Whole Wheat Pizza - all home made :-)

Yes guys, this has been made from scratch. I am trying to use up my stock of yeast. hence the bread making and pizza making spree for the last few weeks. This was not the first pizza I made, however, lazy me!...I couldnt get to post pictures on the blog!!

I love home made stuff cos I can add a truck load of veggies to the dish and make it as yummy as I can...lol..(what else do u expect from a foodie.). The dough is made from scratch at home. And keeping in tune with my promise to be as sustainable as I could, I bough locally grown vegetables and cheese for the topping. It turned out yum!!

How its made?
Pizza base
Whole wheat flour - 2 1/4 cup
active dry yeast - 1 tbsp
milk or water to activate the yeast - 3/4
honey - 1tsp
salt- a pinch
herbs (optional)- 1 tsp (includes - oregano, basil and curry leaves (it lends a south indian flavour to the dough..but it works for me!!)
olive oil (extra virgin) - 1 tbsp

Sauce- I follow a recipe I learnt from a chef friend..it is the yummiest!
Tomatoes (Chopped) - 3/4 cup
Onion (pref red- chopped) - 1/2 cup
garlic - 1 clove
dry red chillies - 2
dry herbs - basil, dill and oregano - 1 tsp (all together)
salt to taste
olive oil - 1 tsp
turmeric powder - a pinch (optional) but works well!
Brown sugar or honey - 1 tsp (flavour enhancer) (optional)
Cilantro leaves - chopped - 1 tbsp
Parmesan cheese (grated) - 2 tbsp
almonds (roasted) (optional) - 5

Toppings (just go crazy!!)

Capsicum / bell peppers - 1/4 cup
Red and yellow bell peppers / capsicum - 1/4 cup
Onion (pref red) (i had white ones)- (long slices) - 1/4 cup
tomato - (long slices) - 1/4 cup
olives - 10 (green pr black) (chopped)
Jalapeños - 1/2 (cut into rings :)

Cheese
Mozzarella - 1 cup or lesser (grated)
Fontina (optional) - 1/4 cup (grated)
Parmesan - 1 tbsp

Process
The base

• In a cup of warm water/milk (should be luke warm not hot! ), put in yeast and honey and mix well.  Leave for around 5 minutes for the yeast to get active...you will know it is done when you see it all frothy
• In a bowl, mix the wheat flour, salt, and olive oil and create a small well in between!!fun isnt it!...pour in the yeast mixture and fold in the flour mix slowly.
• I do not have a machine/kneader so I use my hands to gently knead the flour for about 5 to 8 minutes
• Once you are done kneading, cover the bowl with a moist cloth and put in a warm and dry place to let the yeast do its work.
• An hour later, you will find the dough risen and double its initial volume
• Punch it down lightly and let it sit for another 45 minutes
•  And then lay it out on a lightly floured surface and gently punch it with your palm...into the shape of your choice while assembling the pizza...(it need not necessarily be round!!)
• Moving on to the next step - the sauce 

The Sauce

Take a tsp of extra virgin olive oil in a pan, saute chopped garlic and add chopped onions

Snip red chillies and add it along with salt, and dry herbs.

Saute for a whole minute and add in chopped tomato(es)

When the tomatoes look half done, add sugar, turmeric(optional),almonds and cilantro/coriander leaves

saute for a minute and take it off the stove and let it cool, shower the mix with parmesan cheese

Grind and you have the yummiest pasta/pizza sauce ready

The Assembly

• Take the pizza dough out and drizzle a little flour on the rolling surface (kitchen platform in my case)
• use a rolling pin or your hand and roll out the pizza base (be gentle)
• Shift the base on to the tray or the sheet you plan to bake it on (I use my cookie trays)
• And now start arranging the veggie goodness - 
• spread the pizza sauce evenly, making sure you leave an inch off the edge
• lay out the veggies in the order you love, (you could alternate them based on colour...fun project with your kids? maybe!)
• Finally, arrange the cheese and give a final drizzle of olive oil (a little pepper and oregano would be good as well)

Cook it!
Preheat the oven at 375F and put in the pizza tray and bake for 25- 20 minutes
(lower temperatures will leave the crust soggy and higher temp will burn the toppings so be sure of your oven before you expect a well done pizza- All ovens arent created the same, hence the tip)

Ok enough of talking...lets dig in....care for a slice?

And a few snippets before I leave....

1. Using whole wheat flour makes the crust a bit denser than the maida/allpurpose /unbleached flour crust, so you could choose to put in equal portions of whole wheat and maida flour
2. Try stretching the base as much as you can if you use whole wheat, but make sure you dont puncture the dough (to avoid a flat pizza :-)
3. Always layer the vegetables over the cheese so that they grill well and the cheese melts over the crust and as the crust rises, vegetables embed themselves into the cheese layer...YUM!

