Around the World in 195 Meals #5 — Libya

In the UK we had ourselves an unexpected extra day off today. As a result, I found myself doing the weirdest multi-task ever: making Libyan breakfast doughnuts, and watching the state funeral of the longest-reigning monarch in history.

If you do find yourself looking for a recipe that you can do while paying your respects to a recently deceased monarch, this is actually a pretty good one — it has several stages of proving, so you can mostly concentrate on whatever else you’re doing, and just pop back to check on your dough every now and again.

What I made 🍩
Sfinz —the recipe described this as a doughnut, but in reality it’s more like a yeasted pancake. Usually eaten as a fancy breakfast food, but being both a late-riser and heavily distracted by the aforementioned state funeral, I had a very belated brunch in the early afternoon instead.

• Recipe from Libyan Food
• As ever, a bit of ingredient improv was required — I used a mild, creamy goats cheese instead of kiri cheese, served up with honey.
• Had I managed to drag myself out of bed a little earlier, I’d have tried the egg version linked in the above recipe — it’d be really interesting to see how the sweet dough sits with the savoury egg flavour.

Paired with ☕
A steaming hot black coffee, in a poor attempt to recreate the breakfast vibe despite the late hour. It made a good companion to the sweet, rich fillings I chose for the doughnuts.

Highs and lows 📈
I enjoyed the process of making dough, again. And the end result was pretty delicious — weirdly, tasted a lot like the tattie scones you often get with a Scottish breakfast, despite there being no potato in sight.

Soft, sticky doughs like this do my head in though— there’s so much mess, and so much oil needed just to keep it from sticking to every surface. I won’t say it ruined the experience, but I wish I’d been able to spend slightly less time picking bits of dough off my hands.

These were a bit of a time sink, too — I’m too impatient to wait for multiple dough proofs, so found that aspect of things a bit frustrating. And I’m much too impatient to fry up 10 sfinz without eating one or two while I wait, so I was pretty much full by the time I actually sat down to eat!

Lessons learnt ✍
When the recipe suggests doing an overnight proof, listen! I think I’d have been less impatient if I’d been able to sleep through the first proof…

Chef’s notes 👨‍🍳
There was nothing objectively wrong with this dish, and I don’t think I messed anything up. But on balance the eating experience wasn’t quite worth the faff of the making for me.

That being said, I’ve still got several sfinz in the fridge that I was too full to eat — I’ll probably try those with some more savoury toppings later in the week for some interesting lunches.

Dish #5 out of 195
Libya— Sfinz