{"id":280040,"date":"2011-03-07T13:37:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T12:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stagingapp15670.cloudwayssites.com\/mhadjebs-and-maareks"},"modified":"2011-03-07T13:37:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-07T12:37:00","slug":"mhadjebs-and-maareks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stagingapp15670.cloudwayssites.com\/en\/mhadjebs-and-maareks\/","title":{"rendered":"M’Hadjebs and Maareks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nI had already crossed the path of m’hadjebs and maareks several times in my life before seeing them cooked before my eyes at the D\u00e9lice de la Casbah in January 2011, during my training in Algerian pastry (for pleasure only because it is not my job). It is a kind of flaky bread with fine durum wheat semolina. Without filling it is the “maareks” and with, it is the “m’hadjebs”. Most of the time, the m’hadjebs are garnished with tomatoes and onions simmered in olive oil, but it can also be sweet. I give you here the basic technique with the famous filling of the m’hadjebs. I find it very pleasant to prepare m’hadjebs and maareks, because it is fast, simple, traditional and delicious…<\/div>\n
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<\/a>Recipe of the M’Hadjebs:<\/p>\n

-500g of fine durum wheat semolina (this is not couscous semolina)<\/span><\/b>
\n-3-4 tablespoons of oil<\/span><\/b>
\n-2 teaspoons of salt<\/span><\/b>
\n-cold water<\/span><\/b>
\n-spreading oil<\/span><\/b>
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\nGarnishing of the m’hadjebs<\/span><\/b>
\n-3 tablespoons of olive oil<\/span><\/b>
\n-7 tomatoes<\/b><\/span>
\n-4 onions<\/b><\/span>
\n-1 bell pepper (red or green)<\/b><\/span>
\n-4 cloves of garlic<\/b><\/span>
\n-1 tablespoon of tomato paste<\/b><\/span>
\n-1\/2 teaspoon harissa<\/b><\/span>
\n-salt pepper<\/b><\/span>
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\nGather the ingredients for the m’hadjebs (with filling). If you do the maareks, you can skip this step.<\/i>
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\nPlunge tomatoes into boiling water for 20 seconds. <\/i><\/div>\n
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\nThis way, you can peel the tomatoes very easily!<\/i><\/div>\n
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\nPeel them and remove the base where the stem is. <\/i><\/div>\n
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\nPut the olive oil in a high pan and add the tomatoes. <\/i><\/div>\n
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\nAdd the peeled and sliced onions (more or less fine).<\/i><\/div>\n
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\nLet cook on moderate heat and add the harissa (the dose depends on the taste of each!).<\/i><\/div>\n
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\nAdd crushed garlic.<\/i><\/div>\n
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\nAs well as the tomato paste and the bell pepper (without the seeds) cut into small pieces. <\/i><\/div>\n
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\nLet cook for a good hour, adding a little water if necessary (which will evaporate but allow the cooking).<\/i><\/div>\n
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Let the filling of the m’hadjebs cool.<\/i>
\nPreparation of the maarek\/m’hadjeb dough:<\/i>
\nPut the fine durum wheat semolina in a large bowl (or the bowl of the food processor).<\/i>
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\nAdd salt and oil.<\/i><\/div>\n
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\nAdd water while blending with the hook of a kenwood or kitchenaid food processor. <\/i><\/div>\n
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\nAdd as much water as necessary, as for a bread dough. Anyway, if there is not enough water, the dough will be too strong and if there is too much water, the dough will be too sticky. It is enough to adjust with either water or fine semolina.<\/i><\/div>\n
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\nThe dough should be soft but not sticky. It should be worked with a robot or by hand on a clean surface. Knead the dough for at least 10 minutes. <\/i><\/div>\n
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\nThe dough should be silky and soft to the touch. Let the dough rest for 10-15 minutes (or while you prepare a filling). Cut into 10 equal sized balls. <\/i><\/div>\n
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\nPut oil on the work surface and put a ball of dough in it.<\/i><\/div>\n
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\nSpread the ball in the oil and flatten it with your hands. The ball is very elastic, especially in oil. So it’s really easy to make a very thin sheet of dough. <\/i><\/div>\n
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\nSimply pull the edges by lifting the dough outward. It will become as thin as cigarette paper.<\/i><\/div>\n
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\nYou can see the difference in size between an original ball and the dough rolled out this way!<\/i><\/div>\n
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\nFold the dough more or less in three in one direction. <\/i><\/div>\n
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\nThen again in three. We then obtain a square that we can cook in a frying pan or on a professional crepe maker (I use my bilig, at 230\u00b0C like at the D\u00e9lice de la Casbah). <\/i><\/div>\n
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\nCook on both sides. The hadjeb is cooked for at least 4-5 minutes on each side. (You need to cook a little more than on the picture!).<\/i><\/div>\n
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\nYou can make a simple cake by filling it before cooking it (m’hadjeb) or make a double puff pastry by putting an already cooked m’hadjeb in the center of the rolled out dough before folding the whole as before. It is enough to cook normally, the center of m’hadjeb having cooked a first time. It is then the maarek!<\/i><\/div>\n
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\nFor the m’hadjebs, put the tomato filling on the rolled out pastry sheet.<\/div>\n
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\nFold into quarters and bake as before.<\/div>\n
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\nIt’s delicious hot with just the right amount of spice on top!<\/div>\n
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\nTo summarize, you get a kind of flaky and crispy bread that is really delicious hot for maareks, or a filled turnover for m’hadjebs. You can also put a sweet topping like honey or caramel or even nutella (I ate some in Cairo!!).<\/i><\/div>\n
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\n 0<\/span>\n Shares<\/span>\n <\/div>\n\n\t\t\n
    \n\t\t\t <\/ul>\n <\/div> \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I had already crossed the path of m’hadjebs and maareks several times in my life before seeing them cooked before my eyes at the D\u00e9lice de la Casbah in January…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[282,144],"tags":[281,142],"cout":[384],"difficulte":[380],"regime":[611],"saison":[589],"theme":[],"class_list":["post-280040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-savory","category-sweet","tag-dirty","tag-sweet","cout-bon-marche","difficulte-facile","regime-vegan","saison-hiver"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stagingapp15670.cloudwayssites.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280040"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stagingapp15670.cloudwayssites.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stagingapp15670.cloudwayssites.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stagingapp15670.cloudwayssites.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stagingapp15670.cloudwayssites.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stagingapp15670.cloudwayssites.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280040\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stagingapp15670.cloudwayssites.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stagingapp15670.cloudwayssites.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stagingapp15670.cloudwayssites.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280040"},{"taxonomy":"cout","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stagingapp15670.cloudwayssites.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cout?post=280040"},{"taxonomy":"difficulte","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stagingapp15670.cloudwayssites.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/difficulte?post=280040"},{"taxonomy":"regime","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stagingapp15670.cloudwayssites.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regime?post=280040"},{"taxonomy":"saison","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stagingapp15670.cloudwayssites.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/saison?post=280040"},{"taxonomy":"theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stagingapp15670.cloudwayssites.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/theme?post=280040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}