All language subtitles for Jamie.Cooks.the.Mediterranean.S01E02.1080p.HDTV.H264-DARKFLiX

Whenever I can, I like to
go travelling to get inspiration

for new recipes.

Look at that!

And one of the areas I love
exploring the most

is the Mediterranean.

I think this is my favourite
kitchen ever.

This is like paradise for me.

So I'm heading off to corners that
I've never explored before,

to research the fascinating dishes
people are making...

Mediterranean food
but not as you know it.

...the surprising ways they build
and celebrate flavour...

That one thing is
a Michelin star dish.

My whole mouth is fizzing.

...and the brilliant techniques that
I can learn from them.

Oh, my, this is gonna be hard.
Oh, he makes it look so easy.

I wanna meet the people who are

the very best at making
traditional dishes.

That's properly like this...

And those inventing new ones.

Wow. Delicious.

To come up with new recipes
and flavours.

Full of colour, full of joy.
This is heavenly.

That can bring us all
a bit of holiday back home.

That's the joy of travel

and the joy of cooking.
Cheers to that.

We're off to Tunisia.
It's gonna be very exciting.

Been about a four-hour delay
but we shall get there.

Heading to Tunisia is a must
for my research trip.

It borders the Mediterranean

and lies at the very top of Africa,

so its cuisine is a heady
mix of both,

which really fascinates me.

I've always been inspired
by the incredible

couscous dishes of the region,

the beautiful, spicy and peppery
harissa sauce it's famous for,

and the brilliantly creative use
of vegetables.

The style of cooking

and intense flavours really
excites me,

and I can't wait to get there
and get tasting.

Yay! Welcome to Tunisia.

It's 43 degrees, it's beautiful.

I'm kicking off my journey in Tunis,

the capital city,
located on the north-east coast.

So I'm in a beautiful
little village in the hills of

a suburb of Tunis.
That's the city right there,

right in the Mediterranean.
Look at that, glorious.

So I'm just gonna have
a little look around,

see what they're up to,
and see what they're eating.

One thing's for sure,
as I'm by the sea,

I wanna check out
the seaside food, Tunisian-style.

I should have one, then.

A bambalouni is a doughnut

that's famous in this seaside part
of Tunis.

Ooh.

Not my normal food,
but I wanna try everything.

So he's got basically
a doughnut dough,

very elastic, very loose.

Look at his hands.

You're like a magician.

That's cool, though, cos

lots of people use machines
to do that.

But it's the spin at the end. Wow.
Rapide, rapide.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But also, rapid but gentle.

So basically, this is doughnut...

...Tunisian-style.

It's still very hot.

Still hot. Very hot.

Look at that, though. That is light,

because that dough that he's made

is much wetter than
a normal doughnut dough.

It's very hard to work with,

which is why my main man is like,
got the technique.

It's delicious.

Can I have a go at the bambalouni?

I wanna learn those little
magic fingers.

I've made a lot of bread,
I've made a lot of pasta,

I've made a lot of pizza,

but I've never made bambalouni.

Yes.

Yes!

So, water in his hands.

It's a very elastic,
very, oh, my, this is gonna be hard.

Oh, he makes it look so easy. OK.

I don't know about this.

Oh, my God, it's so wet.

Oh, how am I gonna do...

LAUGHING

Man, this is really hard.

I'm gonna pay for everything that
I ruin, I promise.

It's gone in the bin.

You have to use
the elasticity of the dough,

and I haven't worked it out yet.

Ah, one more. I do one more. Ready?

Ah.

OK.

You are a master, my friend.
You are a master.

That was hard. Respect.

Sometimes I win,

sometimes I lose.

There's a few in the bin,

and there's also a horseshoe.

I'm gonna take this with pride
and together...

And look at...

...look at the state of my hands.

His are clean, look.
There you go. Well, look.

Regarde, regarde, regarde.
Regarde, salute.

Bambalouni. Bambalouni.

Tunisia one, Jamie nil.

I love that travel is
so full of surprises.

Local techniques to learn
and have a go at.

So I'm hitting the road,

heading 40 miles south-east
along the coast

to a place called Hammamet.

I've heard they call it
the Tunisian Riviera.

This stunning fishing
and beach resort

lies just 100 miles from
the tip of Sicily.

With Italy being their
nearest neighbour,

I'm excited to find out what
the food is like here.

Look at this.
Absolutely stunning. That,

my friends, is the Mediterranean.

So, I'm hooking up with
a local chef who's also doing

a research trip, and hopefully,

she can help me just kind
of get my head to

the next place, so I can start
developing recipes

and making up some nice things.

