MENA Cooking Club: Algerian Dolma

 As-Salaamu Alaykum,

As the host for this months MENA cooking club challenge I had to pick 1 savoury and 1 sweet dish for us all to try from my husband's beloved homeland Algeria.

It being Ramadan (the islamic month of fasting) I chose this popular hearty and comforting dolma; a stuffed vegetable stew and for the sweet I chose Ka'ak (Arabic for Cake); a ring shaped brioche based cookie.
Henia / the teal tadjine stuffs potatoes and courgettes but I'm not a big fan of stewed courgette so I used a red pepper instead. I halved the original recipe and added a variety of spices to suit my husband's taste.

Algerian Dolma

Meat & Rice Stuffed Potatoes and Red Pepper Stew/Tagine

adapted from the teal tadjine 

Serves: 2-3 
Prep Time: 15-20 minutes
Cooking time: about 1 hour

Ingredients

Stuffing 

250 grams mince meat ( I used mix of beef and lamb)

½ large onion, finely chopped

2 tablespoons rice ( I used basmati)

1 egg

½ teaspoon ras el hanout

¼ teaspoon mild chilli powder or ground paprika

⅛ ground turmeric

⅓ teaspoon or to your taste fine sea salt

¼ teaspoon or to your taste ground black pepper

Sauce

½ large onion, finely chopped

½ teaspoon ras el hanout

¼ ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cumin

¼ ground coriander

¼ teaspoon mild chilli powder or paprika

⅛ teaspoon ground turmeric

½ teaspoon or to your taste fine sea salt 

¼ teaspoon or to your taste ground black pepper 

1 tablespoon, cooking oil of choice

1 medium red bell pepper, stuffed with mince meat mixture 

4 average potatoes, stuffed with mince meat mixture 

Water, freshly boiled 

Big Handful of chickpeas, pre-soaked and cooked  or tinned.

Method

1. Prepare Stuffing: Place all ingredients for stuffing in a medium size bowl and mix with your hand. Cover and set aside.
   
   
   
   
2. Prepare & Stuff Vegetables: Wash, peel and hollow out potatoes using a knife, place each hollowed potatoe and contents into a bowl of water.  Wash red pepper, remove top and seeds and carefully cut out any white core on the inside without piercing the pepper. Stuff vegetables with meat rice mixture. Any left over mixture can be made into meat balls.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Cook: In a tagine or large pot, sauté onion for 5-10 minutes until soft. Add salt, pepper and spices with a splash of water to ensure the spices don't burn. Cook for a minute then add your stuffed vegetables along with the leftover potatoe pieces. Add chickpeas then add water to come 1/2-3/4 way up the vegetables. Bring to boil then reduce to simmer, cover and cook for about 45 minutes or until you can insert a knife through potato without feeling any resistance.
4. To Serve: Remove vegetables and if the sauce is still soup like turn up the heat slightly and reduce until desired consistency. Place your vegetables on dish and cover in sauce.