Kulcha

Welcome!

I thought for long which publication to begin with. First I thought to start it with the biggest love of my life - Bulgaria. Then I decided to begin with something that I enojoy doing the most. Then a bunch of other different thoughts popped up and, eventually, everything got messed.

On March the 21st here in Azerbaijan, where I live right now, they celebrate Novruz - the holiday which marks the arrival of spring. We had 10 days off and we decided to go to the province. My husband has many relatives there - ordinary but very heartful and hospitable people. Every day we were visiting one of them. The interesting thing about visiting relatives in this part of the world is that you can't refuse their offer to visit them as you're afraid to upset them. My husband's beloved ones are his two sweet aunts - Almaz and Beyim. I'll tell you about the second one which impressed me the most. She remembered me my grandma, rest her in peace.

This is her - aunt Beyim.

She lives in a small town of Azerbaijan, more a province, called Goychay. The town situates about 250km to the northwest of Baku (the capital city) and is famous for its most delicious pomegranate in the world. She has nursed four children - two sons and two daughters. She has beautiful blue eyes and unusually beautiful hands decorated by a very primitive wedding ring put on by her husband many many years ago. Please don't think that she appears this way all the time. She covered her head with a shawl because she was feeling cold. But this way she looks even more beautiful.

My husband used to spend summer holidays at her place when he was a little boy and she took care of him like any beloved aunt can do it to his beloved nephew. Those were the most unforgettable days of his childhood.

When we lived in Prague (yes, we had this experience in our lives as well), my husband kept on telling me about the most delicious sweet-bread once cooked by aunt Beyim. He said he loved having it with a cup of sweetened tea for breakfast. Now she is 75 years old and she's lost the power to knead dough.

It's all about "Kulcha" (in Azerbaijani: "Külçə"/English transcription: [kul`tʃa], stress on the second syllable) the recipe of which is over 200 years old. I found out that nobody in my husband's family can prepare Kulcha except for aunt Beyim. Thus the recipe was officially passed to me for future generations and, for sure, I took it with honour. I baked my first one immediately after we had returned back from Goychay and my husband happily played the role of a taster. He said I took him back to the childhood. I took it as a compliment. 

My Kulcha was baked exclusively of home-made natural products which we brought from the province. You serve it with a cup of sweetened regular black tea.

Ingredients:

*1 tea-cup = 250ml

Flour	500gr.
Eggs	2pcs.
Sugar	1/2 tea-cup
Warm milk	2/3 of tea-cup
Dry yeast (powder)	1 teaspoon
Turmeric	1/2 teaspoon
Fennel seed	1 teaspoon
Sunflower oil

Preparation:

Sift the flour into a bowl (or basin). Add all dry ingredients on it (sugar, dry yeast powder and turmeric) and mix with a spoon. Put the fennel seeds in a frying pan and heat them slightly on a hot stove for about 5 minutes mixing uninterruptedly in order to avoid burning. Then slightly crush the seeds in a mortar and add them on the flour. Fennel gives the bread an exclusive flavor.  

This is the moment to show you the photograph of this ingredient. I found out that fennel seeds are available in pharmacy shops in Bulgaria in a form of tea J

Split the white and the yellow of the eggs. Slightly beat up the white with a fork. Make a hollow on the flour and pour the white in it. Mix with a fork and make sure to add the warm milk. Mix the soft dough – it must not stick on to your hands and fingers. Periodically wet your hands in the sunflower oil during mixing. Leave the dough for 1.5 hour until it double grows in volume.

After the dough has grown in volume, easily flatten it again to make a round bread and place it in a round shape the inner walls of which you have preliminary treated with sunflower oil. I used a shape with diameter of 26cm. I put a special baking paper on the bottom of the shape instead of oiling it. Leave it this way to grow in volume for one more hour. Then, with the side of a teaspoon slightly make several decorations in a form of fish scales. Now apply the yellow of the eggs with a brush on the top side. 

Bake the bread for 30-40 minutes at 160-180°C. Constantly keep your eye on the bread while baking to avoid burning. Sweet dough can easily burn. 

 Bon appétit!