Pizza Party!

At one point, I was really into Barefoot Contessa's cooking show (when I didn't have a job and had a disgraceful amount of time during the day to watch one cooking program after another.) There was this one episode where she had all of her friends over for a pizza party. She had laid out a bunch of toppings and everyone was having such a fun time making their own pizzas. And then there was me - sitting in bed at 4PM, still wearing pajamas and being totally jealous!

That's why I was really excited when my friends Brennan and Karie recently invited me and buddies over for a homemade pizza party. They had made the dough beforehand, gathered a ton of toppings, and then we all brought some as well including my tandoori paneer and peppers curry and mint chutney. It was so neat because Karie had worked in a pizza parlor before and gave us a lesson on how to stretch out the dough and also introduced me to pumpkin on pizza - on that one they also put goat cheese, sage and arugula, but it was gone so fast there was no picture!

I didn't know pizza could be so funny, but some of our guys made me laugh.

Alana made squizza

and Paul made crust!

Pizza Dough, recipe courtesy of Karie and Brennan

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

drizzle of honey

1 1/2 cups warm water, warm to your finger not hot

3 1/2 cups flour

pinch salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

Method:

Add yeast and honey to water. Let it sit in a warm place for 5-10 minutes until it starts to froth a bit.

If using a mixer, put in the flour and salt and add in the yeast/honey/water mixture and "knead" on low speed with the hook attachment for 5-7 minutes, adding oil as it mixes. When its done, the dough will have mostly twisted onto the hook and be a bit sticky. (Kneading by hand is good too if you don't have a mixer strong enough for breads.) All ingredients should be evenly distributed and dough should be sticky and smooth.

Oil a bowl, transfer dough to bowl, cover with a towel and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Dough will have risen/doubled. Punch down to release air and transfer to a floured surface.
Knead and divide. Depending on how thick you want your pizza, you can divide into 2, 3 or 4 parts.

Knead your divided pieces so that they are circular, and leave in the refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight. Leave space between your divided dough pieces. They will continue to expand. (Pizza doughs can be frozen too for later use)

If you have a baking stone, place it in the oven and preheat oven about 45 minutes before use to 515-550 degrees F. If you don't have a baking stone, you can use the back of a cookie sheet pan (don't need to put the pan in the oven like the baking stone though).

Sprinkle your peel or the back of the cookie sheet pan generously with cornmeal. (If using a peel make sure you put enough on there so that the dough slides off easily onto the baking stone.)

Take one section of dough and roll it out so it is just flat and round enough to work with your hands. Flour your hands a little and place the dough across your two fists and stretch it out by moving it around in a circular motion until you get to a diameter of about 10 inches. (Note from me: Another trick is to hold the dough from the top and just hang it and move your hand along the circumference as you continue to hang. This works fast, but there is chance of breakage and not a perfect circle shape.)

Place the stretched out dough on the cornmeal dusted peel or pan. Brush a bit of olive oil on crusts to help brown well and then decorate the pizza (Note from me: good to go easy on the toppings so that the dough cooks through and you don't have soggy pizza).

Slide the pizza onto the stone (or just leave on the back of the cookie sheet pan) and put in the oven.

Cook pizza for 6 to 10 minutes depending on thickness of crust.

Cool for a few minutes and cut.

Good Tools:
-A bench cutter is handy for cutting the bread dough and cleaning the floured surface later.

-A peel is useful for making multiple pizzas, so you can build the pizza on a peel and then transfer it to the oven/your bread stone.

-A bread stone is good for getting a nice uniformly cooked crust.

-A rolling pin is nice to have while making your pizzas. Dough is pretty elastic and a rolling pin is nice to get the dough flat and round enough to work with your hands.

Our Toppings From the Party:

goat cheese

mozzarella

tandoori paneer and peppers curry

basil

thyme

chives

sage

zucchini /summer squash

pumpkin

onion

fingerling potatoes

garlic

chorizo (free range)

lettuce frisee and boston

heirloom tomatoes

mint chutney

jalapeno

ancho

poblano

Pakoras (Vegetable Fritters)

idli pakoras with idli on the right side


spinach and onion pakoras - look like little space aliens but they were really crunchy and good I swear!

So me and my dad went a bit fry happy. We made a load of pakoras, which can be vegetables or really anything you can think of, deep fried in a chickpea flour batter. My dad wanted to try something different so he cut up and battered some day old idlis (steamed rice/lentil cakes) my mother had made and then fried them. Genius! I made some spinach and onion pakoras. I like these because they always come out crunchy.

Pakoras are usually made for special occassions. I can remember my grandmother making them while wearing her cute little homemade apron (that I now own!); one hand would be holding a slotted spoon and the other would be placing the battered vegetables into the oil. I would not leave her side by the stove unless it was to skip around the house excited for all of the pakoras I was going to pig out on! While I was waiting she would give me some samples and also let me munch on the leftover little pieces of fried batter. I still love to eat the leftover crunchies. They are kind of the best.

Spinach and Onion Pakoras (you can substitute these vegetables or add other items to the batter such as potato, zucchini, paneer or if you are my dad idli haha)

Ingredients:
2 cups spinach, chopped
3/4 cup onion, chopped
1 medium sized carrot, shredded
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon ginger, grated
1/2 teaspoon red chili powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup chickpea flour (also called besan or gram flour)
1 - 2 tablespoons water
oil for frying

Method:
Mix all ingredients up well in a bowl and add water little by little until you get a thick and sticky batter.

