My favorite snack : Tunisian Fricassee

Ahhh the Tunisian fricassee… the star of snacks in Tunisia. A little hungry, don't look around: there will always be a street vendor of fricassee on a street corner in Tunisia. For 500 millimes (25 euro cents), you will have the pleasure of tasting this delicacy whether typically Tunisian, hot or cold.

Tunisian fricassee is a kind of savory donut, made from well-leavened bread dough. It should be cooked over medium heat, so as not to be overcooked from the outside, and raw from the inside.

When I was little, my mother used to prepare them for us especially during the month of Ramadan, and she made them with extra fine semolina: they are just as soft as those made with flour, but more filling. Our family is from central Tunisia, and in the countryside extra-fine semolina is used more than flour, which will be preferred by Tunisians living on the coasts.

I have chosen to offer you the recipe for flour-based fricassees because they are much easier to make.

Then the stuffing is always done with harissa. Some will add mechouia salad, others will not. There are also tuna, olives, potatoes (in cubes or fries) ... In reality, you put what you want. My daughter is too small to eat harissa, so sometimes I use tomato sauce, and sometimes mayonnaise (I know, that's heresy ^^).

BUT when I tell you that it's good, it's really beyond that, it's soft, hot, delicious ... Imagine a salty, hot, and stuffed donut, and you will still be far from reality 🙂 Tunisian fricassees are known around the world, and believe me, they well deserve their reputation.

Try the recipe, and tell me what you thought of it.

INGREDIENTS

• 500 g flour
• 1 egg
• 25 g of fresh yeast or 1 sachet of baker's yeast
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• frying oil
• stuffing (harissa, tuna, hard-boiled eggs, boiled potato cubes)

PREPARATION

• Knead the ingredients with lukewarm water until you form a ball of dough, for 5 minutes.
• Shape into small lemon-sized balls. Let rise in a warm place for an hour.
• Fry these small balls of dough, without kneading them again, over medium heat to cook the inside well, for 5 to 10 minutes, until you obtain fricassees nicely golden.
• Let cool a little, then stuff.
• For the stuffing, we put harissa, tuna, diced boiled potatoes and egg wedges. You can optionally add pitted olives.
• To taste hot (or cold, it's not bad too!), Enjoy your meal!