Brick

I just made brick… traditional thin “filo,” style pastry. I made it myself, and it took a few tries to figure out that pouring the thin mixture wouldn’t work, and that I’d have to use my spatula to actually brush it onto the pan, but I got it eventually. In the filling: parsley, onion, harissa paste and capers, with an egg - all deep fried in oil. God willing I’ll live, and be allowed next week to eat this with tuna, but this is the way I want to be eating eggs from now on.

I have to say, this was not just beautiful food, I actually cried cooking and eating it; not just because of the onions. It felt like I’d been a whole long way and now I was returning to home, and the kind of food that feels comfortable to me. I’ve tried other fried snacks and meal pieces, like Russian “chebureki,” (which are typically beef mince and chopped onion, dill and parsley in a thicker, but still quite light pastry again fried in oil) and falafel (I’m sure you all know of it - falafel has been a favourite of mine since childhood,) but this was different. I don’t think that lunch or breakfast will ever be the same.

This is a few days after my first time cooking mujadara and preparing tabouleh for myself. I’ve been getting into middle-eastern and Israeli cuisine after seeing a book on my friend’s shelf titled “Jerusalem,” by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi which I highly recommend checking out. I didn’t follow the recipe written there but, the book alerted me as to the existence of this particular dish. It is well worth a try if you like eggs for breakfast, and want something better than poached egg on toast.

I’ve tried eggs florentine, but it just doesn’t match up to this. Thank you Ottolenghi and Tamimi, and thanks for reading, whoever you are, who have gotten to the end of this post.