FLATBREADS OF THE MIDDLE EAST

These authentic renditions offer the perfect canvas for pastry experimentation

By Robert Wemischner

Across a wide swath of the Middle East, in regions north into Turkey and Armenia and west into North Africa, flatbreads have been the staple food for thousands of years. Other than the inevitable nod to modernity where machinery is replacing making products by hand, the basic process of making these simple breads using flour, water, yeast (or a piece of dough from a previous batch) and salt has remained largely unchanged.

Cooks and bakers in these parts of the world are endlessly inventive when it comes to flatbreads, cooking them in outdoor pits, in ash or in skillets on the stovetop and adding all sorts of toppings and fillings like meat and cheeses, fresh greens and spices, including sesame and za’atar. In Iran, flatbreads are sweetened with date juice, and in Morocco, berber flatbreads are spread with butter, griddled, and then drizzled with honey. No matter which version rules in a particular place, flatbread is a given on tables at every meal, and makes for a delicious breakfast option or any-time-of-day snack.

The story gets more interesting when flatbreads are enjoyed with an assortment of dips, cheeses, olives and other condiments favored by different regions. As Anissa Helou notes in her book,

Feast: Food of the Islamic World , that in Islam, bread is sacred. “It is considered a sin to let bread fall on the floor, and if it does, it is immediately picked up and forgiveness is asked of God for having allowed the bread to be desecrated,” she says. Oftentimes, forks and spoons are forgone, as flatbreads used for scooping stews, curries and more.

Speaking to Kate Leahy and Chef Ara Zada, the authors of Lavash , a travelogue cookbook through the foodways of Armenia, you learn that bakeries in Syria nowadays are being run by Armenian emigrants. “Displaced by war, Syrian Armenians are reinvigorating the local restaurant scene, offering polished hospitality and Middle Eastern flavors,” Chef Zada says, and that includes breads. They write in their book, “It’s likely that bread has been made in Armenia since prehistoric times. The primordial act of grinding wheat berries to make flour, kneading a dough, and baking it on the walls of a clay firepit continues today with lavash.”

Chef Zada points out that in a small republic adjacent to eastern Armenia is a place called Artsakh where you will find a regional specialty, jingalov hats (“hats” means bread). These local breads are made from a simple dough of flour, salt and water, which is then filled with more than 20 kinds of locally-foraged greens. The dough is rolled thinly first into a round and then pinched to seal in the filling before being browned, seam-side down, on a griddle.

Southwest from Armenia in Oman, according to Felicia Campbell, author of The Food of Oman, flatbreads are typically cooked in a skillet coated with ghee or oil. This kind of bread, called khubz ragag , is made by breaking off a golf ball-sized piece of dough—a simple mixture of flour, water and a pinch of salt—and quickly smearing it into a thin layer onto a hot pan, creating a thin and flaky product. Somewhat echoing Moroccan bread traditions, Omani breads may be spiced, sweetened with date syrup, layered with butter, pan-fried or deep-fried.

When asked about the bread traditions of her homeland, Najmieh Batmanglij, author of Cooking in Iran, writes, “all the love, energy and hundreds of years of traditions and stories that go into making a loaf of handmade bread cannot be replicated by machine-made bread. A good example is Layla, a baker who I watched making flatbread sweetened with date juice ( gerdeh-ye bushhehr) in Bushehr, a town in southern Iran on the Persian Gulf. In her face and hands, you can see that the bread is made with her soul and heart.” Bhatmanglij notes that this semi-sweet bread is typically baked outside in an half-sunken earthenware oven (tanur). Both baking powder and yeast are used in this flatbread, which is stretched to a 9-inch diameter, encrusted with sesame seeds and brushed with toasted sesame oil before baking.

