les briks au thon

served as a either a snack, light supper or lunch, les briks au thon (spicy tuna enclosed in thin pastry) is a popular, muslim and jewish, north african item which is much loved. they can be made very mild or quite spicy, the latter requiring the essential harissa. what makes them unique is the use of diced preserved lemons which are tangy in addition to being somewhat sour and salty.

essential to making them is the round thin pastry sheets called brik which can usually be bought at markets catering to middle eastern food and/or sephardic jewish clientele. they are larger than a dinner plate and have a thicker texture than that of phyllo. in the absence of availability of brik, one can use spring roll wrappers but the brik will have to be shaped differently and much smaller than shown below. if using spring roll wrappers, i'd suggest using hard boiled eggs which have been chopped rather than the whole raw egg as it just wont fit in a spring roll wrapper properly.

brik take no time to make once your filling ingredients are ready. the way i cook them uses very little oil and they are ready in only a few minutes with quite decent results.


brik au thon

spicy hot harissa, sour preserved lemons, salty wrinkled black moroccan olives and several briny capers, along with the simple addition of some tuna and an egg make a wonderful filling — all encased in a crispy wrapper. serve with some wedges of lemon and perhaps extra harissa if you're daring, this makes a light delicious meal or snack.

makes 2

ingredients:

3 sheets brik pastry, 2 whole & 1 cut in half
1 can tuna, packed in oil or water
1 wedge preserved lemon
several moroccan (wrinkled type) black olives or kalamata
1 tbsp capers in brine or salt (washed well)
1/4 onion, chopped small
parsley leaves, whole or chopped
harissa paste, to taste
1 egg per brik
salt and pepper

egg wash, optional (not necessary in my opinion)

method:

prepare the lemon and chop the olives. make egg wash, if using.

place the ingredients on a plate near your workspace.

in a LARGE non stick frypan, add 2 to 3 tbsp vegetable or regular olive oil and heat over medium heat. the pan must be hot when you add the brik or it will suck up a lot of oil.

with the pan heating, cut 1 sheet of brik in half. place 1/2 a sheet in the middle of 1 full sheet as shown below. this is done so as to make a more stable wrapper — think of it as an insurance once you bend the brick over. if the brik is slightly dry, it will snap and leave a spot where it may seep. it also prevents the filling from cooking too quickly before the rest of the pastry is fried.

place the tuna, preserved lemon, olives, onions and capers in the center of the pastry.

add salt and pepper to taste and harissa paste. you can add the parsley, too.

make a little well and carefully break a whole egg, pouring it in the little well.

if using the egg wash, paint a semi-circle around the top edge. i don't use any as the pastry will seal itself with the heat when frying. if your new to this then use the egg wash.

carefully transfer the pastry to the hot pan and cook each side for 3 to 4 minutes. it should be golden brown on each side.

if you like your egg a little runny then cook for 3 minutes per side.

serve with wedges of lemon.

enjoy!

kitchen essentials — how to prepare cured citrons confits

in an earlier posting, i showed how to prepare north african preserved lemons or les citrons confits. after their month long preservation, they are ready to use — unless you use the quicker 7 day method which, i guess, is good in a pinch. they are at their best after resting at least a month however, and improve with time.

in order to use these little flavour-packed lemons, they must be washed off well with warm or hot water.

once well rinsed, place them on a cutting board and remove the pulp. some people keep it, removing the seeds, however i much prefer just the softened cured rind.

after discarding the pulp, cut the lemon rind into long strips the size you need them.

cut each of the strips into a dice whose dimensions are called for in your recipe.

voilà, they are now ready to use.

enjoy!

eid sayeed

as my friends today celebrate the ending of their month-long fasting of ramadan — and i thought the yom kippur fast was brutal — they attend services this morning to celebrate the eid al-fitr. it is their celebration of the breaking of the fast. more about the celebration here and here.

there will be a gi-normous celebration at our olympic stadium [at least it's being used for something — an inside (montreal) joke].

this celebration usually will go on for three days with gift giving and lots of eating. this is a gift from my friend.

i am rationing out eating these delicious bakhla'wa. trust me, i can polish them off in one sitting, if forced. ;p .... these are only a few of the ones i received.

to get a glimpse & idea of the variety of these mouthwatering pastries that are available, visit this parisian tunisian site which shows you a grand selection. the website is in french. don't worry, just look at the pictures. ...umm, i'll take a dozen of each, s'il vous plaît!

eid mubarak!