I want to share this first recipe in this blog. Bread has always been a staple food in so many cultures since a lot of centuries. There are many stories and myths about bread.
In ancient times, people observed that a grain of wheat dies but later is reborn as a spike, which is capable of providing humans sustenance. This was a great mystery to early people, and they came to revere wheat as sacred.
„It is not only in religious observations that the symbolism of bread occurs. For thousands of years, bread has been linked to procreation. The parallels are easy to understand: the baking process and the birthing process are similar: loading = conception, pregnancy = baking, and delivery = consumption. In Latin, “semen” means “seed” and refers to both plant seed and human semen. Bread equals life.
The life cycle also includes, of course, death. The sickle is used to harvest grain, but it is also depicted as the instrument carried by the embodiment of Death.“ Encyclopedia of Food & Culture, ©2003 Gale Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
Buttermilk bread-rolls
Recipe for 8 bread rolls
2 cups of wheat or spelt flour
1/2 cup of butter, cut into little peaces
2 soupspoons of olive oil
1-2 cups of buttermilk
3 tsp. of baking pouder
2 tsp. of anise seeds
4 tsp. of sesame seeds
1 tsp. of turmeric
1 tsp. of sea salt
3 tsp. of sugar (I use unrefined brown sugar)
Mix together all dry ingredients, then add the oil and the buttermilk little by little while stirring the dough. The dough should not be too sticky but neither too dry. You will find the right consistency, just try it! Take also a fork to scrunch the peaces of butter. Disperse a little bit of flour on your base, put the dough on the floured surface, disperse some flour on the surface of the dough. Then form some balls at the size of your palm, put it on a baking sheet (which you should oil before) and press the balls softly so that they become more flat. Sweep some Olive oil over your bread rolls and sprinkle them with sesame seeds. Put the baking sheets into your stove at a heat of around 200 degree. After half an hour, prick a fork into one roll and see if the dough is still sticky inside. If not, and if the colour of your bread rolls is golden they are ready.
…it is raining a lot these days here in Germany, seems like the sky is crying, but maybe it just seems to me- my inner condition is looking for an equivalent in the external, or better -is meeting the equivalent in the external. Here I actually think, that through my glasses of sorrow I see the weather and find a coincidence. When I was child I felt a deep connection to nature, to natural landscapes, to animals and plants. Something mystical was in there or in the way it „spoke“ to me, or in the way I felt connected to it. I loved to wander on my own through the rural area where my father used to live, there was a farm, there were animals and there was this beauty when the fruit trees in springtime where covered with white and rosy blossoms …I think I still have this connection, but it´s some kind of buried. Every child feels this connection. As soon as children learn from our society which is mainly based on rationality and materialism besides other characteristics, they loose this ability. This is sad, how I find. Having a child makes me remember this ability, and I like to encourage my child in this and to find a way to rediscover a deeper understanding of interaction with the world. So I sat down with my son and his friend yesterday and we listened to the sound of the tree in the wind.
„trees growing on flowers“- dreamed and drawed 1995
Recipes and stories from palestinian and israeli people 