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Our recipe

Birka, Bread from Birka (flatbread) from An Early Meal by Serra & Tunberg ©2013 ISBN 978-91-981056-0-5 pg.156

Ingredients

  • 1 quart pease pottage from black-eyes peas, onion and bacon
  • 2 1/2 cups coarse barley flour (needed more, probably a cup, the pottage was very “wet”)
  • 1 cup water
  • optional salt, not needed because the pottage was salted.

Method

  1. Make your pease pottage. Ours was 1 cup peas, 3 cups water, 1 lg minced onion, 1 pound bacon, cooked overnight in a crockpot. We saved out a quart, then ate the rest.
  2. Mix flour, water and pea porridge in a bowl.
  3. Work by hand until it gets smooth and pliant.
  4. We had to add and add flour!
  5. Dough was boxed in 3 2-cup boxes and fridged overnight.
  6. Each box was divided into 3 pieces and rolled out on a well-floured board to a lumpy 1/2 inch or so.
  7. Fry the bread on medium high to high heat in a frying pan with no fat. Make sure that they do not burn. This took *forever*! It was at least 20 minutes on a side and they still tasted a bit raw in spots.

On Monday we took another of these and baked it in the oven. It took 40 minutes, but the texture/taste was the same. That’s going to be more “feastable” than one at a time…..

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Notes

Notes – Again, Loren did not like these, although he loved the pottage. The only difference is the barley flour, so I’m wondering if he just doesn’t like that. These were a bit hard on the outside and didn’t taste done, in spots.

Transcript from Saturday

  • Birka bread is sitting atm, waiting for Loren to get back from putting gas in the car.
  • …and dough is done and boxed. I’ll try frying these later.
  • It took well over 2 cups of flour, almost 3, for the Birka Bread, where the recipe called for one. We’ll see if they’re sloppy in the morning.

Transcript from Sunday

  • Birka bread in process. I’m supposed to “fry it dry”. Hmmm….
  • It’s “frying”…. very, very slow….20 minutes on one side
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Birka, Bread from Birka (flatbread) from An Early Meal by Serra & Tunberg ©2013 ISBN 978-91-981056-0-5 pg.156

Ingredients

  • ½ dl dried peas
  • 6dl coarse barley flour
  • 2 dl water
  • (optional salt)

Method

  1. Soak the peas in one deciliter cold water and leave them overnight. (approx.. 12 hours, see note)
  2. Drain off the water, add another deciliter of water and boil until soft.
  3. Drain the water into a separate bowl.
  4. Crush the peas and mix with the water from the boil until it gets a porridgy consistency/
  5. This should produce about 1dl pea porridge that can be kept in a cool place for a few days.
  6. Mix flour, water and 12/ deciliter pea porridge in a bowl.
  7. Work by hand until it gets smooth and pliant.
  8. Divide the dough into eight pieces and roll into balls.
  9. Spread a good amount of flour onto the table, and flatten or roll out to a thickness of ½-1cm.
  10. Fry the bread on medium high to high heat in a frying pan with no fat. Make sure that they do not burn.
  11. The breads should be eaten while still fresh. If covered with a linen cloth just as they come out of the pan they might last another day.
  12. Serve with soup, broth or just some stock.

Notes

The author implies that this could be made with pease pottage rather than soaked peas, so would start at about step 6.

These are pretty much a standard flatbread that you find all across the world.

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Page created and published 9/16/21 (C)M. Bartlett (Some parts otherwise copyright)
Last updated 10/20/22