Harsha

Harsha is semolina - coarse, not fine - rubbed together with butter, sugar, salt and baking powder until it takes on a sandy texture, moistened with milk just enough to hold, pressed into rounds and cooked on a dry griddle so it forms a crust on both sides while staying short and crumbly inside. It is not bread in the yeasted sense and does not behave like it; the closest comparison is a savoury shortbread or a cornbread. It is a breakfast and tea-time thing, split and filled with jam, honey, butter, cream cheese or laughing cow, and sold from the same morning carts as msemen and sfenj, usually stacked in a pile under a cloth. Households make it because it takes fifteen minutes and no proving. It is very cheap, it is filling, and like most of the griddle breads it is worth much less cold than hot.

Highlights

• Coarse semolina - rubbed with butter to a sandy texture rather than kneaded.
• A dry griddle - crusted on both sides and crumbly within.
• Split and filled - honey, jam, butter or soft cheese at breakfast.
• Fifteen minutes to make - no proving, which is why households make it constantly.

When to go

All year, in the morning. Half an hour.

Good to know

It is dry and crumbly by nature and needs a filling and a drink. It is much worse cold. Cart versions vary in butter content, which is what decides quality. It sits alongside msemen and sfenj on the same stall.

Nearby

Every morning cart in every Moroccan town.