Pizza Base (Wheat)

As a foodie I'm always on the look out for new recipe & inspired by my family members, friends or food bloggers around me. The other day I was chatting with my cousin who inspired me to make pizza base at home. She mentioned she always makes pizza base at home & it doesn't take much time to make them as its an easy process. I was always reluctant in giving it a try as I was quite skeptical about working with yeast. Finally I decided to give it a try & bake pizza base at home but I was running out of self raising flour, so I decided to make the base with wheat flour.

My verdict- The pizza base turned out exactly similar to the one we buy it from local bakeries or shops. My son who loves cooking helped me in making the base, it was a fun activity for him.
As per the measurements mentioned below you can make 10 mini pizza base of ¼" thickness 

Home made mini Pizza with Wheat flour

Ingredients

1. ¾ cup warm water

2. 2 tsp active dry yeast
3. 1½ cup wheat flour + some more for kneading & rolling the base
4. 1 tbsp olive oil
5. 1 tsp salt
6. 2 tsp sugar

Method

1. In the large bowl add the warm water, add the yeast & sugar, give it a quick stir and let it sit aside for 5-10 minutes until the yeast is activated & turns into a foam on the top of the water. then add the salt & oil. 
2. Gradually add the wheat flour as you stir the mixture simultaneously, when the mixture becomes too thick to stir you will know you have added enough flour.
3. Knead the dough- sprinkle some flour over the kitchen top & knead the flour by adding more flour to make a dough which is not very moist or sticky. Gather the dough, press it with the help of the heels of your hands firmly, pushing forward lightly, the dough should resemble a chappati dough.
4. Cover the dough with cling film and let it rise up for 1 hour at room temperature. After an hour the dough must have doubled in size. punch down the dough to remove air and knead it well.
5. sprinkle some flour on the kitchen top & using a rolling pin form a circle of ¼" thickness. I used a circular bowl with sharp edge to make mini pizza base. Prick each pizza base with a fork
6. preheat the microwave at 180°C and bake the base for 8-10 minutes
   
   
   
   
   
   
   How to prepare Pizza Sauce & toppings?
   

   1. 4 medium size tomatoes (roughly chopped)
   2. 2 small onions (roughly chopped)
   3. 5 cloves of garlic (crushed)
   4. 1 tsp oil
   5. 1 tsp pepper
   6. salt as per taste
   7. 1 tsp oregano
   8. For toppings-
      chopped Mushrooms, onions, capcisum & grated cheese

   
   

   

   Method
   1. Heat oil in  a pan, add garlic, onion & tomatoes. When the onions turn transparent, turn off the gas and add pepper, salt & oregano. Grind the vegetables to a smooth paste to make pizza sauce.Adjust the salt & pepper as per your liking.
   2. You can add the pizza sauce & toppings along with the cheese over the mini pizza base (Refer to Method no 5 above) & bake it in the microwave at 180°C and bake the base for 15 minutes
      OR
   3. Prepare the pizza base, add the pizza sauce, toppings & cheese & grill it until cheese melts.

Halloumi Bruschetta

First time I had a tomato Bruchetta (pronounced "brusketta") at an Italian restraurant & fell in love with the freshness & the simplicity of the recipe (and the best-est part being it can be prepared within 10mins) Although the traditional tomato bruchetta has basil in it I just added my favourite Halloumi cheese to this recipe along with some Indian flavours like onion & capsicum.This can be eaten as a starter or an afternoon snack.Kids are surely going to fall for its rich colours & the cheese

Ingredients

100gms Halloumi cheese

1½ tomato

½ capsicum

½ onion

few parsley leaves

olive oil as required

salt as per taste

freshly ground pepper

1 clove of garlic (sliced into half)

Bruschetta bread ½ loaf

Method

finely chop the tomatoes (squeezing the seeds and water from it), add finely chopped onion and capsicum.Mix olive oil, salt and pepper & finely chopped parsley.Toss this mixture well and keep aside for all the flavours to combine well

Grill the halloumi cheese cutting it into squares of the similar size of that of the bruschetta slice

grill it until it take this colour

now preheat oven to 180°C, slice the bread diagonally with ½ inch thickness, toast the bread from both sides and brush one of the side with the mixture of olive oil and garlic

After the slices are grilled, arrange the slice of halloumi cheese and on top of it heap the veggie topping

If Halloumi cheese is not available, grill the bread and spoon out the topping of the veggies over it, and serve immediately, for the bread might turn soggy!

Buon Appetito!  

