I did there? Huh? Get it? Because Chickpeas!) The hardest part was probably serving the soup; Three soups into this project and I am left to wonder why I have come so far and still have no ladle. I will have to get on that. Additionally, it is important to note that this soup can be made with very little financial impact as you probably have many of the rewuired ingredients already on hand. I shopped at a mainstream grocery market, Ralph's, for most ingredients, bought brand name when it applied and left only about $12 lighter than when I went in. However, there was one ingredient that I had to search a little harder for.

Freekeh

Upon inspection of the ingredients list, there is probably one in particular that looks unfamiliar to many if not most of you: Frik. I had to ask a lot of questions myself to find out exactly what frik was - and no, it's not a less offensive placeholder for our favorite four-letter word. As it turns out frik - or freekeh (FREAK-uh) as pronounced by the Lebanese and marketed in the Western World - is cracked green wheat. This is not to be confused with plain 
cracked wheat. This can be found most easily in your local Whole Foods market, in the rice aisle. On the bottom shelf. Under the Quinoa. It took me some time, but yes, I did it! You can, too! While you're getting some to make your Chorba Frik, be sure to stock up because it has been predicted that 2015 is the year of freekeh. Eat up.

Close up of Freekeh

(Additionally, I was lucky enough in my recent travels to grab some authentic Hungarian Paprika! If any of you ever get a chance to go to Europe, I highly recommend Budapest. Like, it's a must. You need not use Hungarian Paprika for this recipe, though - in fact, I am willing to bet that Algerians 200 years ago did not.)

Now in true Soup Adventurer fashion, about 75% of the way through the process of making this soup, I tried a little bit and wasn't impressed. Where was the salt? Where was the flavor? It tasted like tomato water! I like to have a first bowl for dinner the night I make it and eat the rest for lunch at work throughout the coming week. Is this what I was going to have to put up with all week?!? Instead of completely losing it, I decided not to freekeh out and just trust the process. After

Hungarian Paprika

the handfuls of parsley, mint and cilantro - remember, coriander to the rest of the word is cilantro in America - were added and a sprinkle of lemon juice was mixed in, magic happened. The mint and lemon really made this soup. In fact, I am going to go out on a limb and say that all the magic in soup making is reserved for the final 25% of the process. I will try to remember this before I throw an entire stockpot of ingredients all over my kitchen in a fit of rage the next time I get a pot of warm celery flavored water. Trust the process. Trust the process...

Now the soup was done. I served a bowl and tried a spoonful. Not too shabby! Now I am going to say this:

1. Islam and alcohol do not go together. If this is ever true, it is especially so during Ramadan.

2. I don't know the first thing about pairing food and alcohol. Ok, well, maybe I know the first thing: white wine with fish, red with meat. That's it. That all I know. But,

3. The beer I was sipping while prepping this soup went remarkably well with the finished product, so much so that I cracked open another to sip with dinner! For those of you interested, if you ever make this soup be sure to pick up a pack of Golden Road Brewery's 329 Lager, named for the 329 days of sunshine Los Angeles enjoys every year! Now, since this is a local brewery, this may be easier to find for you locals than for other readers across the country and beyond, but if you can get your hands on a can, I highly recommend it!

And that's it for now! Be sure to tune in next time when we travel to Andorra with a terrifying concoction of animal parts I've never wanted to eat in my life!

Besslama!

Bowl of Chorba Frik, with Golden Road Brewery's 329 Lager

"A secret for two, soon a secret for nobody." - Algerian proverb.