I'm meeting chef Malek Labidi at
a restaurant

with amazing views over the sea.

Hi. How are you?

Welcome, welcome.
How nice to meet you.

Wow, Look at this. It's amazing.

It's bloomin' lovely up here,
albeit a bit windy.

But it's the food I can't wait
to try.

Oh, my, look at that. Yeah, yes.

You're not mucking around.
We're like,

30 seconds in. What's that?

It's brika.

Brika, or brik, is a stuffed,
deep-fried pastry

and this one is filled with prawns,

parsley, lemon zest and harissa.

No, no. Don't do that.

OK. Use your hands.

Oh, really? Yes, of course.

I'm so British.
LAUGHING

No knives and forks. You take it.
Yeah.

OK.

Yeah. Oh, really?

And the best bit?

It's hiding a beautiful runny
egg inside.

Mm!

Oh, my Lord.

Prawns, egg.
The lemon is really good.

The perfect way to eat brika is

doing everything
to keep the, the egg inside.

Yeah, you're doing much better than
me. Yeah, of course.

You're much... Yeah!

So, brika, you can have all sorts
of filling?

The typical brika is tuna.

Eggs are very important.

Sometimes you can find potato
in it.

This pastry is a thing of
joy, extraord...

...it's like the best present ever.

So what to you is really important
about Tunisian cuisine?

Maybe the most important things,

you will always find the best
food in Tunisia in families,

around the table,
and we always take time for this.

So, I'm on a research trip
to discover Tunisia,

but you're doing the same thing
at the moment, aren't you?

Yes, exactly, I'm working on writing
down all the old Tunisian recipes.

We don't have a lot of,
cooking books and I decided like,

to go to every region in Tunisia,

and ask all these women there that
cooks every day for

the family, and just ask
them about the recipes.

Going to measure everything,
to write everything down,

so it will be there forever.

Amazing.

Actually, |I want to take you with me
to visit some women.

They make the...

...the grain of the couscous,
actually.

Oh, real...from scratch? Yes.
I would love to come.

Cheers to that,
thank you very much. Saha.

The next day, I'm meeting Malek

and the ladies who I've been told

are the Tunisian queens
of making couscous.

I'm so excited! I can't tell you,
I'm so excited.

Yeah, yeah.
Are they fine with me coming?

Yeah, because men are not allowed
in this kind of thing.

Oh, really?

Daouda and her family are holding an
EL Oula,

a harvest ceremony
to prepare couscous for the year

for friends and family.

Wow.

Salam alaykum.

SPEAKING IN ARABIC
#S

This is like one of those moments in
life where

you have to pinch yourself because

this is just so beautiful.

In England, there's many
people that buy couscous every week.

They don't even think that
this process

of bringing humble ingredients
together to make this product.

These ladies are still making
couscous the traditional,

handmade way

and I'm hoping they're
gonna share the secret.

First step, it's semolina.
Semolina, beautiful.

Sometimes used with pasta too,

semolina is a type
of flour made from durum wheat.

Then, they add some salted water.

To make these little nuggets.

Yes, exactly.

The nuggets are formed by mixing
really quickly,

and making small circles,

something these ladies have got down
to a fine art.

And then they pass it through three
different types of... Sieve?

Yes, exactly.

It goes, finer and finer.

This is the last one,
and through these holes,

you will have the,
the true couscous.

So, once they finish this part,

they go steam the couscous,

then leave it to dry on the sun
for five days.

Five days? Yes, because

it must stay for the whole year.

Right, so they're dehydrating
it completely.

I mean, five days in
the Tunisian sun... Yes.

...is like five months in the English
sun.

Wow. So, do you think I
could have a go,

and will you teach me?

SPEAKING IN ARABIC
Yeah, oh, she...

LAUGHING
The boss!

Sorry, yeah. My, my bad. Concentrate.

For the sport, sport.
It's the kind of sport.

And you have to dance
with your couscous, you know?

OK, all right, calm, all right...

You're dancing and forgetting about
the couscous.

Turn, turn it.

So, what you can't see,
she's not just shaking it,

she's spinning it in her hand,
so she's shaking this way,

at the same time,
she's rotating it this way.

That's, that's properly like this,
it's...

Aye, aye. Here we go. Yeah.

THEY SING

Woo!

Yeah!

I can't tell you how happy
I am right now.

Even though she's bossing me about,
I love it.

Now for Daouda to inspect
my handiwork.

Yeah. OK!

Ah. I've passed.

Not bad for a bloke from Blighty.

Ah, I actually love her.

They told me they want to keep
you here. Oh, really?

