A Yemeniyah's Recipes

This is Adeni bread–it very much looks like  Indian Paratha. It is also called “Khobz Mulawah” and I have heard it by this name among the Somali and Oromo community. In any case, here is the recipe.

The ingredients are simple and probably at hand in every home, but the secret is in how well you knead the dough before you prepare it for frying.

The ingredients for the dough are few:

1. 1/2 cup of white flour (I used the organic kind)

2. 1/2 a cup of wheat flour

3. 1/2 teaspoon of salt

4. enough water make the dough

Pour the water gradually until you form a sticky dough. Keep on kneading for at least 20 minutes, adding more water as you go until you form a nice soft dough. Cover and eave aside for another 20 minutes before you start.

This recipe makes two Khobz (bread). So, divide the dough into two equal parts and roll them into balls. Then roll each one out, one at a time. Make sure you flour the surface you roll out the dough on. Then roll out the dough as thin as possible. Once it is rolled out, as thin as it will possibly go, smear on some oil (traditionally we use ghee, but my healthy conscious self resorts to canola oil).

Then it is time to fold it. Bring both sides to the middle and fold, and then fold into half. It look like a long rectangle. Nor bring the two short sides of the rectangle to the middle and then fold into half. You will have a square. Repeat with the other ball of dough.

Once you are done with the other ball of dough, flour a plate and place them both on it. Cover them with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Why do we refrigerate? It make the dough easy to roll.

After 20 minutes take out one of the pieces and again flour your work space. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin–about 1/2 inch thick. Make sure you roll out the sides. A typical mistake that many make is that they roll out the center too much and leave the edges thick. You want to roll it out evenly, so iit is 1/2 an inch thick all around. Place a frying pan (the size should fit the size the rolled out dough comfortably) on medium heat, and when it is SMOKING hot–yep you should be able to see the steam rising from the frying pan– pick up the rolled out dough and place it on the frying pan . It will start puffing up a little. Let it change color a bit (golden brown)–you can peek at it to make sure it does. Once it does flip it and let the other side also turn color.

While the other side is turning color, cover the top part with about a tablespoon of oil (again if you would like to use ghee instead, go ahead). Then flip the side with the oil and let it cook. It will puff up like a balloon. The hungrier your husband is, the puffier it gets –that’s just a superstition ! Fold it, and let one side turn a little darker (we are still working on the side that has the oil). Then open up and fold again so that the other half of the oily side also turns a little darker in color. Flip the oily side up, drizzle a little ghee on top and serve HOT !

Repeat the same process with the other piece of dough, but remember to wipe the frying pan CLEAN with a paper towel before you start.

ENJOY !

This is a recipe I got from an Oromo friend of mine. After seeing it at almost every gathering I go too, and falling in love with it EVERY WINTER when I am especially famished, I thought to myself, “I simply have to learn this.”

So here goes. You will need:

1. 1 tbslp of yeast

2. 5 cups and a half of white flour

3. 4 eggs

4. 1/2 cup sugar

5. 1/2 cup oil

6. 1tsp black seed

7. pinch of salt

In a small bowl place the yeast and 3 tblsp of flour and 1/4-1/2 cup of water. Cover it and leave in a warm place to rise. Once it has risen. Place in a 20×20 4 liter plastic container and add the following one at a time, and mix in well. Add the sugar, oil, 4 eggs, black seed, salt,

1 and 3/4 of a cup of water and the rest of the flour. The mixture is thick and not runny. Cover and leave in the plastic container until it rises to the top–it will take quite a while. About an hour or so.

Then grease the oven dish (28×38 5 L) with a little oil and place the mixture in it. Pat it down with the palm of your hand–make sure it is evenly distributed in the pan. Leave aside for about 3-4 hours unitl it rises to the top of the oven dish and bake at 365 degrees unti golden brown and until a toothpick comes out clean. About 20-30 minutes.