It was suggested that I do a writeup on Jachnun, after my much-loved writeup on
Malawach, so I am doing so. I am including a
recipe from the same source that I got the Malawach recipe from, so hopefully it will be a decent recipie. Again, after I try it, I will post the results here.
Jachnun is a Yemenite pan bread, and if you like Malawach, I'm told, you'll love Jachnun. It, too, was brought to Israel by Jewish-Yemenite immigrants (or, presumably, Arab-Yemenite immigrants, or Canadian-Yemenite immigrants, depending on who you talk to, but statistically, Jewish is more likely).
Note that, unlike Malawach, it does need to be baked overnight, so it's better as a breakfast food, since it will be fresh in the morning. Presumably, you could bake it all day too, if you started in the morning, but who wants to cook in the morning? Anyway, if you want more of a short-term fix, go with Malawach. If you have guests over and want a great and filling breakfast, go with Jachnun.
Last thing before we get to the recipe, thanks to enwhysea for pointing this one out to me.
Here's the recipe, from http://www.jewish-food.org/recipes/jachnun.htm:
JACHNUN (YEMENITE PAN BREAD)
Yield: 12 servings
Required:
- 1 kilogram flour
- 50 grams butter / margarine
- 7 teaspoons sugar
- 4 teaspoons salt
- 3 1/2 cups warm water
For oiling:
Procedure:
- Put all ingredients (except 150g butter/margarine) in a bowl (or mixer with a plastic blade) knead the dough until smooth, elastic and shiny. Cover with a wet towel and put aside for 30 minutes.
Knead the dough again until the dough is very flexible and absolutely non-stick. Again cover with a wet towel and put aside for 30 minutes.
Knead the dough again. Divide into 12 equal size balls (about the size of a tennis ball). Cover with a wet towel for another hour.
ROLLING: For the rolling prepare 150 g of very soft butter / margarine (heat in microwave for a short period).
Grease the working area. Roll out the dough ball to a square leaf as large and as thin as you can. Stretch the rolled dough a little with your hands.
Spread soft butter / margarine over the dough and fold it: a third of the leaf fold to the center the other third on the first (as in puff pastry). You'll get a long rectangle with three layers. start rolling from the
nearest narrow side to the next. You'll get a bun sized role.
Grease the inside of a pot you can put in the oven. Arrange the rolls in layers in the pot. Cover the pot with cooking parchment and then with its cover. Heat the oven to 90C and bake overnight. The jachnun should be light brown when ready.
Serve with fresh tomatoes mash and zhug (see archive).
From Eyal Adelman (eemcs@actcom.co.il)
This, like Malawach, can be eaten with tomato sauce, but feel free to experiment. Have with yogurt, cream cheese, mayonnaise/miracle whip, or whatever other tastes you like.
Also, as with Malawach, more recipies can be found by searching Google (http://www.google.com/search?q=Jachnun&btnG=Google+Search), or by moving to Israel and harassing Yemenite immigrants who know how to cook.
See also: Israeli food