Pita Bread Pizza

Pita bread means, A small round bread that can open into a pocket for filling. In Arab world Pita bread is quite popularly known as Khubz (خبز)  (Quite similar to  Chapathi. But, chapathi cooked on a griddle and Khubz baked at Oven)

The famous Middle East  sandwich Shawarma (شاورما) is made out of Pita Bread or Khubz (خبز.)  (Meat, mayonnaise, finger chips and lettuces filled and rolled in a Pita bread is shawarma)

Though the pita bread is known for filling, I want to try an Arab – Italian fusion “Pita Bread Pizza’’  i.e  Pizza Toppings on Pita Bread !

Pita Bread Pizza was baked for we knead to bake 21 : Make your Pizza challenge

 

As usual, the making process is split in two parts, one is making the Pita bread (as a base) and the second part is topping. The Pita bread recipe source is from http://www.thefreshloaf.com

Ingredients for  Pita bread :  2 cups of All purpose flour   ;     1 cup of wheat flour    ;   1 ½  tsp  Salt  ; 1 tsp  Honey   ;    2 tbsp of Instant yeast    ;    1 ¼ to 1 ½ cup of Water @ room temp.   ;    2 tbsp Olive oil.

 

Ingredients for  Topping  :  1/8 cup of Pizza sauce    ;   Bell pepper (green, yellow & red colour)   ;   1 Onion -1  (cut onion and bell pepper into thin dice shape)    ;       ½  tsp of Chili flakes   ;  ½ tsp of  Oregano    ;    ¼ cup of  low fat mozzarella cheese  ;   Olive oil for topping.

Procedure for Pita bread :  Mix all the ingredient (flour, salt, honey, olive oil) and add 1 ¼ cup of water stir/whisk well till all ingredients combine well and to form a ball. (if required, add extra water) and knead the dough about 10 minutes.

Kneading is important, to make a dough stretch and elastic so that the bread rise well in the oven. (very often, people ask me, how to make a chapatti puffy ?…….. “It’s quite easy all you need to do is, Knead the dough well”)

After knead, palace dough in a greased bowl, cover with damp cloth and allow it to rest about an hour or till become double in volume. Punch down the dough and divide it into 8 equal balls and place it in the same bowl and cover with damp cloth for about 20 – 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, Pre heat the oven with baking stone to 200ºC. Using the rolling pin, roll the ball shaped dough into thin circular shape. (like chapatti)

Place the pita (one by one) on the hot baking stone and bake about 3 minutes or puffy. (if you need a little dark texture pita, keep it in the oven for another 2 minutes . this is only require if you need to use the pita for filling / shawarma. For Pizza, we are going to bake again with topping)

Spread the sauce on the pita bread and arrange the peppers, onion, spread the cheese sprinkle chilly flakes, oregano and olive oil.

Keep in the 180ºC pre heated oven for about 35 minutes or till the cheese melts and bubbles. Serve it hot with tomato sauce. 

Coconut shortbread cookies

Since, my Coconut Macarons post viewed my many thought of posting one more Coconut based recipe but this time cookie. Also, my son wants something more than the shortbread cookies. 

This is another experiment project. But, it turned out very tasty and crisply cookie.

The Ingredients list :   1 cup of All purpose (AP) flour  or Wheat flour    ;    ¼ cup of Sugar     ;   110 gms of soft butter   ;   2tsp of corn flour ;   1/8 cup of  desiccated coconut    ;   Pinch of  Salt    ;      1/4 tsp of Cardamom powder

Beat butter with sugar till it turns into pale in color. Add cardamom powder and mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix the AP flour, corn flour, salt and slowly add the flour mixture into the butter-sugar mixture and blend well till all combined well.

Shape the dough into ball shape and roll it in to log shape for about 6 inch’s length then brush with milk on sides of dough and roll it on the desiccated coconut. Make sure the coconut coated on the all sides of the dough.

Cover the coated dough tightly with cling wrap and keep it in the fridge for about 30 to 45 min. 

Cut the log shaped dough in to ½" thickness by knife and arrange it in baking tray. Transfer the baking tray in 180°C pre heated oven for about 20 - 25 min.

Allow it to cool and transfer into Air tight container.

Baked Mutton Biryani

 

I belong to rice eating (southern) part of India. Naturally, most of my friends and relatives also prefer to eat rice rather than (wheat) bread. 