Firmly believing in the superiority of handmade bread, Sahar Shomali, an Iranian-born pastry chef started Kouzeh Bakery in Los Angeles, a city with a large Persian population. Here she is creating breads in small batches using only natural starter. She says, “Selling at farmers markets and online, I started making Iranian bread because I missed having the authentic barbari of my homeland. On my way home from grade school, I recall stopping at a local bakery and before I got home had polished off the whole loaf. It was that good and that seductive.”

The quartet of other signature Iranian breads includes the oblong shaped barbari (thin unleavened lavash); whole wheat sangak (which is baked on pebbles in a very hot oven by indirect heat), and medium thick, yeasted taftun , which is often used as a spoon of sorts to pick up rice or meats or as wrappers for mini-sandwiches. Shomali’s flatbreads each reflect a unique sensibility—some are stuffed with caramelized onions, walnuts and turmeric while others are filled with scallions, parsley, cilantro and garlic, proving that traditions are only a starting point.

Looking at the story of breads from these parts of the world, there is a wide range of variations that chefs in restaurants with bread programs might wish to incorporate in their housemade offerings. But, be patient. Per Leahy and Chef Zada, “griddling the first lavash is like cooking the first pancake in the batch, and you may have to adjust the heat of the cooking surface to prevent parts of it from burning before the rest is cooked.” They point out a famous Armenian poet who weighed in on the subject this way: “the first lavash baked in the fire is like a first love—it’s too hot to last.” That most certainly is not be the case for the public, with its lasting hunger for flatbreads of all kinds.

Classical

The simplicity of the Caprese salad (insalata Caprese) is what Chef Lance Cook, CEC, CCA, executive chef at Hammock Dunes Club in Palm Coast, Florida, likes most about it. A hallmark of Italian cuisine, the dish “is a celebration of the season and locality,” Chef Cook says. Legend has it that the salad’s origins date back to post-World War I Italy, when a patriotic cook wanted to showcase the colors of the country’s flag in a dish. It first appeared on a restaurant menu at the Hotel Quisisana in the early 1920s, but it was only in the 1950s when the salad was turned into a sandwich that its popularity peaked and it became a staple in Capri. The addition of other ingredients, including Balsamic vinegar, and the switch to bufala (Buffalo) mozzarella came in later years.

Modern

For a modern spin on the Caprese salad, Chef Cook introduces some of the molecular gastronomy techniques he picked up throughout his career and years ago at the Culinary Institute of America as part of the “Experimental Kitchen” curriculum. For the dish, Chef Cook still starts off with housemade mozzarella (from curd), but instead of slicing it, forms it into an airy balloon, which can be filled with anything from tomato aspic to foams and garlic-infused air. He then swaps liquid caviar pearls for the balsamic vinegar to add texture and turns lemon oil into a powder for a little pop of flavor and color. For the basil, instead of a chiffonade, he adds micro basil leaves as well as a pesto-pignoli component. He also uses baby heirloom tomatoes and adds some charred onions for a little smokiness. “Although, I love the simplicity of the classic Caprese, this modern-day spin offers more eye appeal, thanks to the colorful ingredients, while still accentuating the freshness of the tomatoes,” he says. See the classical and modern recipes as well as more photos at wearechefs.com.

Whether pronounced in Amharic as in Ethiopia, Swahili as in Kenya, or in any of the numerous other dialects spoken across each of the 18 countries that comprise East Africa—the names of innumerable spices and traditional dishes evoke the flavors, aromas and memories of home. For American chefs, these dishes and ingredients offer a whole new lexicon and toolbox to explore as consumers seek adventurous, global flavors.

Like many others, Mumbi (Margaret) Baskin came to the United States from Kenya seeking opportunity. She was 33 years old when she arrived in Dallas to attend a leadership conference; more than a decade later, she was laid-off from her position with a multi-national bank and opened Afrika Fusion, where she prepares recipes from Kenya that she learned from her mother and paternal grandmother.

With all items prepared from scratch using all natural ingredients, Baskin’s biggest challenge is sourcing indigenous ingredients from her native country. “For example, the kind of curry powder I grew up with isn’t the same color here,” she points out. As a substitution, per her mother’s suggestion, Baskin mixes turmeric with fresh or dried whole cumin, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon. “You can use this in many ways, including for making pilau, which is basmati rice made with all of these spices,” she says.

