Flatbread From the Clay Oven, Then a Whole Tree of Plums Dried for Winter

A whole day, and two things kept out of it. The morning is bread. Flour through a sieve, water in a little at a time, and dough worked by hand until the surface goes smooth. While it rests she cuts peppers and garlic, scores potatoes almost through so they fan open, fills them and wraps each one in foil. The oven is mud built with a firebox underneath, and once the wood has burned down she rakes the embers flat and slides the bread straight onto the hot floor. It bakes in minutes. Then tea from the samovar, the table laid on the floor, and lunch. The afternoon is plums. A tree in the orchard is heavy with small red ones, and they come down into a bowl, get washed under the hose, and go whole into a pot over a fire dug into the open ground. Stones, skins and all. They collapse, then thicken, then reduce to a dark red pulp that gets pressed through a sieve until only the stones and skins are left behind. What comes through is poured onto flat metal trays, spread out thin with the back of a spoon, and left in the sun. That is plum leather. No jars, no lids and no sugar going in that the camera sees. Just fruit, fire and time. The Visits · Episode 46. Filmed in Gilan in summer, on one of our stays in the village before we moved here for good. In this episode you will see: Boots on at the step, and the dog fed at its kennel Eggs felt for in the nest boxes and carried down in a basket Okra picked pod by pod in the vegetable patch Everything washed outdoors under the hose Flour through the sieve, and dough worked by hand Peppers sliced long, garlic crushed flat Potatoes scored deep, fanned open and wrapped in foil Wood laid in the firebox and lit The dough divided, shaped and rolled out thin The embers raked flat across the oven floor Bread slid straight onto the hot floor on a long peel The samovar going, and tea poured out dark Lunch on the floor, bread torn rather than cut Out to the plum tree, and the branches picked into a bowl A fire laid in a pit in the open ground The plums tipped in whole, stones and all Stirred down until the pot goes dark and heavy Pressed through a sieve, skins and stones held back Ladled onto flat trays and spread out thin Left in the sun to dry 0:00 A Tray of Plum Leather 0:34 Eggs From the Coop 0:58 Picking Okra 1:16 Washing the Vegetables 1:53 Flour, Water and Dough 2:54 Peppers, Garlic and Potatoes 3:57 Wrapped in Foil 4:11 Firing the Clay Oven 4:37 Rolling the Flatbread 5:26 Bread Into the Oven 6:08 Laying the Table 6:37 The Bread Comes Out 7:02 Lunch Under the Awning 7:39 Picking the Plums 8:25 A Fire in the Ground 8:47 The Plums Go In 9:42 Cooking Down to Pulp 10:04 Pressed Through a Sieve 11:26 Spread on Trays to Dry Two things in this video are worth watching for. The first is the oven. It is built of mud and it has two chambers, not one. The fire goes in the box underneath and burns down to embers, and the bread bakes above it on a floor that has been soaking up that heat the whole time. The embers get raked flat before anything goes in, so the heat is even across the whole floor and the bread cooks from below in minutes rather than browning on one side. The second is the sieve. Boiling the plums whole is the easy part; the work is what comes after. Every stone and every scrap of skin has to be pushed out of the pulp, because a sheet of fruit leather that dries with skin in it tears when you lift it. What goes onto the trays is only what came through. Then it is spread thin. Too thick and the middle never dries and the whole tray spoils. Thin enough and it sets to something you can peel off in one piece and roll up. No narration and no music. A samovar, a wood fire, and a spoon going round a tray. Where concrete meets clay. SUBSCRIBE for more traditional village cooking and slow living from the mountains of northern Iran. Does anyone still dry fruit where you are? Tell me. یک روز کامل، و دو چیز که از آن نگه داشته می‌شود. صبح نان است. آرد از الک، آب کم‌کم، و خمیری که با دست ورز داده می‌شود تا صاف شود. تنور از گِل ساخته شده و جعبه آتش زیر آن است؛ وقتی هیزم به خاکستر نشست، زغال‌ها را صاف می‌کند و نان را مستقیم روی کف داغ می‌گذارد. چند دقیقه بیشتر طول نمی‌کشد. بعد چای از سماور و ناهار روی زمین. بعدازظهر آلوچه است. درخت پر است. آلوچه‌ها را می‌چینند، می‌شویند و درسته داخل دیگی می‌ریزند که روی آتشِ گودالی در زمین است. با هسته و پوست. می‌جوشند، غلیظ می‌شوند و به یک پوره سرخ تیره می‌رسند که از صافی رد می‌شود تا هسته و پوست جا بماند. آنچه رد شده روی سینی‌های تخت پهن می‌شود، نازک، و زیر آفتاب می‌ماند. این لواشک است. جایی که بتن به گِل می‌رسد. #SlowLiving #VillageLife #Iran #Gilan #ASMR #TraditionalCooking #ConcreteToClay #PlumLeather #ClayOven