Pizza..3 ways!

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Don't you just love certain things in life more than others?? And don't you "need" somethings more too??
I am not talking sappy stuff like I usually do for a change..I am talking hard,real,practical,materialistic "Things" so to say...
You know what I need the most???
Air Conditioner. And Electricity.
My life, Me, and my brain all come to a stand still without electricity.... All I wanna do is give my eternal thanks to the person/persons who discovered electricity..



So one fine day, I decided to make Pizza..Remember this is my first bread baking experiment...I got up all energized, toppings already in mind, dough recipe sorted out, all cheery and excited to finally give baking breads a go..



And everything was behaving as it should..
Mr.Dough , the tough guy of the pizza familia, doubled up as it was supposed to...I assume I must have rubbed his ego the right way ;)
I had ample topping options in the fridge..presumably waiting for the day the lazy S would get in the groove and bake ...
I was getting a craving for greasy cheesy dinner like I hadn't in a long long time..
And lil monkey D was wayyyy more excited than me at the idea of me baking the pizza...Oh, and you should have seen her face when she saw the doubled up dough and me knocking it back!!
Remind me to take a picture of those priceless moments for future reference..and not just food pics..( Rolling my eyes at my own stupidity)



So imagine the state I must be in, when just as I am getting ready to roll it out, out goes the power!!!! :O
OMG ..I know OMG isn't the done thing in blogging...but this sure was a OMG moment...and some other "choice phrase" kind of moment too :P
Apparently our city electricity department had chosen that day to do maintenance! And power wouldn't come till evening.
Are you freaking kidding me???? Thats what I told those buncha goons when I called..



After walking and yelling..and swearing and hand wringing, I decided it simply wasn't meant to be...that this was an ominous sign that I wasn't supposed to bake bread...that I wasn't the chosen one...
That followed with a rather teary and angry call to Piyush, blaming him for moving me from my beloved Bangalore to this dusty hot lil hick town Raipur where power cuts still happen!! And no..I wasn't buying the logic that its happening all over Delhi, Mumbai and heck, even Bangalore!
That followed with another outburst at not having repaired the darn inverter... and lets just suffice it to say the completely rational ranting went on for sometime,till P had to be pulled away for an urgent meeting..or so he says! :P



With no one else left to yell at for my predicament, I talked myself into getting calm.
"Hmmm... Deep Breaths S.. Deep Breath.In with the good, out with the bad"

But guess what?
May be I was meant to bake after all..The power come on an hour early...and I nearly cried at the thought of being able to make, and take pics of crs!!! Yay....



Patience is a virtue after all, of course a lil bit of swearing just proves I am no Gandhi :D
So here goes, My delicious ,thin crust ,amazingly golden and crunchy yet soft pizza base..with homemade Pizza Sauce and 3 way toppings..

I will you the recipe for all three..So don't get too bogged down by the long list of ingredients..
You can choose to go with one topping too (but obviously)
I just love drama ..and well, we all have different faves in my house,and poor me has to slog extra to make sure all three of us are well fed! :(


Here goes :

Ingredients:

For the Pizza Dough :
2cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
75ml warm water..not lukewarm...(should be 110-115deg)
35-40 ml oil.. (I used a mix of regular vegetable oil and Olive Oil)


For the Pizza Sauce :
1 can tomato puree
2 tomatoes blanched and  chopped fine
1 small onion
4-5 cloves of garlic
4-5 peppercorns
1 tbsp chopped parsley
some Italian Seasonings, Salt, Sugar (1tsp)
Olive Oil
Water.


For the Toppings:
1.Chicken Tikka - Will post the recipe soon
2. Three Pepper & Olives
3. Babycorn and Grilled Pineapple..

Dried Oregano,
Dried (or fresh if you are lucky) basil
Tomatoes.
Olives
Babycorn
Red,Yellow,Green Bell Peppers
Onion
Red chillie flakes
Mozarella Cheese

Method :
1st step:
Make the dough.



  • In large bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water; let stand for 5 minutes.
  • Add oil and salt. Stir in flour, a cup at a time, until a soft dough forms.
  • Turn onto floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 2-3 minutes. 
  • Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes. 
  • After the stipulated time,Punch down dough; divide in half. I further halved one of the halves.. so I ended up with 1 big pizza, 2 smaller ones..you can make it as per your wish. 
  • Roll out gently till you reach the desired thickness..I was going for a medium thin crust.. 
  • Put each into a floured pizza pan. 
  • Spread over the pizza sauce liberally, leave an 1 inch margin around the edges.. 
  • Spread as much or less of cheese as you wish to,.. 
  • Top with your fave toppings,  
  • Bake at 200deg C for 25-30 minutes or until crust is lightly browned. 

  • Method for the sauce:

    Method for toppings:
    1. Masaledaar/Spicy Chicken Tikka... My personal favorite. Recipe will follow in another post
    2. Cut the veggies into strips and chunks as per your taste. I did both.
    3. Grate the cheese.

    Assembly:
    Slice and Serve,
    Watch'ya waiting for??  ;)

    Love,
    An over the moon,
    S :)