Can we talk all things Bread?

[Jeepers]

Thank you Euphrasyne. I bought a lot of cornmeal in bulk the last trip to the Amish store but wasn't sure what to use it for other than corn bread. 

 

I've been wondering what that bread was that I see the women in the Middle East (Afghanistan) make. They pat it back and forth in their hands and then fry it in a big pan. Is that Naan? Or maybe pita? It does make a pocket. 

 

I'm copy/pasting this.  

[euphrasyne]

Naan is India Indian.  They also make roti and Paratha.

 

Afghanistan has noni afghani.  It has egg, does not use yogurt, and much less yeast.  It is cooked on a tandoor similar to Naan.    You can usually cheat the tandoor by using cast iron.  You can also hold the bread to the flame on the stove for a second to get the customary black dots Naan or other type breads have.

 

This is a sample recipe of noni afghani:

Noni Afghani (Afghan Bread) Recipe - Food.com

[Ambergris]

I have an electric tortilla maker (presses and cooks--think waffle-maker but smooth) and a heavy plastic/resin tortilla press.  Guess which one is still in the box?

I really prefer the flour tortillas, but what we can grow easily here is corn.  So corn is what we have to be used to eating.

 

 

Easy way to grind corn is to nixtamalize it (make hominy out of it) first, mash the hominy, dry the mash, then grind the dried mash.  It's easier to digest all the nutrients that way, too.

[Jeepers]

I thought Naan was Indian bread. I've seen a lot of Indians scooping up food from their plate using the bread as a utensil. Seems very efficient and yummy too. 

 

I have one of those manual tortilla makers. It's really just a flattener I think...still in the box. 

 

I have a lot to learn!

[euphrasyne]

Making a lemongrass Basil curry for dinner tonight so I made onion cheese rolls to go with it.   

 

Half batch of Amish rolls with yogurt instead of sour cream.   Divide into 12. Roll out.  Spread chive onion cream cheese.  Fold over, seal center, pinch edges. Put in greased pie dish, sprinkle tomato Basil feta over.   Rise an hour bake 30m 350f.

[euphrasyne]

I saw this video on Turkish bread today and I'm going to have to try it this week.   It seems really similar to pita bread but more flexible.  

 

 

[Necie]

[Littlesister]

I have 5-5 gal buckets of grain. So, hope that will hold me. Though for a while I have been thinking about getting a couple of more. I should do that soon before anything else happens with food supplies. I have my grinder ready to go. 

[Ambergris]

Bread is a thin part of the rope here, something we buy every time we go to town.  We don't have an oven, but I hope to get one soon.  I was making frying pan biscuits and pancakes, but with my seizures getting worse, people get anxious about me getting burned if I use the stovetop.  I also made cornbread by starting it in the rice cooker and finishing it in the air fryer, with good crunchy results, but the rice cooker is either busy or dirty all the time now to keep the rice production going without me helping out at the stove top.  I am really looking forward to getting that mini-oven.

[Mother]

Do you have a microwave, Ambergris?  Lots of recipes for microwave quick bread.  I have a microwave muffin pan that I use for cornbread. Not crispy but I bet you could air fryer finish them.  

[Ambergris]

No microwave.    I had one of those in the Enchanted, but never used it. 

 

Once the wiring is done, we will be in a position to go look at mini-ovens again.  There was a mini-oven (convection type) air-fryer combo I quite liked, but it had a wonky door.  I'm waiting for the shop to get a new shipment in. 

 

Also, after the earth-mover comes through to stabilize the ground, we are supposed to end up with enough space to build a grilling area, and I have been promised a domed wood-fired or charcoal-fired horno/oven as part of that.  I've been watching videos on how to cook with those.  According to the most recent I can recall, bread can't be done in the high-heat roasting part of the cooking arc, but can be baked in the cool-down phase.  That was talking about wheat bread in thin pans, of course.  Cast iron and cornbread have their own rules, which I might have to find out on my own.

[Mother]

I didn’t used to use my microwave much but have learned so much I can do with it.  As mine is a combination convection mic it does even more.  I was recently given a small plastic micro pressure cooker that I have been using a lot.

 

In the past brick ovens were used to bake in most of the day. I have helped bake in one a few times..  Once fired and heated they used it for biscuits and other hot fast baking foods first. (We did pizzas ). Bread, rolls, pies, cakes, and etc would follow in turn.  Usually along the way they would put in a pot of beans or some meat to cook along side of the baked goods.  One key is to make sure it was thoroughly heated and that the oven door was replaced quickly between bakings to retain the heat.  If it was built right it would have residual heat at the end of the day and they could use it for drying herbs and other foods.  Another thing they did was to refire the oven to a lessor degree and bake beans or porridge, or other foods overnight to have for breakfast or dinner the following day.   I’m guessing the Horno would work in a similar way.