By request from Jeremy, here's my current go to pita recipe:
2 teaspoons dry yeast
2.5 cups lukewarm water
5 to 6 cups flour (I usually use regular all-purpose, but try to mix in some whole wheat with it)
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
In a large bread bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water. Stir to dissolve. Stir in 3 cups flour, a cup at a time, then stir 100 times in the same direction to start developing the gluten. Cover this and let it rest at room temperature for at least 10 minutes and up to 2 hours (longer the better).
Sprinkle the salt over the sponge and stir in the olive oil. Mix well. Add more flour, a cup at a time, until the dough is too stiff to stir. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes, until smooth and elastic but not overly sticky. Clean and oil the bowl and return the dough to it. Cover and let rise until at least doubled in size, around 1.5 hours.
You can either cook them on a baking stone/quarry tile/inverted baking sheet inside the oven, or on a hot, flat surface on it. I personally just use an electric griddle. Either way divide the dough in half, and then divide the uncovered half into 8 even pieces (or fewer for larger pitas). Roll out each piece into a circle less than a 1/4 inch thick (diameter will depend on how you divided it) and cover until you're ready.
For the stove:
Preheat the oven with your choice of baking surface inside to 450ºF. Carefully place 2 or so discs onto the surface and bake for 2-3 minutes. If you've got them rolled out evenly they should balloon at this point.
For not in the stove:
Heat your griddle/pan/whatever to a decent heat. I go around 350-375ºF, which I believe would be a little over medium, maybe medium high. Place a round on the surface and cook for 15-20 seconds, then flip. Cook on that side for around a minute, at which point large bubbles should start to appear in it. Flip it back to the original side and cook until the bread balloons fully, or both sides are lightly browned.
Repeat this process with the rest of the dough. Keep the cooked pitas wrapped in a lightly damp towel to keep warm until you're ready to serve. These are generally best fresh, but probably keep for a couple days if they're in an air tight container.
As you get the hang of it you should be able to get your work rate up to a much faster pace.
Alright, I decided to take Stew up on his challenge (and finally get around to posting something again) and make a nice stew.
The recipe I used was originally intended for pork, but we had a bunch of chicken around so here we are.
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 (3 pound) boneless pork shoulder roast
, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1
-inch cubes
2 tablespoons olive oil, or more if needed
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chopped fresh tomatillos
1 (7 ounce) can diced green chiles,
drained
2 fresh jalapeno peppers, seeded and
chopped
2 teaspoons dried marjoram
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 cup water
You start by combining the first four dry ingredients and then tossing the cubed meat in the powder to coat. Then you brown all the meat in the pot in some olive oil at medium-high, and remove it to a container to be kept warm while you brown the onions in a little more oil in the same pot, at medium heat. Once those start to wilt you dump in all the other ingredients, cut the temp to low, and simmer everything for around an hour - stirring occasionally.
The fry bread is even more straight-forward than that is.
3-4 cups of flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup water1/2 cup milk
First, as always, combine all the dry ingredients and then add in the wet ones. Give it a light knead.. The dough should be relatively soft but dry enough to be handled. Add a little extra flour if you need to. Then just portion it out however you want, flatten it into discs, and fry it about a quarter of an inch of preheated oil until both sides are golden.
This is the unexpectedly large loaf of brioche I made for Breakfast Party last week. It turned out pretty good.
This is a picture Jeremy took of it served as it was intended, sliced and covered in jam. If I hadn't decided on doing this the night before I might have tried to make french toast with it instead, but oh well.
After going to get Indian food with Jay last week I was reminded just how much I like naan. Naan, for the those of you who are out of the loop, is a flat bread popular throughout Central and Southeast Asia and is frequently served at Indian restaurants here in the States.
I found a good recipe for it on Allrecipes.com, and decided to give it a shot:
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoons salt
4 1/2 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons minced garlic (optional)
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoons salt
4 1/2 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons minced garlic (optional)
1/4 cup butter, melted
I decided to try making it up using the dough cycle on my bread machine which turned out pretty well, though I may go the manual route in the future since the dough is dense enough to have given the bread machine a few problems. I ended up having to help it out a little bit anyway. I first proofed the yeast in the water for 10 minutes, then added the remaining ingredients and started the machine up.
I let the resulting dough rise for an hour, than punched it down and divided it into small balls which I laid out on a tray and let rise for another 30 minutes. I omitted the garlic from this part of the recipe because there wasn't any around here.
Near the end of that time I started heating up an electric griddle to 400°, and melted some butter in a small bowl. Once the dough is risen you simply flatten it out with a rolling pin, butter one side, slap it down on the griddle, butter the other side, and flip it when it begins to bubble and turn brown. Then repeat until you've used up all the dough.
It turned out pretty well.
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
1 (8 oz) can crushed pineapple, drained
1/3 cup flaked sweetened coconut
1/3 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 35o F. Grease 9X5X2 inch nonstick loaf pan. Set aside.
In large bowl, or in larbe bowl of electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in eggs ! at a time, scraping bowl after each addition. Add vanilla and bananas. Beat until just combined.
In small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually beat dry mixture into banana mixture until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips, pineapple and coconut.
Spoon batter into prepared loaf pan. Top with walnuts, if desired. Bake 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out almost clean. let cool 1 hour; remove from pan.