Yeah. They can adopt me as their
English

couscous helper, yeah.

So I don't forget anything,
I'm recording this on my phone.

So, we've made home-made couscous
from semolina,

and now we're steaming it
and after she's done that,

then she puts it out on these rugs
here for five days, to dry.

As much as I'd love to,

I haven't got the time
to hang out here for five days.

But luckily, the ladies have
already cooked up a feast with

the fresh couscous,

steamed in a harissa
and vegetable stock sauce.

Beautiful. Look at that. Oh, my Lord.

Big butter beans.

Mm.

The couscous tastes absolutely
amazing. Yeah.

And the couscous here is red.

It's with tomato paste
and harissa. It's really delicious.

And the texture is extraordinary.
Yeah.

Steaming the couscous over the stock

has absolutely made all
the difference.

A brilliant tip for me
to remember back home.

Mm.

I will never, ever,
ever forget this moment.

Like, to make this with
the ladies, to taste this,

the textures,
the balance of seasoning.

It's very thoughtful cooking.

Making very accessible ingredients,

potatoes, chickpeas, you know,

basic vegetables, extraordinary.

I'm blown away.

It's not every day you get
to just rock up into

a family's home and see that,
and of course,

the reality that men never
make couscous,

so I was definitely an oddity today,

and I think they quite liked it.

For me, when I'm going on my
little journeys of inspiration,

I always think like, you know,

to be able to learn from
mothers, grandparents,

that's the best of the best,
so, yeah, I feel very lucky.

I'm travelling around
the Mediterranean

to research some of
the amazing ingredients

and dishes here.

I wanna learn everything I can in
order to create simple

and delicious recipes inspired by
what I see.

And I'm exploring
the capital city, Tunis.

Wow. Look at this.

The 7th-century Medina in

the city's oldest quarter
is brimming with markets

offering everything you can imagine.

It's absolutely buzzing.
Full of colour,

full of different smells,
and of course,

I wanna get to the flavours.

At the moment,

it's a lot of rugs, little tea shops.

Look at that.
But time to find some food.

I love that old Medina energy,
but on these trips,

I wanna find out the best place
for buying food.

Wow.

This is Central Market.

Aslema. Aslema.

What's this? Oh, it smells amazing.

Geranium. Oh, geranium. Ah.

For cuisine or for...?

Oh, like a, a...

Digestive. Wow, who would have known?

They smell so good.

Look at this. That's a proper lemon.

I mean, it already feels
quite Mediterranean.

Peppers. I love the hustle and the
bustle.

Beautiful little cherry tom...

Yeah, oh, you recognise me?

LAUGHING
Thank you.

I've got one fan.

Oh, my Lord. I just love it.

This is like paradise for me.

I've gotta keep a record of this
for when I get home.

Have a little look at this.
These flat peaches, amazing.

Apricots to die for,
and then over here,

ooh. You never, ever get to see this.

So this is fresh capers.

They're one of the most
extraordinary ingredients.

They're delicious,
crispy, fried, so many things,

but the smell here is extraordinary.

Let's have a look through here.

Tunisian cheese?

Ah, OK.

OK. Brebis.

Brebis.

Oh, that's good.
It's almost like a Pecorino.

Yeah, kind of.

Oh, you've got an aged one as well.

Bless you.

More salty and harder,
and you can grate it really nicely.

Yeah.

And what's the name?

It's delicious.

What's really interesting is they're
making home-made Tunisian cheese,

but it's heavily influenced by
the Italian styles,

Pecorino, Parmesan.

When I'm in Sicily,

you can see the influence
of Tunisia creeping in

with the spices and many of
the ingredients like couscous.

Here, you can see the opposite.

You can see the Sicilian

and the Italian influence creeping
in on the cheese.

And then the best thing about this
little street

is this is Mr Cheese Man,
and then here,

come and have a look at this.

It's Pickle World.

Look at the colours.

The yellow from the...

Thank you, sir.

A man's just given me chilli,
so I already love him.

Oh, yeah. Beautiful. This is like,
you know,

the Tunisian version of
a ploughman's lunch.

Cheese, pickles,

just need to get some bread
down there,

you've got a perfect little lunch.

Look, he's happy, I'm happy.

But really inspiring.
I'm very, very excited.

Thank you, boys.

Having seen the
incredible ingredients,

I wanna know what they make
with them.

I've been told about
a little street food place

round the corner that serves one of
the most iconic dishes

on the Tunisian menu - kafteji,

which I wanna taste for myself.

This amazing little hole in the wall.

Aslema. Aslema.

Tiles everywhere.

