Naanizza ~ Indianised | Dal Makhani Naanizza

What do you do when you have leftover naans and the urge to have something different, you make naanizza. To put it simple it is jut naan + pizza. And if you still don't get it, let me simplify it for you. You are so lazy that you buy frozen naans or use leftover naan breads for the pizza base and top it just as you would do for a regular pizza. It tastes just right like any pan pizza and you can get creative adding loads of cheese or shredded chicken or pepperoni or just capsicum and mushroom. The sky is your limit when it comes to toppings.

This naanizza is fully Indianised!!! And I mean totally. The pizza sauce is replaced with dhal makani and I topped that with chopped onions and tomatoes and just a few sprinkles of mozzarella. But just go overboard with the cheese if you are in for it. If you do not have leftover dal then just use 1/4 cup of pizza sauce. I will share the basic naanizza recipe soon.

~*What U Need*~ Leftover Naan - 2 to 3 Onion - 1/4 cup, sliced Tomatoes - 1/4 cup, diced Dal makhani - 1/2 cup Grated mozzarella - 1/2 cup Italian seasoning - 1 tsp How I Made it: Preheat oven to 425F. Brush olive oil on the naan, spread dak makhani and top it with onion, tomatoes, cheese and italian seasoning. Bake for 7-10 mins depending on how crisp u need the pizza to be.

Serve warm.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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Stove top Pizza with seasoned kidney beans mash, veggies and cheese | HBC#1

Baking is therapeutic. Nothing can beat the self satisfaction that you feel when you see that bread or cake puffing up and getting that golden brown color. Not to forget the aroma of that fresh baked goodie wafting throughout your house. I have never been a part of any foodie groups and so when I first saw Priya akka's open invite for a baking challenge, I so wanted to join... Its all about baking, simple honest baking and that made me join the Home Baker's challenge, a group of friends who love baking, who have joined hands to learn and excel in baking, helping each other.. I am not sure how far I can journey with them but till now I am trying my level best to keep up with em.

For the first month's challenge, we were asked to make pizza. We were given recipes, we asked questions, there were friends to help us out and now everyone has come up with a gorgeous pizza creation. Just when I was all set to bake my pizza, my oven decided to give up on me and rather than me giving up on the pizza making part, I started browsing for stove top versions. After seeing this, I was confident enough to go on and so I made a stove-top pizza.

As for the toppings, I used some kidney beans, seasoned them with some italian herbs and pepper, mashed them really well and spread the mash on top of the pizza. I picked the idea from a tv cooking show, originally it was used as a filling for enchiladas. The topping was good, and paired well with all that cheese... On the whole the pizza was a hit, appa gave a thumbs up and so did amma. We had it for dinner, a medium sized pizza each with some cold mango juice.

~*What U Need*~ Recipe adapted from here For Pizza dough All purpose flour - 1 cup Active dried yeast - 1 tsp Warm water - 1/4 cup Salt - 1/2 tsp Canola / olive oil - 1 1/2 tbsp Seasoned kidney beans mash: Kidney beans - 1/2 cup Onion - 1/2 cup, finely chopped Green chilli - 1, finely chopped Chopped garlic - 1 tbsp Pizza sauce - 1/4 cup Italian seasoning - 1 tsp Pepper, salt - to season Oil Other toppings Onion, tomato rings Corn kernels - 1/4 cup Pizza Cheese - 1/2 - 1 cup

How I Made it:
The Pizza dough:
Mix the warm water and yeast in a small bowl to blend. Let stand until the yeast froth and gets activated, about 5 minutes. Mix the flour and salt, add oil and mix well. Add the yeast and mix till you form a dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 1 minute. Transfer the dough to a large oiled bowl and turn the dough to coat with the oil.

Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and set aside in a warm area until the dough doubles in volume, about 1 hour. Punch the down dough and divide into 2 equal balls.

Seasoned kidney beans mash:
Soak the kidney beans overnight. Cook till soft, about 3 whistles in the pressure cooker. Heat oil in a kadai, add the chopped garlic. When the raw smell leaves add onion and saute till brown. Add the cooked kidney beans.

And followed by the pizza sauce and then the italian seasoning. Now start mashing it, if needed add a splash of water. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat a tawa till it is hot, then reduce the flame to low. Roll pizza dough and then transfer the hot tawa, cook covered for 5-7 mins till brown and crisp. Flip and spread the pizza sauce, kidney beans mash, veggies, cheese and cook covered for another 5 mins till the cheese is all melty and bubbly. Remove, slice and serve.

Serve warm with some aerated drink.

