Persian Flat Bread Pizza

Source: Kuty's Kreations!

This was inspired by both a Sunday night pizza craving and a fantastic pizza crust find.  I was doing my weekly grocery run at my favorite Persian market and my eyes popped out when I saw a shelf full of large long pieces of Persian bread!  Why hadn't I thought of this before?  It is the PERFECT crust to use to make an insanely large amount of flat bread pizza.  So much so that I was able to make 4 different types of pizza.

 

Ingredients

• Pizza toppings of your choice. (I grilled red peppers, zucchini, eggplant, red onions, and jalapenos.  I also used peas and corn.)
• Tomato Sauce (I used 1 can of tomato sauce and simmered it with some red chili powder.)
• Cheese (I used asiago, mozzarella, pepper jack, and cheddar)
• 1 Large Persian Bread
• Pesto (I had some leftover spinach and arugula pesto I had made last week)

Assembly

1. Pesto, zucchini, peas, corn, mozzarella and asiago cheese.  This was inspired by a pizza I've had at Bella Vista.  I know it sounds wacky, but it is such a great combo of ingredients.
2. Tomato sauce, grilled jalapenos and red peppers, pepper jack and mozzarella cheese.
3. Tomato sauce, grilled eggplant and red onions, mozzarella cheese.
4. Tomato sauce, grilled onions, mozzarella and cheddar cheese.

 Bake

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Place the pizzas directly on the rack (this will make your thin crust pizza crispy).  Be careful not to put too much cheese on the sides of the pizzas.  The cheese on my pizzas melted over and dripped into my oven causing a mess =\.
• Wait until the cheese starts to bubble and brown a little bit

Kuty's Twist

This can obviously become any type of pizza you want.  Have fun, be creative, and let me know what you end up making!  :-)

Paneer Rajma Parathas

Source: One Hot Stove, Talimpu, and Tarla Dalal

Ok.. I know what you're thinking. This sounds like a wacky recipe! Even my husband said that he would prefer to have Paneer Parathas AND a Rajma Subji (gravy dish).

I've recently become stuck with a huge bag of atta/ wheat flour (they only had a large size left at the grocery store). So that with the combination of a new rolling pin, has motivated me to start making rotis and parathas. I was in no mood to stand in the kitchen for 3 hours (I'm a slow cook) and make a subji along with them. Thus came about a nice hearty all-in-one meal -> Rajma Paneer Parathas!


Ingredients

• 1 cup cooked rajma/ kidney beans (I used canned because I was lazy)
• 1/2 block of paneer (~ 1 cup)
• 7-8 green chilies
• 1 medium red onion (chopped)
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp red chili powder
• pinch of turmeric powder
• 1 tsp corriander powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
• 1/2 bunch of corriander (chopped)
• 2 cups atta (wheat flour)
• salt to taste

Directions

1. Place the drained kidney beans, paneer, garlic, and green chilies in a food processor and pulse together.

2. Lightly fry the onions. Then add turmeric, red chili powder, corriander powder, cumin powder, and fennel seeds. Add the mixture from above. Then add the tomato paste and combine. Add salt to taste.

Note: I wasn't sure how the parathas would taste if I didn't cook the ingredients first. Most recipes don't require you to cook the above ingredients so you might be fine.


3. Taste the above cooked mixture and add additional spices accordingly. It should be at a spice level beyond what you are comfortable with because the atta will tone it down.

4. Allow the cooked mixture to cool. I placed it in the frig for 15 minutes to speed up the process.

5. Knead the above mixture and chopped corriander with 2 cups atta. Add 1/4 cup of milk and any additional water (a few tablespoons) needed in order to make a soft dough. Let it sit covered for 30-40 minutes.

6. Make parathas -> Make the dough balls larger than you do for roti; approximately the size of a lemon. Roll out the dough (it shouldn't be too thin), cook for 30 secs- 1 minute on a hot griddle on either side with ghee/ butter. Lightly fluff over an open flame for a few seconds.

7. Taste the first paratha and add more salt accordingly.

8. Serve with homemade yogurt and pickle!

Kuty's Twist

Food Processing:

I made the mistake of blending the kidney beans and paneer together a bit too much. This resulted in not really tasting the kidney beans and paneer in bigger chunks and as individual ingredients of the recipe. If you have the time, I would advise you to just mash the kidney beans separately and grate the paneer. You should still grind the green chilies and garlic.

Letting the atta/ dough sit:
Someone once told me to wrap the dough in a plastic bag or plastic wrap in order to get softer rotis which remain soft even after you put them in the frig. I've been doing that for a while and it seems to be working. Give it a try!

Creating the atta/ dough for parathas:
Many people make the dough for parathas separately, roll out the dough in to a thick circle, place a ball of the filling in the center, and then gather the edges of the dough above the mixture. They then lightly roll out the parathas. I have tried this in the past and it ended up being a huge messy disaster. I'm sure there is a correct way to do this AND the parathas will probably taste MUCH better. Why? Because they will probably taste more layered/ stuffed (i.e. layer of dough, filling, followed by a layer of dough). The parathas I made were definitely not "stuffed" parathas in the true sense, but it did take less time! :-)

Hopefully I'll attempt a "stuffed" paratha again in the near future...