Recipe 1: Egyptian Bread

The first recipe in A History of Food in 100 Recipes is Egyptian Bread. According to William Sitwell, one of the earliest known recipes was painted on the wall of Senet's tomb. She lived during the Egyptian Middle Kingdom period, which is between 2005 and 1650 BC. The recipe is shown in a series of drawings where characters perform the step-by-step process of making bread, including grinding the wheat into flour and kneading the dough.

It's amazing to think that bread, a staple in most American households, has been around for more than 4,000 years. 

I love bread, hence the name of my blog, which makes this recipe the perfect start to my cooking project. I made a simple flat bread with sauteed eggplant and a fava bean, feta salad.

Flat Bread

• 500 grams of flour
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil
• 300 ml of water

In a big bowl combine the flour and salt. Mix in water and olive oil. Knead into a soft dough and allow to rest for 40 minutes. 

Form dough into 6 equally sized balls. Roll each one out to desired thickness. I rolled mine out as thin as I could which allowed them to brown and cook quickly. 

Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F for 15 minutes until golden brown.

Fava bean and Feta Salad

• 20 pods of fresh fava beans, crumbled
• 10 ounces of fresh feta
• 1 cucumber, chopped
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1 clove of finely chopped garlic

Combine the olive oil and garlic, set aside. 

Bring a pot of water to a boil, remove fava beans from the pods and boil for 1-2 minutes. Add the fava beans to an ice bath to stop the cooking process. Once the beans of cooled, pop them out of their waxy shell.

Combine the peeled fava beans, feta, and cucumber. Discard the garlic from the oil and drizzle over the salad. You will have left over oil. I used mine to make another salad.