A foodie in the UAE: baking 101

We’ve been in Abu Dhabi over two weeks now, and I’ve eaten out more than I can bear. Our boxes haven’t arrived with my cookware yet, but last night I decided to get back in the game. I made lentils and rice that turned out pretty good, not my best, but a decent, hearty meal. Tomorrow we are going to an expat gathering, and as the token southerner, I was asked if I knew how to make cornbread. I thought, sure, of course I can make cornbread. No problem. I’m excited to use my brand-new Italian gas range anyway. So, after work today I found my trusty cornbread recipe and pulled out the ingredients I carefully selected during the week, and got started.

Step 1: preheat oven to 425 F. My oven is in Celsius but I am prepared for that and use an app on my cell phone to make the conversion to 218 degrees. Piece of cake. Oh, right, my oven has numbers 1-8 on the dial, not temperatures. I get out the oven manual and find out that if I am only using the bottom burner, which I am, the dial should be at #8 to get a temp of 220 Celsius. Close enough. Twenty minutes later, after moving the dial down to 7, my oven thermometer (I brought one from home) reads 500 degrees Fahrenheit. So much for the chart in the manual. Down to #6, it still reads 450. Play with it a bit, settle on #4.5. I am now realizing I’ll probably not be able to slow-roast a turkey in this oven.

Step 2: Mix the dry ingredients. I start with corn flour; I couldn’t find cornmeal at the store but figured this would be about the same. Wrong. Instead of course yellow granules I find a fine, bright white powdery substance. Not sure if I’m making cornbread any more, but on we go. I add flour, sugar, baking powder, salt. No problems here.

Step 3: Add the wet ingredients. I realize I’ve forgotten yogurt and send Sam to the Lulu, our corner market, to get a pint of yogurt, which I’ve smartly found out is equivalent to 500 ml, just in case. He calls shortly after to say yogurt is sold in grams, not pints or liters. Large containers of yogurt are 400 grams. My cell phone says that’s about 14 ounces. I need 16. That’s 1 full container plus 1/8th of a container. Not pretty, but it can be done.

Oh, except the one mixing bowl I have is too small to hold the wet ingredients too. I only bought one, because we have several coming to us in our shipment, now nearly 2 weeks late. Okay. I call Sam again and he’s still at the store. After a bit of a scavenger hunt he finally finds a bowl large enough for my needs. He comes home triumphant with 570 grams of yogurt (1 large and 1 small container) and a bowl. My husband is a saint, by the way.

Back in business, I add in the 400 gram yogurt plus a little over half of the 170 gram yogurt. I guess that’s about 500 grams. Who said baking needs to be scientific? I add milk, eggs, sure, sure. Final step is to add melted butter. Hmmm, now noticing that one stick of butter is 200 grams, which equals 7 ounces. I need 2 ounces. So, that is 2/7ths of a stick. I am now opening a bottle of beer (for me, not the cornbread).

Final step: Bake. I taste the batter before slipping the pan in the oven and find it has a somewhat seltzer-y flavor. Perhaps baking powder here is not the same as in the states. But I’ve come too far to stop now. I set the timer for 20 minutes.

The cornbread is done, but it is so pale that I can’t bear to take it out of the oven. I turn on the broiler for a couple minutes to brown the top, a little trick that can make many foods look more appetizing. Still, nothing can mask the off-putting taste and strange texture of this wannabe cornbread. It’s much like a very large, spongy, slightly bitter pancake. Sam’s reaction is “I bet with a little honey it’ll be good.” He’s so sweet. And he’ll probably be eating off this for days ‘cause it ain’t making it to the dinner party. Not my proudest baking moment, but I’m not giving up yet. Tomorrow afternoon, armed with more beer and Sam on deck for emergency Lulu runs, I will be making cupcakes.

The cornbread that wasn't.