(This article first appeared in the 15th May 2022 issue of Deccan Herald newspaper's Sunday Herald section on page 17 https://www.deccanherald.com/sunday-herald/sh-top-stories/rise-shine-1108632.html)
Showing posts with label Bread. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bread. Show all posts
Sunday, May 15, 2022
Thursday, August 5, 2021
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Lockdown Loaves: The Rise of Sourdough!
At the very vortex of the lockdown baking frenzy is the humble, yet hip sourdough bread revelling in all its social media savvy.
By Raul Dias
If anything, the last few months of lockdown have augmented one social media phenomenon. And that is the sheer volume of home baking activities being undertaken both here in India and across the pandemic-ridden world with an almost militant fervour. Just key in the catchphrases ‘banana bread’ or ‘chocolate chip cookies’ into any one of your social media account feed searches and watch the ensuing results boggle your mind.
But in particular, there is one bakery item that singularly gobbles up a mighty chunk of the proverbial baking pie. Sourdough bread. Gleaning dozens of pages and a gazillion hashtags on everything from Instagram to Pinterest, it would appear as though every Tom, Dick and…erm, Hari along with their next-door neighbour has secured a place on the sourdough bread bandwagon.
Back to Basics
So, what exactly is sourdough bread? And more importantly, why is it so darn popular these days? Characterised by a nutty aroma, this tangy-tasting, highly porous artisanal bread has a crusty surface and is made using natural yeast. All it takes is plain flour, water and a little salt to make a loaf of the bread. This, as opposed to commercial white bread that has as many as 20 ingredients, including hard to digest additives and dough conditioners. But what makes sourdough extra special is that it is most likely the first form of leavened bread that was ever created.
Like most great inventions, sourdough bread was probably discovered by accident over 4,000 years ago by the ancient Egyptians. There is even written evidence of sourdough from hieroglyphs found in the pyramids, showing people making beer and bread at the same time in a sort of crossover fermentation.
With no need for commercially produced yeast—an almost impossible feat to procure in a lockdown—you just require a starter in lieu. A ‘living organism’ if you may, that is simply made from a mixture of water and flour. Microbes from the environment colonise the flour-water slurry producing gut-friendly, lactic acid-generating bacteria and wild yeast that aids in leavening.
Interestingly, even here in India, there has been a tradition of sourdough bread making. In Crumbs! her well-researched book on bread baking, food author and consultant Saee Koranne-Khandekar talks of a Himachali iteration of sourdough and even one made by Maharashtra’s Pathare Prabhu community who use a starter called gonda made from chana dal, water and milk. “We (Indians) have an almost instinctive understanding of gluten strengths and dough consistencies (stiff ought for poori, loose for chapati, etc.). We also understand wild cultures that exist in our environment, thanks to all the curd setting and the idli/dosa batter and kaanji making,” believes Koranne-Khandekar.
Scents and Sensibilities
“Sourdough bread has gained popularity because of its delightful taste. Moreover, it is a great substitute for other breads made with commercial yeast. The lockdown has encouraged people to opt for healthier options and sourdough, therefore, has become a huge social media trend of late,” says Amar Dwivedi, Executive Chef at Grand Mercure Gandhinagar.
There is, however, more method to the apparent sourdough bread madness. In Cooked, his seminal book on all things food, American author Michael Pollan says that “…freshly baked bread is the ultimate olfactory synecdoche for hominess”. Making a strong case for the curative powers of aromatherapy vis-à-vis mood by way of freshly baked goodies, a 2016 study published in the Journal of Positive Psychology found that when young adults took part in an olfactory senses-heightening activity such as baking, they felt happier and more creative over the following days. Truly, aromatherapy for the depressed soul!
That is exactly why 24-year-old Gurugram resident and chef Akanksha Dean decided to swap her stove top for the oven and give baking bread a whirl. “Out of work as a chef-manager at a café, I suddenly found so much free time on hand that I decided to get into baking bread which I find so therapeutic and depression-ridding,” says Dean, who even launched a new lockdown-themed baking page on Instagram featuring her creations. “I particularly love the idea of sourdough bread which is perfect for baking these days as the starter is the sum of just two ingredients that everyone has in their pantry.”
