Pre-work: WHAT TO DOUGH?
Who would have imagined that a design school will make you cook? I didn't either, but here it is for foodies like myself, a cooking project "JUST DOUGH IT!". As in every project, we have a pre-task in this one too. Choosing a dish is one of the most challenging tasks for me as being a food lover has its cons, like having to decide what to eat. But for the sake of choosing a single food item, I picked PITA POCKETS. During this lockdown, I have made some interesting dishes like pizza, pasta, lasagne and more but today I got the opportunity to make something that I've never made before.
All these college projects and assignments made me so busy that I had no time for even suggesting to my mom what she could make for dinner. "Jo banana hai bana lo" became my normal. But next week that changes, it's time to Dough it!
Coming back to Pita Pockets, I know that they are similar to pizza, that's pretty much it 😅.
DAY 1: DOUGHING IT!
It's time to dough it. Pita pockets are on the go. I was so excited for this day because I love to eat and I got the chance to make something for everyone. The dough being the hero of this project had to be prepared first and foremost because it takes a couple of hours to rise.
I started by adding 500g of Maida, but then I realized that I was short by 100g so I modified the number of other ingredients.
Then I added 1 tbsp of yeast. Yeast is a fungus that multiplies by budding under favorable conditions. We provide it with favorable conditions by adding warm water and sugar on which feeds.
1 tsp of salt for taste.
As mentioned above yeast needs sugar to feed on so I added 1 tbsp pisi chini.
For the dough to get greasy 1/4th cup of olive oil was recommended but I poured a little less than that because I had only 400g of flour.
Slowly adding milk helps in knowing how much you actually need it. Thus I had 1 glass of milk by my side but I didn't pour it all at once.
With all the ingredients in it was time to DOUGH IT! I kept on kneading the dough but after 10minutes it begun to tear apart. It was not going the way I expected it to be.
But because we were not supposed to ask for validation, I kept on kneading for 15 more minutes. This time all the flour was clay-like but still, it was tearing apart. Then out of hopelessness, I went to my mom and asked her " ye dough waste ho gaya ya kuchh ban sakta hai? " and she showed me the GREEN JHANDI and I said, " Say no more ill add or subtract on my own." Then I added 1 tsp of milk I continued with the kneading. In the meanwhile, I called up a friend and invited her over. And now she is here with me while we eat these delicious pockets. After 10 more minutes, I was happy with it and thus I put it in the bowl and covered it with cling wrap. This is how it looked like after 2 hours of rest.
Preparation of pita pockets
STEP 1: Taking a small portion of the dough and roll it like a ball.
STEP 2: Making roti.
STEP 3: Cooking it on the Tava without ghee.
STEP 4: Pressing with a clean cloth so that it gets airy.
STEP 5: Cut into 2 pieces and make a pocket.
For the filling, I chopped some veggies and stuffed them in the pocket. Tried different sauces each time, it was amazing each time.
In the first one, I dressed it with chipotle sauce, above that is Ricotta cheese and veggies.
The second picture has Burger Tikki instead of Ricotta cheese and mayonnaise sauce instead of chipotle.
My friend and me enjoying the PITA POCKETS we made together.
She rolled a couple of rotis.
It was a fun day 😍.
EXPERIMENTATIONS
I tried to cook the pockets at different temperatures.
High flame Sim without ghee Sim with ghee
tasted good perfectly cooked very bad taste
DAY 2: DOUGHMENTING...
It's a day of experimentation. Since the pockets were delicious yesterday, none was left for today. Which is why I'm going to prepare a fresh one. This time I prepared 5 different varieties of dough.
Original ingredients: (16 pockets)
Flour (Maida) - 3 cups
Yeast - 1 tbsp
Sugar - 1 tbsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Olive oil - little less than 1/4th cup
Milk - according to the consistency.
A. INGREDIENTS
1. Semolina (suji) instead of maida
The dough felt rough and I could feel its texture while kneading it.
The yellow color of the dough is probably because of the lighting and cling wrap.
2. Semolina + flour
It was soft and easy to knead.
Touching maida is satisfying because of its smooth grinding.
I was enjoying the music and I always wanted to sprinkle namak or anything in a dish which I did today 😂.
3. Oats + flour
I added both powdered and flakes of oats which made the dough yellowish.
WARNING!
THIS VIDEO HAS VERY LOUD BACKGROUND MUSIC SO YOU MIGHT WANT TO LOWER YOUR DEVICE VOLUME.
THANK YOU
4. Seeds + flour
Flax seeds, melon seeds, and sesame seeds mixed in the dough.
5. Mild powder instead of Milk
It got all sticky and hard because I had to use water.
B. SHAPE AND FORM
1. Trapezium
I wanted it to be a basket so gave it this shape.
I am happy with the shape.
M2M learnings helped here 😂.
2. DIM SUM
It was a thick sheet so I had to remove a portion of the dough from the top.
The filling in this has chipotle sauce, cheese, veggies, olives, jalapenos and
oregano.
