Chakhchoukha

thin semolina flatbreads torn to fragments by hand and steamed in a lamb and chickpea sauce until they drink it up

Origin: Biskra & the Aurès, Algeria

From the journey of Wheat.

Chakhchoukha is bread reworked into a dish. Thin unleavened semolina flatbreads called rougag are cooked on a griddle, left to dry a little, then torn by hand into fragments roughly the size of a thumbnail. The tearing is deliberate and no knife is used: the ragged edges take up the sauce in a way clean-cut squares do not, and the name itself comes from the Arabic for shredding or tearing. It belongs to the Aurès and the Chaoui Berbers of eastern Algeria, and to Biskra on the northern edge of the Sahara, and it is a dish of gathering. It appears at weddings, at Eid, and at any occasion where a great many people must be fed from one pot, because the bread can be made in advance and the sauce stretched. The sauce, marqa, is lamb with chickpeas in a tomato and ras el hanout base, thin enough to soak in rather than sit on top. The torn bread is steamed briefly over it before the two are combined, which warms it and opens it, and then the sauce is poured over and worked through by hand. It is eaten with the hands from a shared dish, and a good chakhchoukha is judged on whether every fragment has taken the sauce evenly. Algerians distinguish it firmly from the Tunisian and Libyan dishes that resemble it, and from Moroccan rfissa, which uses a different bread and a different spicing built on fenugreek and ras el hanout over shredded msemen.

Ingredients

Rougag

500 g fine semolina
100 g plain flour
1 tsp salt
350 ml warm water, approximately
3 tbsp oil

Marqa

800 g lamb shoulder, in pieces
2 onions, finely chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp tomato purée
2 tomatoes, chopped
200 g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight
2 tsp ras el hanout
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp salt, or to taste
1.5 litres water

Method

Mix the semolina, flour, and salt, then work in the warm water gradually to a soft, smooth dough. Knead for ten minutes, oil the surface, cover, and rest for thirty minutes.
Divide into twelve balls. On an oiled surface, flatten and stretch each by hand into a very thin round about 25cm across, as thin as you can get it without tearing.
Cook each on a hot dry griddle for about a minute a side, until pale with a few brown spots. They should stay soft and flexible rather than crisping. Stack under a cloth.
For the marqa, brown the lamb in the olive oil, add the onions and cook until soft, then the tomato purée for three minutes.
Add the chopped tomatoes, spices, drained chickpeas, salt, and water. Simmer covered for an hour, until the lamb is tender and the chickpeas soft. The sauce should stay thin: this is a liquid the bread will absorb, not a thick stew.
Tear the rougag into fragments about 2cm across, by hand, never with a knife. The rough edges are what hold the sauce.
Steam the torn bread over the simmering sauce for ten minutes in a steamer basket, so it warms and softens.
Put the steamed bread in a wide bowl and ladle over about half the sauce. Work it through gently with a spoon or with oiled hands and let it stand for five minutes to drink it up.
Heap onto a platter, arrange the lamb and chickpeas on top, and pour over more sauce. Serve at once from the shared dish.

Notes

Tear the bread rather than cutting it; this is not a stylistic preference and it changes how the sauce is held. The marqa must be thinner than a stew or the bread will sit dry beneath a heavy sauce. Rougag can be made a day ahead and kept wrapped. Shop-bought thin flatbreads or even lavash will stand in acceptably if the semolina dough is beyond the evening you have.

The Gastrographer

Name: Chakhchoukha
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 1 h 30 min
Total time: 2 h 30 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Algeria
Ingredients: 500 g fine semolina; 100 g plain flour; 1 tsp salt; 350 ml warm water, approximately; 3 tbsp oil; 800 g lamb shoulder, in pieces; 2 onions, finely chopped; 3 tbsp olive oil; 3 tbsp tomato purée; 2 tomatoes, chopped; 200 g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight; 2 tsp ras el hanout; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; 1 tsp paprika; 2 tsp salt, or to taste; 1.5 litres water

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control