Tunisian Brik à l'Oeuf
A paper-thin round of malsouka turns shatter-crisp in hot oil while an egg, capers and parsley cook inside the folded pastry.
About this dish
Brik à l'oeuf is one of Tunisia's best-known fried snacks. Tunisia's official tourism site describes it as a crisp sheet of pastry topped with a soft-cooked egg and garnished with capers and parsley. Brik or malsouka pastry is much thinner than ordinary pie dough and is already partially cooked before filling, which lets it blister and crisp quickly while protecting the egg inside.
Why this dish matters
Discover Tunisia points visitors to brik à l'oeuf in Tunisia's medinas and coastal towns, where the golden fried pastry belongs to the country's familiar snack foods. SBS food reporting describes brik pastry as a Tunisian specialty roughly 1 millimeter thick, made principally from flour and water and traditionally formed by dabbing or brushing batter onto a hot surface. Its deeper origin is difficult to pin down, so this page avoids treating a proposed link with Turkish börek as settled history and focuses instead on the well-documented Tunisian egg preparation.
Brik fillings vary, and tuna, potato, meat or other additions are common in different versions. This recipe stays with the egg, caper and parsley combination documented by Discover Tunisia. Genuine brik or malsouka pastry gives the characteristic brittle shell; a spring-roll wrapper is only a practical fallback documented by SBS and will be thicker and less lacy, so it should not be described as equivalent.
Preparation notes
Malsouka dries quickly. Keep unused sheets under a barely damp towel and fill one brik at a time.
About 1/2 inch of oil gives enough room for the folded pastry to float and blister while still making the brik easy to turn.
The classic appeal is a soft center. Pasteurized shell eggs are the safest choice if you intentionally leave the yolk runny; otherwise cook until the yolk is as firm as you prefer.
Ingredients & detailed method
Ingredients
- 4 round Tunisian brik or malsouka pastry sheets
- 4 large pasteurized eggs, one per brik
- 2 tbsp capers, rinsed, drained and roughly chopped
- 1/3 cup flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- Fine salt, to taste
- Neutral frying oil, enough for a 1/2-inch depth in a wide skillet
- 1 lemon, cut into wedges, for serving
Method
- 1.Pour neutral oil to a depth of about 1/2 inch in a wide skillet and heat over medium-high to 345 to 355°F. Set a rack or paper-lined tray nearby for draining.
- 2.Lay one brik sheet on a shallow plate. Scatter one quarter of the parsley and capers over the center, leaving a clear border. Make a small well, crack one egg into it and season lightly with pepper and salt.
- 3.Fold the pastry immediately into a half-moon, bringing the edges together around the egg. The egg white helps tack the thin pastry closed; support the parcel with a wide spatula because the uncooked center is fluid.
- 4.Slide the brik into the hot oil and fry about 45 to 75 seconds on the first side, spooning a little hot oil over the top edge if needed. Turn carefully and fry 30 to 60 seconds on the second side.
- 5.Checkpoint: the pastry should be blistered, rigid and deep golden at the edges, not pale and leathery. The egg white visible through any thin spots should be opaque. For a soft-yolk brik use a pasteurized egg and stop while the center still feels gently yielding; cook longer for a firmer yolk.
- 6.Lift the brik from the oil and drain briefly with the folded edge elevated so excess oil runs away. The aroma should be toasted pastry and parsley, never burnt flour or stale oil.
- 7.Repeat one at a time with the remaining pastry and eggs, letting the oil return to about 350°F between batches. Oil that falls much below 330°F makes the pastry greasy instead of brittle.
- 8.Serve immediately with lemon wedges. Brik loses its defining shatter-crisp texture as it sits, so it is best eaten within minutes of frying.
Worth finding before you cook
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Some links below are affiliate links; if you buy through them, Fringe Table may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
These links are included only for ingredients that can be meaningfully harder to find in a standard supermarket.
Read further
- Discover Tunisia - Around Hammamet: brik à l'oeuf with egg, capers and parsley
- SBS Food - Brik pastry recipe and traditional egg preparation
- SBS Food - Introducing brik, the Tunisian pastry you've probably eaten but never made
- Fringe Table - Maghreb & West Africa food guide
- Fringe Table - Tunisian Lablabi
- Photo: Rusty Clark ~ 100K Photos, Wikimedia Commons/Flickr, CC BY 2.0. The image is identified as Tunisian brik or birik.