12
Jun
If you are having breakfast in Uzbekistan, you would probably be eating Charles’ scarab pasta but in Morocco you would feast on melwi, an amazing multi-layered bread which is a kind of mille-feuille in that the dough is layered with fat except that the technique is very different. And here, in black & white pictures, is how Bushra, who I worked with in Marrakesh, makes Melwi.
Once she’s made her dough and divided it, She flattens it in a somewhat rectangular shape.
Then she smears it with butter
And drizzles vegetable oil over it.
She stretches it a little.
Then she rolls the flattened dough into a fat roll.
She picks up the roll of dough and with her fingers, presses into both ends to make a hole in the middle and scrunch up the roll.
She turns her scrunched up roll
and stretches the opening to make a wide ring
which she flattens using a little more vegetable oil.
And finally she bakes the bread in a hot pan. When it is done, she picks it up as in the top picture – she has asbestos hands – and presses slightly on the edges to separate the layers. Et voilà, melwi for breakfast with more butter and good honey, my absolute favourite when I am there! I will make it in the next week or so and will post both the recipe and pictures of my effort hoping it will be successful.
Tagged : Charles Perry, marrakesh, melwi, mille-feuille, moroccan breakfast breads, scarab pasta, uzbek breakfasts, uzbekistan 
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There is 5 comments on this post
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June 12, 2012 at 4:53 am
ooh can’t wait for your recipe after you have tested it…
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July 16, 2012 at 12:49 am
Melwi and Malaysian roti are almost identical, especially the rolling up and patting down of the cylinder of rolled dough to achieve the “mille feuilles”. I wonder if there was a common source.
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July 16, 2012 at 1:00 am
how interesting. even though i spent two weeks in singapore once, i never made it to malaysia which is a shame. i’ll try to find out more about the malaysian roti 🙂
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January 6, 2013 at 1:36 pm
My husband who is Brit calls for Mlaoui and 3assal every day when we are visiting Morocco.. the only names he gets right in all the Moroccan culinary repertoire..
I’m smiling right now..
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January 6, 2013 at 4:25 pm
i would the same. and yes i made it to doha and would have loved to meet you. perhaps one day in fez 🙂 and i don’t think the rice was mashbuss. probably biryani.