Bazlama Bread

Bazlama

This is a traditional bread, generally baked over wood fire in villages. When my grandpas were alive, we used to visit them  very often. They used to live in a village and whenever we went there, grandma would always bake bazlama for us. She would also brew a teapot of tea again over a wood fire. I don’t know why, but the fire of wood changes the taste of everything. If you have the chance of cooking a dish over wood fire, you’ll understand what I mean. Even tea gets a different flavor when brewed over it.

Grandma would always serve bazlama with a piece of butter she herself made and with some olive oil which they themselves produced. So this simple breakfast became a feast for us. Imagine a piece of newly baked bazlama, still fuming, and dipping it into some very natural olive oil or spreading some fresh butter, which has a milky scent, on it.

As I don’t have a chance of baking it on a wood fire, I bake it on a non stick pan over the lowest heat of the oven. Today the special item for our big Sunday breakfast was this bazlama. We ate it dipping in olive oil.

Ingredients
•    3 cups flour
•    ½ cup yogurt
•    1 cup warm water
•    1 dessert spoon instant yeast
•    ¼ olive oil
•    2 tsp sugar
•    2 tsp salt

Put the flour in a bowl. Add yogurt and mix it. Then add olive oil, sugar and salt. Mix the warm water and instant yeast in a cup very well and pour it in the mixture. Then knead all of them. You see my measurement cup here.

The dough should still be sticky, don’t worry. Cover the bowl and wait it in a warm place at least 5 hours to rise well. Waiting it for a day is better.

When the dough is OK, you can bake it and eat hot. Sprinkle some flour on the counter, take a piece of dough, a bit bigger than orange. Round it in your palms, then put it on the counter. Widen it by pressing your hands on it. You don’t need to use a rolling pin as the dough is so soft.

Heat a non stick pan, and put the shaped dough on it. Cook it turning it out continually over the lowest heat. It will be done in about 10 minutes. I make five bazlamas from these ingredients.

You can serve it with olive oil near it. We also sprinkle some dry thyme in our natural olive oil.

Note: I made this before reading the article, 10 pre-polluted Americans by OysterCulture, which is about food safety including the harms of teflon. And now, I’m definitely confused about using non stick pans. There should be a substitute.

Sabiha Gökçen

March 22 is a very special day for Turkish women. We are so honored by Sabiha Gökçen, who is the first woman combat pilot of the world, and first woman pilot of Turkey. She was born on 22 March 1913 and was one of the adopted daughters of Atatürk.

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Bread or Egg or Both

Bread is the main food near other dishes on a traditional Turkish dinner table. No matter what we eat, we always have some bread on the table. Also, most people think that they don’t feel full if they don’t eat any bread. Especially when there is a stew, we love dipping a bite of bread into it.

We either make it at our homes or buy it from bakeries. But generally in our villages women make their own bread, weekly or monthly. That kind of bread can be kept long, and they are stored in a special cage. When a woman in a village informs that she’ll make some bread, several neighbors come to her house and they make it altogether. No woman make it on her own, there are always other women helping her as they make their bread monthly. And she does the same when it’s another woman’s turn.

I love tasting different kinds of bread, and creating something different from them. And on last Sunday, I prepared something for breakfast from bread slices. (You’ve learnt how much I love breakfast!). These bread slices with egg (and you know I LOVE eggs) are one of our favorites for Sunday breakfast.
Ingredients (servings 2)
•    4 slices of bread (any kind you like)
•    2 eggs
•    ½ tsp cumin
•    1tsp dried thyme
•    3 tbsp olive oil

Break the eggs in a bowl, add spices into it and beat them very well.
Put olive oil in a pan and heat it.
Dip the bread slices into the egg mixture. I should admit my slices are a bit thicker than usual, but I love them like that.  Then stir fry them in the hot oil.
Serve them hot with some cheese, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. And of course a glass of tea should accompany at breakfast.

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