Pizza!
The food that has become a part of our urban life style. There is no escaping the request by our kids to order one, at least once in a month.
Yet the ones we get from the popular outlets are loaded with empty calories, oil, cheese and age-old ingredients including vegetables.
So when the time came to participate in a school fest, we decided to put up a stall with our own home-made, whole food version of the pizza. No one needed to know that no real cheese was used, nor that they are practically feasting on something which can no longer be categorized as "Junk food".
Of course it is not as smooth as the filled-with-junk one, but then it is homemade, right!
Ingredients:
For the base:
2 tsp dry yeast
2 tsp kakvi or jaggery
1 tsp rock salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 cups of whole wheat flour
Water as required.
Tomato sauce-- Recipe here
Cheese spread--Recipe Here
For the topping:
Ready Oregano mix/ or oregano leaves dried and powdered with dried red chillies and rock salt.
2green capsicum
6 Red capsicum
1/4 kg baby corns
1/4 kg corn
1/2 kg mushrooms
Procedure:
Mix the dry yeast in luke warm water with the kakvi or jaggery. Keep aside for 4 to 5 min.
Mix the salt and baking soda with the wheat flour. Then add the yeast mixture. Keep adding lukewarm water, enough to prepare a dough of chapatti consistency.
Wrap with a wet muslin cloth and keep aside for 3 hours.
At the end of three hours, the dough would have risen to twice its size.
Spread out some sesame seeds or some wheat flour onto multiple steel plates.
This is to prevent them from sticking to the base while baking.
Make portions of the dough, roughly around 12 small balls.
Then use your hands to flatten them into six inch round, thick chapattis.
Spread them on the steel plates. (I placed a couple right onto the baking pan)
Again cover with a wet muslin cloth.
Leave aside for 1 hour to rise.
Then use a fork to poke some holes on the risen rounds.
Preheat the oven at 250 degrees for 1/2 hour.
Place the baking pan and the grill. Place the steel plate directly onto the grill.
Bake at convection mode for 10 minutes.
The semi-baked pizza bases are now ready.
Get all the toppings and spreads together at one place.
You see here in the white container is the cheese spread.
The greenish is the tomato spread. The tomatoes were a bit greenish so was the home grown basil!
The capsicum has been slit lengthwise.
The corn has been steamed.
The baby corn, steamed and slit lengthwise.
The mushroom, steamed and chopped.
One can add onions, olives, whatever veggies we have.
I did not want to add onions so the jain kids can sample this too. And wanted to stick with seasonal and organic toppings. Hence this combination.
First spread a layer of cheese on the base.
Then comes the tomato spread.
Then the vegetable toppings
With the oregano sprinkled on top.
The boy with this creation!
Now preheat the oven at 250 degrees for 15 minutes.
Bake the prepared pizza for 15 minutes.
I had to pack them individually to avoid damage while transporting to the school
And the final product!
The Pizza Express!
Ended up making 24 pizzas that day!
The food that has become a part of our urban life style. There is no escaping the request by our kids to order one, at least once in a month.
Yet the ones we get from the popular outlets are loaded with empty calories, oil, cheese and age-old ingredients including vegetables.
So when the time came to participate in a school fest, we decided to put up a stall with our own home-made, whole food version of the pizza. No one needed to know that no real cheese was used, nor that they are practically feasting on something which can no longer be categorized as "Junk food".
Of course it is not as smooth as the filled-with-junk one, but then it is homemade, right!
Ingredients:
For the base:
2 tsp dry yeast
2 tsp kakvi or jaggery
1 tsp rock salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 cups of whole wheat flour
Water as required.
Tomato sauce-- Recipe here
Cheese spread--Recipe Here
For the topping:
Ready Oregano mix/ or oregano leaves dried and powdered with dried red chillies and rock salt.
2green capsicum
6 Red capsicum
1/4 kg baby corns
1/4 kg corn
1/2 kg mushrooms
Procedure:
Mix the dry yeast in luke warm water with the kakvi or jaggery. Keep aside for 4 to 5 min.
Mix the salt and baking soda with the wheat flour. Then add the yeast mixture. Keep adding lukewarm water, enough to prepare a dough of chapatti consistency.
Wrap with a wet muslin cloth and keep aside for 3 hours.
This is to prevent them from sticking to the base while baking.
Make portions of the dough, roughly around 12 small balls.
Then use your hands to flatten them into six inch round, thick chapattis.
Spread them on the steel plates. (I placed a couple right onto the baking pan)
Leave aside for 1 hour to rise.
Then use a fork to poke some holes on the risen rounds.
Preheat the oven at 250 degrees for 1/2 hour.
Place the baking pan and the grill. Place the steel plate directly onto the grill.
Bake at convection mode for 10 minutes.
The semi-baked pizza bases are now ready.
You see here in the white container is the cheese spread.
The greenish is the tomato spread. The tomatoes were a bit greenish so was the home grown basil!
The baby corn, steamed and slit lengthwise.
The mushroom, steamed and chopped.
One can add onions, olives, whatever veggies we have.
I did not want to add onions so the jain kids can sample this too. And wanted to stick with seasonal and organic toppings. Hence this combination.
First spread a layer of cheese on the base.
Now preheat the oven at 250 degrees for 15 minutes.
Bake the prepared pizza for 15 minutes.
And the final product!
The Pizza Express!
Ended up making 24 pizzas that day!
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