Brik Danouni

A semolina dough rather than filo, so it is soft and substantial where the filo one shatters.

Fish, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

the dough

• 400 g fine semolina
• 100 g plain flour
• 250 ml warm water
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 7 g fast-action dried yeast
• 8 g salt

the filling

• 4 potatoes, boiled and crushed
• 200 g tinned tuna in oil, drained
• 1 onion, finely chopped and softened
• 2 tablespoons harissa
• 2 tablespoons capers
• a handful of parsley, chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground caraway
• 2 eggs, hard-boiled and chopped
• salt and black pepper

to finish

• 4 tablespoons olive oil, for brushing
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Method

1. IT IS A SEMOLINA DOUGH RATHER THAN FILO, so it is soft and substantial where the filo one shatters. Its own description puts it exactly this way -- unlike the more common brik, which is wrapped in thin malsouka sheets, this is made with a semolina-based dough that is mixed, proved and rolled. The result is a different object altogether: a soft, slightly chewy filled pastry closer to a stuffed flatbread, which can be baked as well as fried and which keeps for a day where the filo version has a life of about four minutes.
2. THE FILLING IS COOKED AND COLD AND CONTAINS NO RAW EGG. Boiled crushed potato, tuna, softened onion, chopped hard-boiled egg. This is the other half of the difference: the filo brik is built around a raw egg that must stay runny, and here the egg is boiled and chopped through the filling. There is no race against a yolk, which is why these can be made in advance and in quantity.
3. THE DOUGH IS SEMOLINA-LED AND IS KNEADED HARD. Four hundred grams of fine semolina to a hundred of flour. Semolina has little gluten, so the small amount of wheat flour and a good twelve minutes of kneading are what make it hold together when rolled thin and filled.
4. IT IS RESTED TWICE -- ONCE AS DOUGH AND ONCE SHAPED. An hour to prove, then twenty minutes after the parcels are made. Semolina keeps absorbing water, and a dough rolled straight after mixing cracks at the edges as it is folded round the filling.
5. THE POTATO IS CRUSHED, NOT MASHED SMOOTH. With a fork, leaving lumps. A smooth mash gives a filling with a pasty, uniform texture; crushed potato stays recognisable against the tuna.
6. THEY ARE BRUSHED WITH OIL AND SESAMED, AND CAN BE BAKED OR FRIED. Baked at 200°C for twenty-five minutes, or shallow-fried. Baking is the version worth making at home in quantity, and the sesame on top is what makes it look like itself.
7. THEY ARE SEALED BY PRESSING AND CRIMPING, NOT BY WETTING. A semolina dough is tacky enough to seal under pressure, and a fork crimp round the edge both seals and marks it.
8. The semolina, flour, yeast and salt mixed with the warm water and oil and KNEADED HARD 12 MINUTES.
9. Covered and proved 1 HOUR.
10. The potatoes boiled and CRUSHED WITH A FORK, leaving lumps.
11. Mixed with the tuna, softened onion, harissa, capers, parsley, caraway, chopped hard-boiled EGG and seasoning. COOLED.
12. The dough divided into 8 and each rolled to a round about 16 cm.
13. Filling on one half, the other folded over, the edge PRESSED and CRIMPED WITH A FORK. Not wetted.
14. RESTED 20 MINUTES on lined trays.
15. Brushed with olive oil and scattered with sesame seeds.
16. Baked at 200°C for 25 MINUTES, until golden.
17. TESTED: the pastry should be soft and chewy rather than flaky, and none should have split. Cracked edges mean the dough was not rested.
18. Good warm or cold; keeps a day.

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 Tunisia · All recipes