Flatbreads revisited

I refreshed the flatbreads today by sprinkling with water and heating  on a tray in a 200°C oven for 5 minutes.

We ate them with a bowl of Carrot and Coriander Soup and the breads were no less good than yesterday. The touch of cumin and kalonji went very well with the soup.

This was my first attempt at Carrot and Coriander – I have never been impressed by this soup in the past and have had no urge to make my own. Well, today’s batch has made me a convert. There will be more in my future.

I looked around at various recipes and the soup that I made in the end most closely resembled Delia’s version, though without the measuring part.

Carrot and Coriander Soup

• Gently heat a dessert-spoon or so of coriander seeds in a heavy-bottomed pan. When toasted, grind in a pestle and mortar.
• Melt a goodly chunk of unsalted butter in the now empty-but-warm pan
• Sauté one small chopped onion in the butter with
• One clove of crushed garlic
• When translucent and starting to soften, add the ground coriander seed and stir it about a bit
• Throw in several carrots (I used 5 medium-sized ones) roughly chopped and stir well to coat in the flavoured butter.
• Close the pan with a lid and leave the carrots to sweat for ten minutes or so
• Throw in the stalks from a bunch of fresh coriander and stir until wilted in the butter
• Add vegetable stock to cover well
• Simmer until everything is tender
• Remove from heat and blend until smooth
• Throw in the chopped leaves from your bunch of coriander
• Reheat
• Season to taste if required, with salt and black pepper. You might like to add a little sugar or honey.

We both enjoyed the flatbreads very much and I have several ideas for ringing the changes. I am reproducing the recipe here, mainly for myself so that I can refer back to it easily.

From Raymond Blanc and the BBC:

For the dough

• 250g/9oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 15g/½oz fresh yeast
• 2 pinches caster sugar
• 2 pinches salt
• 150g/5½oz water, at room temperature
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

To top the breads

• 2 tbsp unsalted melted butter
• 1 pinch black onion seeds
• 1 pinch ground cumin
• 1 pinch coarse sea salt

Preparation method

• For the dough, mix all the ingredients for the dough in a large bowl until evenly mixed. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for about five minutes, or until smooth.
• Place the dough back in the bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature until doubled in size.
• Tip the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and roll to form into an even cylinder 30cm/12in long. Cut into eight equal parts and form each into flat, 3-5mm thick rounds. Place onto a lightly floured peel or an upturned baking tray.
• Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7 and place a baking stone into the oven.
• To top the breads, lightly brush the top of each flatbread round with the melted butter and scatter a mixture of the onion seeds, ground cumin and sea salt over the surface.
• Using the peel or upturned baking tray, transfer the flat breads to the oven and bake directly on the baking stone for 10 minutes.
• Remove the bread from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.

I plan to try these substituting hemp oil for olive oil – they should taste beautifully nutty.

Toppings that I plan to try include poppy seed, sesame seed, cheese and onion, sun dried tomatoes, paprika, celery seed… In fact I think this recipe would make a very good light pizza base. Ob: good with hummous and other dips.

How about using some truffle oil along with the olive oil and topping with garlic mushrooms, eh? A fine supper.

Mr L says he’d have them in place of naan with his curry.