Pita, Tabbouleh & Manakesh (zaatar pizza)

   Pita bread

I've tried doing this with varying results. I'm going to try the 3rd recipe below and flip over more frequently as per 2nd video.

I'm interested in that as I've just made another batch of hummus and need some bread to go with it.

Along with that there is this video that uses a single elment like my crepe maker, so I'll be giving this a try too:

Comments
I found the frying pan method not successful, the bubbles were very thin and burned when turned over, so it didn't puff.
I think my breads were too thin, the diameter was bigger than the 6" suggested.
The air fryer worked fine, when, at 200 deg C for 4-5 minutes, I'd sliced the rings into 3 seperate bits and fitted them in. If I left them too long it didn't work.
The ones from the frying pan did not puff up after getting the holes in the air fryer.
the air fryer ones wern't hat brown but are fine.
I'm freezing the good stuff and keeping the unsuccessful ones out to use up.
I'd definitely do again. Not too much prep to do.
Thoughts
I'll give this another crack, the ones in the air dryer worked well.
i'm getting a laser thermometer from ali Express so will give that a try out for skillet temperature (as per John Kirkwoods method).
Also, in this chaps videos he flips the bread over every 15-30 seconds so makes it brown more evenly. In one of his vids he even put it in the oven.

Recipe:

Ingredients:
 2 cups of all purpose flour
 1 tablespoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm water 

Mix wet and dry separate, then in mixer with dough hook. About 15 min to mix
Then rest for 1 hr
chop into portions- shape round/flat, cover , rest 10-15 min
Roll out into shape, let rest 15m in then heat in skillet and turn until they puff up

The crepe maker method 

The first was perfect, with a tablespoon of yeast the dough wanted to rise all the time, it had the hour, 15 min and a 3rd 15 min after the roll. Unfortunately the other 3 did not puff out as the first, nice to eat but not pita pockets at all. They were on the large size, maybe I should split into 6 instead of 4 and try again in air fryer. The ones I made barely fitted onto the griddle.
When warm, definitely chewy and a nice texture, but I still haven't got this right yet. I want some consistency like the ciabatta.

2nd attempt, 13th Dec 2019

 I tried cutting into 6 balls and making smaller sized pita breads, I also didn't roll out too thin either.
Also , for both rest periods I put on baking paper and covered to let rise, that seemed to work fine.
About 3 of 6 actually puffed up, although I think one mistake I made was to leave on first side for too long as this allows for thin bubble on top, so after putting on one side flip over after 15-30 secs so that other side outside has time to firm up, that means puffiness in the middle, not a thin outer element. All look good so I'll freeze 4 and keep 2 for a hummus pottle. Photos above.

3rd attempt 25th Dec

The video belows shows how to turn the bread so it puffs. I made much larger and thinner bread and did what this lady did which was rotate the bread and flip it a bit and all the 4 pieces puffed almost completely.  

  4th attempt 28th april 2020

 

This  one suggests 1/2 cup wholemeal flour and 2 cups all purpose flour, apparently wholemeal makes it roll better. Will try this one.
I'm really happy with this as the lady cuts up and stores some for later, so you make it fresh when you want it.
It is a bit wheaty but tastes fine and puffs beautifully. Works great with the pancake hotplate. 

Tabbouleh

This is something that I haven't had or made for quite a long time. Its a lovely salad and I used to dig into it as a kid in the lebanon.
A lot of the western versions have way too much Burgher wheat. The lebanease vrsion is light on it, and that is what I'm used to.
On my morning walk I picked some flat leave parsley from the Town Belt, and I'll go and get some mint leaves fronm the Garden.
At the market I'd bought some cheap tomatoes but they were a bit soft, so I need to use them up. I'd thought I'd make some Bruchetta for some pizza toppings and breakfasts. But I'll use some up on this as the recipe below needs 4 tomatoes.
Also, I've frozen the lemons into cubes, the recipe asks for 1/2 cup of lemon, so I'll use 2 cubes.

