Enjablog

Pita

Ingredients
1 1/8 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

Directions
1. For those of you without a bread machine, proof dry yeast in warm water with the sugar (about 10 minutes).
2. When foamy add oil and pour into the flour that has already been mixed with salt.
3. Knead by hand or machine until it’s smooth and elastic. You should have a moderate dough (not soft and not firm, in the middle). Don’t worry if it’s a little sticky. You can add flour when rolling out if needed.
4. Let it rise for 1.5 hours (until dough had doubled in size)
5. Cut dough into 8 equal pieces and roll into 6-7″ circles.
6. Cook on med/med-high in a frying pan on the stove like a pancake, but without any butter or oil. Takes about 1-2 minutes per side; bubbles were starting to form on the uncooked side when I flipped and were done when just starting to brown in spots.

Spicy Chickpeas and Spinach

I kind of made a mesh of these two recipes: Spicy Chickpea and Spinach Curry and Pakistani Spicy Chickpeas.

Stephanie made something similar to this a while back when I visited for dinner one evening and I really liked it. She got me some curry and cumin so I could make it myself. She assured me it was easy, but it sounded like a lot of ingredients so I didn’t end up making it until now. I should’ve listened to her!

Ingredients
2 (15 ounce) cans garbanzo beans, drained
2 (15 ounce) cans tomato paste or canned tomatoes
1 onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon curry
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 cups frozen spinach

Directions
1. Put all ingredients except for spinach in slow cooker. Cook on high (3-4 hours).
2. Mix in spinach about 30 minutes before serving.

Falafel

Last week, Ian and I visited Sonny and Anna twice for doggy play dates. As part of these outings, Anna cooked dinner for us. It seemed like something they did often… you know, this cooking at home thing.

I asked Anna if she cooked the same things every week or if she made weekly meal plans to have all the ingredients on hand, etc. She does a weekly meal plan with 3 or 4 recipes she wants to try out. I was so impressed that I asked her to email me her meal plans so I could try some of her recipes too! Although, now that I think about it, she should really start a food blog.

In any case, one of the recipes for this week was falafel. I had no idea it was something I could make at home! I combined her recipe with one for Falafel Burgers for tonight. We’ll see how they turn out…

Ingredients
2 cups canned chickpeas, drained
1/2 large onion, roughly chopped (about 1 cup)
2 tablespoons parsley flakes
1 teaspoon salt
1/2-1 teaspoon dried hot red pepper
4 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon baking powder
4-6 tablespoons flour
Soybean or vegetable oil for frying
Tahini
Pita bread

Directions
1. Place chickpeas and the onions in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the parsley, cilantro, salt, hot pepper, garlic, and cumin. Process until blended but not pureed.

2. Sprinkle in the baking powder and 4 tablespoons of the flour, and pulse. You want to add enough bulgur or flour so that the dough forms a small ball and no longer sticks to your hands. Turn into a bowl and refrigerate, covered, for several hours.

3. Form the chickpea mixture into small patties.

4. Heat enough oil to cover the bottom of a large skillet over medium heat. Place the burgers in the hot skillet, and fry for about 5 minutes on each side, until nicely browned.

Ian and I went through a phase a while back where we were making and eating a lot of hummus. This lead to a costco trip one day where we thought it was a good idea to buy a can of garbanzo bean. You know, one of the 110oz cans.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. A good value, etc.

So after snowmageddon and snowpocalypse, I decided today was the day. Inspired by my sister-in-law and my future sister-in-law, I made a chickpea curry for dinner tonight, started falafels for tomorrow night, and have containers of chickpeas for other dishes, depending on which recipes we like. I also made about 3 cups of hummus for snacking.

And with all these chickpeas, I figured I would also take a crack at making some pitas. So I found a recipe online that sounded promising and tried it out.

And as it turned out, they were pretty easy to make. So after the first few, I tried making a pocket pita: