A tasty scoop

I recently bought a Moroccan tajine and used it to make a meat dish for my sweetie. (I know it can be used to make vegetarian dishes too, but I wanted to try something that I knew he would like and ease him into the style.)
To eat Moroccan food in authentic style you need a great flat bread to scoop up the food from the tajine. Sure, you could use a fork, but that's so Western. I like my Chinese food with chopsticks...it tastes better that way. So, too, I want to eat food from other places to be eaten in the way I would eat it if I was there.
At a recent trip to a Moroccan restaurant, there were forks, but there was this crusty flat bread that I could use to scoop up globs of food from my plate. Not only did it work well to sop up the sauces, but it was wonderfully pliable so I could pick up mouth fulls of delicious food.
Kesra is like a flat Italian bread. A cross between a crusty bread with an airy inside and a crispy cracker, it is delicious by itself, but it really adds to the flavor of the food as well.
And, like any flatbread, it could double as a pizza crust or the base for a great veggie sandwich...not exactly traditional, but yummy!

Moroccan Kesra
2 1/4 teaspoons of active dry yeast
1/4 cup of warm water for the yeast
1 teaspoon of sugar
4 cups of flour
1/3 cup of cornmeal
2 teaspoons of salt
2 tablespoon of unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 to 2 cups of warm water
  • In a small bowl, mix the yeast with 1/4 cup of warm water. Stir in the sugar. Set aside until the mixture starts to bubble.
  • Sift together the flour, 1/3 cup of cornmeal, and the salt.
  • Make a well in the center and pour in the yeast mixture and the melted butter. Knead, gradually adding the remaining water as needed until the dough is smooth and elastic to the touch.
  • Grease two baking sheets and dust them with the cornmeal.
  • Separate the dough into two balls of equal size and set each ball on a baking sheet. Flatten them out so they are about 1/2 an inch thick.
  • Cover the dough with a towel and set them aside in a warm place until doubled.
  • Preheat the oven to 425º. Prick the top of each loaf with the tines of a fork. Bake for 10 minutes. Lower the heat to 375º and bake until the breads are crusty and golden, 15 to 20 minutes.
Vegetarian

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