Pita Pocket Bread

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Pita is a round pocket bread widely consumed in many Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines. The "pocket" in pita bread is created by steam, which puffs up the dough. As the bread cools and flattens, a pocket is left in the middle.Pita is used to scoop sauces or dips such as hummus and also used to form a sandwich. These are sometimes called "pita pockets" or "pocket pitas" to wrap kebabs and falafel.

I got the base ingredients from the tastycurryleaf blog. But I used the oven n they came out pretty well.

Preparation Time: 20 min

Waiting Time: 1 hr

Baking Time: 5 min per pita

Makes : 8 pitas (16 pita pockets)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp dry active yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 and 3/4 cup warm water

Cooking Procedure:

In a big bowl add salt sugar n yeast mix nicely. Then add 1 cup warm water and let it sit for 10 min or till it become active .once its active mix oilve oil to it n then add flour one cup at atime and mix with spatula. Add warm water if necessary until all the flour(3 cups) nicely blend and no longer stick to the sides of bowl.Now grease the dough with oil nicely, cover it with damp cloth or cling wrap n let it sit for one hour or till the dough doubles in size.

After one hour remove the dough from the bowl n put on a lightly floured surface and knead it for 5 min until it become smooth. Cut the dough into 8 parts and make them into balls and let them sit for 10 min.

Preheat the oven to 500 F which take approximately 20 min.In this 20 min take the balls and roll it out into circles of approximately 8-10 inches with half cm thick.

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Grease the baking tray with some oil. Place the pitas on the tray and bake them in the for oven 2-3 min per side ,it will rise automatically.

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Remove pitas from tray ,let it cool for 2 mins ,then cut is into two halfs and pita pockets are ready to fill with your choice of stuffing or you can fridge it for later use .

I am sending this Pita Pocket Bread wonderful event

A.W.E.D.MENU hosted by niloufer started by DK

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Tags: Pita,Pita Pocket,Pita Bread,Arabic Bread,Yeast,Flour,Bake,Baking,Easy Recipe,Baking Recipe,Bread Recipe

Bell Pepper Masala Rice

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This recipe was in my draft and I forgot about. I made this a few weeks back. Bell pepper is one of my favorite vegetables and I wanted to make a rice item with some different flavor. I watched a video on vahrehvah and got inspired to make this rice. It tasted awesome as he described n with addition of peanuts makes it more healthy. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raw rice
• 1 cup diced bell pepper (all colors)
• 1/2 cup peanuts
• 4 red chillis
• 1/4 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/4 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp urad dal (split black gram)
• 2 spring curry leaves
• 1/4 tsp garam masala
• 1 tbsp butter / oil for vegans
• salt to taste

Cooking Procedure:

Soak rice with 1.5 cup water for 20 min then cook it in a pressure cooker with the addition of 1/2 tsp oil in the water.(Tip: Adding oil helps to make the rice less sticky n separate).If it is a rice cooker use 2.5 cup water. And keep aside.

In a pan for dry roast add red chillis,mustard seeds,coraiander seeds,urad dal and fry till urad dal turns slighly golden brown, then add peanuts,curry leaves and fry for 5 min on medium flame.After 5 min keep it aside to cool.Once it cools grind it to a coarse powder.

Again heat the the same pan add the butter, once it melt add the diced bell pepper with salt and let it cook for a few minutes (do not overcook as it should be slightly crunchy). Now add the grinded powder to it along with garam masala and fry for a min.

Now add the rice to it and stir nicely and let it be on flame for 2 more min. Serve the hot masala rice with raitha n enjoy.

You can also watch the video on vahrehvah here.

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Tags: Bell pepper masala rice, Capsicum, Peanut, Masala Rice, Easy Recipe, Tasty Recipe, Vegetarian Recipe

Homemade Classic White Bread

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This weekend I forgot to buy bread and my husband challenged me to make bread at home, so I made it at home and it came out pretty well and surprised my DH. You must be wondering why make bread at home,but sometimes it is fun to cook what we often buy !! : ) ... so here is the recipe to make the soft delicious homemade classic white bread.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2.5 tsp active dry yeast
• 2 tbsp milk
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 cup warm water

Stage 1 - Making the dough

Take a large bowl add sugar,salt,oil and yeast and mix nicely.Then add warm water and let it sit for 10 min. After 10 min add milk and the all purpose flour 1 cup at a time and knead for approximately 5 min or until the dough becomes smooth.Keep the dough aside.