In fact, my favorite food was rice till my marriage. So, my friends and relatives kept asking to share/post a rice based recipe. At the same time, I wanted to be in the baking arena. 

It’s quite a challenging combination, Rice – Baking. For a quite some time, I was thinking to make “diet biryani”. So, why not a Baked Biryani ?

In general, Biryani is known for its richness and aroma. 

Definitely, by baking a large amount of oil or ghee can be reduced. But, I am not sure about the end result. Hence, I want to experiment it with small quantity. 

Since, I’m going to bake; I go with Dum Biryani style. (Usually biryani made differently in different region. But, the key concept is cooking the meat and rice along with various spices, even dry fruits) 

Before, going to ingredient’s and procedure, lets analyze the possible  complications……..will the meat (I specifically chose mutton, because, if it cooked well, chicken and fish are not at all an issue) cook well ? Will the spices emit its aroma and taste without sauté ?

To overcome the complications, I need to marinate the meat well and need to bake a large bottom pan / baking tray so that the heat can penetrate and spread evenly, better chance to cook the meat.

About the spices…..I do not have any idea. Need to check after baking.

Ingredients list :   1 cup of Basmati rice   ;   250gms of Mutton ( chopped and fat removed)   ;  1tsp of  Ginger garlic paste  ;   1 large brown onion  (fried in microwave  with 1 tsp olive oil)  ;    1tsp of chili powder  ;  5no’s  Green chilly   ;   ¼ cup of  Curd     ;   2tsp  of  Coriander powder     ;    Salt to taste    ;   2 tsp of Mint leaves  ;   2 tsp  of Ghee (clarified butter)      ;  2 tbsp of  Lime juice (fresh)

Spices:  1 no Bay leave    ;   1 stick of Cinnamon     ;    5 no’s of Pepper corns  ;   3 no’s of  Star anise   ;    3 cloves of  Green Cardamoms    ;    ½ tsp of Caraway seeds    

  

Mix all the ingredients (except rice) and spices with mutton and marinate about four hours at room temperature.

Cook the rice till three fourth is done. (Important)

Grease the 8" cake pan with Ghee and spread the mutton mixture on top of it spread the rice evenly and wrap it with two aluminum foil.Transfer the pan into 160°C pre-heated oven.

After 15 min of transferring the pan to oven, my kitchen was filled with Aroma of spices, meat and basmati rice. It was good indication. But, I kept my finger crossed for the tender and juiciness of mutton.

After 40 min, I removed the pan from Oven and found the meat was done well. Mixed the rice and meat with wooden spoon and served hot.

It was divine. The perfect Biryani in all means, just a 2 tsp of Ghee ! (In general biryani recipe, the meet is almost cooked with oil and fats)

I hope, I meet the needs for Rice lovers and Requirements of diet conscious minds like my husband.

To my Veggie friend, as usual, you can try this with Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese), Mushrooms, Soy Nuggets or Mix Vegetables.

CHOCOLATE LAVA TRUFFLE

It’s not just one more Truffle……..unlike, the last truffle recipe the filling also homemade and I go with 70% coco and it’s pretty easy to make.

Since, we talked more about truffles and variations of chocolates in the previous post  let’s directly get in to action.

To do this magic, all I need is   ¼ cup of Homemade custard     ;     ½ cup of Semisweet chocolate     ;       150 gms of  Tempered chocolate  (70% coco or above)

First let’s do the filling part, Make the custard in a thick consistency and remove it from heat and add the semisweet chocolate and mix gently till it melt and blend well. Allow it to cool.

Temper the dark chocolate (either by micro wave or using double boiler) and pour about 1 tsp in a silicon mold and spread it on the walls by (food grade) brush. Make sure no dead spots. Otherwise the filling may flow like lava at room temperature.

Once done, keep the mould in the fridge for about 1800 seconds….. …irrr 30 min. (this is the effect of teaching Distance vs Speed problems to my son). 

Remove the mould from the fridge and pour the custard mixture into the molds, almost till its edges. And keep the mould again in the fridge for 2 hours.

By then, it would have settled well cove the top with tempered chocolate and again in the fridge for about 30 min.

Now, take truffle in you moth the dark chocolate crust will melt in your mouth and release the lava…..with a sip of black coffee without sugar….imm….its divine.