3. SPOON AND KATORI
I used this big spoon to give the shape of a Katori.
I forgot to take the picture of the small spoon with which I made the spoon-shaped Katori. Later in the blog, I'll show you the final results.
4. TARTS
First, I rolled the dough into a flat circular shape. Then spread it in the cupcake mould.
These are 2 different tarts: oats and seeds with 2 different dressings.
Personally, I like the pizza pasta sauce better than mayonnaise.
C. COOKING METHODS
1. TAVA AND STOVE
I learned this cloth technique yesterday from my grandmother. I cooking the pita pocket on the Tava yesterday when she came in...
Grandma: aise nhi foolegi ye roti, mai karti hu.
*brings a white cotton cloth and starts pressing the roti*
My illiterate mouth: aap to or pichka rahi ho ab to bilkul nhi foolegi.
*roti becomes fluffy in no time*
My face: 😱
So today I used the same technique and my pita pockets also fluffed like dadi's.
2. BAKING
The aroma of bread was really strong when they were in the oven. Spoons were a little undercooked from the top but the bottom part and inside part was crispy and tasty.
I forgot to grease the tray before arranging the tarts which made me worry. But it came out and was super yummy!
3. FRYING
It was too hot near the Kadai that's why the picture is hazy.
The sound of crackling of the oil when the dumpling shaped pocket was put inside it was very loud because there was a tiny hole from where the stuffing touched the oil.
FINAL OUTCOMES
This is the fried momo-shaped pocket.
It was hard to chew and the filling was less.
The cover was very thick and with every bite, it had a notable flavor.
This is pan-cooked Pita Plate Nacho.
It has ricotta cheese which tastes amazing on this.
These are the tarts and spoon and Katori.
Due to the spoons, they didn't bake from the top.
This is a simple pita bread which I have torn from the top and stuffed in everything.
DAY 3: DOUGH-ORGANIZE
I've decided to bake the pita pockets but I'm still confused about the main ingredient of the dough I want to make it healthy.
When I used seeds, the dough was soft and everything but it was really thick. When I was trying to flatten it, it would crumble into pieces.
With oats, the solid pieces were not that flavourful.
So I'm thinking of using powdered oats without solid pieces. This should allow me to give it a thin plate-like form.
MY PLAN
I expect my final dish to look like this. 👆
PLAN B
DAY 4: DOUGLICIOUS!
It's the final day of this delicious project. "THORNY MEAL" you are up. I don't want to bore you so, let's get started.
I started with the healthy dough, Oats, and flour.
This is my current favorite song: Sunday best and I was dancing while preparing the dough.
After 15 minutes I got a call from my friend and we started discussing the dinner and the final innovation. And I realized that there are 6 people who will eat it and my dough wasn't enough for all of them.
So I prepared another one. While I was kneading it, I got a crazy idea of making the whole cutlery out of dough 😍. To make the cutlery stand out I used red food color.
WATCH IT GROW...👇
This is so satisfying. It's pink because I added only 2 drops of the color.
This is how moulded them.
Here I did a HUGE MISTAKE. I forgot to grease the moulds 😨.
Of course, it ruined the look I was expecting but then also I'm satisfied because I put in a lot of hours.
This was how it turned out. The spoon broke, the cup got stuck inside the glass, pointed edges of the fork got chopped and the design on the plate didn't come.
I almost broke but then my mom told me to at least put up the stuffing and everything. So I did that and everything changed.
My mood changed from 🤮 to 🤩 in 2 minutes.
I super hungry for 7 hours by then. This is why I didn't bother to present this bowl and randomly added in veggies and cheese. I ate this whole thing in literally 20 seconds 👇.
And also I made a pizza base on the Tava of the leftover dough and since I was hungry I ate that too.
I love chipotle sauce.
This white thing is ricotta cheese which tastes like paneer.
"THORNY MEAL"
DAY 5: REFLECTION
KITCHEN DESIGN
I noticed that how the kitchen is designed plays an important role in the cooking process. Everything has a fixed place which makes it easy to access and saves time. For example, the drying shelf is just above the sink so that I could wash the dishes and keep them to dry just by lifting my hand a little. Had it been with other shelves, then I would have to take a step or two and return to the sink. Moreover, when the dishes drip water, it directly goes into the sink. This way other places are dry and clean.
TEXTURES
Dough made of different ingredients has different textures. Oats, when mixed with flour, give a rough feel. While only flour makes a very smooth dough. Ingredients like water and milk can also affect the smoothness of the dough. Dough made with water is softer than dough made with milk.
COLOUR
Colour of the dough changes with the addition or subtraction of certain ingredients. For example, adding olive oil give the dough a beige hue. This has an impact on the final outcome also.
PRESENTATION
Presenting food in a way that pleases one's eyes makes it even more delicious. When in a restaurant waiter takes a sizzling delicious-looking dish to some table we tend to order it to just because of its eye-catching presentation.
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