Another dish using these and other spices is mutura, a traditional Kenyan sausage made with ground goat meat seasoned with ginger, garlic, coriander and chiles. And, no authentic Kenyan menu is complete without nyama choma, which is Swahili for roast meat. “Considered a staple, our best seller is grilled lamb or goat grilled over charcoal,” says Baskin. “The meat is delivered in pre-cut pieces with a case equivalent to one goat or one lamb.” Goat stew, oxtail stew and lamb stir-fry are also popular entrees at Afrika Fusion.

Githeri , a blend of white corn and beans (usually kidney beans) is slow cooked in a pot with tomatoes for a stew. This very authentic dish from the Central Kenya Kikuyu tribe is currently Baskin’s best-selling vegetarian dish, and is viewed by East Africans as a delicacy with many health benefits.

Heat, fire and sauce

Menuing the bold, authentic cuisine of Kenya is the mission of Chef Kevin Onyona, owner of Swahili Village Bar & Grill in Beltsville, Maryland. Goat is the “go-to meat” at the restaurant, where heat and fire also have a huge impact on flavor.

“You need the right amount of heat and time to achieve balance,” says Chef Onyona. “I start at a high temperature, and then slow down and slow down even more to a simmer. I feel I get the most out of my seasoning that way.”

Born into the Luo tribe, Chef Onyona was used to eating all kinds of fish, but tilapia that’s been fried whole on the bone (samaki kanga) is a rare delicacy. “Here in the U.S., we make tilapia in many different ways; after goat and grilled meat, it is the most popular entrée.” His personal favorite (and bestselling) tilapia dish is samaki wa nazi, or coconut fish. “We make a sauce of onions, tomatoes, garlic and ginger, plus seasonings, and then we add coconut milk,” Onyona says. He then deep-fries the fish and then simmers it in the coconut sauce for about three to five minutes to soak up the flavors. The dish is typically served with pilau rice and collard greens, the iconic vegetable in East African cuisine lovingly referred to as sukuma wiki, meaning “what you have on your plate every day,” Chef Onyona says.

Plant-based dishes and injera

Rave-worthy dishes served at Ras Kassa’s Ethiopian restaurant in Lafayette, Colorado, are closely based upon recipes created and followed by generations of Chef/Owner Tsehay (pronounced “see-high”) Hailu’s family in Ethiopia. Chef Hailu—at the helm of her restaurant for 32 years—has been steadfast in adhering to traditional recipes. “You can lose the original taste as soon as you put something else into it,” she contends.

While Ras Kassa’s (named for an Ethiopian king from the 1850s) is located approximately 20 miles from Denver where there’s a fairly large Ethiopian population, local customers are primarily U.S.-born citizens of varied ethnic and culinary backgrounds. Vegetarian dishes take center stage here, with red lentils and collard greens ( yemisir wot) being among the top sellers. “This is my personal favorite,” Chef Hailu says. “I grew up with it and still can’t get over the taste of it. We make it with the spice of berbere, which is exactly how we make it at home.”

Regulars also flock to Ras Kassa’s for the homemade injera, of which Chef Hailu says she easily makes enough daily to feed about 100 customers. Teff, which she’s sourced from Idaho for the past three decades, is used to prepare this Ethiopian staple that Chef Hailu describes as “a little thinner than a pancake but a little thicker than a crepe. The flour-like batter is poured onto a griddle then served at room temperature.” Customers tear off bitesize pieces of injera to spoon or wrap around morsels of food including doro wot (classic spicy chicken stew simmered in berbere); kitfo (spicy, lean chopped steak tartare served raw or sautéed) and yebeg alecha (ground lamb stewed in a garlic turmeric sauce), among other dishes.

