Doigts de Fatma
Fatma's fingers: malsouka pastry rolled around cheese, parsley and meat and fried into crisp cigars. The same pastry as brik, put to a simpler use.
Photograph credit: Souebaa Fatmaa - صوابع فاطمة by Ahmed Jallouli · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Malsouka is thinner and more brittle than filo and dries out within minutes of leaving its packet, so the sheets stay under a damp cloth and are worked one at a time. Egg wash rather than flour paste seals these — it sets hard in the oil and holds where a starch paste can soften. The filling must be cool and dry for the same reason as every fried parcel in this book: steam inside a sealed pastry finds the seam and opens it.
What People Ask
How long does Doigts de Fatma take to make?
30 minutes of preparation and 20 minutes of cooking, so at least 50 minutes. The method also needs time for cooling completely, which it does not time, so treat that as a minimum. The recipe serves 6.
Doigts de Fatma: Step by Step
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Fry the onion in the olive oil 6 minutes, add the mince and cook 12 minutes until browned and completely dry.
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Stir in the caraway, coriander, harissa and salt, then spread on a plate and cool completely.
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Mix the cold meat with the grated cheese and parsley.
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Cut each pastry sheet into two long rectangles and keep the stack under a damp cloth.
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Lay a rectangle with a short edge towards you, put a finger of filling across the base, fold both long sides in over the ends, and roll up tightly.
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Brush the final flap with beaten egg and press it down firmly.
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Heat the oil to 180°C / 355°F and fry six at a time, 3 minutes, turning once, until deep gold and blistered. Drain on a rack.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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A Few Pointers
- Keep the pastry under a damp cloth. Malsouka dries out in minutes.
- Egg wash to seal — it sets harder than flour paste.
- Cold, dry filling. Warm filling bursts the seam.
Serve It With
Harissa · Lemon wedges · Slata tounsia
Leftovers and Storage
Refrigerated for 2 days; re-crisp at 200°C / 390°F for 6 minutes. They freeze raw and fry from frozen.
Doigts de Fatma Nutrition
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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