I had heard so much about grilled paneer pizzas which are very popular in Mumbai. I wanted to try it for a long time, but when I made this paneer biryani , I thought of using those marinated paneer pieces on a pizza. I had some bread dough in freezer which I had frozen last week. Thats how this pizza was born.
You could use any pizza base. But I tried a new dough this time. It is mostly wheat based. I am not a big fan of wheat base, as it has very different taste. But because it is good for health, compared to that made with all purpose flour( maida ), I will stick to this recipe hereafter.
According to V, this is one of the best pizzas I have ever baked :). We had a hearty pizza night yesterday.
Pizza base(Makes two large pizzas): 1 and 1/2 cup wheat flour 1 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour 2 and 1/2 tea spns active dry yeast 2 tbl spn butter(at room temperature) 1/4 cup olive oil 1/2 tea spn sugar 1/2 cup water 1 cup milk 1 tea spn salt
Method: In about 1/2 cup luke warm water, add sugar and yeast. Let it get active. Add all other ingredients and flours (except milk). Mix and gradually add milk. Make a dough. If needed, use extra milk. Knead for 5minutes. Transfer it to a large bowl and keep it aside for about 2hrs till it doubles in volume. Make two equal sized pieces (you can freeze one if not using). Roll into a base.
Toppings: 1 cup marinated paneer 1/2 cup corn Sun dried tomato Dried basil 1 cup Parmesan cheese + mozzarella cheese (I mixed both)
Method: Grill or bake or shallow fry the marinated paneer pieces(slightly undercook the pieces, they get completely cooked after baking). Heat a little olive oil and stir fry corn, let it cook for few minutes.
Assembling the pizza: Preheat the oven at 400F for 10 mins. Spread the cheese on the base. Spread basil. Now spread the paneer, sundried tomato, corn. Bake at 400F for about 15mins or till it is done. Serve hot.
As most of you know, coconut is the main ingredient in Konkani food. In India, our coconut supply came from my hometown. My pappa and aayi used to make sure we got a fresh batch everytime they visited us or we visited them. We never had to buy it. When we moved to USA, that was one of the things I missed. We got adjusted to frozen coconut here after a while. Though it is not as good as fresh one, it was a replacement. But in September, I started noticing some difference. There was some smell. I threw the whole batch out a few times. I was not ready to do it everytime, as I am more cautious about such wastage these days. So I stopped buying it. Now I was in a pickle, how do I cook without coconut?. Yes, I had many recipes which didn’t involve our favorite ingredient-coconut, but we were terribly missing all our beloved dishes.
Then I started modifying our traditional dishes to suit my new style of cooking. Definitely, you cannot compare these versions with the traditional versions, because the traditional version is so much better. But for now, I am happy with these. I am posting these here because I noticed there are people who ask for non coconut dishes here. I will go back to the traditional and my favorite dishes as soon as possible, but until then enjoy these.
This recipe is a modified version of our all time favorite Jeer-Mirya kadi . V and I simply adore this kadi . It was a bit of a challenge to make this without coconut, which is the main ingredient. I replaced it with buttermilk, I couldn’t believe how good it came out. I knew it would not work out if I just replaced the coconut, so I followed my aayi’s procedure of making taka(buttermilk) kadi . Try it, you will love it.
Ingredients: 1 cup thick yogurt 1 and 1/2 cups water 1 tea spn chilli powder 1 tea spn cumin seeds 1/4 tea spn pepper Ghee 1 tea spn garlic Salt
Method: Beat the yogurt well in 1/2 cup water and keep it aside. Heat ghee and add cumin seeds, pepper. When they start popping, grind to a powder. Heat 1 cup water and add cumin-pepper powder, chilli powder, salt. When it starts boiling, take off the heat. Add the beaten yogurt and mix well (do not heat it after yogurt is added). Heat ghee and add chopped garlic. Fry till it becomes brownish. Pour this over the kadi . Serve with hot rice.
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 15mins
