Ingredients
Check off ingredients as you go
For the fricassé dough
- 1 kg (8 cups) sifted all-purpose flour (plain flour)
- 2 Tbsp active dry yeast (or 20 g / 0.7 oz fresh yeast)
- 480 ml (2 cups) lukewarm water
- 100 g (1/2 cup) sugar (1/2 glass)
- 1 egg
- 1 level Tbsp fine salt
- 120 ml (1/2 cup) neutral oil (1/2 glass)
For the filling
- 4 hard-boiled eggs
- 3 cans flaked tuna
- 5 potatoes, boiled and diced
- capers (optional)
- harissa
- 1 clove garlic (for the mechouia)
- mechouia salad (2 bell peppers and 4 tomatoes, roasted)
- black or green olives, halved
- small preserved lemons, thinly sliced (optional)
Makes 20 large fricassés
- Dissolve the yeast in part of the barely lukewarm water with a teaspoon of sugar (the sugar feeds the yeast). Stir and let stand for about 10 minutes, until it gets foamy.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, put the flour, the egg and the rest of the water, then add the sugar, oil and salt. Add the yeast mixture and knead well for about 10 minutes. You should get a supple, smooth dough that is easy to work with and barely sticky. If the dough is too sticky, add a little flour. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place for 2 hours, or until doubled in size.
For the Tunisian fricassé filling
- Set everything out in separate small bowls to make assembling the fricassés easier.
- Potato salad Boil the potatoes, skin on, in a pot of water. When they are cooked (a knife blade slides out easily), peel them, cut into small dice and set aside.
- 4 hard-boiled eggs Boil the eggs in a small pot of lightly salted water (the salt makes the shells easier to remove), peel them, cut into small wedges and set aside.
- 500 g (1.1 lb) tuna in water, flaked with a drizzle of olive oil.
- Mechouia salad - roasted bell peppers and tomatoes Cut the bell peppers in half to remove the seeds, then put them under the oven broiler with the tomatoes for about 35 minutes. Remove the skins, then chop everything with a knife, adding a drizzle of olive oil, salt and the garlic, and set aside.
- Prepare the green or black olives cut in half, the capers, and the preserved lemon thinly sliced, without the pulp, if you are using it.
- Harissa (hot chili paste).
- Lightly flour your work surface. The dough should be very pleasant to handle. Shape the fricassés into 40 g (1.4 oz) pieces for the appetizer version or about 90 g (3.2 oz) for the full-size version. Let rise for another 30 minutes.
Frying the Tunisian fricassés
- A few tips for frying: the ideal temperature is around 160-180°C (325-350°F), which cooks the fricassés through without letting them soak up too much oil. You need about 10 cm (4 inches) of oil so the fricassés cook properly. To keep the temperature steady, don’t fry too many fricassés at once (I fry them 2 at a time, on setting 6 of my induction cooktop). Fry for about 2-3 minutes on each side and drain on paper towels.
Assembling the fricassés
- Cut the fricassé lengthwise (but only along one side), like a sandwich roll. Add the harissa, the mechouia salad, the potato salad, the eggs, the tuna, the capers, the black olives and the lemon. You can add a little more harissa at the end if you like it spicier.
Tips and planning
For a mini version, with these quantities you can easily get about 50 pieces (count about 25-30 g / 1 oz per piece).
You can freeze the fried, unfilled fricassés in containers so they don’t get damaged.
The longest part of making fricassés is preparing the fillings. I recommend preparing them while the dough rises, you will save a lot of time. That way all you have to do is assemble once your rolls are ready.
This dough is also excellent for making Challah, the Shabbat bread, you just bake the rolls instead of frying them.
A little trick to keep your frying oil under control: put a small piece of raw carrot in the oil. It keeps the oil from darkening and lets you check the temperature, there should be small bubbles around the carrot. You can swap in a fresh carrot during frying if needed.