Kashmiri Kander/Girda Recipe — Ooni USA

When British Indian chef Romy Gill travelled via Kashmir, the northernmost area in India, amassing recipes for her newest cookbook “On the Himalayan Path,” she delighted in a flatbread referred to as girda (additionally referred to as kander). A fermented bread historically cooked in a clay tandoor oven, it additionally bakes up superbly proper on the cordierite baking stone in an Ooni oven (or in a cast-iron pan).

Romy, a sequence common on “Prepared, Regular, Cook dinner” and BBC Radio 4’s “The Meals Programme,” was served girda at Chai Jaai, an exquisite tea room in Sringar, alongside a cup of midday chai — a splendidly pink and salty drink made with gunpowder tea, milk, salt and baking powder.  As a result of these breads pair so nicely with tea and native breakfast specialities like harissa, a spicy and saucy mutton dish, “many of the breads [in the Kashmir region] are made within the tandoor earlier than daybreak so folks can get pleasure from them within the morning,” Romy says. 

Made with fast-acting yeast and left to ferment for under an hour, this bread comes collectively shortly, which means you may have it earlier than midday even in case you sleep in. No have to wake earlier than daybreak like a Kashmiri baker. 

The dough is roofed in melted ghee (butter that has been clarified, which means simmered and strained to take away all of the water). Should you can’t discover ghee in your native grocery store, you can also make your personal at dwelling utilizing this information, or you should utilize common butter — however you’ll sacrifice the splendidly nutty taste and excessive smoke level that comes with clarified butter. 

Bio: Romy Gill is a British Indian chef, meals author, creator and broadcaster. In 2016, she was awarded an MBE within the Queen’s ninetieth birthday honours listing. Writer of “ZAIKA: Vegan Recipes from India” (featured in The Observer), she frequently seems on TV and contributes to nationwide and worldwide publications, together with The New York Occasions. 

Yield
4-5 flatbreads

Time
1.5 hours (half-hour lively, 1 hour passive)

Gear
Ooni pizza oven
Ooni Forged-Iron Skillet
spatula

Components
2 cups (250 grams, or 9 ounces) all-purpose flour, plus further for dusting
1 teaspoon (5 grams) caster or granulated sugar
½ teaspoon (3 grams) salt
2 teaspoons (6 grams) fast-acting dried yeast
¾-scant 1 cup (175-200 milliliters, or 6-7 fluid ounces) lukewarm water, plus further as wanted
2 teaspoons (10 grams) melted ghee
2 teaspoons (6 grams) white poppy seeds

Technique
In a mixing bowl, mix the flour, sugar, salt and yeast, and blend them collectively. Gently add the lukewarm water and mix to create a smooth ball of dough. Knead for  8–10 minutes. 

Apply the melted ghee to the dough and switch it to coat. Then, cowl the dough and depart it to show at room temperature for 1 hour.

If cooking with a standard oven, preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C/200°C fan/gasoline mark 7) and place a cast-iron skillet within the oven to warmth up. 

If cooking in an Ooni, hearth up your oven, aiming for 425°F (220°C) on the baking stone inside. Use an infrared thermometer to shortly and precisely test the temperature of the stone.

Knock again and knead the risen dough for a minute or two, then divide it into 4-5 equal-sized balls.

Calmly mud the dough balls with flour. With moist palms, stretch every ball along with your palm to about 3mm (⅛ in) thick and 5cm (2in) in diameter. Gently press a sample into the floor of the disks along with your fingertips, then sprinkle them with poppy seeds. If poppy seeds aren’t sticking, apply just a little bit extra ghee and check out once more. 

If cooking in a standard oven with a cast-iron pan, place the primary bread on the recent pan and cook dinner within the oven for 1-2 minutes on all sides. Repeat till all of the flatbreads are cooked. 

If cooking in an Ooni oven, slide the formed dough onto a flippantly floured peel and launch straight onto the stone. Cook dinner for 1-2 minutes, turning typically to make sure that the flatbread will get cooked evenly. The highest will brown from the flame, so that you don’t have to flip the dough over. Repeat till all of the flatbreads are cooked. 

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