AFGHAN SWEET BREAD - RHOT

By Humaira

My family was not into baking so I don’t remember many baked goods at our house growing up. Aside from nan, the Afghan flat bread which most families made every day, most modern Kabul residents purchased their baked goods from the local bakeshops. This was likely because most families didn’t have an oven suitable for baking. The bakeries had mouth-watering displays of cookies, cakes and assortment of sweet delights beckoning innocent by standers to give them a try.

When Katie and I were planning a series of blog posts on baked goods I quickly volunteered to do roht, which is sweet bread that some of my family members indulged frequently when I was growing up. Every afternoon my sisters Nabila and Zohra took a break from whatever they were doing (probably avoiding me) and enjoyed a cup of tea with a piece of roht. They are quite a few years older than me and as a child my ultimate goal was to be part of their world. But that was hard to attain. I was the typical pesky little sister and I was only allowed to join them for the afternoon snack if I went to the corner store and fetched a fresh loaf of roht. The roht was made by the Kabul Silo a national bakery created by the Russians (before they invaded) in Kabul, which made all kinds of baked goods that I adored. The Silo was one of the buildings I readily recognized during my 2006 trip to Kabul.

I loved that roht; it was sweet, thick and soft. It was different from the homemade kind, which was denser and not as sweet. They probably loaded it with yeast, oil and sugar to get that texture. Nevertheless, I happily took the 10 Afghani (20 cents now) to the store and fetched the roht for our special afternoon together. OK, I was told to sit quietly and not to say anything to annoy them but I still remember those afternoons fondly.

The recipe I share with you is from Jeja (my mom) who went through a brief baking stint in the 1980s, but generally doesn’t do much baking. After much cajoling I got her to share this recipe with me. I substituted butter for oil and added a pinch of salt, but most of the recipe is intact. I think I may have set Jeja on a new era of baking.

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Afghan Sweet Bread

Roht

1 cup all purpose flour

2 cups whole-wheat flower

1 packet rapid rise yeast

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. cardamom

pinch of salt

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter, melted

2 tbsp.full fat plain yogurt

½ cup warm water

1 tsp. nigella seeds*

Thoroughly mix the flour, whole-wheat flour, yeast, sugar, cardamom, and salt in a large bowl. Pour half of the mixture into the bowl of a food processor fitted with a dough blade. Add the melted butter and yogurt. Process the dough until well combined. If the mixture sticks to the sides of the processor, scrape it down and process some more. Add the remainder of the flour mixture to the dough. Begin processing the ingredients again and slowly dribble in the water until the dough comes together. You might have to stop periodically to scrape the dough off the sides. After a few minutes, the dough will come together in one smooth lump and move around the food processor.

Remove the dough from the food processor cup and pat it into a smooth ball. Set it in a large bowl, cover with 2 dishcloths and keep in a warm place for 2 hours. I turn the oven light on and leave the bowl inside the oven. It’s nice and cozy for the dough.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cover a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Divide the dough into two balls and work gently into a circular flat shape, about ½- inch thick. Poke little holes in a circular pattern on top of the dough with a fork, maybe around 20 pokes per loaf. Sprinkle the loaves with nigella seeds.

Bake in the middle rack for 25-30 minutes until the roht is golden brown. Let it cool to room temperature before serving. Roht should be cut like pizza slices and served in a triangular shape. I find eight pieces to a loaf is about the right size. Enjoy with a cup of tea.

Extra roht should be stored in an airtight container or Ziploc bag. I find it tastes even better the next day.

*Nigella seeds are a spice commonly used in Indian or Middle Eastern dishes. They are tiny black roasted seeds that taste like oregano and have bitterness to them like mustard-seeds. They are sold at Middle Eastern or India nmarkets. Check out the list of markets that we have compiled for you. If you can’t find them, use sesame seeds instead.

Right before going into the oven

A gorgeous baked roht

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HOMEMADE AFGHAN FLAT BREAD - NAN

By Humaira

Two years ago I took Katie on a tour of “Little Kabul”, the Afghan district of Fremont located about an hour outside of San Francisco that stretches all of three blocks. I saved the best for last and finished up the outing with a visit to Maiwand Market, a bustling Afghan grocery store and bakery. The market is one of the largest producers of Afghan nan  in the Bay Area, churning out over 2,000 loaves a day. Despite the fact we were stuffed with kebabs, the smell of the bread was irresistible and we couldn’t walk away empty handed. The question was: one loaf or two? The loaves measure a couple of feet long. We spent five minutes contemplating whether we could eat that much nan? Would it be wasted? Do we have room in our freezers? As we went back and forth an Afghan lady walked up, ordered 20 loaves, and walked off, cradling her armful of bread. Without missing a beat, we quickly settled on two loaves and left.

