Bsisa

Everything is roasted and then milled together to a flour, so it keeps for months and needs no cooking at all.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (milk), honey.

Ingredients

• 500 g pearl barley
• 200 g dried chickpeas
• 100 g sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons fenugreek seeds
• 2 tablespoons aniseed
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon salt

to serve, one or the other

• olive oil and honey, for a paste
• or milk or water, for a drink

Method

1. EVERYTHING IS ROASTED AND THEN MILLED TOGETHER TO A FLOUR, so it keeps for months and needs no cooking at all. Barley, chickpeas, sesame and the whole spices are each roasted until deeply coloured, cooled, and then ground to a fine powder. What comes out of the mill is a finished food: a spoonful worked with olive oil and honey is a paste eaten as it is, and the same powder slaked with milk or water is a drink. Nothing is ever cooked again. That is why it travelled -- it is dense, dry, keeps for months and turns into a meal with whatever liquid is to hand.
2. EACH THING IS ROASTED SEPARATELY, BECAUSE EACH NEEDS A DIFFERENT TIME. Barley takes twenty-five minutes in a hot oven; chickpeas twenty; sesame four minutes in a dry pan; the fenugreek, aniseed and coriander two. On one tray together the sesame is black before the barley has coloured.
3. THE BARLEY IS ROASTED UNTIL GENUINELY BROWN, NOT PALE. Deep nutty brown with a few darker grains. It is seventy per cent of the mixture and the whole flavour rests on it; pale barley gives a powder that tastes of raw flour however long the rest was roasted.
4. THE FENUGREEK IS TWO TABLESPOONS AND NO MORE. It is powerfully bitter and smells of maple, and at this level it is the characteristic background note. Doubled, the whole batch is inedibly bitter and cannot be corrected.
5. IT IS MILLED FINE AND SIEVED. A fine powder, through a sieve, with the coarse residue re-ground. Bsisa is eaten raw and any grit is immediately obvious on the tongue -- unlike a flour that will be cooked, there is no later stage to soften it.
6. IT IS COOLED COMPLETELY BEFORE MILLING AND BEFORE JARRING. Warm grain grinds to a paste rather than a powder because of the oil in the sesame, and warm powder sweats in a sealed jar and cakes.
7. IT IS STORED DRY AND DARK AND NOTHING WET GOES NEAR THE JAR. The oil, honey or milk is added to a portion in a bowl, never to the store. One wet spoon and the jar spoils.
8. The barley roasted at 190°C for 25 MINUTES, until genuinely DEEP BROWN. Cooled.
9. The chickpeas roasted at 190°C for 20 MINUTES. Cooled.
10. The sesame seeds DRY-TOASTED 4 MINUTES; the fenugreek, aniseed and coriander 2 MINUTES. Each tipped onto a cold plate.
11. Everything COOLED COMPLETELY.
12. Milled together to a FINE powder with the salt.
13. SIEVED, and the coarse residue re-ground.
14. TESTED: it should taste roasted and nutty with a bitter edge, and feel smooth rather than gritty. Raw-flour taste means the barley was underroasted.
15. Stored in a dry sealed jar away from light. Keeps 4 months.
16. TO SERVE: a few spoonfuls worked with olive oil and honey into a paste, or slaked with milk or water as a drink. Nothing added to the jar itself.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Tunisia · All recipes