** Notes:
** The dough can be used immediately or stored airtight in the refrigerator for 1 day.
** You could keep the pizza simple by just topping it with onions, tomatoes and other veggies.
** Skip the veggie part, add two types of cheese of choice for a kids friendly margherita pizza.
** Sky is the limit for the list of toppings that can go on a pizza, so innovate.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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Whole Wheat Calzones ~ Two Ways

Thanks to all who took time to wish for the kid's birthday. It was so kind of you and IWe love you all for that. It was a great day for me and the party was a big hit. The theme was blue and everything from the cake to the decorations to the party wear were shades of blue. People loved it and the kid enjoyed getting pampered. We were showered with love and blessings and thats what mattered the most. Post party cleaning was a big pain and I am taking it slowly. Almost everything has been tidied up and life is slowly coming back to normal.

The kid is one year old, its as if only yesterday we were blessed with our prince. Time is running real fast and before we could even realise, hes gonna grow up really big, throwing crazy questions at us leaving us speechless. I am so looking forward to those times. Now that he naps less and walks, I am not sure how I am gonna keep up with the monthly bake here after. If not a bake atleast a sweet or dessert will be made on the 22nd of every month and shared ofcourse.

Coming back to the post, I have become lazy post his birthday and have not cooked anything new. These calzones were made some time back for our breakfast as I had some left over sweet corn and quarter of a capsicum. The stuffing made up for only two calzones and so for the remaining one I scooped a tbsp of nutella and some strawberry preserve. Believe me we loved the later. It was sweet, chocolaty and tart which made it all the more tempting...

~*What U Need*~ Whole wheat flour - 1 cup All purpose flour - 1/4 - 1/2 cup Active dried yeast - 1 tsp Sugar - 1/2 tsp Salt - 1/2 tsp Olive oil - 1 tbsp Warm water - 1/2 cup Filling: Sweet corn - 1/2 cup Capsicum - 1/2 cup Onion - 1/4 cup, finely chopped Salt, pepper - to season Italian Seasoning - 1 tsp Pizza sauce - 1 tbsp Mayo - 1 tsp Cheese, grated - 1/4 cup Nutella - 1 tbsp Strawberry preserve - 1 tbsp

How I Made it:
Mix everything under filling and set aside. In a small cup, mix lukewarm water, sugar, oil, yeast and salt. Let rest till frothy for 10 mins. In a mixing bowl, add whole wheat and all purpose flour.

Add the yeast mixture and knead to a soft, non-sticky elastic dough. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with damp cloth and allow to rise for 45-60 mins.

Once the dough had risen, punch down the air and divide into 3 equal balls. Take one ball, on a well floured surface n using rolling pin roll into circle. Add the filling in the center, fold the filling using the other half and press the edges using finger or with fork. Make sure u have sealed the edges tightly and properly. Make 2-3 slits on top and brush the top with milk or egg wash and place it on iron pan or greased baking tray.

For the nutella calzone, add 1 tbsp nutella and 1 tbsp strawberry preserve in the center and repeat as above. Bake at 375F (190C) for 25-30 minutes. Serve hot.

Serve warm with some freshly squeezed orange juice...

** My Notes:
** These make a healthy and great breakfast option.
** Add more vegetables to make it more heavier.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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Paneer Tikka Pizza ~ its Indianised...

I am bitten my the bread baking bug. When I tried the Whole wheat pizza and it turned out to be "edible" I was confident to take a step ahead and try some variations with the topping dumping in loads of mozzarella cheese. So the first thought as any Indian would like to add, I added some paneer cubes marinated in Indian spices. The Tandoored paneer made an excellent topping to the pizza. Italians, a word, you need to know our spices.

Thin Pizza Crust topped with Tandoored panner cubes and ooey gooey mozarella cheese...

I have made this pizza loads of times but never bothered to click some pics and post them here. Truly, I wasn't left with any slices to click some pictures. The pizza was attacked by the whole family as soon as it was out of the oven. And I can't blame them when I make this for dinner... Tummies rumbling with hunger, anyone would jump in to have a bite when they see a cheesy pizza in front of them... And I would never have the heart to stop my family from eating my creation. So this time when I made it, I made it well before dinner and urged the family to have any early dinner and gave them a tall glass of oats smoothie at dinner time.

I am making my own pizza sauce these days as they are easy to make and more than all you get the satisfaction that it is home-made, made from scratch and free of preservatives. You can use store bought pizza sauce too...