Afghans eat a lot of nan:with every meal, with or without rice. Every Afghan village and every neighborhood in Kabul has a bakery (nanwayee) outfitted with a clay oven (tandoor) built into the earth. The tandoor is round with a big opening and runs about five feet deep. Most home cooks prepare their own dough and bring it to the tandoor, which is kept piping hot all day. The bread baker takes the dough, forms it into a long oval shape measuring about three feet long and a half- inch thick and using a paddle covered with thick wet cloth, presses the dough onto the searing hot wall of the tandoor. The humidity and high heat bakes the bread in minutes and gives it a delicious flavor. The bakery charges the family by making a notch in a stick for every piece that is baked. The family pays at the end of the week based on how many notches are in the stick. Nan tastes best right from the oven.

If you don’t happen to live in Fremont or Afghanistan you can still enjoy nan by making it in your home oven. Traditional nan is made using a starter (khamir toursh) but this recipe uses packet yeast. The secret is a super hot oven and the right amount of humidity. Get the oven piping hot and have a water spray bottle around for moisture. I cobbled together the recipe using tips from my mom, Afghan author Tamim Ansary, my baker friend Mari and Helen Saberi’s book Afghan Food & Cookery. My daughter Aria, an Afghan bread connoisseur, declared the results, “yummy!”. Your nan will not look like the one from Maiwand Market but it will hopefully be yummy too!

Afghan Flat Bread 

Nan

5 cups bread flour

2 tsp. Kosher salt

1 packet quick rising yeast

5 tsp. vegetable oil

2 cups warm water

1 tsp Nigella seeds (optional)

1 spray bottle filled with water

Put the flour, salt and yeast in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a dough blade. Process it for a few seconds to mix the ingredients. Continue to process as you dribble the oil into the flour. Next, slowly add the water to the flour with the processor running.If the mixture sticks to the sides of the processor, scrape it down and process some more. After a few minutes, the dough will come together in one smooth lump and it will move around the food processor. Let is swirl a couple of time and then it’s ready to rest.

If you don’t have a food processor, you can make the bread by hand. Pour all the dry ingredients in a big bowl and mix well. Add oil and mix further. Gradually add the water and knead the dough for 10 to 15 minutes the dough is smooth and elastic. Once the dough is done, set it in a large bowl, cover with 2 dish cloths and keep in a warm place for 2 hours. Punch down the dough. It is ready to be baked.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. If you have convection, turn it on. Cover a large baking sheet with aluminum foil and set in the oven to heat. Spread some flour on the work surface and pat your hands with flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands. Divide the dough into three balls and work it gently into an oval that measures about 1 ½ feet long and ½- inch thick. As you stretch the dough it will pick up some of the flour from the work surface, make sure that you add more flour or the dough will stick to the work surface. Once the dough is shaped make three deep lines (don’t cut the dough) lengthwise on the surface of the dough with a knife.

Once the oven is very hot, remove the baking sheet. Gently lay the shaped dough onto the baking pan and sprinkle with nigella seeds. Gently press the seeds into the dough. Place the dough in the oven, spray 5-6 times with your spray bottle and bake for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, spray the bread around 5-6 times and continue to bake for another 5 minutes. The nan should be golden brown and crusty on the outside.

To keep the bread moist, wrap the warm bread in a large dishcloth until it cools down. Be sure to taste it while it is still warm. Cut in into 3-inch squares. Store in a Ziploc bag and place in the fridge. Reheat it in the toaster oven and enjoy it with feta cheese and a dab of cherry jam along with a cup of tea.

Ready for the oven.

Ready to eat

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AFGHAN POTATO AND SCALLION BREAD - BOLANI KACHALOO

By Humaira

Bolani e kachaloo, unleavened bread stuffed with potato, scallions and cilantro is one of my favorite Afghan snacks. It’s in complete opposition to Mr. Atkins’ dietary rules: starch on the outside, starch on the inside. Maybe that is what makes it so delicious. Bolani can also be filled with other delicious stuffing: Chinese green onions (gandana), spinach,lentils, butternut squash or whatever you like.

