Showing posts with label Fried chips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fried chips. Show all posts

Thursday 10 April 2014

Pita Bread and Hummus

If you have been following my blog lately you must have wondered where I was gone. Yes I had almost abandoned my blog for a month and so. Work load and not keeping well had taken a toll on me and only thing was on mind was to have some rest.  I was not able to post on blog but it did not mean I was not baking. I just manage to do what I love and so now as I am feeling better I am going to share what I have made lately. I have just posted my Focaccia recipe let me know what do you think.

All I had on my mind is baking savoury. All I wanted was to have fluffy bread with a nice dip so Pita bread and Hummus is so my thing. Once again these two so exotic dishes for an Indian kitchen are so easy to make. Don’t belive me have a look at the recipe down below:
For Pita Bread you’ll need:
3 cups flour
 4 tsp dried yeast
1 tsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 tbsp Olive oil
Place the flour in a large mixing bowl.
In a smaller bowl, place the yeast and sugar and pour over some lukewarm water. Leave in a warm spot for about 15 minutes until frothy.
Pour the frothy yeast into the flour and mix well to form a soft dough.
Mix the salt and olive oil on the side of bowl and work into the dough. The resultant dough should be soft and smooth like a baby’s bum.
Cover with cling film or damp cloth and leave in a warm spot to double in size (about 15-20 mins.)
Knock back the dough and divide into six equal portions. Leave to rest again for about 5-10 mins.
Roll out each dough to about  3 inches in diameter.
Slap onto a lightly greased and dusted baking sheet and bake for about 5 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 200°C
Remove and cool.


For Hummus:

1 Large cup chickpeas, soaked overnight and cooked until tender
2 tbsp Tahini (I use my own home made Tahini, Roast 1 cup of  Sesame  seed on low flame till they start crackling and lightly browned. Remove from heat and let it cool. Grind them with half cup of virgin Olive oil and season with salt. You will get a thick yet runny paste, you can make a fresh batch every time. It’s so quick and easy.)
4 Cloves of garlic
1/4 cup good quality olive oil
Juice of 1 medium sized lemon
Salt to taste
Chili powder to sprinkle on top
Place all the ingredients in a blender and grind to a smooth paste. Top with a liberal glug of more olive oil and sprinkle condiments of choice. Done Ta da!!
All you left to do it DIG IN!!!
PS: You have some left over Pita Bread just cut them in tringle and rub with a mix of olive oil paper and herbs of your choice and bake in a pre-heated oven at 200°C . Enjoy your Pita chips with Hummus or salsa.

Friday 20 December 2013

Philosophy of Smiles - Food for thought

It was like any other dusk when I just took out a pack of ready to fry snack “Potato Smiles” to accompany my cup of hot tea. I heated the oil and slide couple of Smiles in hot oil. Round, plump and frosty Smiles with a big smile on its face.A minute before they were shivering in cold. Now swimming happily after they have dived in hot oil. The splutter drew my attention to them again. The comforting frost was dying away in the heat and leaving Smiles all exposed in an unknown territory.  Everything around has changed but one thing, the happy big smile on their faces.
This get me thinking about life. Our life is also a collection of such tiny journeys, like freezer to hot oil and finally on to plate. We keep running into times when our comfort zone is challenged to enter in a unknown testing territory. Always these testing times are for a period and of course how we have dealt with them becomes foundation of something else in life.
But what is most important is how we have been in that time? Do we have the courage and endurance of Smiles. Can we keep smiling even when nothing seems right?
Most of the times the answer is “NO”.
Sipping my cup of tea, I kept hovering in the philosophy of Smiles. Philosophy of keep smiling.





Courtesy - Mccan Smiles Image