Nurture the Starter
Speaking of the sourdough starter, it has become so ‘legit’ that in US’s Silicon Valley, hipster coders are now blogging about the fermentation graphs of their sourdough starters. In fact, in August last year, Seamus Blackley one of the co-creators of the Xbox and self-professed ‘bread nerd’ resurrected a sourdough starter dating back to ancient Egypt that was made from residual yeast scraped from the insides of broken bits of pharaonic pottery.
Closer home, one such afficionado is Shivam Bhatia from Bengaluru who has been nurturing his sourdough starter for the last three weeks. “The last time I took care of anything similar was when I was a teenager in the late 1990s when the craze of owning a virtual pet like the Japanese egg-shaped Tamagotchi one was all the rage,” says the 38-year-old VFX company owner. “Lockdown has given me the impetus and time to concentrate on the regular feedings that my sourdough starter needs.”
But if Bhatia ever were to shift base to either New York or Belgium, he would find that tending to his starter need not be a solo pursuit. Enter the sourdough starter ‘hotel’ where one can leave their starters to be tended to with regular feedings when travelling or indisposed in any way. All this, for a small fee, of course.
One such specimen is Brooklyn, New York’s Sourdough Inn which claims to be a “hotel for your sourdough, helping busy Brooklyn hipsters stay connected with the authentic bread experience”. The inn that was started by Mathias Jakobsen, a Danish-born internet entrepreneur a few years ago, also offers a three-week, $60 intensive ‘training and rehabilitation’ course where your neglected starter can be brought back to life.
Jakobsen himself was inspired by something radical that was taking place on the other side of the Atlantic. The Puratos Sourdough Library in St. Vith, Belgium not only tends to around 125 heirloom sourdough starter samples, but also develops, researches and preserves the biodiversity of different starters for the future.
#Wannabe
But just like sourdough dethroned banana bread in the baking trend wars, there seems to be another usurper slowly nipping through at sourdough’s crusty surface. And no, we are not speaking of the commercially produced, nutritionally challenged sourdough imposter social media has comically dubbed ‘sourfaux bread’.
Proving true the rather ephemeral nature of social media trends, the newest lockdown baking blitzkrieg comes to us in the form of ‘focaccia art’ where bakers are channelling their inner ‘Van Doughs’ and going all out to deck their slabs of the classic Italian flat bread with rustic pastoral scenes made up of fresh herbs and vegetables. Any takers?
(An edited version of this article first appeared in the 7th June 2020 issue of The Hindu newspaper's Sunday Magazine section on page 8 https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/food/lockdown-loaves-the-rise-of-sourdough/article31756457.ece
By Raul Dias
If anything, the last few months of lockdown have augmented one social media phenomenon. And that is the sheer volume of home baking activities being undertaken both here in India and across the pandemic-ridden world with an almost militant fervour. Just key in the catchphrases ‘banana bread’ or ‘chocolate chip cookies’ into any one of your social media account feed searches and watch the ensuing results boggle your mind.
But in particular, there is one bakery item that singularly gobbles up a mighty chunk of the proverbial baking pie. Sourdough bread. Gleaning dozens of pages and a gazillion hashtags on everything from Instagram to Pinterest, it would appear as though every Tom, Dick and…erm, Hari along with their next-door neighbour has secured a place on the sourdough bread bandwagon.
Back to Basics
So, what exactly is sourdough bread? And more importantly, why is it so darn popular these days? Characterised by a nutty aroma, this tangy-tasting, highly porous artisanal bread has a crusty surface and is made using natural yeast. All it takes is plain flour, water and a little salt to make a loaf of the bread. This, as opposed to commercial white bread that has as many as 20 ingredients, including hard to digest additives and dough conditioners. But what makes sourdough extra special is that it is most likely the first form of leavened bread that was ever created.
Like most great inventions, sourdough bread was probably discovered by accident over 4,000 years ago by the ancient Egyptians. There is even written evidence of sourdough from hieroglyphs found in the pyramids, showing people making beer and bread at the same time in a sort of crossover fermentation.
With no need for commercially produced yeast—an almost impossible feat to procure in a lockdown—you just require a starter in lieu. A ‘living organism’ if you may, that is simply made from a mixture of water and flour. Microbes from the environment colonise the flour-water slurry producing gut-friendly, lactic acid-generating bacteria and wild yeast that aids in leavening.
