I realize I haven’t written much about my recent trip to Israel so today I want to share one of my coolest foodie experiences with you - making pita bread in the desert.

Adam making pita bread on a saj

We made pita only a day after arriving in Israel, but before I go into the details a bit of background knowledge is neccessary… because by that time a lot had happened. We’d flown from New York to London, from London to Tel Aviv, then taken a bus to Kibbutz Keturah in the Arava Valley. This airplane-airplane-bus travel series took more than 24 hours to complete. We did it without much sleep and - as we discovered upon arriving in Tel Aviv - mostly without our luggage. Fog had delayed our flight out of Heathrow airport, and while our plane eventually took off after hours of sitting on the runway, our bags somehow stayed behind. Most of them arrived a couple days later on an evening that will forever be ingrained in my memory as the day I finally got to change into fresh clothes (we’d all been wearing the same thing for days, brief stopover in a tiny Be’er Sheva shop to buy underwear aside). Indeed, if you picture any slow-motion movie scene where people are joyously running towards something, you’ll have a fair idea of what we were doing on December 25th, 2006. Imagine our nice Jewish group-leader standing amidst a pile of travel-worn bags shouting “Merry Christmas! Ho ho ho! If only your rooms had chimneys!” and you’ll have an even better approximation of what my life was like last Christmas eve.

The view from a balcony near my room at Kibbutz Keturah

As I mentioned earlier, soon after arriving in Israel we jumped on a bus and headed off for Kibbutz Keturah, where we were scheduled to stay for a few days. I won’t go into a long history of kibbutzim (plural of kibbutz) but if you click here you can find out all about them. Keturah is located in the Arava Valley and inhabited by amazing people, from Rabbi Michael, who kindly drew me a map of the Old City in Jerusalem and pointed out all the best places to eat; to Leah, who made the pita dough featured in this post and was generous enough to share her formerly secret recipe with us.

Several of my classmates making their way down the dune. I was halfway down when I snapped this and the tiny white dot you see at the very top is Andy, which should give you some idea of how high the dune was!

On our first morning at Keturah we rose early and got on a bus that took us deep into the desert. We then hiked to the top of a small mountain for morning prayers (shacharit), and though I don’t usually pray in the morning it was a lovely experience. It’s hard to beat the gorgeous background of the desert, the birthplace of so many religions, when praying. There was a cool, fresh breeze blowing and I was amazed by how vibrantly blue the sky looked against the relatively colorless desert sand.

The side of the mountain we climbed was rocky (and quite a challenge without my hiking boots, which were in London!) but the side we came down was a steep sand dune. It was interesting to see how everyone chose to go down since it was pretty high and a bit intimidating. As you can see from the photo above, some people rolled, some walked, and yet others ran. One person even decided to get into the sleeping bag she was carrying and slide down! For my part, I walked. I know it’s not terribly exciting, but what can I say? I didn’t want my only pair of clothes to become completely covered in sand. There’s a reason why, later that night, people were still talking about having sand in their pants!

Once we all made it down, we walked around the base of the mountain and arrived at a camp site where kibbutzniks (people who live on the kibbutz) had set up a fire with a saj. Then our enjoyable task was to make pita! Each person took some of the dough and cooked it on the hot metal of the saj before eating it with some of the accompaniments laid out on a nearby table - egg salad, labne, cottage cheese and hummus, for example. Needless to say, this was one of the highlights of my day. As soon as we got back to the kibbutz I found out who had made the dough and asked her if she would be willing to share her recipe and technique with us. Leah was happy to oblige and I emailed her not long after we arrived back in the States. I asked her to tell us a bit about who she is - where she’s from, why she lives on a kibbutz, what she does - and of course, how we could go about making our own pita. We probably won’t do it in the desert, but I think this would be loads of fun to do in the backyard… or at a beach!

“My name is Leah Kayman and I was born and raised in an upper middle class family in St. Louis, Missouri. I think that early on, in high school, I knew that I wouldn’t be living the lifestyle of my parents when I grew up. I wanted to move to Israel to be a part of building the Jewish state. I wanted to feel that I could really influence society and make a difference in the world. What better place to have a serious influence on my environment than a kibbutz?

I made aliyah with a group of people who had met in the States. We got to know each other well and spent time talking about the kind of community we wanted to build: one based on cooperation, on equality, on religious pluralism and a respect for our natural environment.

I like living on a kibbutz because every day I see changes in the place that I belong to. Throughout the 30 years that I’ve made this my home the kibbutz has grown and many of the dreams we envisioned have come to fruition. One of them is our belief in quality Jewish informal education. I work in Keren Kolot, the educational branch of Kibbutz Ketura. We host groups of young people and adults from all over the world and from Israel. They come to stay with us, to experience and to learn about our lifestyle and to be challenged by some of the same issues that we - as Jews, as Israelis and as people - grapple with.

A bit of background & how to make the pita…
We believe that the sensory tactile experience is a powerful learning tool and often we take our groups into the desert. We hike, we stop and contemplate the same desert which was the birthplace of the Jewish people. In the desert we build a campfire and set out a repast of Middle Eastern foods: fresh vegetable salad, hummus, labneh with olive oil and za’atar, t’chinah, felafel, eggplant salad, olives and pickles. We then bring out dough which we prepared ahead of time and let each member of the group made their own pita. Each person is given a handful of dough and instructed to pull on it to create piece as thin a pita as possible. We then lay the individually made pitot on a saj, a dome shaped piece of metal which is placed over burning coals. We then turn the pita (careful–don’t burn yourself!) until browned to perfection. Each person then spreads their pita with whatever he/she chooses.”

Recipe after the jump. Many thanks to Leah for taking the time to share her thoughts and her her pita dough recipe.

Leah’s (Formerly) Secret Pita Dough Recipe
Note: You can use Clotilde’s page of conversions and equivalents to change this recipe from metric measurements if need be. Or, here’s a helpful calculator.

Leah writes:
I usually take 200 grams of flour per person. That will be plenty even for people with a hearty appetite. In each kilo of flour mix in a level tablespoon of salt.

I begin with a little yeast. It’s important not to add too much yeast, as the dough
will rise too quickly on the saj and not cook properly in the middle. The Bedouin don’t use yeast at all, but we do, as it adds a nice texture to the dough. How much yeast? For 5 kilos of flour I would use only a teaspoon of yeast.

Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water and add a teaspoon of sugar. Wait for the yeast to bubble, then begin to add the flour and lukewarm water in turn, beginning and ending with the flour. During the mixing process, add a quarter of a cup of oil per kilo of flour. Best to add it sometime mid-way.

Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic and add flour until it doesn’t stick to your hands. You can use a dough hook of an electric mixer. But give it time, you want to add the right amount of water and flour and not rush the process.

Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover with a towel. You can put it in the refrigerator and let it sit overnight, or let it rise at room temperature. After it has doubled in size, punch the dough down and cover again. By the time you get it out to the desert (or wherever you’re going) it will have risen again. When each person makes their own pita, they will essentially work out the air bubbles from their piece of dough.

According to Jewish tradition, a small piece of dough needs to be taken away and burned as the “challah”, to raise the level of our little meal to a level of holiness. The blessing is:

Have fun making pita and think of us at Kibbutz Keturah and Keren Kolot when you enjoy it!

- Leah Kayman

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