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"Cooking, in effect, took part of the work of chewing and digestion and performed it for us outside of the body, using outside sources of energy. Also, since cooking detoxifies many potential sources of food, the new technology cracked open a treasure trove of calories unavailable to other animals. Freed from the necessity of spending our days gathering large quantities of raw food and then chewing (and chewing) it, humans could now devote their time, and their metabolic resources, to other purposes, like creating a culture."

Michael Pollan

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Entries in bread (3)

Wednesday
Dec132017

St Lucia's Crown

This recipe is part of a 3 part series currently featuring on the Borough Market website focusing on a few religious festivals celebrated in December, other than Christmas, and the foods associated with them. 

St Lucia’s Crown is a plaited saffron bread that is baked for St Lucia Day celebrations in Sweden on 13th December. The dough can also be used to make lussekatter (saffron buns), a treat widely consumed on the day.

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Sunday
Jun232013

Dr Shakshuka

Shakshuka is my new favourite weekend brunch. I was introduced to it via Ottolenghi’s Mediterranean Feast on Channel 4. In the last episode, Ottolenghi visits Israel where he grew up. Everything looks so delicious that it made me want to book a holiday right there and then. Since I’m a poor student and can’t afford that any time soon, I’ve made do with cooking this at home. Frequently.

Shakshuka “was brought to Israel by Tunisian Jews. It is a rustic concoction of eggs poached in a fiery tomato sauce, a bit like a sort of spicy fry up” says Ottolenghi. “It’s great for brunch and a fantastic hangover cure.”

There are lots of other versions out there, for example, the Italians do uova in purgatorio (eggs in purgatory) and the Morrocans do it in a tagine with lamb. I think the traditional Israeli version is my favourite though, not in small part because it includes my favourite sausages, merguez. 

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Wednesday
May112011

Middle Eastern mezze no.7: Fattoush

For those of you who haven’t heard of this delicious salad, Wikipedia offers a detailed explanation:

Fattoush is a Levantine bread salad made from toasted or fried pieces of pita bread (khubz 'arabi) combined with mixed greens and other vegetables ... To make fattoush, cooks use seasonal produce, mixing different vegetables and herbs according to taste, while making use of pitas that have gone stale ... Sumac is usually used to give fattoush its sour taste.

As you can gather this is not an easy dish to write a recipe for since the only constant ingredient is bread, and even with that there is a choice, albeit an obvious one. Toasted stale bread versus crispy, crunchy, shards of golden goodness; you know which gets my vote. 

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