My first kafteji.

Hello, kafteji.

How are you? Oh, wow, look at this.

Come in?

Oh, my God. Come, come, come.

Apparently, kafteji means
"kofta seller",

as the dish used to contain meat,

but it got too expensive,
so now it's purely veggie.

Look at this, it's the most amazing
little kitchen.

It's got two big fryers over here.

Just smells of herbs and garlic.

There's so much going on here,
but I'm loving the chaos.

Look, that is proper chips.

Look, slices, chunks.

OK, so this is one part, the chips.

So they're frying whole peppers
until they're sweet

and tender and they put them on here.

Along with fried courgettes
and whole fried tomatoes.

And then the kafteji is kind of like
a glorified salsa

with harissa.

He's got a fried egg that's softly
cooking there. Wow.

And it's all combined into a bowl,

and hand-chopped into
a chunky veggie stew.

And he's basically a human food
processor. It's got that noise.

This is like the maestro.

Look at that.

This is exactly why
I came travelling,

to learn this stuff,
to see this stuff.

Yeah? OK.

Yeah, let's have a go. OK.

OK.

Like that? Wow.

OK? Oh, bless. OK?

Not sure I've quite got
the speedy skills of the maestro.

I love the way people come in off
the street

and they're all queueing up at
the door, look,

waiting for their delicious food.

Cooked fresh, cooked to order,
comfort food at its best,

come on, man. Gotta try it.

Honestly, any chef in the world

would love this.

Thank you, my friend.

Let's get in there with some bread.

Wow. That is dreamy.

And what it lacks in looks,
it makes up for tenfold in flavour.

There's the most gentle heat from
the peppers.

Sweetness from the tomatoes.

That kind of savoury silkiness from
the egg.

The spice from the harissa...

...ah. It's utterly,

utterly delicious.

And I've been in here, like,

four minutes,
and I've witnessed more, like,

sincere culture in cooking

than I've seen in a long, long time.

Mediterranean food,

but not as you know it.

With all this inspiration,

I'm desperate to cook something up
for myself.

And the thing I've not been able to
stop thinking about experimenting

with is the incredible pastry brik
that I had with Malek.

That delicious,
crispy pastry stuffed prawn parcel.

But my job is to give you
a version to try at home.

So, one thing's for sure,

is Tunisia has been filling me up
with inspiration

and what I'm gonna do now is give you

a little something that I feel
I can take home with me

and do easily on a Friday night,
a Saturday lunch.

My twist on the brik will be
a super-easy mini version,

perfect for a starter or
a sharing plate.

These crispy prawn parcels
are stuffed

with spicy harissa,
zingy lemon and eggs,

but this is my expression of a brik,

so I'm changing up the pastry.

Normally, you'd make a
brik with brik pastry

and they call this pastry malsouka.

It means to stick.

Now, that dough to do at home,

I think is really tricky,
but this little pastry,

I think you're gonna love.
It's a very good little hack.

So, 250gq of strong flour,

a nice pinch of salt,

and then I've got about 150ml
of hot water.

The hot water changes the flour

and it allows you to have
this incredibly

bendy pastry, which is perfect

for going really thin
and really crisp.

So, just bring it around
the bowl like this.

And as soon as the fork is finding
it a little hard,

then we'll bring in our hands.

Just do it for a couple of minutes,

just to kind of get that gluten sort
of texture going,

and then have a little look at that.

That is our dough. It is that simple.

I'm gonna just add a little
bit of oil

to the surface here.

All over like that,

and then rub the dough with
the oil as well.

I'll put a Llittle cloth on top.

We'll let it rest just
for 15 minutes.

Perfect time to crack on with

the filling for my mini
pastry parcels.

Two eggs go into a bowl,

and then I'm gonna whisk those up

with a little pinch of salt, pepper.

I've got some fresh prawns that
are peeled

and some with their shell on,

but you can use frozen ones if
you prefer.

I'm gonna take the peeled prawns,

slice up like this,
so there's some nice little chunks,

right, about half of it.
And then this part here,

I'm just gonna keep chopping
to make almost like,

a very coarse mousse.

And that with the eggs is gonna be

the basis of our filling.

Now the great thing about these
briks is you can look at this recipe

and you can make it your own.

You can have leftover roast chicken,

you know, you can use it
to carry any flavours

that you've got in your fridge.

A flavour that I love is
lemon, right.

We take a little bit of this zest,
the flavour,

the freshness is in there.

And I'm gonna use the lemon
for added flavour later.

The harissa here,
I wanna do a little tweak.

I'm gonna put some oil in,

and if I just mix it up like that,

you get this incredible ruby red oil.

