Flatbreads

[Swisskaese]

Abra asked in the pastry thread about a tanoor oven in reference to ATAF's thread on Iranian Bread.

I really love flatbreads and have the fortune to live in a country that offers Yemenite, Iraqi, Iranian, Tunesian, Indian, Italian, Ethiopian, Druze, Bedouin, Moroccan and Bukharan flatbreads. I am sure I have missed a few.

I found this very interesting article on flatbreads.

On the Flabread Trail

Here in Israel, you will find a number of shishlik restaurants make fresh flatbread in their Taboona. The wood fire is built on the floor of the oven and the bread is baked on the side walls. the dough is placed either by a round padded piece of wood or with a metal hook. I once saw a baker put the dough in with bare hands. I thought he was nuts, but he must have asbestos hands like some of the restaurant chefs.

The Bedouin and the Druze here make their bread on a sajj which looks a bit like an inverted wok. The Bedouin also used to bake their flatbread in hot sand.

What type of flatbreads do you like?

Have you tried making flatbreads?

I have only made foccacia.

Edited May 11, 2006 by Swisskaese (log)

[slbunge]

Many years ago, in Madison, WI there was a bakery that made 'Afghani Flatbread'. It was really quite good. It was sort of a long oval (almost rectangular) and had a look as if it was constructed of lengths of rolled dough cylinders. I'm realizing now that it is very hard to describe.

This picture looks fairly close to what I remember (click)

It was soft and could even be a bit rubbery. Sprinkled with black cumin seeds.

Great for scooping dips.

[Smithy]

When we camped in the Eastern Egyptian desert, our driver and guide were Bedouins. Haj Tofiiq, the guide, made ghors for us as the dinner bread on more than one occasion. He'd build a small fire on the sand, using some of the precious firewood that they'd scrounged along the way. As the fire burnt down, he'd take out his special sack of flour and make a little well in the flour, still in the sack. I think the flour had salt already mixed with it, but maybe he added that later. I can't remember. Then he'd pour a cup or so of water - measured to suit the number of people dining - into the well, and start mixing and squeezing it with his hand. Eventually he'd have a firm ball of dough that he'd pull out of the sack - with just the right proportion of flour to water. Next he pulled out his special piece of cardboard and used it as the surface to knead the dough and shape it into a flat round. By then the fire had burned down to embers. He scraped them away, scraped away the top layer of sand, and laid the dough round into the shallow hole of hot sand, then covered that with the sand and the embers. This was not a walk-away-and-leave-it proposition. Haj Tofiiq squatted or lay at his ease, watching the embers, rearranging them, poking and prodding and whispering the while, until he deemed the proper amount of time was done. Then he'd scrape away the embers and sand, remove the finished bread, and WHACK! WHACK! the bread with the cardboard to beat off the pieces of grit.

Ghors just after cooking was good, elemental food. Next-day ghors was a bit firmer, suitable for soaking in one's soup or stew. Third-day ghors took a hatchet. But the sight of that lean old gentleman pulling a bit of dough like a magic rabbit from his sack, tending it so lovingly under the its hot sand, and then beating the heck out of it to clean it is a cherished memory. Allah rest his soul.

[Swisskaese]

When we camped in the Eastern Egyptian desert, our driver and guide were Bedouins.  Haj Tofiiq, the guide, made ghors for us as the dinner bread on more than one occasion.  He'd build a small fire on the sand, using some of the precious firewood that they'd scrounged along the way.  As the fire burnt down, he'd take out his special sack of flour and make a little well in the flour, still in the sack.  I think the flour had salt already mixed with it, but maybe he added that later.  I can't remember.  Then he'd pour a cup or so of water - measured to suit the number of people dining - into the well, and start mixing and squeezing it with his hand.  Eventually he'd have a firm ball of dough that he'd pull out of the sack - with just the right proportion of flour to water.  Next he pulled out his special piece of cardboard and used it as the surface to knead the dough and shape it into a flat round.  By then the fire had burned down to embers.  He scraped them away, scraped away the top layer of sand, and laid the dough round into the shallow hole of hot sand, then covered that with the sand and the embers.  This was not a walk-away-and-leave-it proposition.  Haj Tofiiq squatted or lay at his ease, watching the embers, rearranging them, poking and prodding and whispering the while, until he deemed the proper amount of time was done.  Then he'd scrape away the embers and sand, remove the finished bread, and WHACK! WHACK! the bread with the cardboard to beat off the pieces of grit.

Ghors just after cooking was good, elemental food.  Next-day ghors was a bit firmer, suitable for soaking in one's soup or stew.  Third-day ghors took a hatchet.  But the sight of that lean old gentleman pulling a bit of dough like a magic rabbit from his sack, tending it so lovingly under the its hot sand, and then beating the heck out of it to clean it is a cherished memory.  Allah rest his soul.

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A friend of mine who used to live amongst the Bedouins was telling me about cooking the flatbread in the sand and also how they cook meat in the sand. I would love to go on a camel safari. My husband has been on three camel safaris. He really enjoyed them.

[Smithy]

Michelle, thanks for that link to the article about being On the Flatbread Trail. Not only was it a good article, but I see the flatbread book they eventually published is still in print, and won a James Beard cookbook award. I just may have to treat myself to this book!

I've made pita bread a number of times, and there's a semolina bread (Yemenite? now I'm not looking at the recipe, and I don't remember the nationality) of it that's pretty good. The nice thing about flatbreads is that they don't seem as fussy as the rising kind. They can be thin for wraps, or thick for soaking up sauces.

It's time to start baking again.

[Sentiamo]

Can anyone help with a recipe for a wonderful flatbread I had in Dubai a few weeks ago?? Was at an Iranian restaurant in the Deira City Centre ( Im pretty sure but I was malled out about that time ) and was served with arabic type fetta, mint leaves, spring onions, hummus etc that was wrapped up in torn pieces of the bread and consumed by me with undisguised greed!

I have since been a Googlin' but any request seems to always pop back with Pita bread. This was NOT pita; rather, a large, soft flatbread that kinda wilted in your hand as you picked it up. And obviously cooked to order as it was soooo fresh.

I am awaiting enlightment here, and drool at the thought of that wondrous piece of mana from Heaven.

Any guidance most appreciated.

I will post about an amazing combo I had in Bangkok recently also. This time wrapped in a leaf I didn't recognise...still dont!! Off to Asia with me.

[Swisskaese]

It sounds like sangak. I haven't been able to find a recipe for it. The truth is that I can buy something similar here which is made in a Yeminite bakery and also I can buy fresh Iraqi lafah. I would suggest buying it, since it should really be made in a special domed tanoor oven.

[arbuclo]

Michelle, thanks for that link to the article about being On the Flatbread Trail.  Not only was it a good article, but I see the flatbread book they eventually published is still in print, and won a James Beard cookbook award.  I just may have to treat myself to this book!

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I have that cookbook Flatbreads and Flavors. It's a very enjoyable read as well as cookbook. I like that they have local dishes to go with the bread recipes. Yummy.