Serves : 2persons

Mushroom, spinach & corn panini

Ingredients

1 bowl mushrooms (sliced)

1 bowl of frozen corn

few spinach leaves

cheddar cheese (grated) (optional)

Olive oil

1 clove of garlic (crushed)

1 panini bread

Salt and pepper powder as per taste

Method

saute mushrooms in olive for 3 mins, when it turns brown add crushed garlic, corn. turn off the flame and add pepper powder and salt as per taste.

Cut the panini rolls into half and add the above mixture on the bottom part of the roll.top that with spinach leaf.

I used a sandwich griller for preparing these panini.Panini rolls can be substituted by regular bread

Napolitana Sauce

Napolitana Sauce is delicious classic Italian Pasta Sauce. Easy to make and very tasty this recipe is originated from Naples.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery stack, finely chopped
4 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons sugar
Black pepper powder
Method
Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan. Saute the onion, carrot and celery. Cover and cook for 10 minutes over low heat (stir occasionally)
Add the tomato to the vegetables with the parsley, sugar and 1/2 cup of water. Bring to boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 45 minutes stirring occasionally.
Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Add up to 3/4 cup more water until the required consistency is reached.



Recipe for Spaghetti Alla Ligure
This recipe on Dine n share Magazine http://www.dinenshare.com/2013/01/spaghetti-alla-ligure.html

Spaghetti Alla Ligure

Ingredients
spaghetti pasta (enough for 2 people)
Olive oil
10-12 pcs of frozen prawns (thawed)
few leaves of fresh pesto
2 red chilli chopped
100 gms black olives
Napolitana sauce
Method
cook the pasta as per instructions on the packet, keep aside
In a thick sauce pan add olive oil and cook prawns, add chopped chilli, black olives, fresh pesto, after the prawns are cooked add the Napolitana sauce and add the pasta.
Garnish with parsley

This recipe on Dine n share Magazine http://www.dinenshare.com/2013/01/spaghetti-alla-ligure.html

Rocket Pesto sauce

I can bet there's anybody out there who dislikes eating pasta !! Pasta is my favourite food, I love the creamy, saucy texture, my favourite being rocket pesto sauce. last week I prepared this sauce at home and it turned out pretty good. Following is the basic recipe for rocket pesto sauce you can make varietions too, like  try using walnuts instead of pine nuts, and replace spinach instead of rocket.

Ingredients

50 gm pine nuts

50 gm fresh rocket, stalks included

2 cloves of garlic (crushed)

50gm Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

1 tbs lemon juice

salt to taste

8-10 tbsp extra virgin olive oil(if the sauce is too dry use more oil)

freshly ground black pepper

25 gm pine nuts toasted

Method

Place all the ingredients, expect olive oil in a food processer and blend for 30 seconds or until roughly chopped.

Then slowly pout in the oil and blend until smooth

Toss with pasta, season with pepper and sprinkle with toasted pine nuts and parmesan

Pasta in Spinach and Cream Sauce

Ingredients

2 cups shell or any other pasta

3 tbsp wheat flour

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup mild cheddar cheese (grated)

1/2 cup fresh cream

Salt and pepper to taste

dried thyme

Oregano

2-3 cloves of garlic; finely chopped

1 small bunch of spinach leaves

Olive oil

Butter

Method

Cook the pasta as per instructions given on its package.

In a pan, add some olive oil, then add chopped garlic to it. Cook for a minute until it is fragrant and then add chopped spinach.

Mix and cover and cook for 3-4 minutes. Season with some salt, thyme / oregano. Remove from flame and set aside.

In a saucepan, melt some butter and roast wheat flour until it turns brown. Then while whisking add milk and cook for a minute stirring continuously. To avoid lumps while preparing the sauce, let the flour cool down. Then add cold milk to it, mix well and then transfer to flame.

Add cream and cheese to it and stir well. Season with salt and pepper.
When sauce thickens, add cooked spinach and mix well. Then fold in the macaroni, stir and serve hot.

Tiramisu

Ingredients

1 cup yogurt

1 cup cheese spread

1 cup sugar (use more if the sugar is less sweet)

2 tbsp Gelatin (or as required)

Sponge cake for the base layer (slice)

Coco powder to sprinkle on the top & little bit to add to the batter

2 tsp Coffee Powder (dissolve in 1/4th cup hot boiling water to sprinkle on the sponge cake)

strawberries for serving

Method

First dissolve gelatin in hot water. Mix properly and keep aside.

Mix cheese spread, Yogurt & sugar. Mix it well with hand mixer for 5 mins. (If the batter is sour add more sugar)

Then add gelatin & mix well. Beat it with hand mixer for another 5 mins. Add little coffee syrup (boil coffee in water & make syrup)

In a serving bowl add the slice of sponge cake, sprinkle coffee syrup then add the above mix & sprinkle cocoa powder with a strainer and keep in fridge & let it cool.

serve chilled with strawberries.