Egg brik

Before you start

• brik or filo pastry, and a pan for shallow frying
• work fast once the egg is in — it will not wait

Ingredients

Serves 2 · dimmer marks are storecupboard

• 4filo pastry sheets — malsouka if you can find it
• 2eggs — as fresh as possible
• 150gpotatoes
• 1 tintinned tuna
• 2 tbspoil for frying
• 1 tbspcapers
• 1 handfulflat parsley
• 1lemon
• to tastesalt

Method

6 steps

1. boil · 18m

   Potatoes boiled until they crush easily, drained and mashed roughly with salt while still hot.

2. fold · 5m

   Drained tuna, chopped capers and parsley mixed through the potato. It should be thick enough to hold a shape — wet filling tears the pastry.

3. fry · 6m

   Oil into a pan no more than a third full and brought up to a steady medium: a scrap of pastry should sizzle at once. Never move the pan while there is hot oil in it.

4. fold · 6m

   A sheet laid out, a ring of filling built near one edge with a well in the middle, an egg cracked into the well, and the pastry folded over into a triangle and pressed shut. Two sheets each if the filo is thin.

5. fry · 8m

   Straight into the oil, folded edge first, spooned over with hot oil and turned once, until it is gold and blistered. About two minutes, and the yolk inside is meant to still be liquid — give it another minute a side if you would rather it set.

6. finish · 3m

   Drained briefly on a rack and eaten immediately, with lemon, holding it up by one corner so the yolk goes where it is supposed to.