Afghans make bolani for special occasion such as birthday parties, engagement parties or holidays. Nowadays most Afghans in the East Bay order their bolani from the many local Afghan restaurants. The most popular source is Fremont’s beloved hole in the wall De Afghanan restaurant which is reminiscent of kebab houses in Kabul. Some of my non-Afghan friends have discovered bolani sold by the folks at East West Gourmet Foods who set up shop at many of the Bay Area farmers markets.

On a field trip to Little Kabul last spring, Katie and I watched in awe as the cook at De Afghanan brought out a piece of bolani dough the size of a large pizza, spread a generous amount of potato mixture on it and then browned it as we watched. Somehow the two of us managed to eat most of this flavorful bread, along with a huge order of chicken kebab. In the Afghan community the De Afghanan version of bolani is now lovingly called Fremont style.

Although in Afghanistan everyone makes their own dough, over the years my mom Jeja and her fellow Afghan ladies have developed short cuts to making bolani. They use a bread dough bought from Costco or flour tortillas, the latter of which we think is the best and easiest way to go. For this post I’m sharing both a recipe for the homemade dough and also the method using tortillas. I have to confess once they were cooked it was hard to distinguish one from the other. Both tasted great.

We like to make bolani as an appetizer, an elegant addition to a dinner instead of bread, a yummy sandwich alternative in our kids’ lunch boxes or a quick snack to reheat in the toaster.

Bolani:Afghan Potato and Scallion Turnover

Bolani e Kachaloo

3 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 cup water room temperature

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. olive oil

1 lb. russet potatoes (about 2 medium-size potatoes)

1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro

1/2 cup finely chopped scallions white and green parts

¼ cup plus 2 tbsp. olive oil

1 ½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground black pepper

Instructions:

Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Slowly add the water and the teaspoon of oil and mix the dough together, kneading it a little until it forms a ball. If the dough is too dry to come together, add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Once the dough is formed, knead it for 10 minutes on a lightly floured cutting board. If you are impatient like us, set the timer so you won’t reduce the kneading time. Put the dough back in the bowl, cover with a cloth and let it rest for one hour.

In the meantime, boil the potatoes until soft in the center when pierced with a small knife. Remove from the water and when cool enough to handle, slip the skins off the potatoes. Put the potatoes, cilantro, scallions, 2 tbsp. of the olive oil, salt and pepper in a bowl and mash together with your hands or a potato masher until thoroughly combined. Some lumps are ok. You can also make this the night before and keep it refrigerated until ready to use.

Take a small amount of dough the size of a small apple and roll into a smooth ball. Spread some flour on the wood board and roll out the dough using a rolling pin. Continue to flatten the dough until it takes a round shape, is as thin as a tortilla, and about 10-12 inches across. The thinner the dough the better. If you have trouble rolling the dough to the shape you want, use a lid from a pot to trace a perfect round shape.

Spread ¼ cup of potato mixture on one side of the dough, leaving a 1/4 inch border around the rim. Fold the other half over and press the dough together with your finger to form a seal.

Heat the remaining ¼ cup of oil in a medium-size sauté pan over medium-high heat. Brown the bolani, two at a time, until golden on both sides. The bolani should sizzle when they hit the pan. Lay cooked bolani on a paper towel. Add more oil to your pan if your oil starts to reduce. These are best served warm but are tasty at room temperature.

Serve with plain yogurt

Short Cut:

If you don’t want to make the dough use flour tortillas instead, it always turns out well and saves time.

2 tbsp. flour

2 tbsp. water

6 6-inch flour tortillas

In a small dish, mix together the flour and water to make a paste. Set a tortilla on your work surface and spread ¼ cup of the potato mixture on the tortilla, leaving a half-inch border around the rim. Using your finger spread a small amount of the paste around the edge of half of the tortilla. Fold the tortilla over, encasing the potatoes into a half circle. Press the two sides of the tortillas together firmly to form a tight seal. Brown the bolani following the instructions in the recipe above.

Bolani cut out with potato mixture

Folded over and pressed together

Using a tortilla you leave a wider edge for the paste which will hold the tortilla closed.

Tortilla Bolani ready for cooking

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