Stage 2 - Resting the dough for baking

Coat the bowl with 1 tbsp oil,then place this dough in it and roll it. Cover this bowl with a damp cloth or a cling wrap and let it sit for 1 hr.

Stage 3 - Baking

The dough size will double after 1 hr, knead it again nicely and shape it to a bread loaf and put it is a well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pan and let it sit for another 45 min. It will rise to the edge of the pan.

Preheat the oven 15 min before baking at 350 F and bake the loaf for 35 min.

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Your homemade white bread is ready !!

I am sending this classic white bread to

Champa's Bake off event

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Tags: Bread, Homemade Bread, Baking, Easy Recipe, Soft Classic White Bread, Sandwich bread

Chickpea Cilantro Patoli

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One day my hubby was raving about hummus and I was amused that he is so excited about such a simple arabic dish made with chickpeas...little did he know I would make a indian version too....

Patoli is a pure andhra recipe, there are many variation of patoli,the popular version is a dry version which my mom used to make with chickpea flour and my MIL used to make with channa dal.But I like it soft .

This is my version for this, to make patoli I used chickpeas and cilantro to give it a unique flavor. And in whatever way you plan to use as a curry,spread or dip I am sure you will enjoy it.

Cooking Time: 30 min

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chickpea(after soaking overnight)- also known as garbanzo beans
• 1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
• 2 tbsp chopped onions
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 tsp chopped garlic
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 green chillies (sliced)
• 1/2 tsp (mixture of urad dal,cummin seeds,mustard seeds)
• pinch of hing(asafetida)
• 1 spring curry leaves
• 1 tbsp oil
• salt to taste

Cooking Procedure

Boil the chickpeas in pressure cooker with 1:2 ratio with water with one whistle and 5 min waiting.After it cools grind it into a smooth soft paste with the water.

Heat oil in a pan,add the mixture of urad dal(black gram),mustard seeds,cummin seeds, once mustard seed splutter,add green chillis,chopped onions,curry leaves,turmeric powder,chopped garlic and hing and let it fry for a min then add bell pepper and let it fry till bell pepper becomes soft.

Once bell pepper becomes soft add cilantro and chickpea paste to it and blend nicely and cook for another 5 min.

Serve hot with rice, spread on a bread, use in a wrap or just use as a dip.

Health Benefits of chick peas / garbanzo beans

Prevents Constipation,Lower Cholesterol,Stabilize Blood Sugar,Iron for Energy as growing children and adolescents also have increased needs for iron n excellant source of protein.

Health Tip:

Increase garbanzos' cardio-protective effects by spicing them with garlic, which also lowers cholesterol, and turmeric, which not only lowers LDL "bad" cholesterol, but also increases HDL "good" cholesterol.

I am sending this patoli to 5 wonderful events

CWF: LB - Chickpeas hosted by Nithu and started by Kiran

Vegetarian Foodie Friday event

Side Dishes from India event of Suma

MLLA # 26 hosted by Briciole and started by Susan.

Kids Menu Event hosted by Neha

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Tags: Patoli,Chickpea Patoli, Chickpea Cilantro Patoli, Indian Hummus, Chickpea spread, Chickpea Dip, Chickpea Curry, Healthy Recipe, Tasty Recipe, Quick Recipe, Easy Recipe, Kids Recipe

Jumbo Pistachio Cookies

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This months tried and tasted blog is Aparnas My Diverse Kitchen. I always admire her

and bookmarked many recipes from her blog even before this event.When her blog was selected by Srivalli I was very

excited as now I got chance to try her recipes.

She made white chocolate chip pista

cookie...I used the same measurements with half quantity, in place of white chocochip

I used normal chocochip. Actually I wanted to make std size cookies but after it bake

it became double in size and so I would call it my Jumbo Pistachio Cookies.!! They tasted

awesome and we enjoyed it.The original recipe is here

Preparation Time: 10 min

Baking Time: 20 min

Makes: 15 std cookies or 10 Jumbo cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour or maida
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup chopped pistachios

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Baking procedure :

Preheat the oven to 350 F C,

Beat butter and sugar together to a creamy texture ,i used hand blender for 2 min.Add rest of ingredients to it to make a cookie dough .Divide the dough into 15 parts n make balls and them down into a circle shape.

