Pita Breads with Chicken and Mushrooms

Ingredients: 4 pita breads, 1 chicken breast, 2 tablespoons tomato ketchup, 2 tablespoons sweet soy sauce, 1 teaspoon chilli jam, 1 garlic clove, 1 onion, 250 grams mushrooms,

Number of persons: 2

Marinate 1 diced chicken breast in a marinade of 2 tablespoons tomato ketchup, 2 tablespoons sweet soy sauce, 1 finely chopped garlic clove and 1 teaspoon sambal. Let the chicken breast marinate for 1 night. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and bake the pita breads in 5 minutes as indicated on the packaging. Bake in hot oil 1 chopped onion to soft. Add the marinated chicken breast and stir fry about a minute or 5. Finally, add 250 grams sliced mushrooms and stir fry until the mushrooms are tender. Fill the pita breads with chicken mixture. Serve the pita breads with a salad. Enjoy!

Chicken Curry with Pita Breads

Ingredients: 4 pita breads, 1 onion, 3 garlic cloves, 1 chilli pepper, cumin, ginger powder, cardamom, cinnamon, turmeric, coriander leaves, 2 chicken breasts, 1 tin diced tomatoes, salt, pepper, 2 tablespoons mango chutney, 200 ml coconut milk,

Number of persons: 2

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and heat the pita breads about 8 minutes. Bake in hot oil 1 chopped onion and 3 finely chopped garlic cloves until the onion is soft. Add 1 chilli pepper and the spices cumin powder, ginger powder, cardamom, cinnamon, turmeric and coriander leaves to own taste. Add 2 diced chicken breast and stir fry around brown. Add 1 tin diced tomatoes and let it all simmer on low heat for about 25 minutes. Then add 2 tablespoons mango chutney and 200 ml coconut milk. Let it again simmer for about 15 minutes. Serve with the pita breads. Enjoy!

Pita Breads with Chicken and Apple

Ingredients: 4 pita breads, 1 chicken breast, 1 garlic clove, 3 spring onions, 2 tomatoes, 1 apple, 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 100 ml stock, 100 cream

Number of persons: 3

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Bake the pita breads about 4 minutes. Bake in hot oil 1 diced chicken breast golden brown. Add 1 finely chopped garlic clove, 3 spring onions sliced in rings, 2 diced tomatoes and 1 peeled and diced apple. Stir fry a few minutes. Add 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 100 ml stock and 100 ml cream. Bring to the boil briefly and then let it simmer on medium heat for about 10 minutes. Fill the pita breads with chicken breast-apple mixture. Enjoy!

Pita Breads with Chicken Breasts and Lettuce

Ingrediënten: 6 pita breads, 2 chicken breasts, cumin, cinnamon, salt, lettuce, cucumber, garlic sauce,

Number of persons: 3

Preheat the oven for the pita breads. Bake the pita breads according the instructions on the packaging. Cut 2 chicken breasts into cubes and season the diced chicken breast with cumin, cinnamon and salt to taste. Bake the diced chicken breast brown in hot oil. Cut the pita bread sopen and fill with lettuce, slices cucumber and some diced chicken breast. Add garlic sauce and serve (pretty easy on a hot summer day!)

Middle Eastern Pita Salad

Another refreshing dinner… this one is super quick to prepare. The only cooking involved is toasting the pita chips, how much easier does it get? If you can eat it (sigh), top it with feta cheese for an added kick. We eat it as a main dish with a side of basmati rice, but it could also be a great side dish for something else.

Middle Eastern Pita Salad

Recipe from Epicurious

INGREDIENTS
1/2 seedless cucumber, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
1-1/2 large (7-inch) pita loaves, cut into bite sized pieces
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, or to taste
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 red bell pepper, cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 tomato, chopped fine
1/4 cup thinly sliced scallion
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint leaves

DIRECTIONS
In a sieve sprinkle the cucumber with a pinch of salt, let it drain for 20 minutes, and pat it dry. While the cucumber is draining, in a baking pan bake the pita pieces in the middle of a preheated 325°F oven, shaking the pan occasionally, for 18 to 20 minutes, or until they are golden brown and crisp, and let them cool slightly.

