Tuna, Harissa and Olive Stuffed Bread: Khbeiza bil Tonn فطاير تونة و هريسة

This recipe was chosen as FoodBuzz Featured of the day on 11th October!

Khbeizat are individual stuffed breads often served with tea to afternoon guests. They also make great dinner rolls, turning a bowl of soup into a substantial meal.  The dough  is easy to make and is shaped into mini-loaves, mini-buns, ping-pong sized balls or as crescents as in this recipe. Typical stuffings include white cheese and dried mint, or cheese and olives. Tuna and harissa however is by far the most popular sandwich filling in Libya, so the combination is just made for a stuffed breads like Khbeiza.

Makes 32 pieces

Ingredients

25 grams fresh yeast / 2 tablespoon dry yeast

75 gram melted butter or margarine

1 1/2 cups milk

3 1/2 cups flour (210 grams)

1 tablespoon salt

Filling

400g tuna (2 cans), well drained

Harissa (homemade or commercial) to taste

1 cup olives (pitted and chopped)

Decoration

1 egg, beaten

Habet Baraka (Black cumin seeds/ Nigella seeds) or Sesame seed 

Crumble the yeast into a little warmed up milk and set aside, melt the butter and mix with the rest of the milk then leave to reach room temperature.

Place the flour and salt in your mixing bowl, add the milk and yeast mixture.

Pour in the butter and milk.

Knead to a dough with a soft and smooth consistency, cover and leave to rise (around half an hour).

Meanwhile drain the tuna, mash it with a fork and add harissa to taste.

 Pit and chop the olives and combine with the tuna and harissa.

Divide the dough into four equal balls

Roll each ball into a circle, then cut into 8 triangles.

Place a tablespoon of filling at the base of each triangle, rolling into a crescent shape as below.

Place the Khbeiza on a tray lined with baking paper, brush them with the beaten egg and sprinkle a pinch of Habet albaraka on each then leave to rest in a warm place for about 30 minutes.  

Bake in the middle of the oven at 225°C until golden, usually about 15 minutes

While Khbeizat are best served hot, this stuffed bread is also delicious at room temperature and more reminiscent of every Libyans favourite sandwich eaten that way.

Filo Pastry Meat Pie : Bureek Tajin (رقاق باللحم المفروم (قلاش

Bureek Tajin (also known as Suniyet Ruqaq in Egypt) is a  meat pie served as a side dish, and is a popular accompaniment to soup during Ramadan. Leftovers make a great snack or light meal the next day.

The pie  is  made of two layers of thin dough (each made up of several sheets of filo or Egyptian ruqaq) sandwiching minced meat. As there is no fiddly shaping and stuffing its an easy way to make a large amount of pastry.

Serves 8 as Side dish

Ingredients

 1 pack filo pastry 400g

100 g melted butter or 50g melted butter + 1 cup corn oil

Filling

500g minced meat

2 onions, finely chopped 

1/4 cup finely chopped parsley (optional)

1/2 a nutmeg, freshly grated
1 tablespoon mixed spices (hrarat)

salt and  pepper to taste

Glaze 

1 egg mixed with 1 cup milk, salt and peper

1 cup stock

Melt the butter and mix with oil

Grease a large oven proof dish about (30x40 cm) with butter.

Divide the filo pastry sheets into two equal piles, then wrap each in a towel. Cover the bottom of the dish with filo, trim and use a second sheet if necessary. Brush with a little melted butter then add another layer of filo, continue until you have used half the pastry.

Soften the onion in a little oil or butter, add the minced meat and the spices, cover until cooked. 

Spread the prepared filling evenly on top of the filo pastry, then cover with the remaining sheets ,brush with a little melted butter in between the layers .

Spread the last of the melted butter over the top layer, cut into large squares and place in the middle of the hot oven  about 220 °C.  

When the top layer has turned golden (about 10 minutes), remove from oven then spoon about 1 cup of stock over the cracks and the edges of the tray. 

Whisk the egg with the cup of milk, add salt and pepper to taste. Then spoon the egg mix over the  the whole tajin surface and around the edges. Return to the oven until all the liquid absorbed, about 20 minutes.

