Bread is part of almost every Afghan meal, eaten whether or not rice is served and used in place of a spoon to scoop up stews, yoghurt and dips. The everyday loaf, naan, is a leavened flatbread of flour, water, oil, salt and starter, slapped onto the hot inner wall of a tandoor, a deep clay oven, and peeled off minutes later, crisp outside and soft inside.
The neighbourhood bakery
Every Afghan village and every neighbourhood of Kabul has its bakery, the naanwayi, built around a clay oven. Bakers sit on platforms at the oven’s mouth, shaping the dough and pressing it onto the walls, then lift out the finished bread with a pointed metal rod. Many families still knead their dough at home and carry it to the local bakery to be baked.
Many shapes of bread
Shapes vary from place to place. Travellers find long ovals wrapped in paper in Kabul and thick rounds in northern provinces such as Balkh. Lavash is a large, thin round; other loaves are marked with grooves and scattered with sesame or nigella seeds. For breakfast there is flaky naan-e roghani. The home recipe below, adapted from Humaira Ghilzai, uses a very hot oven in place of a tandoor.
Ingredients
- 650 g (about 5 cups) bread flour
- 2 tsp salt
- 7 g (1 packet) quick-rising yeast
- 5 tsp vegetable oil
- About 480 ml (2 cups) warm water
- 1 tsp nigella seeds (optional)
- A spray bottle of water
A home-style way to make it
- Mix the flour, salt and yeast, drizzle in the oil, then add the water gradually until a smooth dough forms. Knead for 10–15 minutes by hand.
- Cover and leave in a warm place to rise for about 2 hours.
- Heat the oven to its highest setting, about 260°C (500°F), with a baking sheet inside.
- Knock back the dough and divide it into 3. Stretch each piece into an oval about 45 cm long and 1 cm thick, and press three lengthwise grooves into it with your fingers.
- Lay the loaves on the hot sheet, sprinkle with nigella seeds and mist with water. Bake for 5 minutes, mist again and bake for about 5 minutes more, until golden and crusty.
- Wrap the warm bread in a cloth to keep it soft, and serve with any meal.