Culinary Achievers

MIDDLE EASTERN BREADS

This blog speaks about the breads from the different countries of the Middle East region. Generally all the breads from this region are flat breads. Dry fruits, seeds etc. play an important role.

Countries:

Bahrain
Cyprus
Egypt
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Oman
Palestine
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Syria
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
Yemen

Methods of cooking:

Deep fat frying

Shallow frying

On charcoal

Stone cooking

Tandoor (iron)

Woodfire oven

Staple crops:

Wheat and barley are the major staple crops grown in the Middle East region.In addition, significant quantities of rice, maize, lentils, chickpeas, vegetables and fruits are produced throughout the region.

Some commonly used ingredients include olives and olive

oil, pitas, honey, sesame seeds, dates, sumac, chickpeas, mint and

parsley.

Bahrain:Bahrain is a generally flat and arid archipelago in the Persian Gulf, east of Saudi Arabia.

Its primary crops are dates, bananas, citrus fruits, pomegranates, mangoes, cucumbers and tomatoes.

Rainfall in Bahrain is minimal and irregular. Rainfalls mostly occur in winter. Summers are very hot. The seas around Bahrain are very shallow, heating up quickly in the summer to produce high humidity, especially at night. Summer temperatures may reach up to 50 °C.

Khoubiz Mehala

It is an old traditional Bahraini bread baked in a clay over built in the ground.

It is usually served along with halawah.

It has dates in it as they are found largely.

Cyprus:

Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia.Cyprus has a subtropical climate – Mediterranean and semi-arid type very mild winters (on the coast) and warm to hot summers.Pourgouri (bulgur, cracked wheat) is the traditional source of carbohydrate other than bread. Fresh vegetables and fruits are common ingredients.

Kouloura

They are crunchy on the outside with an amazingly soft and slightly chewy centre.

These delicious bread rings are covered with toasted sesame seeds.

Koulouri-Cypriot village bread

They are crunchy on the outside with an amazingly soft and slightly chewy centre.

These delicious bread rings are covered with toasted sesame seeds.

Egypt:

Egypt officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia.

Egypt has an unusually hot, sunny and dry climate.

Egyptian cuisine makes heavy use of legumes and vegetables, since Egypt's rich Nile valley and delta produce large quantities of these crops in high quality.

Eesh Baladi

The ancient Egyptian bread. A round loaf of whole wheat bread.

This is a delicious everyday bread served at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Aish Merahrah

It is an Egyptian flat bread made with 5 -10% ground fenugreek seeds and maize.

The loaves are flat and wide, and usually about 50 cm in diameter. The bread is made of maize flour made into a soft dough fermented overnight with a sourdough starter, shaped into round loaves

Iran:

Iran is the 18th largest country in the world.Iran's climate ranges from arid or semiarid, to subtropical along the Caspian coast and the northern forests.The coastal plains of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman in southern Iran have mild winters, and very humid and hot summers.Fresh green herbs are frequently used along with fruits plums, pomegranates, quince, prunes, apricots, and raisins.

Barbari Bread:

It is a type of Persian flatbread primarily made in Iran. It is one of the thickest flat breads.

It is served in many restaurants with Lighvan cheese, of ewe's milk, similar to feta cheese.

Sangak:

It is a plain, rectangular, triangular Iranian whole wheat leavened flatbread.

Its name consists of two parts: 'Sang‘ in Persian means stone or pebble and 'sangak' means little stone. The bread is baked on a bed of small river stones in an oven.

Iraq:

Iraq mainly consists of desert, but near the two major rivers (Euphrates and Tigris) are fertile alluvial plains.

Summer temperatures average above 40 °C (104 °F) for most of the country and frequently exceed 48 °C Winter temperatures infrequently exceed 21 °C .

Characteristic ingredients of Iraqi cuisine include –cereals such as rice, bulgur wheat and barley, pulses and legumes such as lentils, chickpeas and cannellini.

Fruitsdates, raisins, apricots, figs, grapes, melon, pomegranate and citrus fruits, especially lemon and lime.

Lafah:

Taboon bread is a Middle Eastern flatbread.

Lafah or Lafa is an Iraqi pita that is of medium thickness, slightly chewy, doesn't tear easily, and is mostly used to wrap shawarma in food stands

Burek:

Börek (also burek and other variants) is a family of baked filled pastries made of a thin

flaky dough known as phyllo.

The top of the börek is often sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Israel:

Israel is at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea , bounded by Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank to the east, and Egypt and the Gaza strip to the southwest.

It has a typical Mediterranean climate with cool, rainy winters and long, hot summers.

Staple crops:

Rice and cous cous.

Challah:

Challah, is a special Jewish braided bread eaten on Sabbath and Jewish holidays.

Challah is typically an egg-enriched bread, often braided.

Malawach:

Malawach or malawah ‎ is a fried bread.

Malawach resembles a thick pancake, and it consists of thin layers of puff pastry brushed with oil or fat and cooked flat in a frying pan.

It is traditionally served with a crushed or grated tomato dip, hard boiled eggs.