So purchased items are Olive oil, onion and tomatoes. The rest I'd got in stock, in the garden or gathered (lemons for Zoe).
 I am wondering if I can freeze some of this, like the hummus. I'm finding the hummus really handy to take out of the freezer, with a bit of lebanease bread the night before and have for lunch. It would be good to see if the Tabbouleh would do this too.

 test

A delicious and refreshing  snack. Easy to put together , although it does have a number of elements. The parsley from the Town Belt is good because you need quite a lot of it.
I'll have to look to see what it'll go with. I'm not a great fan of Kofta (beef spiced balls) so maybe I'll look at Chicken to go with it.
I've split it into 4 and put 2 portions in the freezer, so it'll be interesting to see how that thaws.

In freezer 13th Dec 2019

 A bit liquidy when thawing to have. I'll drain it first thenm eat it. Still very appetising but not as good as fresh. Whereas the Frozen/thawed hummus is fine, I wouldn't notice the difference between fresh and frozen.

Manakesh - Zaater on pizza

 When I was taking Manu down the vege market on sundays I saw that there was a cart that was selling zaater on pizza for $14, which I thought was a bit expensive.
After my success with the Tabbouleh I'll give this a crack.
The video below makes 5 portions , so I can freeze the doughballs for later.
There is a spice shop in Kilbirnie, I'll go and see if they have any za'arter there.

 

Ingredients:

 For the dough:

 2 cups all purpose flour
 150 ml warm water
 2 tbsp oil
 1 tsp dried yeast
 1 tsp salt
 1 tsp sugar

 300 grams akkawi or mozzarella cheese
 1 1/2 tbsp dried thyme with sesame seeds (middleeastern thyme mix)
eeastern thyme mix)
 3 tbsp oil

Another vid:

I made some small ones and put them in the air fryer, worked fine, and a tasty snack.
So I made small dough balls that can be rolled out for the air fryer. I have a little bit of zaater  so that was handy.
Of the mixture from 2 cups of flour I got 10 dough balls, so currently 8 in the freezer.

Capturing recipe

I took a screenshot of the video recipe 

 and then used the online OCR tool   https://www.onlineocr.net/

I was a bit concerned the background may have messed up the text but it came out great. I'll do that more frequently. A good workflow.

Knitting part 1

For some reason I thought i'd like to learn knitting. Uncle Bills sells wool, so I thought I'd get a roll and give it a crack.
So I decided to consult with Mr YouTube and found a guy explaining it in this video:

So, I think its worth a try for a couple of knitting needles and a skien of wool to give it a try.

I got some multi-coloured wool (acrylic) from Uncle Bill's and needles from the Warehouse. On the side of the wool is the needle size (diameter) that the wool needs to be used with.
The basic exercise is to do a scarf. I thought this video looked cool:

On trying to follow the video I found it hard being a left hander, so I found this video for lefties to follow:

I then followed  that and found it easier. I got the wool on the 1st needle but am struggling to

Sourdough Ciabatta (baguette) & Potatoe Gratin

Friday I had a hankering for fish and chips. I haven't had a takeaway for a while now, so I thought, why not? $10 for 2 fish and half a scoop of chips (even then I throw some away). I love chip butties when I do this, so I buy a sliced white bread, preferably super thick.
I was looking for some new bread recipes and  thought about a sandwich bread.
 So looking on John Kirkwoods YouTube site came acrossa recipe for that and one for:

Sourdough Ciabatta.

This is a really wet mixture and also it needs a lot of rising time, 2 rises of 1 hour and 1 rise of 1 1/2 hours. So 3 1/2 hours of risings. A long process. But I'm interested in the results.
After the 3rd rise it was really wet so I used quite a lot of flour on the outside.

