Artisan Grain Flatbread

Locally grown food includes more than fruits, vegetables mean proteins. Farms across the Inland Northwest are growing amazing artisan grains and many are milling their own flour.

This flatbread, made with artisan grain grown in at Lone Mountain Farms in Kootenai County, Idaho, is similar to naan, a traditional leavened flatbread found throughout Western Asia, Central Asia and Northern Indian is incredibly flavorful. Traditionally cooked in clay, brick or stone ovens, this recipe is simplified for your home kitchen with the bread cooked on top of the stove and finished under broiler in your oven.

The centerpiece of this flatbread is Turkey Red hard red wheat grown on a 10 acre farm in north Idaho. According to Lone Mountain Farms, "Turkey Red can be traced to Crimea between the Black Sea and the Sea of Above in the early 19th century and earlier to Turkey to the south of the Black Sea."

Makes 9 flatbreads.

Ingredients

3 3/4 cups whole artisan grain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

about 1 3/4 cups plain whole milk yogurt

soft butter (optional)

Instructions

With a fork, mix flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Slowly add as much yogurt as needed to gather the flour together and make a soft, resilient dough. Knead for about 10 minutes and form a ball. Put the ball in a bowl and cover the bowl with a damp dishcloth. Set aside in a work place for 1.5 to 2 hours. Knead dough again and divide into nine equal parts. Keep them covered.

Heat a cast-iron skillet or griddle over a low flame. Preheat the broiler. Take one part of the dough and, using your hands, make it into a ball. Flatten the ball and then roll out on a lightly floured surface until you have a round that is about 1.8-inch thick. When the skillet is very hot, pick up the rolled dough and slap it on the heated surface. Let it cook slowly for about 4 to 5 minutes. It will either puff-up partially or completely. Now, put the whole skillet under the broiler for 1 to 1.5 minutes or until the puffing up process completes itself and there are a few reddish spots on the flatbread. Remove the flatbread with a metal spatula and brush with butter, if you like. Make all of the flatbreads this way, keeping them stacked and covered with a clean dish towel. Serve warm.

This artisan grain flatbread goes well with eggplant and potato curry topped with cucumber yogurt and cilantro or this delicious yellow lentil dahl.

Local ingredients #flour #yogurt

Recipe type #bread

Learn about the fascinating resurgence of local grains on the Inland Northwest Artisan Grains podcast! Listen on our website or on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, SoundCloud or your favorite podcast app!