*Give Us Today Our Daily Bread*
I am of the opinion that any food item that gets a mention in the Good Book is worth a serious look at. One could be forgiven for thinking that this would be a very complicated bit of nosh but, like a lot of things, once you take all the feathers off, it gets very basic. I would say that grass seeds, and that is what wheat is, mixed with a drop of water is very basic, well can you get much more basic than that.
Now think for a moment, I bet that unless you are doing "Atkins" today you are going to get your daily bread. It seems to be fundamental to our lives and why not I ask we have been eating the stuff for thousands of years.
Many years ago in the United Kingdom there was a bread strike, our bakers got a tad uppity, bread got to be in very short supply and I can remember seeing large numbers of angry housewives outside the bread shops. Now, let it be said, us British have a long and noble tradition of queuing politely for things that we want. I am here to tell you it did not apply to bread. No way would I have put my dog in that fight.
Now I will bet a pinch of yeast to a huge dollop of dough that if you are thinking of making your own bread you are now on the point of spending your hard earned cash on bread making books and a bread maker. Well, of course, you can if you wish to but it is really not necessary to make great bread. Come to think about it I know many people who have bread making machines that have never seen the light of day after about two weeks of purchase. The bread machines not the people. Yes they do make good bread, yes they are very convenient to use but are they fun? Do they give you that primeval link to the past? Well, no I guess they do not.
So what do we need to make delicious bread?
Surprising little as it happens
Bit of Strong flour and a pinch of salt
Drop of water and a glug of oil.
Utensils
Sparse, whatever comes to hand.
I am not going to use yeast as I am going to make rolled out thin bread. If you wish you could call it a Chapatti, Fajita, Tortilla, it has a lot of names this very simple piece of bread. I said I was going to keep this simple and as it looks like a nice day I will move outside.
First thing to do is make sure that your hands are reasonably clean. Then get a bowl and put in it some water, let us say about half a cup for starters. Put in salt and start to add sifted strong white flour a bit at a time. Stir like crazy until the dough starts to form a ball around the stirring stick (wooden spoon).
You want it to look a bit like this.
Get a clean board and turn the dough onto it and start to knead it. Put some flour on your hands and the board because this is the messy bit and the most fun. You sort of push down with the heel of your hand, fold the dough over and push down again. Keep this up for about 10-15 minutes, it is not that hard.
Right, I then rub a bit of oil into it and then put the dough in a small freezer bag and let it rest for about half an hour.
Now we need to roll it out. Just pull off a small piece and then get something to roll it out with.
Ok I just happened to have a beer bottle to hand
Roll it out pretty thin. You could now just chuck it on the hot coals of your camp fire but today I will do mine in a mess tin on a camping stove.
It will bubble and rise and behold you have now successfully changed grass seed into bread.
Get some butter ready it is great just like that but with a bit of imagination I am sure you can find something to wrap in it.
My favorite is beef roasted in front of hot coals.
Have fun folks.
Bushy
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