Maximum flavour, minimum effort.

That'll be a super easy,

drizzly sauce for my crispy parcels.

Let's get to the dough.

Push it down like this,

try and be even.
Use the palms of your hands,

then we're gonna pick it up

and just let gravity do all
the hard work, right?

Can you see how
I can almost stick it there,

and it doesn't move back?

Joy.

Cut them roughly into five or
six-inch squares.

We're gonna get our harissa here.

Here, and here.

Put in the lovely prawn and egg.

Look at that.

And here's the fun bit. So look,
just take the pastry

and gently pull it over like
a little Christmas present.

Beautiful.

Let's have some olive oil into a pan,

just above medium heat.

So, just place them in
the pan like that.

And for extra flavour,

I wanna serve mine up
with some whole prawns too.

Just to make it exciting
and gorgeous.

Look at it sizzling away.

The great thing about this recipe is

the pastry cooks quickly,

the prawns and eggs cook quickly,
all at the same time.

So about two,
two and a half minutes on each side.

So in no time at all, these are done.

Look how sizzling these are.
Golden and delicious.

And then, last but not least,

I wanna take some
of that harissa oil,

and just pour that over the top.

Look at the colour.

We can finish it with
a nice little bit of lemon juice,

and if you've got any herbs,
you know, just take,

you know, some basil, some parsley,

anything delicate. Beautiful.

It's my little take on a brik.

All in that lovely little home-made
pastry

that I know you could do.

Right.

Wow.

Sweet, delicious, elegant.

Punch of fire. Spices.

Lovely, big chunks of prawn
in there, look at that.

Harissa, flecks of lemon.

The pastry is crispy, really crispy.

Beautiful Little mouthful. I love it.

Guys, what are you waiting for?

Get a little bit of Tunisian street
food into your life.

You will not regret it.

I'm continuing my travels around
the Mediterranean

on a mission to find sun,

sea and delicious flavours
to get inspired

and create some dishes for you
to try at home.

What I've learnt so far is
that Tunisian food uses such familiar

Mediterranean ingredients,

but the different way they spice,
fold and chop things

to bring out the best flavour,
really excites me.

The cities are so fantastic
for getting that, you know,

immediate hit, but there's
nothing like just getting in a car

and getting out.
Getting into the countryside.

For the next part of my trip,

I've headed to the country town
of Grombalia.

I'm here to meet an amazing chef
who grew up round here,

and has invited me to join him
for a taste of

the real food scene.

Now, I've been told he's somewhere in
the market,

if I can find it.

SPEAKS FRENCH

This way? Bless him, I just
asked him where the market was

and he's actually showing me.

Sweet man. Thank you, merci.

Er, Chef wafik?

Ah.

LAUGHING
How are you?

What are you doing here?

I'm trying to find you.
How's it going?

Everyone's told me I have
to come and see you...

Everybody is ready...
To introduce me to

the world of Tunisian cooking.

Everybody is ready
and we are preparing some stuff,

all the, the team is in the beach.

Yeah, you got a team? Yes, the team,
the chefs and the,

each, Sunday I make some typical
Tunisian food and,

this time you are with us.

Every week, Wafik and a group
of chef friends

drive to remote locations across
rugged terrain

to cook in the Tunisian countryside.

I'm excited to be with you.
What shall we do now?

We need to buy some,
sausage, some garlic.

Look at the colour of that.

We go to the butcher now.

I love these little kiosks.

He knows everyone. It's hot inside.

Ca va, oui? Hamdullah, Hamdullah.

Look at this. Mate,
I have to take a picture of that.

That is the coolest butcher's shop.
That is a fantastic shot.

Annece's butcher's shop has been in
the family for generations

and was started by
his great-grandfather.

Annece is very famous.
He make, a lot of nice,

merguez. Three kind of sausage.

Oh, really? Yes. Spicy merguez

and smoked merguez
with sun dried mint.

Dried, like, jerk.
Yes, dry, yes. Like jerk, yes.

Yeah, yeah. Actually in the UK,
we love a merguez.

You can get them in many butchers,
but pine nuts sounds fantastic. Yes.

How come there's so many
butcher's shops in this little area?

50 butcher in this area. Really?

Merguez is very famous in all Tunis.

Everybody come to Grombalia to make
merguez.

It's incredible. People travel from
all over to come here to get

the sausage.
That's a lot of love for sausage.

Yes, it's the best, best quality.

I noticed when I drove here,

there were sheep
and goats everywhere.

Yes, it's meat-lover town.

You're, you are 10km from
the sea

and you are a meat-lover town.

