Pita Bread

I really like trying to make different ethnic foods, Chinese, Latin, Italian and some Mediterranean. We really like Gyros around here, the ground lamb or beef mixed with spices and cooked on a spit, I've found a restaurant that makes that better than I can (they have a spit) so I've given up trying to make Gyros and have moved on to other Med/Greek and some Turkish foods.

This recipe is part 1 of a 3 part series on a dinner we had of Pita, Pork Souvlaki with Tzatziki Sauce and Sauteed Squash. We also had rice pilaf but it was an out of box mix, I have trouble cooking rice that does not come in a mix or minute box.

This is the first pita recipe I came across and I just kept coming back to the easiness of it, it might not be the best one but the flavor was right and if I'd made my dough balls a little smaller they might have puffed up more.

What You Need: AP Flour, Active Dry Yeast, Salt, Honey and Water, the Olive Oil is for coating the bowl for rising.

Add a half cup of warm water and 1 tbsp of honey to the yeast and let it bloom, I like recipes that start with this step so I can make sure my grocery store yeast is still good without throwing an entire recipes' worth of ingredients in the garbage.

Sift 3 cups of flour with 1 tsp salt and add to the yeast mix (in a bigger bowl). Combine and add another cup of flour and 1 cup water. Mix with a spoon then switch to using your hands, if it's still too dry add up to another half cup water. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. It should be a little sticky.

Add a couple tablespoons of olive oil to a clean bowl and swirl around to coat the sides, add the dough ball and flip it over to coat it with the oil. Cover with plastic wrap or a towel and let rise to double in size about an hour.

Punch the dough down and with as little kneading as possible divide into at least 10 balls ( I did 8 and they were just too much). Flatten these with your hands to about 1/4 inch thickness (you want a 6 inch or so circle or close to it) and place on a greased pan. Let rise again for about 30 minutes til again doubled in size.


I was in a bit of a hurry at this point so yeah they be ugly.

Bake on the bottom rack of the oven at 450 for 5-6 minutes.


Let them cool on a wire rack, and they are ready to eat.

Since I made these in the afternoon, while grilling the meat for the Souvlaki I threw these on the grill as well to toast the outside a little and reheat them.

Ingredients:
1 packet active dry yeast
1 tbsp honey
1/2 cup warm water
1 and 1/2 cups warm water
4 cups all-purpose flour and extra for board
1 tsp salt
Olive oil for the bowl


Instructions:
Combine yeast, honey and half cup water and let stand for 10 minutes. (The blooming part)

Sift 3 cups flour with salt and add to yeast mix.

Add 1 more cup of flour and up to 1 and a half cups water, mix with spoon and then hands.

Knead the dough on a floured surface for about 5 minutes. Dough should be a little sticky.

Lightly oil a clean bowl. Put the dough in the bowl, cover and let rise for about 1 hour.

Divide dough into 10-12 pieces and pat into inch circles, place on greased pan and let rise again for 30 minutes.

Bake for 5-6 minutes on the bottom rack of a 450 degree oven.

Cool on a wire rack, and if you want to add some color, throw on the grill for a few minutes just before serving.

Lovely Creamy Risotto

I have never ordered risotto in a restaurant. I don't know if I've ever been to one that serves it. But having seen it so many times on tv cooking shows and online recipes and Chef Ramsey's obsession with only serving perfect risotto on Hell's Kitchen I figured I'd try it.

I did not plan to fall in love with the creamy flavor packed rice.

Here's how I make it, I have no idea really if this is how it's supposed to taste but I love it, and eat way too much of it.The basic ingredients: Aborio rice (sometimes called risotto rice like mine up there), butter, garlic, and onion.

You don't have to use anything but the rice, it's special. Aborio rice is a super starchy short grain, it's the starch on the rice that gives risotto it's creaminess, you never want to rinse this type of rice. The butter/margarine can be substituted with olive oil or really any kind of fat. The garlic and onion can be subbed or left out entirely, but I think they make great flavor.


For a single good sized serving I use 1/3 of a cup of rice.