~*What U Need*~ Basic Pizza crust All purpose flour/Maida - 1 1/2 cups Active dry yeast - 3/4 tbsp Milk - 1/4 cup Water - 1/4 cup Sugar - 1/2 tbsp Salt - 3/4 tsp Olive oil - 1/8 cup Paneer tikka Paneer cubes - 1/4 cup Hung curd - 2 tbsp Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp Garam masala - 1/4 tsp Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp Tandoori masala powder - 1/2 tsp Vinegar - 1/2 Salt - As needed {Marinate the paneer cubes with other ingredients and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.} Topping Pizza sauce - 2 tbsp Onion rings - 1/4 cup Tomato rings - 1/4 cup Panner tikka - As needed Mozzarella cheese - 1/2 cup

How I Made it:
First lets roll out the pizza base.
Bring the water to lukewarm, mix sugar and add the yeast. Set aside for 10 mins till frothy. Mix milk, salt, oil. Take flour in a mixing bowl, add the yeast water and oil mixture to this and gather to a smooth dough.

Keep covered with a wet cloth till an hour. It would double in size. Punch down and make a smooth pliable dough. In a greased pizza plate, roll into a thin crust and fold the sides.

Spread pizza sauce, top with onion and tomato rings and then marinated paneer cubes followed by cheese. Pre-heat oven to 210 C and bake it for 20-25 minutes or until the top turns golden brown.

My notes**
** U can prick the base with fork to make sure of even cooking
** Use tofu to get an even healthier version
** Play around with the veggies in hand. Capsicum and baby corn would make great additions too...

Enjoy homemade pizza, hot and fresh!!!

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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No Cheese Whole Wheat Tandoori Chicken Pizza & announcing a chota-sa break

Its been a long time since I have been around in the food blogging world.. guess its one week... yes that seems long to me. My system crashed and the mother-board doomed. I am not sure when everything will be back to normal and hence have decided to take a break till I am back to Chennai... Will miss all your posts and will not be able to hop in as usual... So take care till I am back... I will be trying loads of new recipes in the meantime and hence will have a cartload to blog about when I am back. :)
As promised I am publishing my pizza post now.

Healthy whole wheat pan pizza crust topped with tandoored chicken pieces and an olive-oil mayo sauce. Guilt free indulgence

I have a thing with yeast... I am terrified to use it. The first time, I tried activating yeast, it didn't even rise and that was the last time. But I have always been drawn to all the yeast-ed recipes out here. My mom uses yeast in making aappams and since she is around me now, I mustered my confidence and started working with yeast... to be frank it was amma who did it and me just popping my head in at times to check if the yeast had risen. So finally I activated it... it doubled and tripled in volume by and by...

OMGosh. I was too excited. Only after I activated the yeast did I think about "What to make with it"... I have been longing for pizzas for quite sometime since I have been put on a no-outside-food diet these days. What best than making it at home. Went for a healthier version with the wheat crust and no cheese but I will be trying the cheesy versions very soon. The result was a healthy yet deliciously creamy pizza which everyone loved. Now off to the recipe. Again see ya guys... Will be back in a month with lots more to offer...

~*What U Need*~ For the Whole wheat crust Whole wheat flour - 1 cup Active dry yeast - 1 tsp Sugar - 1 tsp Luke warm water - 1/2 cup Olive oil - 1 tsp Salt- 1/4 tsp For Pizza topping Tomato chunks - 1/4 cup Onion rings - 1/4 cup Shredded Tandoori chicken pieces - 1/2 cup Garlic mayo - 2 tbsp Pizza Sauce - 3 tbsp For garlic mayonnaise cream sauce Mayonnaise - 1/4 cup Garlic cloves - 2 Heavy Cream - 2 tbsp Olive oil - 1 tsp

How I Made:
The pizza crust
Dissolve sugar in warm water and add yeast to it. Set aside until frothy. Meanwhile combine whole wheat flour and salt. Make a well in the middle and pour the yeast mixture and olive oil. Knead the mixture well until it is no more sticky. You can add few spoons of atta if needed. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and leave it aside until it doubles in volume. Transfer this dough into a greased baking tray and evenly press this dough to form a thin or thick crust.

Garlic mayonnaise cream sauce
Mix together all the ingredients and whisk well till fully incorporated. I mixed 2tbsps of mayo with 1 crushed garlic clove and spread it on the base before topping with pizza sauce. The remaining mayo I mixed with the other ingredients and used it to top the pizza instead of cheese.

Spread the garlic mayo followed by pizza sauce, arrange veggies and tandoori chicken over the prepared crust leaving 1/2 " on all the sides. Bake the pizza for 25-30 mins at 220 deg C or until crust turns golden brown in color.

Slice and serve with garlic mayo cream sauce... indulge guilt-free...

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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