When cooked remove the Bureek Tajeen from the oven and leave to cool before cutting along the marks you have made. 

Arabic Savoury Pastries: Bureek Muwaraq بوريك مورق

This post is a reply to a request by Umm Obaidah for a bureek dough with a meat filling recipe. We hope you enjoy this recipe, let us know how it goes!

Börek in Turkey and the Balkans is a specific name for pastries made with  yufka dough. However in Libya Bureek is used interchangably with the Arabic word Fatayir as the generic term for savory pastries.

Any type of dough can be used to make Fatayir/Bureek, including ready made phyllo, spring-rolls or puff-pastry. Savoury pastry fillings include herbs, cheese, vegetables or meat; and the pastries are fried or baked.

Our Bureek recipe starts from scratch, creating thin layers from an unleavened dough. This dough recipe is relatively easy and incredibly versatile, so it has become a staple in the Libyan kitchen. As in puff pastry, the layers of flaky dough are created by repeatedly folding over the dough and rolling it out, but rather than being spread with solid fat, the dough here is rolled with starch and then soaked in oil. This dough only absorbs a little of this oil, so it is a healthy alternative to real puff-pastry. When made right, the bureek is light, with a fine flaky texture.

Makes about 20 pastries
Ingredients

The dough:
3 cups white flour
1 cup water
3 tbspoon melted butter/ghee
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
1 heaped teaspoon salt

Veg. oil to cover the rolls of dough
1 beaten egg for brushing
Starch (usually cornfour)

Filling Suggestions:

White cheese and dried mint
200g white salty cheese (e.g feta) cut into small cubes
2 tablespoons ground dried mint

Spinach and onion filling:
400g fresh spinach (or Chard) washed, well drained and chopped
2 medium size onions, cuts into thin wings
2 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon freshly grated whole nutmeg (optional)

Mince meat filling:
200g lamb/veal mince meat
1 large finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon mixed spices
Salt and paper to taste

9

Prepare the dough by combining all the dry ingredients. Mix and then add the liquid ingredients. Mix and knead until smooth, and cover with cling film. Leave to rest, while you prepare the filling

Filling Suggestions:

These fillings should be moist but without excess liquid. The amount mentioned above should be reduced appropriately if you want to use more than one of these fillings. 

 For the white cheese filling, just cut the cheese into small cubes and then mix it with the dried mint 

Prepare the spinach filling by melting the butter in a thick base pan. Add the onion wings and cook until soft. Add spinach, stir and cook on medium heat  for a few minutes, then add salt and pepper  to taste and nutmeg if using.

For the meat filling, melt the butter in a thick base pan and add the mince meat. Cook on medium heat, stir until the liquid has evaporated, then add the chopped onions and the spices. Mix well, cover and cook on low heat for about 15 minutes.

Burek Dough: 

Divide the dough into 2 pieces, work with one and leave the other covered with the cling film. 

 Sprinkle the work surface with starch. Roll each piece into a rectangle about 20 cm  x 40 cm, then sprinkle generously with starch 

Roll the dough as in the picture above.

Cut the roll into small pieces about 2 cm width. Repeat the last three steps the same with the second half of the dough. 

Arrange the small rolls in a deep plate and cover with vegetable oil. Leave the rolls soaked in oil for at least one hour. After you have used up all the rolls pass the oil through a sieve then use as usual.

Remove one roll from the oil and place it on the work surface in this position , press the top with palm of your hand  to flatten it gently.

Now roll out with a rolling pin, until you have a thin strip about 40 cm long. 

Put one tablespoon of the filling at one end and fold the dough above the filling to make a triangle shape. Hold the filling with the dough and fold from one side to another to form a triangle as below.

 Cut the excess dough. 

Do the same for the other rolls, the triangle must be neat and with no filling leaking out. 

Arrange the triangles in the tray, brush with beaten egg and bake at 220 C degrees until golden.

When cut in half you can see the separate thin flaky layers of the pastry.

Serve warm in a flat plate.