Bocadillo Marocain

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Small saucepan for eggs
• •Heavy 28 cm skillet or deep pot for frying
• •Wire rack or tray for draining fries
• •Hot skillet or griddle for the kefta option

Instructions

1. 1

   Boil the eggs

   Set the eggs in a small saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Cook 9 minutes, then cool in cold water, peel, and slice. The yolk should be set but still sunny, not grey at the edge.

2. 2

   Fry the potatoes

   Rinse the cut potatoes, dry them well, and fry in hot oil until golden and crisp at the edges. Salt them the moment they come out. The fries go inside the bread at the end, so they need enough salt and heat to wake up the whole sandwich.

   If it's a weeknight and you use oven fries, I won't scold you. Just cook them until properly golden, because pale fries disappear inside the bread.
3. 3

   Choose the filling

   For tuna, break it into large flakes and leave a little of its oil clinging to it. For kefta, mix the meat with grated onion, cumin, paprika, parsley or coriander, salt, and pepper, then shape into long thin patties and cook in a hot skillet until browned and cooked through. A round meatball fights the bread; a long patty belongs inside it.

4. 4

   Make the sauce

   Stir the harissa with olive oil and lemon juice or vinegar until it loosens enough to spread. Taste it. Some harissa is all fire and no perfume, some is gentle, and la balance est dans les yeux, the scale is in the eyes. Use enough to mark the bread, not enough to bury the tuna or kefta.

5. 5

   Open the bread

   Split each baguette lengthwise without cutting all the way through, then warm it lightly if the crust has gone tired. Spread harissa inside, and add a thin swipe of mayonnaise if your street counter would have done it. The bread is the pocket, not a plate, so keep the hinge intact.

6. 6

   Fill and press

   Layer in tomato, onion, cucumber or lettuce, tuna or kefta, egg slices, olives, and chopped herbs. Push a handful of hot fries into each sandwich, then press the bread closed with both hands so the sauce touches the fries and egg. That is the gesture that makes it a bocadillo, not separate foods trapped in bread.

7. 7

   Serve at once

   Cut each sandwich in half if you like, wrap the bottom in paper, and serve with extra olives and napkins. Eat while the fries still have their edge. This is quick food, yes, but it still belongs to la cuisine du lien, the cooking of connection: one sandwich made wide enough for whoever just arrived.

Chef Tips

• •Use a thin-crusted Moroccan-style baguette or demi-baguette if you can. Very hard sourdough makes the sandwich a wrestling match, and that isn't the spirit of a Tangier counter.
• •Don't drain the tuna bone dry. A little oil carries the harissa into the bread and keeps the filling generous.
• •For the kefta version, shape the meat long and flat so every bite gets some. If you make thick patties, the bread breaks before the sandwich does.
• •The fries go in last. If they sit too long under tomato and sauce, they soften before anyone gets to the table.
• •There isn't one Moroccan bocadillo. Des cuisines marocaines, not one Moroccan cuisine, means the sandwich changes from Tangier to Tetouan to Casablanca, but the northern version keeps that Spanish name and street-counter soul.

Advance Preparation

• •Boil the eggs up to 2 days ahead and keep them chilled in their shells.
• •Stir the harissa sauce up to 3 days ahead and keep it covered in the refrigerator.
• •Mix the kefta up to 24 hours ahead, but cook it just before serving.
• •Cut potatoes up to 4 hours ahead and hold them in cold water, then dry them very well before frying.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 420g)