Turkish Pizza ~ Pide

I bookmarked pide, the Turkish pizza bread when Pavani posted it during last month marathon and wanted to try it sooner before it got buried in my bookmarked folder. I decided to try it yesterday as my daughter was at home and she couldn't fathom the fact that her favorite pizza was getting a makeover in terms of shape. She thought it was plain weird though she forgot about it when it was time to taste it.  
I came across pide in all sizes and shapes over the web but a long canoe shaped one seems to be the popular one. The texture of the pide crust was soft, more like a bread. As in pizza, the toppings can change according to one's preference and I noticed that vegetables were added while baking and an egg went about 5 minutes before 
the final stages.
 
The toppings can be arranged leaving about 1/2 inch around the edges and then pides can be shaped. Pavani had suggested that shaping the pides after spreading the toppings would be easier and I tried following that method but I goofed up while shaping them. My daughter was going crazy chanting that she was hungry and I did not bother to look how it was shaped. I did not realize that I was supposed to just pinch the edges and somehow ended up overlapping the edges slightly over the toppings, resulting them to open up slightly instead of staying put, while baking. If the edges are pinched together not bringing the toppings in contact with it, the shape would retain. It doesn't mean that my pide ended up with another shape other than oval one or the toppings spill over. I would make the pides less wider next time and keep the rims thinner. My daughter didn't like the thick rim even though it had a soft, bread kind of texture and just left them out. I would also recommend making 3 instead of 2 pides for these measurements.

 Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1&1/3 cup wheat flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sugar
2 & 1/4 tsp. rapid rise yeast
2 tbsp. yogurt
2 tbsp. oil
3/4 to 1 cup water (I had to use about 1 cup + 3 tbsp. water.)
2 tbsp. milk (for brushing)
1 tbsp. seeds (Optional. Caraway, Sesame, Nigella or Mustard can be used. ) 
Toppings of your choice

Method:
* Combine all the ingredients except the milk and seeds, in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Start with about 3/4 cup water and add extra water as needed to form a soft, pliable dough. (Add water in small increments and I had to add almost 1 & 1/4 cup water.)
* Knead the dough for about 6 minutes on a stand mixer or about
10 - 12 minutes by hand.
 
* Transfer the dough to a large, lightly greased bowl, cover and leave aside in a warm place for about 1 to 1½ hours or until it doubles in volume. (During winter, I preheat the oven at the lowest setting and turn off the oven. I leave the dough in the warm oven.)
* Gently deflate the dough and then knead the dough slightly. Divide the dough into 2 balls and shape them into oval shapes. Pinch the edges to form a rim, almost bringing it to a canoe shaped one.
 
 
* Cover the loaves and set aside for another 20 minutes to rise a  little more. (I totally forgot to notice this step and somehow ended up rising them only for about 10 minutes.) 
* Preheat the oven to 450 deg F and place the pizza stone or a couple of greased baking sheets in the oven.
* Brush the loaves with milk and sprinkle with seeds if using. (I skipped this step.)
 
* Fill the inside with the choice of toppings and slide each pizza onto the hot baking sheets and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. (I applied pizza sauce and topped them with low fat mozzarella cheese. My daughter wanted just olives and the husband wanted hot peppers and that's what they got.)
* Serve them hot.


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Veggie Wednesday ~ Eggplant Pizza

Time sure flies by. It seems like yesterday when I finished the month long marathon based on global cuisine and it's time now for another month long marathon. For the uninitiated, we, a group of bloggers post a dozen 'theme' based recipes each month and do 'month' long blogging during April and September months. The blogging marathon event is the brainchild of Srivalli's and anyone interested to learn more / participate in the future events can check the link below for the details. This time the group chose to go with the 'baking' theme - 'Fire up your oven' and Valli decided not to impose any sub-themes to make the participants' lives easier. However bloggers are free to come up with their own themes for this event as long as they stick to baking.

And what an irony! It turns out that going with sub-themes is more stress free. I kept procrastinating until the last minute being not able to decide what to cook. Lists were made only to come up with a new one each day. And I was so fed up that I finally decided to bake some dishes that I thought my family would love and come up with themes based on those and it seemed to work somehow. I have yet to bake 1/3 of the dishes and hopefully I would be able to present the dishes in the way I have planned.

The first one in the series is going to be these eggplant pizzas. One idea that kept popping in my mind was 'flour-less baking' when I was planning for this event and around the same time I came across these on MSN website. A little google search enlightened me that the idea/ recipe has been in circulation for years or decades now. I prepared these keeping my husband in mind since he is an ardent fan of that vegetable while the rest at home are not so enthusiastic about it. It is a gluten-free and less guiltier option over the traditional flour based pizzas. They look cute as single serving appetizers or can go in a sandwich and are a treat for eggplant lovers. 

The original recipe mentions to use 1 inch thick eggplant slices but  I used 1/2 inch thick slices. To see how 1 inch ones work, I cut a couple of slices in that size too. And my recommendation is to go with less than 1/2 inch ones. I skipped spinach leaves as my husband is not fond of those and used a basil - oregano tomato sauce. The base is not going to be very crispy but can still hold the fillings and the sauce.

Ingredients:
1 large eggplant, sliced a little thicker than 1/4 inch (I had about 14 slices and updating the info.)
1/2 - 1 tsp. salt to taste
8 oz. tomato sauce 
Mozzarella cheese as needed
14 - 15 grape tomatoes, sliced
Chili flakes (optional)

Method: (Details in the parenthesis are my recommendations.)
* Preheat oven to 425 deg F.
* Arrange the eggplant slices on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle salt over the slices and bake them for about 15 - 20 minutes. (Eggplant slices can be lightly brushed with olive oil before placing in the oven. Flip them halfway through baking.)
 
* Remove the baking sheet from the oven and turn on the broiler setting. Spread about a tsp of sauce over the eggplant slice and sprinkle cheese over it. Arrange the grape tomato slices evenly (and any other vegetables you want to use as toppings) over the cheese. Sprinkle chili flakes if using.
(If you feel the eggplant slices are not going to be cooked perfect, they can be baked until the cheese melts instead of broiling.)

* Broil for about 3 to 4 minutes. Keep an eye while broiling as they can burn pretty fast.
* Serve warm immediately, sprinkling some more red chili flakes if needed.

Check here to learn what other marathoners are cooking during this blogging marathon.

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