Full Moon Full Tourte

By Za, 

This is going to be quite easy. If you feel like making salty crust, roll up your sleeves, gather your positive energy, hold your breath and get yourself: 

For the dough: 

• Flour: 1 mug and 1/2 (British mug) 
• Butter: 1 and 1/2 table spoon of butter 
• Oil: 3 table spoons of oil. 
• Baking powder: 1/2 sachet. 
• A pinch of salt. 
• Water (enough to gather all ingredients creating a dough) 

The filling: 

• You really can use anything you like!
• This time I opted for TUNA!!! so the ingredients I got were: 
• A tin of tuna in red sauce (not oil) 
• 1 Onion
• A handful of white rice (cooked/boiled) 
• 1/2 Tea spoon of paprika. 
• Sliced boneless green/black olives. (I used green olives to give a sour-ish taste to it) 
• Grated cheese (Cheddar, or any hard cheese of your liking) 

Method: 

Put your flour (+salt) in a big bowl. Melt the butter and mix it with oil before you pour them on the flour. 

Rub everything thoroughly with your fingers until the flour starts to look like 'sand'. 

Add the baking powder and combine ingredients. 

Start adding water, bit by bit, while mixing until you get a very soft and elastic/stretchy dough. 

Let it rest for 15 - 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, chop or grate your onion and put it in a pan with some oil (2 table spoons). 

Let it and stir fry until it goes a little brown before you add in your tuna. 

Mix everything and add olives and (cooked) rice. If it's too dry, add a bit of water and paprika. (the red sauce in which tuna was will give a delicious tomato flavour once cooked with the other ingredients) 

Half your dough and roll the first half flat (5mm) before you lay it on a dusted oven tray (preheat oven 150C) 

Spread the filling all over the flattened dough (it'll look like pizza :-D) don't forget to sprinkle your gratted cheese before you cover the top! 

Flatten the other half on a dusted working surface then lay it on top of the 'pizza-like' dough. PS: don't forget to sprinkle your gratted cheese before your cover the 'pizza' covering everything. 

Press the edges tightly closed and fold/roll them to prevent any leak of the sauce or the  stuffing. 

Dock the dough with a toothpick or a knife. 

Glaze the top with egg yolks or milk (I like to sprinkle some sesame -or black seed- on top too) 

Chuck in the oven. and check from time to time, till it turns golden in colour. (cooked) 

Cut however you like <3 

Bsahatkom - Enjoy - Bon appetit 

Jeljlania (sesame balls)

By Za, 

One of the special delights Eid brings about in Algeria is the joy of making, and most importantly eating several hundreds of diverse kinds of cookies, sweets, cakes and patisseries. Most families would make a roughly average of 7 to 10 kinds of cookies. These are offered to other family members, guests, friends and neighbours. My highest record of cookie making has always been 4 (attained last year). This year, though, I only got around to making two varieties of which I'd like to share one today. 


I got to know this recipe thanks to mum. The first time I got introduced to the Jeljlania, I knew straight away  it was  'love at first sight'. My feelings were intensely confirmed when I tasted it. Everything about me melted then. (well, I also kind of got badly told off after a few minutes when mum found out I had hoovered up all the rest of the Jeljlania stashed in the cupboard. I got ball chained away it them every time I'd come within a reaching distance.) 


So if you don't know what I'm talking about, let me shed some light into your gastronomic world, by introducing you to this simple yet tasty sesame balls. 




I you're interesting in making it, next time you go to the market, make sure you toss the following ingredients in you shopping basket: 

• 1kg white Flour
• Unsalted buter (500g) 
• 2 cups of icing sugar
• 1 sachet of baking powder
• 2 tea spoons of vanilla. 
• 6 egg whites. 
• Sesame 
• Orange floral water. 
• Medium cake cases
• Honey 

In your working lab: 

Mix the butter and the icing sugar well, till they form a light-colored cream. 
Add the egg whites, baking powder and vanilla, and mix well.
Pour flour till you gather the dough. don't work or knead it. 
Make a few small balls from the batch. 
In a preheated pan, put the sesame and grill it by just stirring it over and over continually until they gain a golden brown color. 

Dip the balls in the orange floral water (or egg whites) then roll them around in a bowl full of grilled sesame. 
Place them in the cake cases and chuck them in the preheated oven (I put it on 150C). 
Check on them from time to time. 
PS: do not open the oven until after 20mins of baking. they'll puff up and double in size. 
Get them out when they are cooked (I always sacrifice one by digging the tip of a knife in it to check) 
make sure you've put your honey (add a tiny bit of water to it) in a cassrole to bring it to a boil, so that, when you get your cookies out, you spoon water them with that boiling honey. 
They'll absorb it all and become more tender as a result. 


Let cool and enjoy. 


Bsahatkom. 

Coming soon, in-sha'a-llah Eid mini fruit tarts