Maakouda

A take on a Moroccan street food classic, Shelina Permalloo makes maakouda – deep fried potato cakes served in a crispy baguette with harissa ketchup.

Ingreadient

For the filling

• 450g cold leftover potatoes, waxy variety if possible (see Shelina’s tips)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• ½ tsp paprika
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tbsp roughly chopped flat leaf parsley leaves

For the batter & to fry

• 150g Essential Self-Raising Flour
• ½ tsp paprika
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• 1 L Vegetable oil

To serve

• 1 large baguette, cut into 4, or 4 small baguettes, split lengthways
• ½ Essential Curly Lettuce, leaves separated
• 6 tbsp Belazu Harissa Tomato Ketchup, or more to taste

Step by step

1. Mash the potatoes in a large bowl. Add the remaining filling ingredients, season, then mix well. Set 1 tsp aside for later (see Shelina’s tips) then take a spoon or ice cream scoop and measure and roll into 12 equal-sized balls. Flatten each ball into a patty and set aside on a tray.
2. To make the batter, put the flour, paprika, turmeric and a pinch of salt into a large bowl and mix well with a balloon whisk. Make a well in the middle of the flour, then gradually whisk in 250ml warm water, to make a thin pancake-type batter. Go slowly with the water at the start, as it’s easier to beat out lumps while it is still thick.
3. Pour the oil into a large, deep saucepan and set it over a medium heat. It’s ready for cooking when the oil reaches 180°C on a kitchen thermometer – or test it with some of the potato mixture (see Shelina’s tips). Dip the potato discs into the batter 1 at a time, let the excess batter drip off, then place carefully into the pan. Fry 4 discs at a time, until deep golden on the outside and piping hot in the middle, for around 3-4 minutes.