The days in the desert are rippling along - which we enjoy very much. "What day of the week is it today?" "Hm, I don't know. Does it matter?"
What is luxury? Gerd always says that having no appointments is the greatest luxury for him. And yes, here and now we realise: that's exactly how it is: living without appointments is already fantastic.
While we are sitting there, looking into the desert and letting our thoughts wander, the horn honks behind us. A car! What a change! We are quickly addressed, once again in Bärn-Düütsch! "Yes, what! What are you doing here?"
We quickly strike up a conversation with a Swiss woman. She is doing a desert tour. Mhamed is her guide through the area. We talk a little, and at some point they say goodbye to us. As a farewell she asks: "Will you still be there tomorrow? Then we could have a Bedouin meal together. Mhamed can make us bread baked in the desert sand, it's super delicious!
Well, we didn't want to leave here that quickly anyway. The next day at noon, the two of them are back in front of our Felix. I clear out the table and chairs (no wind today, so it's feasible and makes sense!). Mhamed collects desert brushwood and builds a fire, while we knead flour, salt and water into a pomfort-like dough.
Unfortunately, I fail Mhamed's quality control with my dough, he takes over and kneads until the dough meets his high standards. Good, then I'll just take care of the garlic cloves. Meanwhile, Ingrid wraps the potatoes, eggs and garlic cloves in aluminium foil. Now everything is ready to cook. (A small note: we wouldn't use aluminium foil ourselves, we never need it. Environment and all that, right? When asked, I learn that the Bedouins used to use wet cloth to put potatoes etc. on the fire. I would have liked to try that, but I have to wait because I don't have enough cloth).
The fire has burnt down well, the ashes and the desert sand are hot "like ne moors". On a sand table pushed together, our last clean kitchen towel is spread out, flour is sprinkled on it and the now well kneaded and rested bread dough is rolled out.
Kitchen appliances? Not a chance.
Potatoes, garlic and eggs are already lying comfortably in the hot ashes, now Mhamed simply throws the bread dough into the hot sand-ash mixture. With a stick lying around, the bread is covered with the remaining ash and now it's time to wait. 10 to 15 minutes later, our potatoes, garlic, eggs and bread are ready.
Of course, we expect a lot of sand while chewing, but nix. The bread is first thrown into a bush (cooling grid!), then "de-blackened" at the edge with a pocket knife and desanded by beating it with a towel.
Freshly broken bread, plus the delicious potatoes, the soft and divine garlic and the medium soft super eggs and the Bedouin lunch is ready. What a delight!
We don't know if we celebrate more the memory of the preparation or the taste. In any case, we are so grateful for this first-class experience!
Merci, Ingrid, that you simply stopped when you saw our Bernese number plate. And merci for sharing this experience with us! Thanks also to Mhamed, who made all this possible.
PS: The next day, of course, I kneaded bread dough again (good thing Mhamed wasn't knead-controlling again!) and baked it in the sand. I am totally thrilled! And will do it again sometime, maybe on a sandy beach?
Merci for "travelling with us
We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.
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Hello dear ones,
That was really another great experience!
As I bake sourdough bread myself, I have of course paid particular attention to bread. Your list of ingredients for the "sand bread" does not include any leavening agents such as yeast. Is this not needed for the flatbread?
A special feature of sourdough bread is that no yeast is used here, but rather a sourdough starter (which I call Olf).
Kind regards
Dirk
Hello Dirk
Well, I've never quite understood the bread dough thing. Yeast, sure. Sourdough, also clear. But why bread tastes good without any other ingredients: I have no idea. So it's really just flour, salt, water. But what there is to consider: It only tastes good fresh, half a day later it's hard and you have to toast it.
Maybe it's because of the patty shape?
You can try it, among motorbike travellers this is also a common recipe for "pan bread", so it must work somehow because of the shape.
Exciting, all that.
The sourdough boom has passed us by, so let's see how long we can hold out....
Kind regards - Heike