Interestingly, even here in India, there has been a tradition of sourdough bread making. In Crumbs! her well-researched book on bread baking, food author and consultant Saee Koranne-Khandekar talks of a Himachali iteration of sourdough and even one made by Maharashtra’s Pathare Prabhu community who use a starter called gonda made from chana dal, water and milk. “We (Indians) have an almost instinctive understanding of gluten strengths and dough consistencies (stiff ought for poori, loose for chapati, etc.). We also understand wild cultures that exist in our environment, thanks to all the curd setting and the idli/dosa batter and kaanji making,” believes Koranne-Khandekar.
Scents and Sensibilities
“Sourdough bread has gained popularity because of its delightful taste. Moreover, it is a great substitute for other breads made with commercial yeast. The lockdown has encouraged people to opt for healthier options and sourdough, therefore, has become a huge social media trend of late,” says Amar Dwivedi, Executive Chef at Grand Mercure Gandhinagar.
There is, however, more method to the apparent sourdough bread madness. In Cooked, his seminal book on all things food, American author Michael Pollan says that “…freshly baked bread is the ultimate olfactory synecdoche for hominess”. Making a strong case for the curative powers of aromatherapy vis-à-vis mood by way of freshly baked goodies, a 2016 study published in the Journal of Positive Psychology found that when young adults took part in an olfactory senses-heightening activity such as baking, they felt happier and more creative over the following days. Truly, aromatherapy for the depressed soul!
That is exactly why 24-year-old Gurugram resident and chef Akanksha Dean decided to swap her stove top for the oven and give baking bread a whirl. “Out of work as a chef-manager at a café, I suddenly found so much free time on hand that I decided to get into baking bread which I find so therapeutic and depression-ridding,” says Dean, who even launched a new lockdown-themed baking page on Instagram featuring her creations. “I particularly love the idea of sourdough bread which is perfect for baking these days as the starter is the sum of just two ingredients that everyone has in their pantry.”
Nurture the Starter
Speaking of the sourdough starter, it has become so ‘legit’ that in US’s Silicon Valley, hipster coders are now blogging about the fermentation graphs of their sourdough starters. In fact, in August last year, Seamus Blackley one of the co-creators of the Xbox and self-professed ‘bread nerd’ resurrected a sourdough starter dating back to ancient Egypt that was made from residual yeast scraped from the insides of broken bits of pharaonic pottery.
Closer home, one such afficionado is Shivam Bhatia from Bengaluru who has been nurturing his sourdough starter for the last three weeks. “The last time I took care of anything similar was when I was a teenager in the late 1990s when the craze of owning a virtual pet like the Japanese egg-shaped Tamagotchi one was all the rage,” says the 38-year-old VFX company owner. “Lockdown has given me the impetus and time to concentrate on the regular feedings that my sourdough starter needs.”
But if Bhatia ever were to shift base to either New York or Belgium, he would find that tending to his starter need not be a solo pursuit. Enter the sourdough starter ‘hotel’ where one can leave their starters to be tended to with regular feedings when travelling or indisposed in any way. All this, for a small fee, of course.
One such specimen is Brooklyn, New York’s Sourdough Inn which claims to be a “hotel for your sourdough, helping busy Brooklyn hipsters stay connected with the authentic bread experience”. The inn that was started by Mathias Jakobsen, a Danish-born internet entrepreneur a few years ago, also offers a three-week, $60 intensive ‘training and rehabilitation’ course where your neglected starter can be brought back to life.
Jakobsen himself was inspired by something radical that was taking place on the other side of the Atlantic. The Puratos Sourdough Library in St. Vith, Belgium not only tends to around 125 heirloom sourdough starter samples, but also develops, researches and preserves the biodiversity of different starters for the future.
#Wannabe
But just like sourdough dethroned banana bread in the baking trend wars, there seems to be another usurper slowly nipping through at sourdough’s crusty surface. And no, we are not speaking of the commercially produced, nutritionally challenged sourdough imposter social media has comically dubbed ‘sourfaux bread’.
Proving true the rather ephemeral nature of social media trends, the newest lockdown baking blitzkrieg comes to us in the form of ‘focaccia art’ where bakers are channelling their inner ‘Van Doughs’ and going all out to deck their slabs of the classic Italian flat bread with rustic pastoral scenes made up of fresh herbs and vegetables. Any takers?
