“And on a seven day high, that heavenly song punches right through my mind and just hums through my blood. And I know it’s a lie, but I’ll still give my love. Hey, my heart’s on the line for your hands to pluck off.”
–Unless It’s Kicks, by Okkervil River

Twobluefish recently celebrated International Dickhead Day, while I on the other hand, have been knee-deep in Australian Biscuit Awareness Week. That is, are you aware, how long it takes for a person, ie. me, to fulfill an order for 2200 biscuits? Predictably, the answer is, “too long”, and that’s just inbetween the wedding cake orders and all the other exciting crappola that’s been happening in the past week. Somehow though, I managed to find the time midweek to go see Okkervil River play a blistering set at Manning Bar. Staying up to hear For Real, Our life is not a Movie or Maybe, and Unless It’s Kicks, played live by this 6-piece was totally worth being left with only four precious hours of sleep before having to get up for work again.

So anyway, it’s been busy, and I don’t mind telling you that sometimes my brain gets so full that it can’t handle having to scrutinise lengthy recipes. Anything that extends further than a single page, causes my eyes to glaze over, and circus music kicks into repeat in my head. Doo doo do do do do do doo doo.

But a Daring Bakers’ bread recipe has come up trumps yet again. This Pain Francais recipe is originally from one of Julia Child’s books and was chosen by Breadchick Mary and Sara for this month’s challenge.

The reason why I would urge you to bother to read through roughly seven (originally eighteen) pages of baking instructions is this : this recipe epitomises everything I look for in a baguette. It has a crust that is simultaneously crispy and chewy; a soft interior with great depth of flavour. After a day’s worth of kneading, proving, waiting, proving, waiting some more and then baking, the result was so delightful that we shelved earlier plans for dinner and instead had soup with ripped up pieces of baguette for dipping. The next morning, I had the leftovers for breakfast, with a small piece of cheese. Heavenly.

Thanks Mary and Sara for picking a great recipe, that I probably would never have found sufficient brainspace for, in any other circumstance. And I’m sorry if this story about my bread isn’t long enough, but you see, I can already hear the makings of a circus tune forming in everyone’s heads.. doo do do do….. , so I guess it’s time for us to get up, brush off the crumbs and move on..

Petra of Chili und Ciabatta is hosting BBD #7 and joy of joys, she has picked flatbreads, as the theme. Here’s my excuse, and an impetus, to have a go at making Chapati.

Flatbread doesn’t get quicker, easier and flatter than this Northern Indian bread. While I love many other Indian breads like the fantastically flaky roti chanai, puffy puri and paratha, the plain and healthy chapati (or chappati) has always remained my favourite. The use of wholemeal flour makes it incredibly nutty and moreish, and I love eating it with my hands as the primary dining utensils, tearing up pieces of the bread to mop curries up with.

Chapatis are traditionally cooked on a hotplate called a thawa. A great demonstration of this technique (especially the ballooning of the bread) can be seen here. For this recipe, I followed the whole process through in a fry pan. Next time when I make this recipe again, I’m going to attempt the second half of the cooking on an open flame, as in the video. If the bread manages to puff up by at least half as much as it did in the demonstration, I’ll be very pleased!

The recipe below makes enough for 6 large round breads. I made my breads smaller to accomodate my small frying pan, and therefore yielded more serves than that. As these breads are best enjoyed as soon as possible after they’ve been cooked, you can easily store the excess dough in the fridge for a couple of days and use only as much as you need, when you want to.

Chapati :
(recipe from Feast Bazaar by Barry Vera)

1kg (6 2/3 cups) wholemeal (wholewheat) flour, plus extra, for dusting
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
750ml (3 cups) water

Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the sifted husks back in. Make a well in the centre and add the oil, salt and water. Gently work the mixture together until a soft dough forms. Set aside for 10-15 minutes, covered with a damp tea towel.

Dust your hands with a little flour and form the mixture into six even-sized balls (about the size of a tennis ball). Flatten slightly with your hand, then, using a rolling pin, roll them out on a lightly floured bench until they are 5mm thick and 10cm in diameter.

Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Working one at a time, gently dry-fry each chapati on both sides for 2-3 minutes, or until a deep golden brown.

Serve the chapatis immediately with any meal as a bread option.

Do not adjust your monitors! This Indonesian vegetable pickle really is that yellow, the result of the addition of the meerest thumb sized piece of pounded fresh turmeric. Turmeric is a rhizome from the ginger family. It’s flesh is bright orange in colour and is sometimes used as a cheap substitute for saffron. One drawback to this fantastic colour is that it also will stain your hands and chopping board while you’re working with it. The way I try to get round it, is by washing my hands and board as quickly as possible after handling it.

Here, the turmeric has been pounded into a paste along with garlic and candlenuts (these waxy nuts which resemble macadamia nuts, act as a sort of thickener). The paste is then fried and forms the base for a great vegetable side dish called Acar Kuning (literally meaning yellow pickle). The Malaysian version of acar is slightly different to the Indonesian one, and is, in my extremely biased opinion, actually slightly better as well. In the interests of trying new things, I thought I would give this recipe a go, and since then have been happily eating these light and crunchy pickles with almost every meal. They are the perfect accompaniment to rich curries or other spicy dishes.

Number 6 on my list from the previous post, was this acar, which I thought I should also share the recipe for. Turmeric-tinted acar is my contribution to this week’s WHB, hosted by Lia of Swirling Notions.

Acar Kuning :
(recipe from South East Asian Food by Rosemary Brissenden)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 brown onion, sliced lengthwise
2-3 red chillies
a few bird’s eye chillies
3 tablespoons white vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar, or less to taste
1.5cm piece fresh ginger, sliced
1 stalk lemongrass, bruised
1 cup water
500g raw vegetables, eg. 150g snakebeans, cut into 4cm lengths; 150g carrots cut into matchsticks; 75g cauliflower florets; 100g cucumber with skin, cut into 4cm strips

Paste Spices :

2cm piece fresh turmeric, chopped (or 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder)
4 roasted candlenuts (or macadamia nuts), roughly smashed
1-2 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped

Grind the spice paste ingredients into a paste. Heat the oil in a wok and fry the spices and the onion until everything smells fragrant. Add the two kinds of chillies, each sliced into three, the vinegar, sugar, ginger, lemongrass and water. Bring to the boil. Put in the vegetables and stir until the sauce thickens a little and the vegetables are lightly cooked.