Moroccan stuffed breads: A meal on the go!

My dad used to call any stuffed bread "khobza be dwazha" referring to a sort of meal on the go, a sandwich to grab and eat. It used to make a nice school sandwich or an afternoon snack.

Different stuffing can be perfectly fine within a bread or puff pastry dough and I will always cherish those moments he picked me up from school with a hot stuffed bread, a chicken chausson (turnover) or a sandwich-croissant. The next thing we did was to stop at a dairy shop (mehlaba) and order a fresh fruit juice..I was all smiles after a long day!

Pan-fried batbouts with vegetarian taktouka stuffing

Southern Moroccans have some truly amazing recipes for stuffed bread, especially when it's baked in clay ovens or pan-fried over a wooden pile.

For instance, there is batbout be che'hma from the Sahara region where suet, onions and a few spices are used to make the most indulging stuffed flatbread.

Batbout beche'hma (suet) in the making

Then after pan-frying batbout beche'hma , you get something like this, which goes down very well with a glass of good mint tea.

I love the spicy inside which complement the texture of this bread.

Then there the Berber Aghroum Boutgouri which is pretty much like batbout beche'hma but in this case stuffing could be a mix of finely chopped peppers, herbs and a generous amount of spices, all coming together with a good dollop of butter (or suet). The stuffing is not rolled within the dough but rather spread over one layer of thin-rolled dough then covered with another layer of dough..Which reminds the famous Berber Pizza or Medfouna (watch the Hairy bikers making it here and there or visit my friend's page for medfouna recipe).

But while Medfouna requires baking, Aghroum Boutgouri, batbout beche'hma and a few other stuffed flatbread recipes only requires to be pan-fried. These happen to be my favourite.

Now stuffing can be meaty, herby / vegetarian. and this will be the subject of the coming post. So stay tuned.