YES- THE PITA.

Let me tell you a little bit about why I love the Pita. During my four month stay in the Middle East I ate probably 2-3 pitas every single day. I ate them with everything; curry, jam, ben gurion rice, eggs and cheese (for breakfast), and pretty much anything else you can think of. I really grew to love the pita, the same way I love the baguette. (maybe that's a cooking experiment for another time.)
Every culture has a unique way of eating bread. Thanks to globalization, many of these breads are available around the world, but believe me, you cannot get pitas like those in Jerusalem. I have been sorely dissapointed with the state of Pitas in America, but granted I have only tried grocery store. So I have embarked on the pita cooking experience in order to re-capture this lost love, that my friend Clarissa shows us so vivdly in the picture below.

Clarissa T. - Amman, Jordan.

Pita Bread

Makes 8 pitas

3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sugar or honey
1 packet yeast (or, if from bulk, 2 teaspoons yeast)
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water, roughly at room temperature
2tablespoons olive oil, vegetable oil, butter, or shortening

See the rest of the recipe here...

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/pitabread

I really liked this online recipe, because the author describes very well each step, and why you need to do it.This is my first attempt EVER at cooking anything with yeast. and to be honest it SCARES ME!! Does yeast scare anyone else?

Well my yeast experience turned out just fine. I always thought that it was such a bummer that you have to let the dough rise for so long with yeast. But now I realize that it really isn't a big deal. It's not like you have to watch the bread rise. Just leave it and walk away.

Risen Dough ready to be rolled out.

I followed the directions, and rolled the dough into eight balls, but after a few large, non-puffy, pitas I decided to split the balls. So I would recommend splitting the dough into at least 12 dough balls.

My only concern thoughout the baking process was about the puffyness of my pitas. They just didn't look like the picture in the recipe, and weren't creating great pockets. But my FINAL pita almost entirely puffed up. I was hopeful. :) And that ladies and gentlemen, is what we call a sucess!

The final pita!

I will DEFINATELY make these again.They tasted very similar to the ones I ate in the middle east. The recipe was not difficult. I absolutely loved these. I even went all out and smashed some honey and butter with my spoon for the full effect of nostalgia. -- at the Jerusalem Center we got really creative and a honeybutter trend got started. It caught on with such ferocity that the cooks had to stop buing honey because we were simply eating too much. This, of course, caused drama because all we wanted was our honey butter. "what do you mean honey is too expensieve here? I paid 10 grand and I want my honey!" basically was the jist of the argument.

I will just have to keep reminding myself why I gained weight in Jerusalem, yep... you guessed it... It was pretty much soley due to thse flyffy little pockets of bread.... mmmm..... delicious

Happy baking

Stephanie

TORTILLAS

I have made a new and most wonderful discovery! YOUTUBE COOKING! Pretty much any recipe you'd want to make has many step-by-step videos detailing how to make cette dish. I really appreciate this because being a less than novice chef, I never know if what I'm doing is right, or if I am making things totally wrong. But with the videos you can see exactly how things are supposed to look, all along the way. It's like a cookbook with an infinite number of pictures to help you make it.

I have been watching many many videos, and decided to test out this recipe for tortillas!

These were really simple to make. Only a few ingredients were required. The hardest part was rolling... rolling... rolling out the little balls of dough. They flattened dough only took seconds to cook, and ended up tasting delicious!
They weren't exactly like tortillas from a bag. While they did taste better, of course, they were a lot thicker and chewier. It would be difficult to use these tortillas for burritos or enchiladas or really most foods that use tortillas. You could use them for tacos, but you wouldn't get a large roll in them, causing a lot of taco fixings to fall out. -You all know what I'm talking about. When I make these again (which i will) I'll try to make the balls of dough slightly bigger and roll them out a bit thinner. This should make tortillas with a larger circumference, and more Mexican-food manageable.


Stephanie, Roommate Jesse, and Boyfriend verdict: delicious!!

Exciting news: this is the first post in which I spelled "r-e-c-i-p-e" correctly, without adding an extra "i" after the "p". Well I am improving in something!

Curry Attempt #1

Sister's Chicken Curry

4 slices bacon
¼ C sliced celery
¼ C chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
2 T flour
1 C milk
1 C water
½ C applesauce
3 T tomato paste
1 or 2 t curry powder **steph recommends 2t
2 chicken bouillon cubes (or 2 t bouillon granules)
2 to 3 C cubed cooked chicken Cooked rice

Toppings: raisins, shredded coconut, green bell peppers

Directions: Cook bacon until crisp. Drain, reserving 1 T drippings. Remove bacon from pan & set aside. Cook celery, onion, and garlic in reserved drippings. Blend in flour. Stir in milk, water, applesauce, tomato paste, curry, and bouillon. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir in chicken and bacon. Heat through. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Place in freezer bag. Label and freeze. **(frozen and reheated version is said to be just as good.)