(An edited version of this article first appeared in the 7th June 2020 issue of The Hindu newspaper's Sunday Magazine section on page 8 https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/food/lockdown-loaves-the-rise-of-sourdough/article31756457.ece
Saturday, January 19, 2019
‘Non’ Negotiable!
A distant cousin of the Indian naan, Uzbekistan’s revered flatbread called non is that all-important axis around which almost every aspect of socio-cultural life in the Central Asian country pivots—from its bread-related folklore to its myriad regional iterations.
By Raul Dias
The announcement over the PA system has just been made. It’s precisely five minutes to go before Uzbekistan’s pride and joy, the superfast Afrosiyob train service from the capital Tashkent to Bukhara is to pull up at the Samarkand Railway Station for its much-anticipated 15-minute halt. Suddenly, there’s a palpable sense of anxiety mixed with excitement in my compartment as the startlingly modern glass and steel façade of the station comes into clear view.
A phalanx of co-passengers is already crowding the doorway, ready to leap out onto the platform and get their hands on a type of bread that’s considered the best in the country. The Samarkand non. A version of what we, here in India, know as naan, the Samarkand non is also baked in an oven similar to a tandoor. The major difference, however, lies in its appearance. This style of flatbread has a darker crust, and it is heavier, larger and more filling with a texture that is dense. The finished loaf is coated with a light brushing of oil which is why this version of non is the preferred one to take on journeys or as gifts for far off friends and family.
I later help my cabin mate stuff two gleaming, circular disks of the flatbread he’s just purchased from the platform kiosk into his carry-on, as the zipper of the bag threatens to give way. But we soldier on till we are certain that his family in Bukhara will get their quotidian dinner share of the bread that’s now comfortably ensconced between his clothes.
Bread Talk
Over the next few days as I traverse the country, I am made aware, on an almost daily basis, of how important the non is to the Uzbeks. In Bukhara, over a tub full of bubbling xamir—a sourdough prepared the night before—Alisher, the chief bread maker or nonvoy at a friendly neighbourhood nonvoy khona (bakery) near my hotel is giving me a crash course in all things non. All this, peppered with several bread-based proverbs thrown in for good measure. “Respect for non is respect for country” is what my translation app spits out at me, as Alisher turns his attention to a batch of soon-to-be-baked Bukhara-style, nigella seed-topped non that he embosses with his signature bread stamp called a chakich that even has his cellphone number etched onto it! “We never waste bread. Even if a crumb falls onto the floor, we pick it up and touch it to our forehead. Also, we never use a knife to cut bread. Tearing it with one’s hands is the norm,” says Alisher. In fact, in the country’s autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan, once the non is passed around, the most distinguished guest should be the first one to snap a piece off the disk.
I encounter more ‘bread-folklore’ that night at my hotel as I lay my head down onto the fluffy pillow. My reverie is interrupted by a slight bump underneath the pillow near the nape of my neck. It turns out to be a piece of dry bread that I later learn the housekeeping staff place under every pillow in the hotel as a sort of amulet to ward off nightmares.
Same, yet Different…
In Tashkent’s gargantuan Chorsu Bazaar, I dodge past qazi or horsemeat sausage vendors, as I make my way towards the source of the yummy aroma wafting through the nonvoy khona section. Here, I pick up two plump, lamb-stuffed somsas that are dead ringers for our desi samosas. Only here, the breading is super flaky and made from pea flour called sorgo.
Later that day, en route to the airport, I stop by the city’s open-air Chigatay Darvoza Non Bazaar for some Tashkent lochira non. This unique mould-formed non is baked from short crust pastry made from milk, butter, and sugar. It has a perimeter that is marked with spoke-like patterns that come from a tool called a bosma, which in olden days used to be made out of repurposed spokes from a bicycle wheel.
I pick up half a dozen to take back home. Only this time, it’s me singlehandedly trying to stuff the lochira non into my rather unyielding suitcase!
Between Breads—Uzbekistan’s Bread Folklore
* At an engagement, a loaf of bread is divided equally between both sides, signaling a fair partnership.
* Special kulcha non dough is rolled between the feet of a child when they take their first steps.
* When going off to war, a soldier is given a bite of bread and his family keeps the remaining loaf to signify that the family and the bread is waiting for his safe return.
* “Be as respected as bread” is a commonly heard blessing in Uzbekistan.
