Barbari

Coming from a Chinese family, I'm lucky to be surrounded by many fantastic cooks; my aunty, my mom, and my grandmothers were big influences. And I know that's where my passion for food truly began. But, I'm also lucky that my extended family shared and expanded the culinary tradition. In particular, one of my Canadian aunties, who married a truly charming Persian man, excels in Mediterranean cuisine. So you can imagine my delight when I happened to move one city away from my cousin, who receives frequent visits from her mom. We've been fortunate to join in several of my aunty's dinner parties. And Raquel is still giving me a hard time for not bringing home leftovers from the great Lamb Kebab cookout that she couldn't make.

But, there was one perfect brunch which keeps resonating for both of us: Barbari. It's Persian bread that my aunty makes from scratch and serves with fruits, meats, cheeses, various spreads, and cups of tea. It was a perfectly balanced light meal, that would be ideal after a workout. We happened to have this meal before a workout, and it still didn't really hinder us. The bread was the star of the meal. It's hard for me to describe, but I felt like it was light and hearty at the same time, if that even makes sense.

So, I bugged my cousin for her mom's recipe. Which, I successfully finangled from my last visit with her. Raquel and I feasted on this bread last weekend, and I served it with tomatoes, apples, salami, and goat cheese. She loved it, it's now her favorite breakfast. And I can't get over how many possibilities the recipe has. My aunty even used the bread as pizza dough, which I'm definitely going to have to try. And naturally, I couldn't resist making a healthier version by substituting 100% whole wheat flour for the regular flour. It added this nutty warmth to the bread that the original version didn't have. But, next time I'll try adding some honey to the wheat to balance out the slightly bitter wheat flavor. I'll probably also make tzaziki and hummus to go with it. Thanks Cuz!

Barbari

1 cup warm water
1 Tb quick acting/instant yeast
1/2 Tb sugar
1/2 Tb salt
2 cups flour
3-4 Tb olive oil

Dissolve sugar in warm water. Add yeast to sugar water. Let sit for 5 minutes. Add salt to flour in a medium/large bowl. Make a well in flour and add olive oil. Add yeast/water mixture to flour and combine with hands to make dough(having olive oil on your hands will help to keep the dough from getting too sticky on your hands). Cover the dough with paper towel (you can put olive oil on the paper towel so when the dough rises it doesn't get stuck to the paper towel). Leave the dough in the bowl in a warm place (I usually turn an element on low and leave the bowl nearby) for 30 minutes. Spread the dough on a cook sheet (13 X 9 ??) that has been prepped with olive oil and dusted with flour. Leave the dough for another 30 minutes. Heat oven to 350 F. Bake in centre rack for 10-15 minutes (all ovens are different so just watch your bread). You may want to take the bread off the pan and bake for another minute or so to crisp the bottom, and/or turn the oven on broil to brown the top a wee bit.

Optional: Do an egg wash on the bread and sprinkle with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, onion flakes (anything!). You can score the bread with a knife before baking, so that when the bread is done it is easy to pull apart the pieces.