Marchouka de Rabat (مرشوقة)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide heavy frying pan or Dutch oven
• •Food processor or nut grinder
• •Pastry brush
• •Wire rack set over a tray

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the nuts

   Toast the almonds in a dry pan or low oven until they smell warm and nutty, then toast the sesame seeds separately until they turn pale gold. Keep them moving. Sesame burns fast, and bitterness will sit in the pastry no matter how much honey you give it.

2. 2

   Make the filling

   Grind the almonds to a fine meal with a little texture left, then grind the sesame seeds until fragrant but not oily. Mix them with the icing sugar, cinnamon, salt, softened butter, and orange blossom water. The filling should press together in your palm, then break apart when rubbed. If it crumbles like sand, add orange blossom water by drops. La balance est dans les yeux, the scale is in the eyes.

   Do not turn the filling into paste. A heavy, wet filling pushes through the warqa and makes the oil dirty.
3. 3

   Prepare the seal

   Stir the flour and water into a smooth paste, thick enough to brush on the final edge of pastry. Cover the warqa with a clean towel while you work so it stays pliable. If you use filo, keep it covered even more carefully, because it dries before you've finished one story.

4. 4

   Fold the triangles

   Cut the warqa into long strips about 6 to 7 cm wide. Place a small spoonful of filling at one end, then fold corner to corner into a triangle, turning it over itself until the strip is used. Seal the last flap with the flour paste and press gently. The point is not decoration. A tight triangle protects the filling in the oil.

5. 5

   Warm the honey

   Warm the honey gently with the orange blossom water in a small pot. Keep it fluid and glossy, not boiling hard. Honey that boils too fiercely loses its perfume, and this pastry needs that flower note when it comes out of the oil.

6. 6

   Fry until gold

   Heat the oil to 170°C. Fry the marchouka in small batches, turning them once or twice, until they are evenly golden and crisp. Do not crowd the pan. If the oil drops too low, the pastry drinks fat; if it races too hot, the outside darkens before the layers cook.

7. 7

   Honey the pastries

   Lift the hot pastries straight into the warm honey and let them soak for 2 to 3 minutes, turning once so every face glistens. Drain them on a rack set over a tray, then scatter with toasted sesame while the honey still catches it.

8. 8

   Serve the tray

   Serve at room temperature with mint tea. The first bite should give crisp pastry, then sesame, almond, honey, and orange blossom. Stack them generously on a shared platter, because marchouka is celebration food, and celebration never counts pieces too tightly.

Chef Tips

• •Buy fresh warqa from a Moroccan or North African pastry shop if you can. If you use filo, double the strips and brush very lightly with melted butter so they don't split.
• •Use honey you would eat from the spoon. This is not the place for a tired jar hiding at the back of the cupboard.
• •The filling must stay dry and fragrant. Add orange blossom water with a careful hand, drops before spoonfuls.
• •Fry one pastry first as a test. If it opens, your fold is loose or your seal is thin. Fix that before the whole tray goes in.

Advance Preparation

• •The sesame-almond filling can be made 2 days ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator. Bring it to room temperature before folding.
• •The pastries can be folded a few hours ahead and kept covered with a towel in a cool place. Fry and honey them the day you serve.
• •Finished marchouka keeps 5 to 7 days in an airtight tin at room temperature, with parchment between layers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 46g)