Mhajeb, also written mhadjeb or mahdjouba, takes its name from a word for veiled, because the filling hides inside. A soft semolina dough is stretched on an oiled counter until you can nearly read through it, a spoonful of slow cooked onion, tomato and pepper goes in the middle, and the edges are folded into a neat square parcel before it hits a hot griddle. Street stalls across the country stack them by the dozen, from the coast down to Ouargla and Ghardaia in the south, and they disappear at about the same rate.

The stretching looks like a circus act the first time you see it and turns out to be very learnable, since the oil does most of the work. Once you have the knack, a stack of mhajeb is the finest thing to carry to a sofa, a stand or a picnic blanket, and they are vegetarian and halal as they stand.

The onion and tomato filling

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons (45 ml) olive oil
• 3 large yellow onions
• 1 green bell pepper
• 2 garlic cloves
• 3 ripe tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon harissa
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon fine salt

The dough and griddling

Ingredients

• 2 cups (330 g) fine semolina
• 1/2 cup (65 g) all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• about 1 1/4 cups (300 ml) warm water
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) vegetable oil

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