Ingredients
Check off ingredients as you go
Makes 24 briks
- 24 brik pastry sheets (or spring roll wrappers)
For the filling
- 8 medium potatoes
- 4 hard-boiled large eggs
- 1 large egg (raw, to bind the filling if needed)
- 400 g (14 oz) canned tuna in water
- Salt, pepper
- Neutral oil (for frying)
Here’s a lovely way to use brik pastry sheets. This filling is the traditional one, but you can vary it endlessly.
Making the filling
Peel the potatoes and cook them in a pot of lightly salted water for about 15-20 minutes (the tip of a knife should slide in easily). Meanwhile, in another pot, hard-boil the 4 eggs in salted boiling water for 10 minutes.
While the potatoes and eggs are cooking, drain the tuna and flake it into a large bowl.
When the potatoes are done, mash them, season with salt and pepper and add them to the tuna (if the filling looks a little dry, add the raw egg, lightly beaten). Peel the hard-boiled eggs, cut them into quarters and set them on a plate.
Shaping the briks
- Take a brik sheet and fold it in half (for a double thickness), add a generous tablespoon of filling, top with a small egg quarter and roll it up into a cone (or any other shape you like).
Frying the briks
- Pour neutral oil into a pot and add a small piece of carrot (this trick keeps the oil from turning dark!). When the heat is high enough, little bubbles form around the carrot, which means the oil is hot enough to fry the briks. Gently lower in the briks 2 at a time and fry until golden on each side, then transfer them to a colander set over a plate to drain.
Serve warm, with lemon.
Tips and variations
You can swap the tuna for ground beef, which gives you a filling very close to the one in my meat pastels/banatages.
My little trick for keeping the briks crispy after frying is to drain them in a colander: the excess oil runs out through the holes and they don’t go soggy the way they do on layers of paper towels.
To reheat them, pop them in the oven for a few minutes.