I’ve been known to keep books I’ve already read; shelves full of good reads fills a room with friendly vibrations. Imagined or real snippets amble through the air and such rooms lend a perpetual 1,001 Arabian nights story-telling aura.
My kitchen has become no less a storied place. Cookbooks join these shelves a little less frequently, but with even more sensorial depth. Picking up Regional Cuisines of Greece, I can already taste an avgolemono sauce; flipping through Sunday Suppers at Lucques stirs up many a special sauce smell.
A copy of Flatbreads & Flavors: a Baker’s Atlas recently sidled into view, inspired by The Hungry Travelers story in The New Yorker November 24, 2008 edition. Jeffry Alford and Naomi Duguid include succinct yet richly detailed paragraphs of travel notes with each recipe. Each flatbread-type recipe is accompanied by dishes to prepare alongside these delicious breads.
Last night I journeyed with them to Georgia, patting together a quick, cheese-filled bread, known as Khachapuri from Emereti. You’ll need: 4 oz mild cheddar or mozzarella cheese, grated and then finely chopped (scant 1/2 cup); 2 oz feta cheese, well crumbled, approx 3 Tbs (I only had blue cheese, which worked wonderfully); 2 Tbs plain yogurt; 1 large egg; 3 to 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour; 1 1/2 tsp baking powder; 1/2 tsp salt; 2 cups plain yogurt.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Lightly oil two baking sheets. To prepare the cheese filling, blend together all the ingredients in a bowl (cheeses, 2 Tbs yogurt and egg). Set aside. In a large bowl, mix together 1 cup flour, the baking powder and salt. Add the yogurt and stir well. Then continue stirring in flour until the dough has lost its stickiness and can be worked with your hands. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 3 to 4 minutes, until soft and slightly elastic.
Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Keeping the remaining pieces covered with a cloth, work with one piece of dough at a time. Flatten the dough with the lightly floured palm of your hand. Then, either stretching the dough or using a small rolling pin, flatten it out to a round about 6 to 8 inches in diameter. Place 1 heaping Tbs of the cheese filling in the center of the dough. Pinch an edge of the dough between your thumb and forefinger and stretch it halfway over the filling to the center of the dough round. Then pinch the edge an eighth of a turn along from the first position and bring it to the center. Continue all the way around the circle, stretching the dough as you do so, and pleating it over the filling, until you have a dough-covered mound. Pinch the pleats closed, adn then, with the palm of your hand, gently press down on the top of the mound to flatten it. Turn the bread over and gently press down again on the other side. This will push the filling out into the edges of the bread; it should be 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick and 7 to 8 inches in diameter.
Place the bread on a prepared baking sheet and continue making breads until the first baking sheet is full. Bake breads for 5 to 6 minutes, then remove from oven, slide into a basket lined with cloth, and cover to keep warm. Prepare the remainder.
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