A little girl and a Raw Papaya

One season in a tiny backyard garden in the city of Hyderabad, was an abundant harvest of papaya. It all started  one sunny afternoon, when the paati (grandmother) of the house, planted a small rotten seedless papaya  and then ten weeks later, there was papaya everywhere. Amma (mother) of the house distributed succulent green papayas and red ripe fruity papayas among friends and family. When the entire neighbourhood got bored of eating jams, halwas, preserves, kootu, curries and everything esle made of papaya, Amma had to use the rest of the harvest in her own kitchen. Amma convinced the little girl that papaya was good for her and the girl was more than convinced. Amma's creative and innovative use of this tropical vegetable/fruit amazed the little girl. That little girl has been a concious foodie ever since!!

That little girl was me. I grew up to love veggies and anything and everything to do with them. My amma is a true genius and I am going to share her grated raw papaya thoran in this post. I am not sure if this is a common recipe but dint want to miss an opportunity to present payapa in a whole new way. Papaya and chana dal poricha kootu or molagootal are fairly common in PI (palakkad iyer) kitchens. Grated raw papaya thoran looks like a cabbage poriyal/thoran. Is it not an amazing trick to get picky eaters gobble up at least two servings of the dish.

Grated papaya thoran/poriyal is a simple recipe. Start with the conventional south Indian tadka (tempering) ingredients namely, mustard seeds, jeera (optionl), urad dal, chana dal and red chillies. Put in the grated papaya into your kadai as soon as you hear the mustards popping. Put in salt, hing, haldi, and my staple kuzhambu/rasam powder (I love them in thoran) and let it cook in a just a little amount of water. keep stirring and add curry leaves and grated coconut (optional). I skipped coconut this time as I made mysore rasam and papaya thoran together for lunch today.

I love to use kuzhambu or rasam powder in thorans as they are wholesome and bring in all the essential spices in a single spoon. Or should I call it magic in a spoon!


Your bowl of thoran could be great as a salad or a side dish. Super yummy.....Here is a pic...

I need to make a special mention of a great raw papaya Thai salad you have to try. It is very simple and really nutritious. Saw this on a food show a few years ago in India. This is called Som Tam in Thai. (Click on the name for an update from wiki) ..Lazy me!

Method:
Grated papaya seasoned with fresh crushed red and green chillies, basil, garlic (optional), coconut oil, lemon juice, salt and a little sugar (honey works like magic). If you like to play around with ingredients, you may add tomatoes and shredded carrots or everything else imaginable to this recipe. But it wont be called Som Tam then....chuckle

Ending this post with the famous words of the Bag Lady - Ms Paula Deen - "with lots of love from my kitchen to yours". Take care and see you soon.

I Love Rasam

It is funny that I din't think of posting this earlier...more so because I named my blog "Avial and Rasam", and I never wrote about my love for "rasam". Better late than never!

Does anyone remember the erstwhile Anant Mahadeven starer "Ghar Jamai" on TV. The series was revamped with actor Madhavan in the lead for Zee TV in the early 2000's. Anant Mahadevan used to wear a T shirt which said " I love Rasam". I could actually relate to the t-shirt. A simple and easy to make dish like Rasam is an exemplary trademark of a decent Tamil saapadu.

I make 11 different permutations of rasam. Most common ones being, paruppu potta tomato rasam, poondu rasam, arachu vitta rasam, vepamboo rasam, lemon rasam, and killu milagai rasam etc. One of my favorties is the mysore rasam, which is a slight variation of the arachu vitta rasam (or vice versa). I learnt this recipe from a friend's mother while in class 8. I used to have my "box" lunch in their house and invariably ate something from their kitchen in the bargain.(chuckle)...

The recipe is fairly simple. This is exactly aunty's version of the mysore rasam. Before we jump to the recipe, here is a peak at my bowl of mysore rasam.

Instead of cooking tur dal in a pressure cooker, pre soak it for an hour or so and fine grind it with dry roasted coriander seeds, coconut, jeera, milagu, dry chilli, a tsp of til and curry leaves. Add this to required amount of tamarind water, salt, haldi and tomatoes (optional). The rest of the recipe is to just boil the yummy mix and temper it with mustard seeds, red chilli, jeera and hing.  A special bonus would be to use ghee for tempering any rasam. YUMMY.... It is a food for your soul...Hey, I am not exaggerating. Try it to believe me!