Man'oushé, Inside the Lebanese Street Corner Bakery

[blue_dolphin]

Recently, over in the Pastry & Baking forum, @Hassouni asked a question about the best flour to use to make a traditional Lebanese bread.  I have no experience with the breads he asked about but I want to thank him for starting the thread.  Like many eGullet topics, it led me to want to learn more about something I knew absolutely nothing about.  First, I watched a number of Anthony Rahayel videos like the one he linked to (الترويقة اللبنانية الشهية : مناقيش عالصاج) and this one, MANOUSHE: Lebanese World Renowned Traditional Breakfast.  

 

Of course I couldn't understand them and a search took me to this cookbook,  Man'oushé, Inside the Lebanese Street Corner Bakery by Barbara Abdeni Massaad.  It's not new, I think it was originally published in 2009.  The author also wrote Mouneh: Preserving Foods for the Lebanese Pantry and Soup for Syria: Recipes to Celebrate our Shared Humanity.  I haven't tried to cook from this book so I can't speak to how well the recipes work, but I feel like I've spent time visiting many towns in Lebanon, meeting the people and learning about the breads as the author did for this project.  The soft-bound version was $16 when I ordered it, which I thought was very fair for this large, photo-filled book.  I generally hate it when people review a cookbook without cooking from it but I think this is a lovely book and I wanted to mention it here in case anyone else is interested. Instructions are provided for both traditional methods and a conventional oven or stove-top skillets so I should be able to try some of them.  I'll come back and update this when I do.

 

Sadly, there's no look-inside feature for this book on Amazon, so I'm sharing a couple of photos to give you an idea of the book.  

I most likely will NOT choose as my first recipe from the book this paper-thin bread that's stretched on a cushion and baked on a convex saj.

 

Something like these flat breads may be more within my reach:

 

Edited March 29, 2018 by blue_dolphin
correct a date (log)

[Anna N]

Thanks for this. I will happily follow along and see how you make out. I’m quite sure it will be a fun ride and that you will discover some new things at the end of it. 

[kayb]

Fun! I love cookbooks that have a story to them. One reason I like Deep Run Roots so well.

 

[Hassouni]

Thanks for the shoutout, @blue_dolphin, glad to inspire you. I have that book and have made both the regular man'oushe dough and the "paper thin" marqouq dough, though used the latter dough also for mana'ish. A few of my thoughts on the book:

 

The author mentions many ways to make mana'ish, but really in Lebanon you have the oven and the saj, and that's about it. One thing to note is that much like pizza, the mana'ish made in the oven need very high temperatures and to are made essentially like a pizza, on a very hot floor with a peel and everything. I got a Baking Steel Griddle recently, and haven't used it for the white dough, but before that I used Kenji Lopez-Alt's cast iron skillet-broiler method in the oven and those turned out pretty well. I wouldn't bother doing them any other way. Here's the result:

 

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/12651167_10100503207295711_7626101389396993008_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&_nc_eui2=v1%3AAeFZ4qRF6XIYTHJEFOqJEYHxx7ckPD91IK-4HAEev1pJDjR9nSDtHgJ8XnzaohAmPF9LiEQYX4EYTadyGYiRIpBQHSFm2o29OjQwooSeRcQFhw&oh=ce77991087aa7d8718f270d242cc1ea2&oe=5B748A4C

 

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/12654498_10100503207305691_1717294120862096213_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&_nc_eui2=v1%3AAeFpX3Eyg8tGwjTPz1gu-Rl7XvX3E9UR9I3W8mzlFeIBSdpHWH8BaAVTqaVhKpCaGUXpNt1vxFD68WgmeKXqdZm9S01VPaEn3GT28SXU7ETPAg&oh=990b2b631c9c70c0b5d73df5646a67b5&oe=5B6AF770

 

 

 

For the Baking Steel I've been using it more like a saj, or as the author calls it, the convex metal disk, rather than like a pizza stone. I've tried all the doughs in the book on that, and done some experimenting myself. In my opinion, the marqouq dough, the ratio of 350:160 whole wheat to white flour is a bit high, I've been doing 50:50 lately, and I've also been using Atta flour, because I think standard whole wheat doesn't get thin enough. Also I think the recipes could stand a touch more water, but that could also be differences in dough. One thing to note is that across Lebanon, there are many, many different dough recipes, and mana'ish vary wildly from shop to shop. Anyway here's what I recall as the white flour dough on the Baking Steel, saj style.

 

Finally, I think the book is most useful for learning the culture of the man'oushe, as well as the myriad toppings and typical flavor combinations one sees. In Beirut options are typically zaatar, cheese, zaatar & cheese (often referred to just as "cocktail"), zaatar & labneh, kashkawan (kashkaval cheese), and maybe sometimes kishk, kafta, or lahme b'ajin. But at the main weekly farmer's market in Beirut, some of the man'oushe vendors have topping options that you never see at the bakeries, and I think the book does a good job exploring the depth and breadth of that. 

 

Edited March 30, 2018 by Hassouni (log)

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, Hassouni said:

Thanks for the shoutout, @blue_dolphin, glad to inspire you. I have that book and have made both the regular man'oushe dough and the "paper thin" marqouq dough, though used the latter dough also for mana'ish. A few of my thoughts on the book:

 Your post is the reason I keep coming back here no matter how frustrated I become about certain issues. 

 

 Sharing your knowledge and experience with us renews my sense of our raison d’être.  I  thank you. 

 

 

[kayb]

_{How could I resisit? I ordered it.}

 

[blue_dolphin]

5 minutes ago, kayb said:

_{How could I resisit? I ordered it.}

 

I don't think you will regret that decision.  It's a lovely book.  Even if you don't try the recipes, the time one can spend pouring over the photos and reading the stories makes it worthwhile.

 

Thank you so much @Hassouni, for sharing your suggestions and experiences.  Your photos look amazing!  

 

[Hassouni]

Thanks for the kind words. By the way, I should also mention the closest substitute I can easily find for kashkawan/kashkaval is manchego. I much prefer it to the standard man'oushe cheese 

[Eric Srikandan]

On 3/30/2018 at 5:30 PM, kayb said:

_{How could I resisit? I ordered it.}

 

Ha - so did I!