Karantika ( ar, كارنتيكا) is an iconic Algerian

street food Street food is ready-to-eat food or drinks sold by a hawker, or vendor, in a street or at other public places, such as markets or fairs. It is often sold from a portable food booth, food cart, or food truck and is meant for immediate consumpt ...

sold throughout

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street vendors A hawker is a vendor of merchandise that can be easily transported; the term is roughly synonymous with costermonger or peddler. In most places where the term is used, a hawker sells inexpensive goods, handicrafts, or food items. Whether statio ...

. It has similarities to

pies A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), sweet ...

pancakes A pancake (or hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack) is a flat cake, often thin and round, prepared from a starch-based batter that may contain eggs, milk and butter and cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle or frying pan, often frying w ...

, and

flans Flans are an all-female Mexican music group, which enjoyed popularity from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. Its members were the singers Ivonne Margarita Guevara García, Ilse María Olivo Schweinfurth and Irma Angélica Hernández Ochoa. Th ...

and consists of a chickpea batter topped with beaten egg and baked, and is served with

harissa Harissa ( ar, هريسة ''harīsa'', from Maghrebi Arabic) is a hot chili pepper paste, native to the Maghreb. The main ingredients are roasted red peppers, Baklouti peppers (), spices and herbs such as garlic paste, caraway seeds, coriander ...

and cumin either hot on bread as a sandwich, or sliced into squares. It originated in and remains a specialty of Oran, where it was first introduced by Spanish invaders in the 16th century, and was spread throughout Algeria during the French occupation of the country. The dish is also served in restaurants and made in homes and even riched neighboring countries like Morocco in the past years due to the influence of the Algerian cuisine channels on the Maghreb region.

Etymology

The dish is known by many names, including al-hami and valentina; spellings in English may include garantita, karantita, karane, kalantita, quaratita, kalentica, karentita, and caran. The name is derived from caliantetorta, roughly "hot tart" in Spanish or from calantita, "hot". The dish is referred to in Algeria as "the protector", a play on words in the Western Algerian dialect.

History

The dish is of Hispanic- Oran origin and can also be found in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

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and other European countries with large Algerian populations as well as in

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

due to the Algerian Cuisine channels influence on Morocco. It was introduced in Oran by Spanish invaders and remains a specialty of the area. According to some histories, the dish was introduced in Oran during the Ottoman siege of Oran's Spanish garrison during the 16th and 17th century Spanish occupation of Oran when dried chickpeas and chickpea flour were the only foodstuffs readily available. During the French occupation of Algeria in the 1800s, the Spanish settled in Algeria and spread the dish throughout the country. Originally it was a

poverty food A famine food or poverty food is any inexpensive or readily available food used to nourish people in times of hunger and starvation, whether caused by extreme poverty, such as during economic depression or war, or by natural disasters such as ...

but eventually became popular throughout Algerian society. According to ''

The New Arab ''The New Arab'' or ''Al-Araby Al-Jadeed'' ( ar, العربي الجديد) is a pan-Arab news website headquartered in London. It was first launched in March 2014 as an online news website by Qatari company Fadaat Media. It went on to establish ...

'', the dish is an iconic Algerian street food.

Ingredients, preparation, and serving

The dish is based on unroasted

chickpea flour Gram flour or kadala maavu is a pulse flour made from a variety of ground chickpea called Bengal gram or ''kaala chana''. It is a staple ingredient in the cuisine of the Indian subcontinent, including in Indian, Bangladeshi, Burmese, Nepali ...

, oil, and water mixed to form a liquid batter, which is rested to hydrate the flour, topped with beaten egg and baked. It is served hot on bread or as cut slices, often with harissa and cumin. The dish is present throughout the country as a street food sold by vendors and is also made in homes and restaurants.

Similar dishes

Similar dishes are found throughout the Mediterranean coast. * Calentita, the national dish of Gibralter * Caliente, a Moroccan dish *

Farinata Farinata (), socca (), torta di ceci (), or cecina () is a type of thin, unleavened pancake or crêpe made from chickpea flour. It originated in Italy and later became a typical food of the Ligurian Sea coast, from Nice to Sardinia and Elba isla ...

Notes

References

Algerian cuisine Chickpea dishes Pancakes Sandwiches Street food {{Food-stub