Fricassee – Traditional fried bread from Tunisia 1

Fricassees are a traditional dish from Tunisia. Marie makes them every now and then for me as a treat. They are the real Tunisian sandwich before modern health consciousness replaced the fried bread with baguettes. This is just the recipe for the bread. The filling is the same as in any Tunisian sandwich, i.e. tuna, Israeli salad, hummus, olives, capers, boiled eggs, and some optional stuff.

Tunisian Sandwich in Friccassees

Fricassee - Traditional fried bread from Tunisia

Traditional fried bread from Tunisia. Packed with flavour and with calories.

Ingredients
  

  • 10 grams active dried yeast
  • 1/2 cup tepid water
  • 400 grams flour
  • 1 egg
  • 3 tablespoons of oil
  • a bit of salt
  • Oil for frying

Instructions
 

  • Stir together yeast, water and 1 tablespoon of flour in a bowl.
  • Leave until bubbly (about 10 minutes)
  • Add in all other ingredients
  • Mix together for five minutes
  • Shape into small buns
  • Leave to rise until doubled in size
  • Deep fry in hot oil until golden

Notes

Marie just mixed all ingredients together for five minutes. Since I use Active Dried Yeast, which come in hard granules, I've included a yeast activation step.
Adapted from Marie Haviv
Marie does everything in a large metal bowl. It all starts with yeast and water.

Yeast and water

Yeast and water

The dough doesn’t leave the bowl until she has shaped the buns. So all kneading is in the same bowl.

Kneading in bowl

Kneading in bowl

More kneading

More kneading

More kneading

More kneading

More kneading

More kneading

The result of all that kneading is, of course, a dough ball.

Dough ball

Dough ball

Shaping the buns

Shaping the buns

Marie pinches off a piece of dough and shapes it into a fat sausage shape.

Shaping the buns

Shaping the buns

The recipes makes a lot of buns. In Israel Marie just has to leave them covered on the kitchen table and they will rise. Not so easy in the UK.

Leave buns to rise

Leave buns to rise

Leave buns to rise

Leave buns to rise

Leave buns to rise covered

Leave buns to rise covered

Then fry the buns until golden. Marie does two or three at a time.

Fry the buns until golden

Fry the fricasee

Fry the fricasee

Remove from oil and set aside

Remove from oil and set aside

Assembling the Tunisian Sandwich is a team effort. We had a bit of a production line going on.

Fill the buns - bit of a production line going on here

Fill the buns – bit of a production line going on here

Takes a while to fill the buns

Takes a while to fill the buns

But worth the effort. Delicious.

Tuck into Tunisian Sandwich inside a Fricasee

Tuck into Tunisian Sandwich inside a Fricasee

One comment on “Fricassee – Traditional fried bread from Tunisia

  1. Reply C Dec 31,2015 1:39 am

    delicious and they came out perfect!!

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