[cape chef]

When I came to work today on my desk was a tiny Tajin to hold spice and Paula wolferts book on Morocco. I can't wait to read up on some of these dishes. In the mean time if I could help with recipes let me know
cc

[Pongi]

Obviously I can't say mine is the only truth, but this is the info I've got:
Independently from the result, ouarka and yufka are nor the same thing because of the way they're made.
According to the recipes I have, yufka is, basically, a puff pastry, which can contain eggs or not according to the various recipes, but is made about in the same way of the other puff pastries.
On the other side, ouarka seems to be a sort of crèpe. I mean, you must make a quite soft dough with flour, water and salt; take a piece of this dough with your hands and roll it all around on a special hot plate until it will be covered with a very thin dough film, which can be removed like a sheet when cooked. So, when making pastilla, ouarka sheets are cooked for the second time.

In any case...I'm only a foreigner and have been there as a tourist, so maybe my info isn't totally correct...if so, please let me know more about that!

Pongi

[momoreg]

I buy Turkish yufka, and have tried many brands. It bears no resemblance to puff pastry, but I do not know how it is traditionally made. Something tells me that the difference betweent he two doughs may just be country of origin, but I don't know.

The texture of the raw dough is like heavy parchment, and it crisps up quite nicely when baked, but does not rise at all.

[Athenaeus]

I am with Momoreg on that, I think that yufka and ouarka are the same thing with different names


Momoreg!!! Look. As far as it concerns the predictions about the future.. .I do the same thing now. I tell the future but in a more "respectable" or politically correct way!
I am a historian and historians are studying the past to make conclusions about the future.
This is my case


Where is Adam BTW, he opened the can of worms and he went to wash dishes as he usually does when he wants to chill out, I mean wind down of work

[Adam]

V, I don't wash dishes anymore .When I want to have fun I play the waiter in the Main dinning room.I like to hear the compliments to my kitchen that my waiters "forget" to tell.

To my knowledge yufka and ouarka are the same.

Thank you for your ideas.
We are not having a traditional Moroccan evening. I will play with Moroccan ingredients and original recipes.
We are not in Morocco we cannot have the same food we will try the Moroccan way.

[Pongi]

You guys are really pitiless!
I agree with you that Yufka and Ouarka look about the same when cooked...but these are the recipes:

YUFKA

Ingredients:
2 glasses wheat flour
6 1/2 tbsp melted butter
1 egg
salt

1) Take all the flour apart from 2 tbsp and pass it through a sieve into a big bowl.

2) Add the egg, 1/4 glass water, 1/2 tbsp butter and a pinch of salt. Work until smooth. Sprinkle with other flour and keep aside for 15', covered with a damp lid.

3)Roll out with a mattrel the dough until 2 mm thick. Coat with 3 tbsp butter. Cut in 3 pieces and put them one on the other. Roll out again and repeat the procedure.

4)Work again the dough, make a ball, divide it in three smaller balls and roll out them to round sheets of a 24 inch diameter. If the edge is too thick, cut it away with a knife. Let the yufka drying for a while before using it.

This one out of three recipes I have. The others are about the same; one doesn't contain egg.


OUARKA

Ingredients:
1 lb "farine de blè dur"
1 lb "farine fine"
(sorry for the French! I know the Italian, but not the English translation, for these words...but I'm sure you'll understand)
1 tsp salt
water

1)Pass the two flours through a sieve. Make with all the ingredients a dough like the bread dough, then work it again gradually adding more water until its consistency will be the same of the beignets dough. Work again until very smooth. Cover with cold water and keep aside for 1 hour.

2)Rub the ouarka plate with a lid slightly greased with oil. Heat it (it's usually done on a charcoal fire).

3)Take a piece of dough: it must stick on your fingers. Put it on the hot plate for a while: it will leave a thin layer sticked on it. Repeat this operation on the surface of the plate until it's completely covered with dough. It will dry in few seconds. Remove this thin sheet from the plate and repeat the operation until you have finished the dough. Keep the ouarka sheets covered with a lid, the bright side up.


As you can see, the two recipes are completely different! So, my thought is that even if the final result is similar, they cannot be considered "the same thing"...

Another thing! Probably, the misunderstanding come from the fact I can't speak English well. When speaking of "puff pastry", I tried to translate the Italian "sfoglia"...but I was wrong. The Italian "sfoglia" (like the French "feuilletè") indicates any type of dough made of thin layers, independently from its rising up or not when cooked. In Italian, also the fresh Pasta dough is a "sfoglia"!
Hope I have explained better my point of view now!

Pongi

[Athenaeus]

Pongi
You are really something

Thanks also for the Moroccan -English Dictionnary

[momoreg]

Not much else to say then, is there?