About the liquid, I use chicken broth because I usually pair my risotto with roasted chicken, and I don't drink wine so I don't cook with it, but you can use some white wine and whatever broth tickles your fancy, or just go basic and use water. The amount really is up to the rice and how done you want it. If I had to guess I'd say I average about 1 and 1/2 cups of liquid per 1/3 cup rice.


I melt the butter on medium-low heat and cook the onions about 5 minutes, then scoop in the garlic and stir just until I can smell it, then dump in the rice and toss around to coat it in the butter.

Then I start adding liquid, about a 1/3 to a 1/2 cup at a time and make sure you always stir really well after you add the liquid. You want a simmer going pretty steady once you start adding liquid, lots of small bubbles, but not boiling and popping over, raise and lower your heat accordingly.

I use a good nonstick pan to make my risotto so I don't follow the rule of always stirring, but if your pan is on the sticky side I'd say you need to keep right by it because if it sticks it will burn.

After a couple of liquid additions it will get a creaminess going, but it's not done, if you taste the rice now, it will still be crunchy, bleh.

This may look like the same picture but notice the carmelized chicken stock around the pan? That's how I know it's getting close when I start seeing that. Also it tends to stay in mostly a mountain when you scoop it up. Always just check the rice, it's so much easier than guessing.

I never need to add salt to mine because the chicken stock while low sodium is still full of it, but I do add some fresh pepper.

If you want to add anything now is the time, asparagus is a popular choice and just about any kind of cheese or any fresh herb. I like mine plain mostly.

One of my favorite dinners. Just throw in some roasted chicken and have a salad and you're ready to go. In all it took me about 20 minutes for the risotto, the chicken that's another story.

So about that Boston Cream Pie...

That looks really good... and tastes good too.

I'll put the ingredient list up here then break down the recipe into the steps taken.

Cake flour, sugar, corn starch, baking powder, salt, light corn syrup, vanilla extract, bittersweet chocolate(more on this later), unslated butter, heavy cream, milk and eggs.

The Cake:
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Creamed together in a mixer or with a hand mixer, man I love my KitchenAid.

2 large eggs

Beaten in one at a time.

2 cups cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Sifted together, then added to mixer until incorporated.

3/4 cup milk

Mixed in to make it really look like cake batter.


A 9 and a half inch spring form pan (I have no clue what size mine is I just used it), buttered and floured.


Bake at 350 for 50 minutes.


Cry for your momma.


And break out the 9 inch Wilton cake pans, that happen to belong to momma and are older than you.


Do the happy dance!!!! Of course after having made the cake batter a second time and the baked for 40 minutes in the two 9 inch pans, I was just cussing a blue streak at the spring form abomination.


The Custard (otherwise known as that creamy stuff in the middle):
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Put into a largeish sauce pan (you want high sides cause this stuff is like napalm, it sticks and burns), whisked like crazy until smooth and brought up to boiling.

3 large eggs, beaten silly

Tempered into the milk mixture, look that part up online cause a video is so much better than pics. Whisk like crazy and pray you don't end up with really sweet soupy scrambled eggs.

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Whisked into the custard in pieces. Then keep whisking, no your arm will not really fall off until the mix has cooled enough you can touch it and not scream. Technical aren't I?

The Glaze:
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate
3 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt

So I would have really liked this part to be sweeter since the cake itself and the custard aren't.
I probably will go with a semi-sweet chocolate next time or up the corn syrup another half tablespoon.


Put all that into a double boiler and slowly stir and melt. Eventually (which is always good when heating chocolate) you'll get a lovely smooth chocolate sauce, ganache whatever.

Now we get to the fun part.

Lay the first cake layer onto your cake plate. Using a spatula, the plastic kind works just as good as the metal ones, spread the custard around to almost the edge of the cake. Then top with the last layer of cake.

Now for the chocolate, make sure it's still pretty warm so it pours easy, dump it onto the center of the cake. You can take a butter knife or metal spatula and force it to spread all even and pretty to the sides, or you can pick the plate up and tilt it around until it does the same thing.


That's it! Let the chocolate cool, or not and slice and serve.