Must try in Tunisia

Brik à l'Oeuf.

Name: Brik à l'Oeuf (Tunisian Crisp Pastry with a Runny Egg)
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Tunisia
Ingredients: 160 g canned tuna in olive oil, drained well and flaked; 1 small onion, very finely chopped; 20 g flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped; 1 tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped; 1 tsp harissa; ½ tsp ground caraway; to taste salt and black pepper; 4 malsouka sheets (feuilles de brick); 4 eggs, as fresh as possible; 500 ml neutral oil, for frying; 1 lemon, in wedges

Tunisian Crisp Pastry with a Runny Egg

بريك بالبيض · say it: BREEK ah LUHF

Brik is a single sheet of paper-thin malsouka pastry wrapped around a spoonful of tuna, onion, parsley and capers with a raw egg cracked into the middle, slid into hot oil and fried for barely two minutes. Done right, the shell shatters like glass, the white is just set, and the yolk is still liquid enough to run the moment you bite. There is no cutlery involved and no dignified way to eat it: you pick it up by a corner, tip it, and bite where the yolk is. It is the standard Tunisian starter and the first thing on the table at Ramadan.

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Tunisian Crisp Pastry with a Runny Egg

Gate: TunisiaTunis
Prep: 20 min
Cook: 10 min
Total time: 30 min
Serves: 4
Status: Medium
Nutrition / serving · estimated: Calories 340 kcal; Protein 19 g; Carbs 20 g; Fat 21 g; Fiber 1 g; Sodium 560 mg

Why this recipe works.

Explains the folding and the oil temperature precisely, which is the whole difficulty — everything else is chopping.
Filling is drained and cooled before assembly, the single reason most home briks leak or go soggy.
Gives a realistic filo workaround for cooks who cannot find malsouka sheets, and says honestly what it costs.
Two minutes in the pan per brik, so the whole plate is done in the time it takes to lay the table.

Tips from our kitchen.

The filling must be cold and dry. Warm or wet filling steams the pastry from inside and you get a limp brik with a cooked yolk.
Make a shallow well in the filling before cracking the egg in, so the yolk sits in a dip and does not roll to the edge as you fold.
Crack each egg into a small cup first, then tip it into the well. Fishing out shell after the pastry is folded is impossible.
The oil is ready when a scrap of pastry sizzles hard and floats immediately — roughly 180°C. Cooler oil soaks in, hotter oil browns the shell before the white sets.
Fry one brik at a time in a small pan. Two at once drops the temperature and they end up greasy.
Serve the second it leaves the oil. A brik that waits five minutes loses the shatter that makes it worth eating.

Substitutions.

Malsouka sheets → Two sheets of filo brushed with oil and stacked, or a spring roll wrapper: Filo works but tears more easily and fries into flakes rather than a single crisp shell. Spring roll wrappers hold the egg well but taste noticeably different.
Canned tuna → Shredded cooked chicken, or leave it out for a plain egg and parsley brik: Both are traditional. Tunisian cooks use tuna packed in oil, drained hard — water-packed tuna makes a drier, blander filling.
Deep-fried → Brushed with oil and baked at 220°C for 10 minutes: Honest warning: the shell crisps but the yolk almost always sets. It is a decent pastry, but it is no longer brik à l'oeuf.

Variations.

Brik danouni: The most common home version: mashed potato seasoned with parsley and caraway forms a bed under the egg, making the brik sturdier and more filling.
Brik bil lahm: Filled with minced lamb cooked down with onion and harissa until dry, then the usual egg on top.
Brik bil jben: A cheese brik, with grated hard cheese or soft white cheese replacing the tuna. Popular with children and often folded into small triangles instead.

Storage & reheating.

Brik is not a leftover food — the shell softens within fifteen minutes and the egg is either runny now or ruined later. What you can prepare ahead is the filling, which keeps 2 days covered in the fridge, and the assembled briks minus the egg, which can sit on a floured tray for an hour. Crack in the eggs and fold at the last moment. Fried briks do not reheat into anything worth eating and should not be frozen at any stage.

Serve with

Lemon wedges, harissa, and a chopped salad of cucumber, tomato and onion to cut the fried pastry.

The story behind Brik à l'Oeuf.

The pastry does most of the work. Malsouka — also sold as feuilles de brick — is made by dabbing a very wet semolina dough onto a hot flat plate in overlapping circles, so it dries into a translucent round with a slightly rough side and a smooth side. It is not filo: it contains no layers of fat, it fries rather than bakes, and it crisps in seconds without the brittleness of stacked filo sheets. Tunisian pastry makers turn them out by the thousand, and every supermarket in the country sells them in stacks.

The name almost certainly travels the same road as börek, the Turkish family of filled pastries that spread across Ottoman territory, and Tunisia was under Ottoman rule for centuries. What Tunisia did with the idea is entirely its own: the whole raw egg. Nowhere else in the börek family is the filling built around an egg that stays runny, and nowhere else is the eating of it a running national joke about stained shirts. Ordering brik in a Tunis restaurant means accepting that you will be watched by anyone who wants to see if you know the corner-first technique.

Fillings vary by region and household. Tuna, capers, parsley and onion is the everyday standard; brik danouni adds mashed potato; there are versions with minced lamb, with chicken, with prawns, with soft cheese. The constant is the egg and the speed of the fry — the pastry needs only long enough to blister and colour, because any longer and the yolk sets, which most Tunisians consider a failed brik rather than a variation. During Ramadan, briks come to the table by the platterful the moment the fast breaks, fried in relays so they never sit long enough to soften.

Questions, answered.

What is malsouka pastry and where do I find it?

Malsouka (feuilles de brick in French) is a thin Tunisian pastry round made from a wet semolina batter cooked briefly on a hot plate. Look for it frozen or chilled in North African and Middle Eastern grocers, and in French supermarkets under the brick name. Filo is the usual substitute, though it fries into flakes rather than one crisp shell.

How do I stop the egg leaking out while frying?

Build a low wall of filling around a well in the centre, keep the egg away from the edges, and press the folded edge down firmly before lifting the brik. Slide it into the oil folded edge first and in one movement rather than dropping it. A small leak is normal and Tunisians ignore it.

How long does a brik actually need in the oil?

About 60 to 90 seconds on the first side and 30 to 45 seconds on the second, in oil at roughly 180°C. You are frying until the surface blisters and turns deep gold, not until the egg is cooked. If the white looks fully firm through the pastry, the yolk has gone too.

Is a runny egg yolk safe here?

The yolk is warmed but not cooked through, so treat it like any soft-yolk dish: use fresh eggs from a source you trust, and skip it if you are pregnant, elderly or otherwise advised against undercooked eggs. Cooking the brik an extra minute sets the yolk and removes the concern, at the cost of the whole point of the dish.

Can I use the same recipe for a party-sized batch?

Yes, but fry in relays rather than scaling up the pan. Set up an assembly line — filled pastries on one tray, eggs in cups, one small pan of oil — and fry as guests arrive. This is exactly how briks are served during Ramadan, straight from the pan to the table in a continuous stream.

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