A increasingly long time ago, when I was in college, in an effort to get creative for a class project, I decided to tackle the making of some tunisian tastiness, and document the process through photos. . . but first I had to know,
What on earth should I make?
After my college self (see right) buckled down and did a little bit of research, there seemed to be many different options, all of which could be difficult to pull off successfully in my lovely-yet-decidedly-lacking-in-the-culinary-department apartment.
Digging a little deeper, I discovered the existence of something called “Brik”. What is it? Well, it’s basically egg, onion, tuna, parsely, and some other spices, all wrapped up in pastry and fried into warm goodness. Like: slightly-less-than-healthy little protein pockets. It sounded tasty, and (more importantly) reasonably uncomplicated. So, with an apartment full of stressed out seniors, a deadline looming mere hours away, and an online recipe to guide me, I set about making some delicious brik of my own in our tiny windowless kitchen.
You will need:
- 1 can of tuna (6oz)
- ¼ cup chopped Scallions or Cilantro
- ¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil plus additional for brushing
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 egg white
- 1 tablespoon water
- About 3 cups vegetable oil (for frying brik)
- 6 (8-inch-square) spring-roll wrappers
- 6 whole eggs (I hard boiled them!)
The first step is to drain the tuna and then mash it together with the scallions, olive oil, salt, pepper, and parsely. This is going to be your filling for the Brik.
Next, in a side cup, mix together the egg white and the water. After this, it is important to begin heating the vegetable oil in a heavy skillet (a thermometer should read 350 degrees Fahrenheit!). While it’s all heating up, lay out the lovely egg-roll wraps, and prepare to form some BRIK! You want to put a little olive oil on the inside, then put a small bit of the tuna mixture in the very center. This is the point when you also add in your half-hard-boiled-egg, before folding. You can do this with raw egg, too, but it kind of freaked me out, so hard-boiled it was!
Use the egg-white&water mixture to help seal up the edges (paint it in a square around the outer edge before starting to fold the beauties). Then fry these in the oil about 2 at a time, approximately 1 minute per side, until they’re golden and beautiful.
You can keep these brik in the oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit until it’s time to serve them, because these are best served warm!
Bust these out at your next tunisian brunch for some solidly (and deliciously) simple protein to kick off the day!
