BREAD OF LIFE
“I make flatbreads with a mix of wholewheat and white flour and cook them quickly so they remain soft and flexible. (They must be soft if you want to use them like a wrap, but they are also very good well-cooked and eaten with butter.) These can be heated on the rack of a grill or in a fire as if you are making kebabs or souvlaki. Leftovers can be frozen.” (See page 127.)
CUMIN MINCE KOFTA PLATE
“My family loves this wonderful meal combination. Spiced grilled meat skewers served with flatbread, spicy tomato sauce, a dollop of yoghurt and an onion-cucumber salad with sumac. A mixture of lamb on the skewers keeps them soft, as well as beef with some fat in it. I find the flavours here so rounded and well-balanced as a meal.”
Serves 4 to 6
A LITTLE EFFORT
GREAT VALUE
Preparation: 40 minutes, plus 1½ hours’ proving time
Cooking: 1 hour
For the tomato piri-piri sauce:
garlic 4 cloves, roughly chopped
coarse salt
tiny dried piri-piri chillies about 8, chopped, with seeds
olive oil 5 T
ripe tomatoes 850 g (about 6-7), peeled and chopped
butter 30 g
light brown sugar ½ t
For the flatbreads:
bread flour 300 g
wholewheat flour 200 g
fresh yeast 12 g (or 1¼ t active dry yeast)
tepid water 1 cup plus 3 T
honey 1 t
olive oil 2 T
For the koftas:
beef mince (with some fat in) 450 g
lamb mince 300 g
red onion 1 (180 g), grated on the coarse holes of the grater
chopped parsley 70 g (1 packed cup)
ground cumin 2 t
ground coriander 1 t
sweet paprika 1 t
For the salted yoghurt:
thick Greek yoghurt 200 g
full-cream natural yoghurt 70 g
lime quarters, for serving
olive oil, for serving
sumac, for serving
For the onion-cucumber salad:
small long thin cucumber 1 (220 g)
red onion ½ (80 g), sliced lengthways
roughly chopped parsley 20 g
lemon juice 1 T
sumac 1 t, plus extra for serving
To make the tomato sauce, pound the To make the flatbeads, place both flours into a bowl. Crumble the yeast into a separate bowl, add the tepid water and honey and whisk to get things going. Whisk in a handful of the flour together with the olive oil, cover and leave to activate for about 10 minutes, or until you see bubbles on the surface. Add the rest of the flour and 1 t salt, and mix with a wooden spoon so it comes together, then change to your hands and mix to a rough dough, adding a splash more water or a little extra flour if necessary. Turn out onto your work surface and knead well for 5-6 minutes until elastic and soft – not dry. (Pat your hands with a little flour if it seems too wet.) Return to the bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave for about ½ hours in a warm spot until well puffed up. Preheat the oven to 220°C and have 2 or 3 pizza or baking trays ready. Divide the dough into 8 balls (just over 100 g each) and leave them lined up on your work surface covered with a tea towel. Roll out a ball on a lightly flour-dusted surface with a rolling pin to a circle about 22 cm. Just before putting into the hot oven, brush the top surface with very little water and sprinkle over a little fine salt onto the trays. Bake one at a time on a rack high up in the oven for a couple of minutes until you see a few bubbles on the surface through the glass in the door. Flip over and cook until bubbly but still quite soft (not crisp). Remove and wrap in a tea towel while you continue cooking the rest. To make the koftas, heat your coals on an outdoor barbeque. Place all the ingredients into a bowl, (saving just a little of the parsley on the side for garnishing) and add 1 t salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Knead all the ingredients in the bowl very well, like you would knead bread, punching it down and re-kneading, until the mince is very soft and fine and you have kneaded air into it. Divide the mixture into 10 equal parts (about 90 g each). Using one part per metal skewer, mould the meat around the skewer in a long (16 cm), flat sausage shape extending from the pointed tip. Moisten your hands with a little cold water to help the meat adhere tightly, then gently roll the kofta and skewer on a wooden board. As the koftas are made, put them on a platter and drizzle a little olive oil over the meat. Put the koftas on a rack about 10 cm away from the hot coals or flame and grill, turning often and nudging the skewers with your tongs to roll them over rather than picking them up, until deep golden and charred in parts and smelling good, about 10 minutes. Be careful not to overcook as they will become dry. Move to a plate, scatter with flaky salt, drizzle over some olive oil and keep warm. To make the salted yoghurt, place the yoghurts in a serving bowl and season well with salt and pepper. Turn through, taste and adjust the seasoning if needed. To make the salad, rinse and slice the cucumber and halve the rounds if large. Place in a bowl and add the onion, parsley, lemon juice and sumac. Season with salt and pepper and turn through. Taste and adjust if necessary. To serve, have the warm piri-piri sauce, cucumber salad and yoghurt ready on the table with lime quarters, olive oil and a small bowl of sumac and parsley. Heat the flatbreads quickly (so they don't get hard) on both sides on the grill and put one on each plate. Using tongs, slide the meat off its skewer onto the flatbread. Add a couple of dollops of tomato sauce, a couple of dollops of yoghurt, a scoop of cucumber and onions, finishing with a little drizzle of olive oil and a good squeeze of lime.