Split peas and more

Chef Beniyam (Benny) Yohannes came from Addis Ababa, the bustling capital of Ethiopia, in 1991 when he was seven years old. Chef Ababa often worked in the kitchen of Ras Kassa’s with Chef Hailu, his aunt.

Today, Chef Yohannes and his wife Madison run Saba’s Ethiopian Food Truck, which operates primarily in the metro Denver area. The couple’s 3-yearold daughter, Sabina (or Saba, for whom their truck is named) and newborn son are often along for the ride. Saba’s favorite dish is yellow split peas (kik alicha). Chef Yohannes also favors those yellow split peas, but with beef. To prepare the sweet and savory dish, he cooks onions in a pan with oil until the onions are caramelized, and then adds garlic, the peas and water. When peas are al dente, he mixes in ginger and turmeric in the final moments of cooking so they don’t burn. In addition to this popular menu item, customers may also choose from lamb sauté, lamb stew, chicken stew, spicy beef and potato stew, red lentils, collard greens, cabbage and carrots, and sautéed mushrooms—not to mention fried pastries made with lentils.

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Chef Yohannes worked with a local brewery to source spent teff, which he uses to prepare his injera in a commercial prep kitchen. “It’s a twoday process that involves fermentation and takes about 18 hours,” he says.

Bold spices and blends

It was in the late 1970s during the Ethiopian Civil War when Fetlework Tefferi came to the U.S. as a teenager, bringing along five small, precious bags filled with spices her mother gave her as she left.

Like Chef Yohannes, Tefferi initially pursued a career in banking following college graduation. Later on, after relocating to Oakland, California, friends asked her to help out at their start-up Italian/pizza restaurant, Café Colucci. Little by little, Tefferi added more recipes from home to the menu which served as a draw for the many Ethiopians living or working in the Bay Area. She also started up Brundo Organic Flavors of Ethiopia in 2009, which is an all-woman-run spice company based in the Ethiopian town of Mojo.

Nyama Choma and collard greens: chunky beef cubes on bone, marinated in tropical spices; served with Ugali (cornmeal mash), Sikuma Wiki (collard greens), and Kachumbari (combo of tomato, onion and cilantro).

At the Café, kitfo, or spiced steak, is a top seller. “Mita is a chili pepper used especially for that meal, plus clarified butter seasoned with a special herb, kosseret, which is grown by small growers and processed in Ethiopia, and then imported to our West Oakland warehouse/ distribution company,” says Tefferi.

Kitfo is traditionally served raw, so depending on local health department regulations, preparing it in that authentic way can pose challenges. Tefferi makes her version by seasoning finely minced meat with mitmita, a powdered seasoning made from African Bird’s Eye chile peppers that pack a punch. She adds to that mixture raw onions, jalapeno, Ethiopian cardamom (korerima) and melted butter. Occasionally, she’ll throw cinnamon, cumin and ginger into the mix.

Beso bela is an integral part of many Ethiopian dishes including marinades, rubs and sauces. “It’s an incredibly delicate herb that is sundried and often ground to a powder,” Tefferi says. “Because of its purple flower, it’s also referred to as ‘sacred basil.’”

Also on the menu at Café Colucci is minchet abish alicha, a stew of lean ground beef seasoned with beso bela, ginger and garlic. Minchet abish wot is lean ground beef simmered in a sauce made with berbere spice, garlic and bishop weed (tekur azmud).

For a vegetarian version, Tefferi simmers split pea lentils in a sauce made with bebere, a spice mixture that typically includes African chile peppers, coriander, garlic, ginger and basil, fenugreek, along with more beso bela, garlic and red onions. Azifa is a dish that boasts whole organic lentils seasoned with Ethiopian mustard (senafich), garlic, onions, jalapeno, oil and lemon.

From plant-based, legume-rich dishes to more meat-forward ones, a few things connect the dishes and traditions of East African cuisine: bold spice blends and sauces, plenty of slowcooking and simmering, and in some cases, the fermented flatbread to soak it all up.