Spray some oil on the cookie sheet then place the cookie dough in baking sheet one inch part.Bake them for 20 min or till light golden brown .. Leave them on the tray for about 2 to 3 minutes before removing from tray.Enjoy ur cookies

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Note:The cookies are very soft when they come out of the oven and will break if removed immediately.

I am sending these Jumbo Pistachio Cookies to 4 wonderful event

Bake off event hosted by Champa

BSI Event - Pistachio hosted by Sanchita

Tried and tasted event hosted by Srivalli which was originally started by Zlamushka and now run byLakshmi.

Kids Delight hosted by Pari

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Tags: Pista, Pistachio, Pista Cookies, Pistachio Chocochip Cookies, Chocochip Cookies, Cookies, Eggless Cookies, Baking, Bake Cookies, Homemade Cookies, Tasty Recipe, Easy Recipe

Stuffed Brinjal Curry

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There are so many variations of stuffed brinjal curry. This is one of my favorite version. You can make this in pan or in pressure cooker. If using pressure cooker keep it for one whistle and switch of immediately.This way you will save lot of time, I normally pressure cooker but this i used a pan.I am sure you will enjoy this curry.

Preparation Time: 15 min

Cooking Time : 20 min

Ingredients

• 10 to 12 brinjals (eggplant)

For stuffing

• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup peanuts
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 chopped green chillies
• 2 tbsp chopped cilantro
• 1 small lemon size tamarind
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp sambar powder
• salt to taste

For tempering

• 1/4 tsp musterd seeds
• 1 spring curry leaves
• 2 tbsp oil
• a pinch of hing (asafetida)

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Preparing the stuffing:

Dry roast peanuts n sesame separately and grind them together to a fine powder. Soak tamarind in 1/2 cup warm water for 15 min,extract pulp out of it n aside In a bowl mix all above ingredients along with peanut n sesame powder and half of the tamarind pulp into a nice paste.

Preparing the stuffed brinjal curry:

Wash the brinjal , do not remove the stem , and slit them vertically and horizontally like a plus sign without breaking them into halves.Now stuff the mixture in each brijal ,after stuffing all of them if still the masala remain ,then add to it the remaining tamarind pulp with some water to it to make a thin paste n keep aside .

Heat the oil in a pan ,add the tempering and then add the stuffed brinjals softly ,blend them nicely with the oil now add the remaining masala and cover it ,stir occasionally till brinjal become soft .

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Serve hot with rice.

I am sending this recipe as a guest post to Lisa's Indian Dinner Party!

and also posting this recipe to 2 wonderful events

"Jay Ho Brinjal " hosted by Jay

"Show me your curry" hosted by Divya

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Tags: Brinjal, Eggplant, Gutti Vankaya, Stuffed Brinjal, Stuffed eggplant, Brinjal Curry, Eggplant Curry, Curry, Easy Recipe, Tasty recipe,

Yummy Mango Ice Cream

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I always imagined making ice cream is a big procedure but after coming to the blog world I realized it is actually a easy process. I bookmarked this recipe from Nayna's blog. I maintained the same measurements , but used canned mango pulp in place of fresh mangoes. The original recipe is here.I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I did : )

Ingredients:

• 2 cup canned mango pulp
• 397 grams condensed milk ( 1 full can)
• 100 grams fresh double cream

Procedure:

Mix the condensed milk and cream in a bowl with a hand blender in low speed till it become fluffy.Now pour the mango pulp into it and mix nicely with a spatula.Pour the mixture in a freezer safe container.

Freeze it for 3 hrs and mix nicely with a fork to break ice crystals.Repeat this procedure three time in total at 3hr intervals.After the third time using an ice cream scooper, scoop the ice cream and serve.

Tip:To get the scoop easily and smoothly dip the ice cream scooper in water.

This recipe goes to 5 wonderful events

Bookmarked Recipe Every Tuesday hosted by Priya

Two for Tuesday

Cold Desserts hosted by Akheela

Monthly Mingle Party Treats hosted by Sara

Kids Delight hosted by Pari

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Tags: Cold Dessert, Ice Cream, Mango Ice Cream, Mango Dessert, Easy Recipe, Tasty Recipe, Kids Recipe, Eggless Ice Cream, Homemade Ice Cream