And you can order your own merguez.

You give them the recipe,
you can bring your spices.

Like a bespoke.
So instead of a bespoke suit,

you have a bespoke sausage. Bravo...

I love this place.

With enough merguez for a feast,

we're heading to
the nearby beach of Rtiba.

Hidden 2km down
a dirt track

is a stunning beach,

looking out at the crystal blue seas
of the Med.

And I can see why Wafik and the lads

think it's a perfect spot for a
cook up.

How you doing, my friend? Well.

You OK? Good to see you.

These guys call themselves
the Four By Four club

because they need them to drive
to remote locations

to cook in, like this one.

I like picnics, but this is
another level.

But there's no time for enthusiasm.

The guys have already roped me in
to help.

So, chef, this is about the
best kitchen in the world.

What are we cooking?

OK, we make, ojja with,
with merguez.

We have some merguez,
you can cut it.

Ojja is very similar to shakshuka.

I'm your commie chef today.

Which is a North African-style
of poached eggs,

with pepper and onion in
a spicy tomato sauce.

Nice chunks, Chef.
Yes, big one, a big one, yes.

I don't wanna get fired on my
first day.

There is a difference between ojja,
and shakshuka. OK.

Everybody I think in the world,
they know shakshuka,

but ojja, it's typical Tunisian.

In general,
shakshuka is without meat. OK.

But ojja,
we can make it with merguez.

So, basically what we're making is

a sausage braised casserole,
and then at the end,

you're cracking in the egg
to poach them? Yes, yes.

And then, this one, dried merguez.

You can cut small like this
to give more smoky.

Like that? Ah. Jamie,
you are from Tunisia now.

Now I'm in the Four By Four club.
Four By Four club, yes.

So the merguez sausage is no
ordinary sausage, is it?

As we fry this, the fat's coming out,

and the colour's amazing.
What is all that?

Here it's a mixture of
caraway, coriander,

some fennel, paprika and turmeric.

It's not a boring sausage, is it?
There's lots of... No, no, no.

...flavour going on. No, no, lots of
flavour, lots of flavour.

As I'm cooking my ojja,

the chefs are prepping theirs
alongside me.

I'd better up my game.

Now, now we change.

You, you take my place, yeah.

Aye, one, two, three, go.

Ooh.
LAUGHING

Look at the colours, man. So good.

So, Chef, do you consider yourself

to be North African or
Mediterranean? Or both?

We are special.
We are Mediterranean,

we are, from the Sahara,
we are Arabic,

we are, we have a lot of,
lot of variety of influence,

a lot of variety of food,
from the north to the south.

With the eggs left to poach...

This looks amazing.

.For his next dish,

Wwafik has got a little surprise
in store.

Something has happened around.

Something is cook around.

And I haven't got
a clue what he's on about.

What are you up to?

You need to find.
There is something is cooking here.

I don't know where.
You can smell, lamb.

The smell's incredible.

Apparently, buried in the sand
somewhere is koucha,

a lamb stew,

slow-cooked in something called
a gargoulette.

But before I can find it,
I wanna know what it is.

This is the clay pot.

OK. So it's kind of like
a tagine, with a side off.

We put all cold, just to make...
OK, so what is this? Lamb?

Lamb, lot of rosemary,
potatoes, green pepper,

tomato, onion and then to seal this.

What do you do with it? You put it in
the fire, or...? Minimum four hours,

slowly, slowly, slowly,
slow-cooked.

What do you seal it with?
Flour, salt and water.

Like a glue? Yes, like a glue.

In Tunisian cuisine,
we don't use cinnamon,

we don't use ginger. Oh, really?

Yes, we don't use.
For some, one or two dishes.

We are more Mediterranean,

meaning we use a lot of rosemary,
lot of garlic,

lot of onion and some turmeric
and then pure.

OK, we don't add, like in,

Moroccan cuisine, nutmeg or,
olives.

So that'll seal it up, so inside,

it'll cook in the most
incredible way.

All the juices, all the bones,
all the herbs.

But thankfully, we don't have to
wait four hours for this one to cook.

Time to unearth
the one they buried earlier.

Ooh, Look at that.

Ooh!

So the nice thing about this is
everything has been sealed,

steamed, simmering,
intensification of flavour.

Exchange, all the flavour
together inside, boom.

Listen to the sea,
crashing behind me.

Lamb, rosemary, peppers,
onions, beautiful seasoning.

And it's all locked inside there.
Very exciting.

All right, boys. Enough yapping,
let's do it.

I'm gonna buy you guys some tea
towels for your next gig.