Jordan:

Jordan has a hot, dry climate characterized by long, hot, dry summers and short, cool winters.

Jordanian cuisine is a traditional style of food preparation originating from Jordan. The national main dish is Mansaf, which consists of lamb cooked in dried yogurt and served with seasoned rice on flat bread.

Fruits and vegetables including cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants, melons, bananas, and citrus crops often were produced in surplus amounts.

Adub:

A dense, unleavened traditional Jordanian Bedouin bread baked directly in a wood fire by
burying in ash and covering with hot embers.

Ka'ak:

Is a traditional Jordanian bread made mostly in a large leaf or ring-shape and is covered in sesame seeds.

Lebanon:

The Lebanese cuisine is an ancient one and part of the Levantine cuisine, which include the Egyptian cuisine, Palestinian cuisine, Syrian cuisine etc.

Lebanon has a Mediterranean climate characterized by long, hot, dry summers and short, cool, rainy winters.

Staple crops: Wheat and barley

Saj bread:

A flat and thin round bread, it is baked on a domed metal griddle — an upside down iron disk.

In certain regions saj bread is known as a form of pita or lavash breads, both of which as well can be cooked on a saj griddle or disk.

Pita:

Pita or pitta is a soft, slightly leavened flat bread baked from wheat flour.

Pita can be used to scoop sauces or dips such as hummus.

Kuwait:

Kuwait is a country in the Persian Gulf. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Kuwait was a prosperous trade port.

Kuwait has an arid climate. Kuwait has a huge temperature difference between winter and summer.

Kuwait's traditional flatbread is called khubz. It is a large flatbread baked in a special oven. Numerous local bakeries dot the country. Bread is often served with mahyawa fish sauce.

Khubz:

Khubz, khoubz or khobz the Arabic word for bread, is usually used by non-Arabic speakers to refer

to the flatbread also known as pita that forms a staple of the local diet from the Arabian Peninsula to Morocco and also in Israel where there is a large community of Iraqi Jews.

Oman:

The Climate of Oman can be described as subtropical dry, hot desert climate with low annual rainfall, very high temperatures in summer and a big difference between maximum and minimum temperatures, especially in the inland areas.

Staple crops: Peaches,grapes and walnuts

Khubz rakhal:

Paper-thin, crispy Omani bread called khubz rakhal is filled with cheese, honey or egg, or a combination of all three.

Yemen:

The Climate of Yemen can be described as subtropical dry, hot desert climate with low annual rainfall, very high temperatures in summer.

In Yemen, many kitchens have a taboon (also called tannur), which is a round clay oven.

Cheese, butter, and other dairy products are less common in the Yemeni diet.

Jachnun:

It is a layered rolled pastry that is baked at a very low heat over night.It is usually served for breakfast with a boiled egg, crushed tomatoes and zhug (a very spicy hot sauce).

Kubana:

Kubana is a traditional Yemenite Jewish pull-apart yeast bread.

It is usually baked overnight and eaten for breakfast or brunch on Shabbat

It is prepared baked at a low temperature in a tightly covered container so it gets steamed.

Ingredients include sugar, salt, butter (or margarine) and flour.

United Arab Emirates:

The United Arab Emirates sometimes simply called the Emirates or the UAE, is a country located in the southeast end of the Arabian Peninsula on the Persian Gulf.

Emirati culture is based on Arabian culture and has been influenced by the cultures of Persia, India, and East Africa.

The traditional food of the Emirates has always been rice, fish, and meat.

Emirati khamir bread:

A breakfast bread served with fresh cheese.

Khamir is nothing but arabic word for yeast.

The bread is a mixture of yeast, flour, milk powder and is sprinkled with sesame seeds and cooked to a toasty brown color.

Regag:

It is a paper thin bread which resembles falazi and mahyawa.

It is made to celebrate UAE national day on 2nd december.

Turkey:

Turkey is transcontinental Eurasian country. Asian turkey with includes 97% and european turkey includes 3%.

It has a temperate Mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers and mild to cool, wet winters.

The cuisine is a fusion and refinement of central Asian ,middle eastern etc cuisines.

Bazlama:

Bazlama is a single layered, flat, circular and leavened bread with a creamish yellow colour, found

in Turkey.

During baking, the bread is turned over to bake the other side.

After baking, it is generally consumed fresh..

Yufka:

Yufka is a type of Turkish bread. It is a thin, round, and unleavened flat bread similar to lavash.

The sheets of yufka dough are baked on a heated iron plate called a sac in Turkish .

Before consumption, dry yufka bread is sprayed with warm water.

Saudi Arabia:

Saudi Arabia's geography is dominated by the Arabian Desert and associated semi-desert and shrubland .

is similar to that of the surrounding countries in the Arabian Peninsula, and has been heavily influenced by Turkish, Indian, Persian, and African food.

Islamic dietary laws are enforced: pork is not allowed and other animals are slaughtered in accordance with halal. A dish consisting of a stuffed lamb, known as khūzī, is the traditional national dish.

Fatir: