Brik is a famous Tunisian pastry that many people the world
over who have tried it just cant stop thinking about. This North African Filo pastry is a classic in
itself and is cheap and very fun to play with. But there is a small twist to
this. You will have to work really quickly with it before the sheets of brik
start to dry up.
So what is it that we need in order to prepare our brik?
- Two medium sized sweet potatoes
- One and a half teaspoons coriander seeds
- Two dried red chillies
- Half a teaspoon ground cinnamon & a little extra
- Some salt
- Fresh ground black pepper
- Two spring onions finely chopped
- 1 large egg beaten
- 150 grams Butter
- Six Sheets of Filo Pastry
- One red finely sliced onion
- One bunch fresh sliced Watercress
- One bunch of fresh mint leaves
- A bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley
- 4 Tablespoons of fat free natural yoghurt
- Three lemons 2 cut in half and 1 juiced
- Some extra virgin olive oil
- One pinch ground cumin
Preparation
Firstly preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Wash your sweet
potatoes then bake them in their skins until cooked and soft. Allow them to
cool down while leaving the oven still on, then peel your potatoes and mash
them.
Smash up 1 teaspoon of your coriander seeds plus the
chillies in a mortar with a pestle. Stir this with some cinnamon in to the
mashed sweet potatoes and season them. Now fold the spring onions and your
beaten egg into the mashed potato.
Gently melt some butter in a frying pan. Mash up the
remaining coriander seeds and brush a sheet of the filo pastry with some melted
butter. Sprinkle it with a pinch of some ground cinnamon and a little bit of
the ground coriander. Cover this with a second sheet then brush and sprinkle as
previously done. Repeat this for the third sheet too. Now with a sharp knife,
cut the stacked Filo pastry sheets into 15 centimetre squares.
You will have to work quickly so that the pastry doesn’t dry
up and do the same with all the remaining filo sheets. At this point you should
now have four squares of pastry sheets. Place a reasonable amount of the sweet
potato mixture in the centre of each of the squares and spread a little.
Now
brush the edgesof each square with some water and fold them in half from corner
to corner to make a triangle. Now place these on a tray with the rest of the
melted butter and bake them in the oven until light brown. This should take you
about ten minutes.
Now mix your red onions with some watercress parsley and
mint. Mix the lemon juice with some yoghurt, a lug of olive oil and some cumin.
Dress your salad with the yoghurt dressing then serve this with your hot tasty
Filo Briks and the Lemon halves.
You now have your Delicious dish of Brik to Enjoy.