All this talking is making me hungry,

but before we taste
the ojja dishes we made earlier,

we've gotta crack this beauty open.

Ready? One, two, three.

whoa! whoa.

Smells extraordinary.
The meat is so tender.

Just falls off the bone.
Look at that. wWahh.

Koucha...

Well, this is a pretty good day out.
Thank you very much. Very special.

Thank you, Jamie.

That is good.

That is the taste of
the Mediterranean, isn't it?

Tomatoes, peppers, potatoes,
slow-cooked meat.

But we're not quite finished yet.

My ojja dish with
the merguez sausages is up next.

OK, you need to know if,
Jamie Oliver passed the cell,

the first level of ojja.

OK. Let's have a little try.

This is my first one.

Ready? Ready, whoop-ah.

That's good.

Those merguez with
the pine nuts are delicious.

They're really a lovely texture,

the spice is really gentle.

Guys, I'm really pleased
to meet you all.

Honestly, thank you so much.
Cheers. Or as they say here, saha.

Saha. Saha. Yallah, yallah!

But the Four By Four lads aren't
done with me yet.

You are welcome.

Ah, come on, man. This is great.

Welcome to the club.

Do I get on my knee?

LAUGHING: No.

Jamie Oliver, today in Rtiba,

welcome to the Chef Tunisian Club.

Thank you.

APPLAUSE, WHISTLING

Come on.
What more do you want in life?

I'm travelling the countries around
the Mediterranean

to get all fired up
with inspiration for simple,

delicious recipes for you
to try at home.

And Tunisia, wow.
What a week it's been.

What I've learned so far about
Tunisian cooking

is that it's got complexity,

it's layered,

it's not predictable,

it's got excitement,
and that excites me.

For the last leg of my journey,

I've headed to the town of Nabeul,

known for that famous spicy
sauce, harissa.

Look at these beautiful spices.

I actually think Tunisian cooking
might be like,

it's undiscovered. I really do,

everyone sort of generalises it
with the Moroccan vibe,

but it's really unique.

I've been told there's a stall here,

famed for its harissa.

Chahida knows everything there is
to know about it,

as her harissa has won loads
of competitions.

Chahida. Hello, monsieur.

How are you? Look at this.

I know nothing about harissa.
I love it.

Can you explain to me
the world of harissa?

Really?

So, she's very famous
for being one of

the best harissa makers in
the country.

So I'm looking forward to try this.

Ooh!

Oh-ho-ho!

It's sweet and smoky and
that is very joyful.

That is definitely
the best harissa I've ever had.

I never thought I'd get to see
harissa made from scratch.

This is great. The seeds have come
out.

What happens next?

Now she's gonna mince it,

but she's also serving customers at
the same time.

I mean, it's chaos but this is
the joy of Tunisia.

And one of the tricks of
her award-winning harissa

is that she puts the dried,
washed peppers

through an old grinder.

Ope, yup. OK. OK.

Voila, voila, Chef.

Look at that. I love the texture,

it's nice and rough and rustic.

Part of the team now.

So, garlic goes in.
In there, she's put caraway seeds,

ground up with a little bit
of coriander seeds.

It smells amazing.

The ground coriander is
very fragrant.

Ah.

Lovely.

Faster, faster. Look at that.

So, that's amazing.
That is my first home-made harissa,

and you can see, it's really dense.

Of course, there's only a small
handful of ingredients in there,

but the basis to
so many delicious dishes.

Now I need to buy some.
Thank you very much. Au revoir.

This week in Tunisia has been
filling my head with ideas.

The flavours, the spices, the smells,

and I'm dying to cook something up,

so I'm gonna use all of that
Tunisian influence with a twist.

Something that you can all make
at home,

and bring a little bit of
Tunisian sunshine to your plates.

Look at this.
Set up my nice little kitchen here.

I've got these fantastic
little kanoons.

They look like flowerpots
but they've got holes

and this is probably one of
the oldest kind of

man-made mobile kitchens that
we know of.

You know, by the Berbers,
they were very nomadic.

They'd have mobile cookers
so that's what I've done,

in the spirit of Tunisia.

And I'm getting into the vibe
with a recipe

for her by chicken,
beans and spicy merguez stew.

Packed with Tunisian flavour,

even without a Berber cooker.

Just a simple frying pan'll do.

I've wanted to do
a dish that is just very simple.

Five ingredients.

I wanna take the humble chicken on
a holiday to Tunisia,

with the merguez sausages.

You know, the fact that I went
to that area where

all the butchers were

and they make all those different
types of merguez, fantastic.

