bread |

Bread, bread, bread, where would I be without glorious bread? Eating rice, potatoes or pasta, most likely. I do love my carbs. Too much of them messes up my blood sugar and makes it difficult to run long distances (I recently discovered) but moderate amounts consumed with other foods, like oily fish, fresh nutrient rich vegetables or beans, is fabulous. This recipe is based on the bread served in Anadolu Restaurant in Baku, Azerbaijan. It is like a gigantic pita with deliciously savoury seeds on top. In fact, that’s exactly what it is.

Ingredients

250g plain flour

150ml water

7g yeast

pinch salt

pinch sugar

1 egg, beaten

nigella seeds

sesame seeds

Method

Step 1: preheat oven to 180c. Place yeast in a mug or bowl with about half the water (tepid) and the sugar. Leave for 10 minutes.

Step 2: add salt to flour and mix through. Make a well and pour in the yeast, which should have started frothing. Start kneading, adding more of the water as you go.

Step 3: knead for about 5-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic – but soft! (If it’s not soft then it’s probably too dry.) Set aside for about 45 minutes to an hour to rise.

Note: you should leave bread to rise in a warm, slightly damp environment. If I’m cooking, the kitchen usually takes care of the “warm” part; a damp tea-towel draped over the bowl will take care of the “damp.” Another trick is to turn on the oven for a minute or two and stick it in there. Just make sure you don’t forget you’ve turned the oven on…

Step 4: knock back the dough, which should have roughly doubled in size. Separate into two, equal-sized balls and roll out into a long, roughly oval shape. It should be thin, but not pasta-thin. Hope that makes sense.

Step 5: place on grease-proof paper-lined baking trays and glaze with beaten egg. Sprinkle liberally with sesame and nigella seeds and stick in the pre-heated oven at 180c for about 7-10 minutes. Keep an eye on it; once it gets going, it will puff up like magic and brown fairly quickly which makes it easy to burn.

Step 6: remove from the oven and consume warm with any of the following: butter and cheese; curry; hummus; smoked mackerel pate; salad; soup; anything else that you can think of.

I was talking to my mother earlier this week, and she “commented,” ahem, that my recipes have been a bit complicated of late. Apparently the peeled roast peppers in my last post pushed her over the edge. So, in response to this observation, here is a recipe that’s about as simple as it gets. Foolproof, you might even say.

Ingredients

450g flour

large pinch salt

8g bicarbonate soda

300ml milk

100ml yoghurt

butter, to grease bread tin

Method

Step 1: grease bread tin with butter and pre-heat oven to 210c.

Step 2: mix together dry ingredients in one bowl; mix yoghurt and milk in another.

Step 3: add yoghurt and milk mix to dry ingredients, bit by bit, until it is all combined into a sticky dough.

Step 4: spoon dough into greased bread tin and smooth the top, poking the dough down into the corners as you do.

Step 5: place in preheated oven at 210c for 35 minutes.

Step 6: remove from oven and bread tin and allow to cool on a metal rack.

That’s all folks! No proofing, no knocking back, no kneading. Just mix it all together,whack it in the oven, and 35 minutes later you have one of the best things in the world – freshly baked bread. Have it for breakfast, lunch, as an afternoon snack or even for dinner, as I did today, with smoked salmon pate. You’re welcome.

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