Place oil in a wok and set on medium-high heat. When the oil is hot (I usually put a little piece of batter and if it floats to the top quickly, the oil is hot enough), take about a tablespoon of the batter mixture and place in the oil (smaller the better here because you want the inside to be all cooked). Depending on the size of your wok, you can place several at a time.

Using a slotted spoon, you can turn the pakoras over so that they are evenly cooked. Once they start getting a nice golden brown color, you can take them out. Place them on a plate or bowl lined with paper towels.

Serve with mint chutney, tamarind sauce or ketchup.

Akki Roti (Rice Flour Roti)

The first recipe I cooked while visiting my parents is one of my favorite breakfast foods, akki or rice flour roti. It's a homemade speciality from my mother's state of Karnataka in South India. The roti is made from rice flour, coconut, cilantro and green chilis and kneaded into a loose dough that you spread out onto the surface of a wok and fry with oil. It kind of looks like a tostada and I remember when I was younger thinking it would make a nice hat to cover my supreme bowl haircut, but it also tastes great!

me and my bowl

Friends who have come over to eat it remark that they have never tasted or seen anything like it. I had wanted to learn this recipe for some time and trying it out for the first time, I realized it's actually not that difficult to make. It's really fun too because it's one of those messy recipes where you get to play with the dough a lot and at the end you've made something that looks kind of out of this world.

Within Karnataka, there are several ways to make akki roti. This version is from Mysore, where my grandmother is from. Other versions are made flat on a skillet or with another type of dough called ragi (finger millet). While cooking, my mother mentioned that in my grandfather's home, they would eat it with some homemade butter in the middle of the roti. I like to eat mine with yogurt mixed with some hot Indian pickle or chutney.

Mysore style roti is made thin and in a wok.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups rice flour (Swad brand is good)

1/3 cup frozen fresh grated coconut

1 medium onion, finely chopped (~1 cup)

3 green chilis, finely chopped

8 fresh curry leaves, rough chop

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves

couple pinches asafoetida (hing)

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon butter, melted

1 cup water

oil for frying

Method:

Melt butter in a saucepan and set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix up flour, onion, chilis, curry leaves, cilantro, asafoetida, cumin seeds and salt. Next add the melted butter and mix it up. Slowly add in 1 cup of water little by little and knead until the dough comes together. It should be quite loose and nowhere near as tight as a bread dough.

Divide dough into 5 equal dough balls. Put 2 teaspoons of oil in the wok and rub the oil all over the inside with your hand. Take one dough ball and spread it along the inside surface of the wok evenly with the back of your hand. (It's OK if it breaks in a couple areas because this just makes it crunchy there.) Next with your finger, make 3 holes in the dough at the center of the wok. Take 1 teaspoon of oil and put it in these holes and along the top rim of the dough.

Turn the heat to medium and cover with a lid. I like the dough crunchy so I cook for about 15 minutes and check on it from time to time. It will start to brown a bit and when finished you will be able to slide it out of the wok. Another trick also that my mom taught me to even out the cooking is to use a set of tongs to tilt the wok down and around so the top edges of the roti are closer to the flame for a bit. (If this sounds scary to you don't try it haha)

Before you make your next roti, run cold water on the bottom of the wok to cool it down.

Serve with butter, yogurt, chutney or Indian pickle.

Cooking With My Parents

my father and mother on their wedding day, Illinois 1968

Visiting my parents in Alabama (or 'Bama as I've taken to calling it) means wearing a house dress for most of the day and cooking like mad. This trip was no different and both my mother and father taught me quite a few dishes that I will share in the coming posts. (Not to be a tease, but rice roti, wok-fried crepe of rice flour, coconut, green chilis and cilantro, will be the first recipe!)

My parents' cooking styles are quite distinct from one another, as they were brought up in different parts of India; my mother in the South in Bangalore and my father in the North in Allahabad. Since I can remember, my parents have been cooking together. My father is in charge of making the breads, yogurt and some North Indian dishes, while my mother cooks all of the South Indian foods and dabbles in North Indian as well. What makes things amusing though is that there is a friendly North/South rivalry in their kitchen. They are both so attached to the cooking they grew up on and as a result, I too have become attached to these foods.

South Indian cooking is based around rice, lentils and stews as opposed to breads and curries in the North. Such dishes as dosa (lentil/rice crepe), idli (steamed lentil/rice cakes), rasam (tomato/tamarind/lentil soup) and sambar (lentil stew) are all from the South. Much of what you eat in the restaurants like naan bread and rotis, samosas and curries such as palak paneer (spinach/cheese ), aloo ghobi (potato/cauliflower), etc. are North Indian. Each cuisine also has its own spice mixtures and powders. The hot drink of choice is even different. In the North, you finish a meal off with tea or chai and in the South, you have a special type of coffee made with chickory.

On this trip, I arrived at my parent's house around 10 at night with another colleague of theirs. They had been patiently awaiting our arrival so that we could all share a meal together. Within minutes of coming through the door, we were all seated to a feast. My father had prepared little pooris (puffed up fried bread) with a potato and pea curry and plain yogurt and my mother had made ghee (butter) rice, pumpkin curry, boondi raita (fried lentils in yogurt) and kosambri (carrot salad). I love watching my parents work together - setting the table and putting their food out as they chatter away. I feel this is when the bond they share is most apparent (and they are at their most adorable).

Related posts:
Akki Roti (Rice Flour Roti)
Pakoras (Vegetable Fritters)
Usali (Black Chickpeas)
Gobi Paratha (Cauliflower-Stuffed Flatbread)