Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 1 lb of dry white beans, soaked overnight – you can use cannellini, great northern, navy, etc. – TFD prefers cannellini
- 1 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 pound baby spinach, trimmed and washed
- 1 onion, minced
- 6 cloves garlic, mashed
- 1 1/2 lbs beef, TFD strongly prefers beef cheek, but fatty beef shank works as well
- 1/2 pound merguez sausage, whole
- 1 calf’s foot, quartered (optional but it helps contribute to the pkaïla’s overall smoothness and flavor)
- 1 recipe of Hirshon Green Tunisian Harissa + 2 extra teaspoons freshly-ground cumin, an addition of 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, coarsely chopped and an addition of 1/2 teaspoon dried Persian lime powder
- 2 tbsp. Tunisian rose petal harissa (optional but strongly recommended)
- 3 1 1/2 “ thick pieces of bone marrow (optional but strongly recommended)
- kosher salt
Instructions
- Chop fresh spinach (or use frozen chopped spinach). Cook over medium heat in Dutch oven and stir quite regularly with a wooden spoon. Once spinach is almost done with releasing steam, start adding oil. Continue to stir and add oil fairly regularly (for about 1 to 1½ hours) until color turns black but spinach is not burnt.
- Drain the spinach to extract the oil. Sauté the garlic, onion, harissa, the cow’s (or calf’s) foot, the beef in this oil for a few minutes. Then add the beans, spinach, salt, pepper and cover with water.
- Simmer covered on low heat for at least 2 to 3 hours or until the meat is tender. Add the green harissa and optional rose harissa 30 minutes before the end of cooking.
- Prep Time: 0 hours
- Cook Time: 0 hours
