Briouat

Small triangular pastries folded like a flag and fried, where the last fold is sealed with flour paste rather than water.

Beef, Lamb, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains beef, lamb.

Ingredients

For the filling

• 400 g minced lamb or beef
• 2 onions, very finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 bunch parsley, chopped
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper

To fold and fry

• 12 sheets warqa or filo pastry
• 3 tablespoons plain flour mixed with 3 tablespoons water, to seal
• 1 litre flavourless oil, for frying
• honey and sesame seeds, optional

Method

1. THE LAST FOLD IS SEALED WITH FLOUR PASTE, NOT WATER. Water softens pastry and the flap lifts in the oil; a thick paste of flour and water glues it and sets in the heat. An unsealed briouat opens, the filling comes out and the oil has to be strained and started again.
2. THE FILLING IS COOKED AND COOLED AND BOUND WITH EGG. Raw mince inside pastry fried for four minutes is raw mince when it comes out; the egg is what holds the cooked filling together so it does not spill at the first bite.
3. FOLDED LIKE A FLAG, which is the only shape that gives three layers at every face: a strip of pastry, a spoon of filling at one end, then corner over corner down the whole length, each fold making a triangle.
4. Oil in a pan, onions softened 10 minutes.
5. Mince in, broken up and fried hard 8 minutes until browned and dry. Spices, salt and pepper.
6. Off the heat, parsley through, and COOLED COMPLETELY.
7. The beaten eggs stirred into the cold filling. Into warm filling they scramble.
8. Flour and water mixed to a thick paste.
9. Pastry cut into strips about 8 cm wide and the full length of the sheet. KEPT UNDER A DAMP CLOTH -- it dries and cracks in about three minutes.
10. A heaped teaspoon of filling at one end of a strip. The corner folded over it diagonally to make a triangle, then folded over and over down the strip, keeping the triangle shape.
11. The last 2 cm smeared with flour paste and pressed down firmly.
12. Oil to 170C. Six at a time, 3 to 4 minutes, turned once, until deep gold and blistered.
13. Drained on a rack. Eaten hot, or dipped briefly in warm honey and rolled in sesame for the sweet-savoury version.

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 Morocco · All recipes