(A shorter, differently edited version of this article appeared in the 19th January 2019 issue of the Mint Lounge newspaper, India on page 14 https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/OFn8bW8p6xlElOBxSLOpyJ/Uzbekistans-bread-winners.html)
By Raul Dias
The announcement over the PA system has just been made. It’s precisely five minutes to go before Uzbekistan’s pride and joy, the superfast Afrosiyob train service from the capital Tashkent to Bukhara is to pull up at the Samarkand Railway Station for its much-anticipated 15-minute halt. Suddenly, there’s a palpable sense of anxiety mixed with excitement in my compartment as the startlingly modern glass and steel façade of the station comes into clear view.
A phalanx of co-passengers is already crowding the doorway, ready to leap out onto the platform and get their hands on a type of bread that’s considered the best in the country. The Samarkand non. A version of what we, here in India, know as naan, the Samarkand non is also baked in an oven similar to a tandoor. The major difference, however, lies in its appearance. This style of flatbread has a darker crust, and it is heavier, larger and more filling with a texture that is dense. The finished loaf is coated with a light brushing of oil which is why this version of non is the preferred one to take on journeys or as gifts for far off friends and family.
I later help my cabin mate stuff two gleaming, circular disks of the flatbread he’s just purchased from the platform kiosk into his carry-on, as the zipper of the bag threatens to give way. But we soldier on till we are certain that his family in Bukhara will get their quotidian dinner share of the bread that’s now comfortably ensconced between his clothes.
Bread Talk
Over the next few days as I traverse the country, I am made aware, on an almost daily basis, of how important the non is to the Uzbeks. In Bukhara, over a tub full of bubbling xamir—a sourdough prepared the night before—Alisher, the chief bread maker or nonvoy at a friendly neighbourhood nonvoy khona (bakery) near my hotel is giving me a crash course in all things non. All this, peppered with several bread-based proverbs thrown in for good measure. “Respect for non is respect for country” is what my translation app spits out at me, as Alisher turns his attention to a batch of soon-to-be-baked Bukhara-style, nigella seed-topped non that he embosses with his signature bread stamp called a chakich that even has his cellphone number etched onto it! “We never waste bread. Even if a crumb falls onto the floor, we pick it up and touch it to our forehead. Also, we never use a knife to cut bread. Tearing it with one’s hands is the norm,” says Alisher. In fact, in the country’s autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan, once the non is passed around, the most distinguished guest should be the first one to snap a piece off the disk.
I encounter more ‘bread-folklore’ that night at my hotel as I lay my head down onto the fluffy pillow. My reverie is interrupted by a slight bump underneath the pillow near the nape of my neck. It turns out to be a piece of dry bread that I later learn the housekeeping staff place under every pillow in the hotel as a sort of amulet to ward off nightmares.
Same, yet Different…
In Tashkent’s gargantuan Chorsu Bazaar, I dodge past qazi or horsemeat sausage vendors, as I make my way towards the source of the yummy aroma wafting through the nonvoy khona section. Here, I pick up two plump, lamb-stuffed somsas that are dead ringers for our desi samosas. Only here, the breading is super flaky and made from pea flour called sorgo.
Later that day, en route to the airport, I stop by the city’s open-air Chigatay Darvoza Non Bazaar for some Tashkent lochira non. This unique mould-formed non is baked from short crust pastry made from milk, butter, and sugar. It has a perimeter that is marked with spoke-like patterns that come from a tool called a bosma, which in olden days used to be made out of repurposed spokes from a bicycle wheel.
I pick up half a dozen to take back home. Only this time, it’s me singlehandedly trying to stuff the lochira non into my rather unyielding suitcase!
Between Breads—Uzbekistan’s Bread Folklore
* At an engagement, a loaf of bread is divided equally between both sides, signaling a fair partnership.
* Special kulcha non dough is rolled between the feet of a child when they take their first steps.
* When going off to war, a soldier is given a bite of bread and his family keeps the remaining loaf to signify that the family and the bread is waiting for his safe return.
* “Be as respected as bread” is a commonly heard blessing in Uzbekistan.
(A shorter, differently edited version of this article appeared in the 19th January 2019 issue of the Mint Lounge newspaper, India on page 14 https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/OFn8bW8p6xlElOBxSLOpyJ/Uzbekistans-bread-winners.html)
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