tunisian food & oil - especially bkeila/pkeila

Yalta ↓

Wed, Jan 18 2012, 5:47 am

is all tunisian food with so much oil? my mother in law just pours oil even over salads.
we are really trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle and it's just...
anyway, there is this dish called bkeila or pkeila (different accents) with spinach/mangold blackened with tons of oil & beans & ofcourse meat over couscous which my husband loves.
is there a healthy recipe around there or ways I can tolerate this culinary habit better?
thanks!

Mrs Bissli ↓

Wed, Jan 18 2012, 2:09 pm

yup I admit there's much oil esp if you're accustomed to those American low-fat/low-oil food advertisement. (My gripe? What's marketed as 3% fat yogurt in Europe is sold as 97% fat free across the Atlantic.)

It's not just tunisian, you can say the same with many cuisine. Oil means flavour. Ever tried zulbeiya which is fried dough drenched in syrup? (yum!) Also the servicings are in general much smaller than standard US portions.

I LOVE pkaila. Get the jarred stuff from Paris. Yes, it's technically fried spinach and onion in the huge puddle of oil. You can decant oil and only use the blackish/greenish bit. (Save the oil for other cooking, you can roast potatoes or make omlettes.) It's also delish added a bit to the cholent. Also you can use lean cut of meat.

↑ Mrs Bissli

Tue, Jan 24 2012, 10:14 am

Yalta, since you are in Jerusalem, where are good shops to get sephardi cooking ingredients? I have family and friends in J'lem and Rechovot, but haven't really noticed that much line-up of things I need (pickled lemon, amba, rose water, not to mention pkaila) in supermarket. Esp baking goods like knaiffi and phyllo dough. Also are there any good bakeries that do sephardi pastries?

↑ Yalta ↓

Tue, Jan 24 2012, 11:31 am

Well - pretty much anywhere you can get Bissli ;-)

Though it ain't the same as the whole mini preserved lemons in salt my mother in law makes, they sell 'limon kavush' (pickled lemon) in the supermarket (I got to rami levi), next to the hummus etc.
once a year (when in season) in the shuk they sell minature lemons and my mother in law buys a lot and preserves them with basically kosher salt and some seasoning and after a few weeks it's the real thing.

in the spices stands in the shuk I've also seen dried lemon (brown colored) call persian. though I've hadn't had the guts to use it yet.

Amba is actually very popular because it's served with the felafel if you want. so it's sold next to the preseved lemons in supermarkets in the refrigerated salad areas. they also sell Harissa however my dh says some brands aren't the real thing.

rose water you can find in nicer supermarkets in the baking section (mei veradim) & in the shuk,
and pkaila you really need to make yourself (tons of spinach / mangold & oil).
when we are lazy we order shabbat catering from a french speaking company billy le zien 02-5709696 it comes out to 220 shekels for shabbat (we don't eat much) and they home deliver. they offer pkeila, different kinds of couscous, benatach, akud etc.

I try not to eat those "knaiffi and phyllo dough" things as there are enough simchas I stuff my face with them. however I see them in the shuk all the time. I guess you just gotta hang out at the mahne yehuda shuk one day...

Smiling Wife

Wed, Mar 21 2012, 7:18 pm

I am hungry thinking of this, zlabia yummm!
I am in Israel but not in Jerusalem where these things are close, I think it is better for me that way.
Yalta I did an experiment recently cooking only tuni food for a couple of weeks, ojja, shakshouka, bsal ou loubia, tunisian spaghetti...and we got heartburn because of the high oil content...the food is awesome but for an ashkenazified stomach it could be too much.

Capitalchick

Wed, Feb 26 2014, 7:46 pm

My family us Tunisian. Some people cook with lots of oil, and some cook the traditional foods beautifully without it! I suppose it's just a matter of who is doing the cooking. Drizzling olive oil on top of cooked salads isn't that bad for your health, I'd say! Especially if you consider that most Sephardim aren't using things like schmaltz...