Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Malooga- Yemeni flat bread

This is a very common yeasted flatbread in Yemen that is eaten with eggs, buttermilk, fasoolia and it is used in the Yemeni Ramadan dish called shafuta. In Yemen, it is baked in a taboon but we don't have it here in the U.S. so we had to use a metal pan. We use a makhbaza from Yemen to apply the malooga to the hot pan. The makhbaza is a round, domed tool that you place the malooga on. You pick it up from the bottom which has a handle, and with one swift motion, you smack the malooga on the hot pan or the taboon. Since the majority of you will probably never be able to get a makhbaza, the only way left that works is to bake it like pizza crust.
Directions:

2 cups warm water
2 1/2 tsp yeast
5- 6 cups flour
2 tsp salt
1/3 cup semn, warmed
2 Tbsp Vegetable oil.

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm water. Add the rest of the water, 4 cups of flour and salt. Mix with hand, adding more flour to form a stiff dough. Knead for at least 10 minutes or until dough is smooth, not sticky, and pliable.

Cover dough, and place in a draft-free place. Set aside for 1 hour or until risen.

On a surface sprinkled with flour, cut dough into mounds of the size of what you do for a large pizza. Let sit for 5 min. Preheat oven at 550 F. Mix the warmed semn with oil in a small bowl. Prepare a large surface by sprinkling flour. Place one of the mounds on the surface and pat down and stretch into a rectangle, 1/2 an inch thick (about 20 x 15). You can use a rolling pin but you need to use extra flour to prevent sticking.

Brush entire surface with the semn-oil mix, or use your hand. Fold dough in half towards you. Brush the top surface with semn-oil mix and fold it in half towards you again. Brush with semn-oil mix and fold in half sideways. Brush again. Fold sideways and brush with mix again. Finally brush surface and pinch corners together to form a ball. Place ball on the floured pan and, move on to the next one. By the time you have finished layering the last one, the first layered dough would be ready for baking because it had time to rest. Pat down the dough mound into a large round the size of a thick large pizza and place into a greased baking sheet. Brush and eggwash (1 egg + 2 tablespoons milk) or buttermilk on top. Bake in hot oven until bottom is brown and top has brown spots (it won't fully brown).

2 comments:

5za said...

Is this the 'khameer' made in yemen?
These dishes are bringging back very nostalgic memories....

Oliver Richmond said...

Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I am a writer focused on career and physical development to spread more issues and tips to develop and works through Professional resume writing service. Malooga (Arabic: ملوجة‎) is a Yemeni flatbread eaten with bean dishes, scrambled eggs, spiced buttermilk, and many other Yemeni savory dishes. I like this very much.