To serve: Thaw in refrigerator (on a plate or in a bowl in case it leaks a little.) Place mixture into a pot and cook until heated through. Serve over rice and pass toppings. The combo of tomato paste and applesauce looks a little icky in the cooking processes, but ends up tasting good.

Tips from the Sis: If you want to make the recipe a little bit cheaper, opt to add some cooked and cubed potatoes and less chicken. (won't taste as good frozen and heated though...)

My friend Karli and I went on this spicy adventure together. This recipe was very easy to make! It did not take much time at all. I chose to forgo the onions and celery, and bought pre-cooked bacon. Which made things much easier. (I was a little wary of frying something again after the Indonesian Banana smoke monster incident.)

This is one of my sister's recipes. This curry is very Indian in taste, as opposed to Thai curry. (which I actually prefer.) If you like Indian curry you might like this recipe. I'm not sure if I will make it again, I didn't absolutely love it, but the taste actually did grow on me after my first few bites. Perhaps I shouldn't have left out the onions and celery. But man I just really don't like either. While I absolutely love curry, I think that I will try a few other recipes before making this one again.


xoxo
Happy Eating
Stephanie.

Final Thoughts...

... On the Horchata drink...
I thought it was pretty good! I'm not crazy about all the stuff that settles in the bottom of the glass, but i think you'll get that with any drink like this.
Boyfriend was ecstatic, singing Horchata's praises for hours....
Roommate Jesse, who had previously never tried this Mexican drink, thought it had a weird taste. Fair enough.

I will make this again!

Experiment Number ONE, fried bananas and Horchata

Dear readers,
Welcome to my Fooooood blog!
I have decided that in order to advance to the stage of womanhood I need become more of a Renaissance woman, which is to say, well rounded. I have a serious case of hobby-jumping. Which I'm sure you can tell if you've ever read my other blog. Over the past few months I have put in many hours hovering over the stove top or oven. I really been advancing in my cooking skills, and now its time to write about it!

If you have any favorite recipes, PLEASE submit them! That is what I'm really looking for. :)

MONDAY MARCH 15
Happy ides of March

The two recipes I used today both used my newly acquired Rice flour. Boyfriend picked me up a bag while at the Super China store. (substitutes can be found)



INDONESIAN FRIED BANANAS

In one of my tourism classes this guy, Bobby, from Indonesia brought in some of these bananas. I was reminded how delicious fried Bananas are. I'm a little confused about the origin of this food, because it is popular in both central and South America, and South-East Asia. a brief attempt in googling offered no answer. But the truth is, it doesn't matter because I like them!

Ingredients:

8 Bananas-Peeled
1/2 cup self-rising flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1 T. cornstarch
1 cup water
1/2 t. salt
4 T. Fine brown sugar
Oil for deep frying

Directions:

Slice each banana lengthwise. Sift flours and add to water. Stir until consistency of cream. Add salt. Heat oil and, when smoking, dip each piece of banana in batter;shake off excess and carefully lower into hot oil. Fry until golden brown. Carefully remove and roll in brown sugar. Nice served with ice cream.

Serves 4


Here we have.... bananas, hot smokey oil, and the batter.


Cooking these was not as simple as I expected. I smoked up the entire front room of my apartment, and well anyway, I'm never very good at frying stuff.

But they did turn out delicious!
I would reccomend this, if you are a little more careful and obersvent with your hot Oil than I am!

HORCHATA

Ingredients

• 1 quart non-fat milk
• 2 quarts water
• 4 cinnamon sticks
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup rice flour or 1/3 cup raw white rice crushed to a powder in the blender
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions

In a wide skillet pour milk. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook, stirring frequently, until reduce by half, 20 - 30 minutes. Strain into a large saucepan and add the water and cinnamon sticks. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let sit 15 minutes. Remove the cinnamon sticks and reserve. Combine the sugar, rice flour, and vanilla extract in a bowl. Pour in the milk mixture and whisk to incorporate well. Refrigerate at least 4 hours. Then pour the mixture into a pitcher, discarding the sediment that has settled on the bottom of the bowl. Serve cold over ice, with cinnamon sticks as stirrers.

This was way more hard core than I expected. It took many large pots and a ton of time. I am really hoping that this turns out good. But, the drinkIt has to chill for four hours and is in the refrigerator as I write. (and perhaps as you read- but maybe not.)


One huge pot of bubbling Horchata can lead to a burning mess like this.......

The tinfoil ended up compleately burning. Good going Steph. Oh well, it's better than burnt horchata.
Final verdict to come in about four hours.... But like I said, this stuff better be good.


Lesson learned today.... Recipes are pretty much always harder than they seem. So if something starts out looking tough- it'll be even tougher.

Coming soon.... curry!

xox Stephanie