In a large bowl whisk together the oil, the lemon juice, the garlic, and the salt and pepper to taste, whisking until the dressing is emulsified, stir in the bell pepper, the tomato, the scallion, the chopped mint, the pita pieces, the cucumber, and more salt and pepper to taste, and toss the salad to combine it well.

Turkey Ottoman Gyros and Homemade Pita Bread

Ok, so just because my last post was so – monumental? – doesn’t mean I’m ignoring you. We’ve still been cooking, and eating, and taking pictures of things… but surprisingly we’ve also been repeating things. Like that Darn Good Pasta Salad? Yea. Made it three times since I posted it. This gem of a red-lentil-soup? A few times more. And well, to be honest, sometimes I just want to sit down and eat something when we finish it, rather than spending time trying to take pretty pictures of a piece of fish that fell apart in the pan. Yes, that happens too.

Anyways, on to the food. Because that’s the reason we’re all here, right?

One good, new thing we made this week (well, mostly new) was this…. a twist on the typical gyros with homemade pita bread. For the gyro meat, we usedAlton Brown’s gyro recipe that we had made before… but seeing as ground lamb is not easy to find (can you tell I just LOVE our grocery store?) we used ground turkey instead. Not too bad – different flavor for sure, but good.

But the best part was the homemade pita bread…. made out of necessity, because when was the last time you actually had a really good pita bread from the grocery store? Thought so. They must have finally realized it too because our grocery store even stopped carrying them – completely. That or they just moved them. Either way, I couldn’t find them, and didn’t really want to eat them if I had, so I decided to make it myself.

I will never buy store brand pita bread again. It wasn’t too hard to make it, and the results were beyond delicious. Plus, you get to watch them do this in the oven:

So I guess that explains where the pocket comes from… another food mystery has been solved!

Sometimes the pocket worked, sometimes it didn’t. Even the pocket-less pitas were good, so don’t toss them! Some of ours also got a bit too crispy. I pressed as much steam out of them as I could without cracking them – but the recipe isn’t kidding when it says put in a plastic bag right away. The steam builds up inside the bag, and softens the bread into the pita bread you’ll recognize. For the really crispy ones – I first covered the bread with a damp tea towel. That softened it enough to get the pocket flatter, at which point I put it in the bag.

Homemade Pita Bread

Makes about a dozen. Recipe from About.

INGREDIENTS
1 package of yeast, or quick rising yeast
1/2 cup warm water
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 teapsoon salt
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 cup lukewarm water

DIRECTIONS
Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup of warm water. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Let sit for 10-15 minutes until water is frothy.

Combine flour and salt in large bowl. Make a small depression in the middle of lour and pur yeast water in depression. Slowly add 1 cup of warm water, and stir with wooden spoon or rubber spatula until elastic. Place dough on floured surface and knead for 10-15 minutes. When the dough is no longer stick and is smooth and elastic, it has been successfully kneaded.

Coat large bowl with vegetable oil and place dough in bowl. Turn dough upside down so all of the dough is coated. Allow to sit in a warm place for about 3 hours, or until it has doubled in size.

Once doubled, roll out in a rope, and pinch off 10-12 small pieces. Place balls on floured surface. Let sit covered for 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 500 deg F. and make sure rack is at the very bottom of oven. Be sure to preheat your baking sheet also.

Roll out each ball of dough with a rolling pin into circles. Each should be about 5-6 inches across and 1/4 inch thick.

Bake each circle for 4 minutes until the bread puffs up. Turn over and bake for 2 minutes. Remove each pita with a spatula from the baking sheet and add additional pitas for baking. Take spatula and gently push down puff. Immediately place in storage bags. Pita bread can be stored for up to a week in a pantry or bread box, and up to a month in the freezer. Be sure to use freezer bags when storing in the freezer.