Thursday, June 07, 2007

Poetry thursday 6.7.07


Recipe

One quart of warm water
     pours steaming into stainless bowl
one third cup of sugar
     dissolves slowly feeding
four tablespoons of yeast
     sits for fifteen minutes foaming sharp and sweet
one quarter cup of olive oil
     slips palest silken green into bubbling brew
four teaspoons of salt
     adds flavor for in life and food nothing’s worse than bland
three tablespoons of vinegar
     bites bitter mellowing with time and heat
nine cups of flour (four white, five wheat)
     beaten in by wooden spoon

knead ten minutes
     squeezes supple sticky soft between fingers
let rise till twice its size
     spills tender lofty dough over silvery rim
form into loaves and place in greased pans
     makes three or four
bake at three hundred fifty degrees Fahrenheit
     converts to metric if you must
for thirty minutes
     wafts wheaten perfume permeating whole house

I dare you to burn your tongue eating a slice
though it would be worth the price
hot buttered manna straight from oven.

10 comments:

Crafty Green Poet said...

I love fresh baked bread and what a good idea to write the recipe asa poem.

gautami tripathy said...

I wish they wrote recipes like that! I loved it, thanks!

Regina said...

Oh, this is going into the recipe book! Fresh baked bread is fabulous and you make baking so beautiful here in this poem!

Clockworkchris said...

I really loved the poem, but most of all the use of the word mana. I have always been super curious what that meant, and now I am sure I look like a bigger idiot than usual, but it's great to finally know. Thanks for sharing.

Deb said...

Delicious! I like how the descriptive lines built as they progress. I didn't catch on until "olive oil" and then I was smitten.

I seem to recall a forum just for food writers somewhere...this would be fantastic there.

rel said...

chicklegirl,
What a novel take on prompt. I like the poem and the subject is one of my favorite aromas.
rel

S.L. Corsua said...

Fresh. Creative. Loved the refinement in both processes (cooking, poetry writing) here. Makes me hungry for more (of both). ^_^

paris parfait said...

Baked bread - my favourite! A delicious poem.

chicklegirl said...

Thanks one and all for your kind comments. FYI, this is my mother-in-law's recipe and it's really as wonderful as I tried to make it sound. Give it a try and you won't be sorry (but be warned that this bread is difficult to resist when it's right out of the oven and is highly addictive when combined with butter).

P.S. Chris, manna isn't exactly bread; for more info, look here. With the Biblical reference, I was trying to make a slight pun with "manna straight from oven" (rather than from heaven).

hairyshoefairy said...

That looks so yummy! Fresh bread is the best!