Fricassé

The roll is deep-fried rather than baked, so the crumb stays dense and takes the filling without falling apart.

Fish, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

the rolls

• 500 g strong white flour
• 280 ml warm water
• 7 g fast-action dried yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 10 g salt
• 3 tablespoons olive oil

to fry

• 1 litre sunflower oil

the filling

• 4 potatoes, boiled and crushed
• 200 g tinned tuna in oil, drained
• 4 eggs, hard-boiled and sliced
• 3 tablespoons harissa
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 16 black olives
• 1 preserved lemon, chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground caraway
• olive oil
• salt

Method

1. THE ROLL IS DEEP-FRIED RATHER THAN BAKED, so the crumb stays dense and takes the filling without falling apart. A plain yeasted dough is shaped into small torpedoes, proved, and then deep-fried -- not baked. Frying sets the outside into a thin chewy skin and leaves the inside close-textured and slightly damp, which is exactly what is wanted in a roll that will be split and loaded with oily tuna, crushed potato and harissa. A baked roll of the same dough has an open airy crumb that soaks through and collapses in the hand within a minute.
2. THEY ARE SHAPED SMALL AND POINTED. Eight or nine centimetres, tapering at both ends. The shape is how they are recognised and it is also practical: a small dense roll holds its filling and is eaten in three or four bites standing up.
3. THE OIL IS AT 170°C, NOT HOTTER. These are thicker than a pastry and need five or six minutes to cook through to the middle. At 190°C the outside is dark before the centre is baked, and a raw-centred fricassé is unpleasant.
4. THEY ARE PROVED ONLY UNTIL PUFFY. Thirty minutes. An over-proved roll inflates in the oil into a hollow shell that crumples when it is filled -- the dense crumb is the point, so a modest prove is correct.
5. THEY ARE SPLIT WHILE WARM BUT FILLED COLD. Split along the top as they come out so the steam escapes, then left to cool before filling. Filled hot, the harissa oil runs straight through the crumb.
6. PRESERVED LEMON IS WHAT MAKES IT, AND IT IS CHOPPED FINE. A whole one. Against tuna, potato and harissa it provides the sharp salty note that stops the whole thing being heavy. Left out, this is a fried roll with tuna mayonnaise energy and none of its character.
7. EVERYTHING IS LAYERED IN RATHER THAN MIXED TO A PASTE. Crushed potato first, then tuna, then sliced egg, then olives, capers and preserved lemon, with harissa smeared on the bread itself. Mashed together into one filling it eats as a single note.
8. The flour, yeast, sugar and salt mixed with the warm water and olive oil, kneaded 10 MINUTES and risen 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES.
9. Divided into 8 and shaped into small POINTED torpedoes about 9 cm long.
10. Proved 30 MINUTES ONLY, until just puffy.
11. The oil heated to 170°C and the rolls DEEP-FRIED SUBMERGED, 5 to 6 MINUTES, turned, to a deep gold.
12. Drained, SPLIT along the top while warm, and left to COOL.
13. Each split roll smeared inside with harissa, then LAYERED with crushed potato, tuna, sliced egg, olives, capers and chopped preserved lemon.
14. A little olive oil drizzled in and salted.
15. TESTED: broken open, the crumb should be close and dense rather than airy. A hollow shell means it over-proved.
16. Eaten at once, in the hand.

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