I brought my simple sourdough and had the baking woman to bake my dough in the traditional way in the Tandoor. It turned out amazing. Airy, chewy and more crisp on the outside than the traditional Afghan Nan bread.

When you bake it with sourdough, instead of the yeast that is often used in Afghanistan nowadays, the bread stays fresh until the day after.

As I told the bread cooker about the sourdough bread and why I choose not to use yeast she knew exactly what I was talking about. The other women in the bakery joined the discussion and we were loudly talking about  the use of sourdough vs. the use of Yeast. Back in the days, afghan women also used sourdough but nowadays many women choose the less time consuming process with yeast. This gives them the chance to set the dough the same day as they bake it and they start setting the dough around 6.00 in the morning.  However, they are totally aware of the advantages of sourdough. They told me that it is better for both the stomach and the heart to eat bread baked with a sourdough starter. That is more than many of my friends in the West are aware of.

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The bread I made was the most simple kind, only Afghan flour, water and sea salt from the north-west laguna on Island. I did not use any add-ons in this bread as I was afraid it would destroy the tandoor.  I heard of a swiss guy in Kabul who brought a dough stuffed with cheese that exploded in the tandoor. It did not only spoil the whole batch of a family’s bread, the burning hot tandoor also had to be completely cleaned up by hand.

The cheese idea was a good one, but the result ruined the bakery for a day.