And wherever you buy merguez,

one thing is guaranteed - they are
stuffed full of flavour,

perfect for this stew.

And beautiful, sweet onions,
bay leaves,

and a jar or tin

of beautiful mixed beans that
you can get everywhere.

Anyone can do this.

So look, think of that as like
a stewing pot.

We're gonna put some beautiful
Tunisian olive oil

in the pan,

and we're gonna fry the onions first.

So just slice them up roughly.

Onions go into the oil

and we wanna bring out
their sweetness.

Let's get some basic seasoning
happening.

Salt and pepper.

And while the onion softens,

I'm jointing my chicken into
eight pieces,

but you can buy it in pieces,

or ask your butcher to do it for you.

Time for a quick clean down,
and once that's done,

it's all about the marinade.

So I'm gonna use bay. We're
gonna take like, ten, at least.

And we're gonna turn this
quite robust,

you know,
woody herb into the most delicious

green marinade.
So get some salt in there.

Give it a good old pounding

and a muddle,

and then I'm gonna go in
with some lovely Tunisian olive oil

and as soon as you start
to muddle it,

the colour is extraordinary.

And it could be lemon juice,

or it could be vinegar, right.

You turn it from a marinade into
a kind of salsa.

And look at the colour of this.

The acidity in the herbs
will flavour and tenderise the meat,

and I won't use all of it.
I'll keep some back for later.

Before I add the meat
to this pot, I'm gonna blacken it.

This is what's gonna give
extraordinary flavour.

I'm doing this on a barbecue,
but at home,

you can do it in a pan on
a high heat.

Just get some golden colour going.

So, I do the thighs,
drumsticks and the wings first.

Get them nice and golden, right.

They take a little longer
to cook than the breast meat.

So look, back to the onion.

So the onions are really sweet now,

so I'm gonna push them to one side.

By doing that, naturally,

the fat will start to go to one side.

Then we go in with
the merguez sausages.

They're gonna release all their
beautiful flavours

into this gorgeous casserole.

It may be smoky,
but that smoke equals flavour.

That's what the Tunisian cooking's
all about.

When you're walking round
the streets,

you can smell what's cooking.

Absolutely brilliant. Look at
the colour coming out the merguez!

The oil starts to go orange.

They give such a big flavour.
That's why I love it.

So, stir in a few nice bay leaves.

Now I've got some colour on
this chicken,

I'm gonna move it to the sausages

and just place it in and around.

Look at that. Ohh.

It's starting to get sticky now.

One little tip that I love
to do is take one of the sausages

and bust it up,

and it just releases more of
the spice

and kind of helps to create
a slightly thicker sauce.

Then nestle in the rest of
the chargrilled chicken.

Everywhere you go in Tunisia,

you're gonna see beans celebrated

in all their beauty and glory.

I've got a mixed bean selection here.

Just simply mix that up

and then we're gonna let that
tick away

and simmer it for about half
an hour, maybe 40 minutes,

but basically, it's cooked when
the leg meat falls off the bone.

When that happens,
we're ready to serve.

Beautiful.

So it's had about 35 minutes
of cooking.

It smells incredible.

So we'll go in first of all with
the lovely beans.

Gorgeous.

Let's go for a little bit
of breast meat there

and a nice little bit of leg.

So remember,
we used those gorgeous bay leaves

to make that lovely
marinade-cum-sauce.

Well, look, at this point,
I can take that little last bit,

put it over the top.

Get myself some nice little breads.

Just heat them up,

just a little bit.

If I show you the inside of
the chicken,

see how pearly white that is.

Look at that.

Absolutely gorgeous.

So, oh, no, I forgot my bread.

No, why am I always burning my bread?

You didn't see that. I do it at home,

and I do it in Tunisia,
it doesn't matter.

What a beautiful dish,
full of colour,

full of joy. Let's have a little try.

Mm.

Wowzers. Smoky.

Those merguez sausages completely,

like, ramped up
the everyday chicken stew

and taken it to the next level.

I love the way

the beans have absorbed all that
flavour as well.

Absolutely delicious.

So there you go.

A little bit of inspiration

to take your everyday chicken to
the next level,

Tunisian-style.

What you waiting for?

So, Tunisia, wow.

It threw me a whole bunch
of surprises.

So much inspiration.
You go down the markets,

it's just like an assault of
the senses,

in a really good way.

It's got everything that we love
about the Mediterranean,

but then a little twist.

A little kind of right hook
of surprise.

Yeah, I'm chuffed.
I'm full up, I wanna go home now,

think about all these
beautiful memories

and I know it's gonna change my
cooking forever. Amazing.

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