Tunisia’s Extravagant Dessert Came with a Famine
By Ali Znaidi
Assida zgougou decorated with ground nuts, including some pine nuts, the dessert’s main ingredient. Photo courtesy Nizarus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
It was dawn. Loud prayers of praise and adoration for God and His prophet Mohamed were emanating from mosques. A mining town in southwest Tunisia, Redeyef was wrapped in mystic beauty and holy rituals, giving a chance for the mind to free itself and settle, and the body to savor delights of every kind. It was the Mouled, the celebration of Prophet Mohamed’s birthday.
I woke up but stayed in my bed listening to the prayers, waiting for my mother to add the final touches to the assida, so every member of the family could enjoy a piece of the celebration. I called out to my mother, who was still in the kitchen, that there’s a story behind this uniquely Tunisian dish cherished by families throughout the country.
A few hours later, after the dish had been served to all the family members, she asked me about its origins.
Without hesitation, I smiled and said, “A famine!”
She laughed.
“Okay, Mom, the funny side of the story is that this dish appeared during the drought period that followed the revolution of Ali Ben Ghedhahem in 1864 against the Bey [the monarch of Tunisia] who raised the mejba [poll taxes] to pay foreign creditors, mainly Europeans,” I said.
I went on to explain that during this revolt, according to historians, the whole country was almost destroyed, which led to famine for three years. This pushed people to eat roots, herbs and even dry grasses. Some found Aleppo pine seeds a good substitute for the acute shortage of grains, wheat, barley and maize. The residents of the northwest made flour from the seeds and hence have been able to make delicious food with little cost. They came up with zgougou as a colloquial term for it.
The consumption of zgougou stopped with the end of the famine. The residents of Tunis and other big cities were unwilling and ashamed to consume it, because it was associated with poverty.
But the 1970s witnessed a growing drive among Tunisians to consume it as a dessert. This trend spread among richer families, becoming ironically an indication of social prestige, due to its high cost.
Thus, habits changed, and residents of big cities exchanged roles with rural residents who consume assida bidha (white porridge) instead of the now-expensive assida zgougou. Assida bidha is a porridge mainly inherited from the indigenous Berber people of Ifriqiya (Tunisia, western Libya and eastern Algeria). It varies depending on the type of semolina used, be it extracted from wheat, barley or maize.
Before toppings are added, assida zgougou is a humble pudding. Photo courtesy Nizarus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Assida zgougou was and is still typically Tunisian, rarely found outside the country, but in Turkey, Aleppo pine seeds may be used to make a malt drink called boza.
Harvest of Aleppo pine seeds is a dangerous operation. First, people must climb the Aleppo pines to cut the cones that carry the seeds. The risk increases when extracting seeds from the cones using traditional ovens due to the intensity of heat. This tough and tiring work is done mostly by around 3,000 seasonal workers, mainly from poor families who camp in the mountains for about six months, to earn some extra money to make ends meet.
The Aleppo pine forests extend over an area of 300,000 hectares in northwest Tunisia, primarily in the governorates of Kef, Siliana and Kasserine, with Siliana considered the most important production and storage center, producing 60 tons annually. It should also be noted that 100 kilograms of Aleppo pinecones can yield 3 kilograms of seeds.
Perhaps these difficulties in harvesting zgougou have limited the widespread of assida and prevented it from growing in greater prominence and having a world reach. It’s also not easy to make.
I asked my mother about the recipe, and she told me it isn’t complicated, but it’s a bit tiring. Here’s the recipe she shared:
500 grams of zgougou
1½ liters water
400 grams of flour
200 grams of sugar
1 can of condensed milk
½ liter of milk
1 vanilla sugar packet
1 cup of orange blossom water
For decorating:
2 cream pudding packets, sweets, dragées, cashew nuts, ground coconuts, walnuts, raw almonds, blanched almonds, ground almonds, raw pistachios, and ground pistachios.
Instructions:
Clean and rinse zgougou and leave it to dry under the sunlight.
Mill it with a hand grinder or wooden mortar and pestle several times.
Mix the ground zgougou and water and leave the mixture for an entire night in a covered pot. Sift the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl to get a juicy substance. Add flour and maize starch to it.
Put the mixture on stove at low heat and stir continuously. When the mixture curdles, add milk and condensed milk, while continuing to stir. Add sugar, vanilla sugar and orange blossom water gradually until you get a thick creamy substance. Pour the assida in small bowls or glasses.
While waiting for the assida to cool down, prepare the pudding mix: Mix milk, sugar and cream pudding and put the mixture on stove and stir continuously until it curdles. Put a layer of this pudding mix over each glass or bowl of assida. Finally, decorate the assida with nuts, dried fruits and sweets.
Decorated with nuts, dried fruits, and a carnival of diverse sweets, assida zgougou will definitely impress not only with its visual impact, but also with all its delicious flavors and fragrant aromas. Many consume it in an atmosphere enveloped with fragrant wafts of incense and benzoin resin, which adds to its charms. What was eaten as sustenance during three years of famine has now taken a festive character and twist.
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