Traditionally made to break the long day’s fast during Ramadan, Fatma told us that these eponymous little Tunisian egg rolls are one of her favorite parts of the holiday. She likes them made with tuna and capers, which is an unexpected — and delicious — combination, and I found some recipes that use a ground beef blend, so I adapted one of those for my version.
The original recipe calls for a wrapper they call “brick,” which is somewhere between a won ton wrapper and phyllo dough in thickness. In practice, we found that won ton or lumpia wrappers are perfectly satisfactory. Also, the recipe Fatma sent us called for baking, rather than deep-frying the rolls, and we found that they were completely delicious that way.
Prepare or purchase:
Won ton wrappers
Put in a skillet:
15 ml olive oil
120 ml onion, finely diced
225 ml potato, finely diced (3 mm)
500 g ground beef
45 ml fresh chopped parsley
15 ml ras al hanout spice blend
5 ml berebere spice blend
5 ml salt
Fry over medium-low heat until meat is cooked, and potatoes and onions are soft. Set aside to cool.
Prepare baking sheets with baking parchment, and preheat the oven to 240 C.
Melt in a small bowl:
30 ml of butter
Take a wrapper and brush it with butter. Add a generous spoonful of the meat mixture about 2 cm from one edge, and fold that edge over the filling. Fold in the ends and continue rolling the wrapper tightly around the filling. Repeat until all filling is used. Place each roll on the baking sheet, leaving at least 1 cm between them.
Beat with a fork:
2 eggs
Brush the egg over the rolls generously. Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until the rolls are nicely browned and crisp.
Tuna Alternative:
Make the filling with:
225 ml potatoes, boiled for 20 minutes and then diced finely
350 ml canned tuna, broken into small pieces
120 ml onion, finely diced and sautéed until soft in 15 ml of olive oil
45 ml of fresh chopped parsley
225 ml capers