 Ingredients

• The poolish
• 200g / 7oz Bottled or filtered water
• 200g / 7oz strong white bread flour
• 200g / 7oz Sourdough starter
• The main recipe
• 250g / 9oz Strong white bread flour
• 140g / 5oz Bottled or filtered water
• 8g / 1tsp Salt

Method

To start the recipe; make the poolish a few hours or the day before.

• Add the poolish ingredients to a bowl, mix well, cover, and leave at room temperature for several hours; I make mine the night before.
• Next day or a few hours later, add rest of the flour and water and salt, plus the poolish to your stand mixer bowl (see the video for the best way to do this).

 After resting 20 min before baking they were still very soft and sticky, in fact they had oozed out the ends.
They did not puff up as much as the ones in the video. Still have to do a taste test.

Conclusion

Not that great for trying. The normal Ciabatta is straighforward. This one wasn't worth the extra messing around.

Sourdough Bagguette

There also seems to be an article on baguettes that I may try anotther time
https://profoodhomemade.com/sourdough-baguettes/

 

• The Poolish
• 200g / 7oz Water  (bottled or filtered water is better as the Chlorine in tap water will slow down or even kill the sourdough yeast)
• 50g / 2oz of your sourdough starter
• 200g / 7oz Strong white bread flour
• The Main baguette recipe
• The made up poolish (see above)
• 520g / 18.3oz Strong white bread flour
• 320g / 11.3oz Cold water  (bottled or filtered is better )
• 8g / 1tsp Salt

Potatoe Gratin (dolfin potatoes)

I like these, I'd got a bunch of spuds and thought I'd use them before heading North to see Zoe & Karl's new place, so I'd been thinking of doing this recipe and googled this one:
https://www.recipetineats.com/potatoes-au-gratin/
I didn't have cream but decided to do with milk. Also it didn't have onion in and I like it with onion too. So its currently in oven for 75 minutes. This is a different one to Mary's where she's boiled the potatoes with cream and milk then put into dishes.
I made 2 dishes, so I'll freeze one for later and have the rest in the week.
Conclusion
 I did too much and not enough prep. I didn't have cream and it was a bit of a dissapointment. I threw a lot away.
If I do it again I'll boil it all up in a pot first, that was the way Mary did it, and it worked much better.
Somethinkg i love , but need to do it properly. Not totally sure about the freezing of it with all the cream and cheese, but on warming up it was nice.

Brews 10, 11, 12 & 13, Mexican Cervesa , a European Lager, draught & Dark Ale

I went shopping sunday 6th october and ended buying a few brew bits.
First off, I went to Pak'n'Save and got a Draught Extract. I needed that first so that when I go to the Brew house I know what enhancers to get to go with them.
PaK'n'Save generally only have the basic range from Coopers, but they do have the Mexican Cervesa which is in the next range ($18.50  per can).
Then I decided to check out Countdown Newtown as I was going to the Brew House for some PET bottles. They had a European Lager & Mexican Cervesa can's on special for $15.50 so I thought I'd get them. Also the Enhancer 2 packs were on special at $8 instead of $10 so I got a couple of those too.
Then when I went to Brew House I got some Finings ($13.50 for 10 doses) and also some PET bottles (2 lots of 15) and some enhancers. One for the Draught and one for the Cervesa as that needed the Coopers Enhancer 3 which I diddn't have, so I got a Pilsner blend for that.
 Overall, I only meant to get one can of something for the brew after the stout but came away with 3. Since the upper range ones were on special I thought it was worth it. I'm still interested in an IPA but may have to go to a more expensive kit for that.
For the moment I have a brew on and 4 cans, so lots of brewing todo. So I will only be needing bottles for a while.

Draught. I was looking on a blog to see difference between draught and lager and as I'd thought , a draught is when its poured from a keg/tap, rather than a bottle, so not necessarily a type of beer, rather a way its dispensed. Anyway, I think its an Ale.
So lookup Ale v Lager, apparently different yeasts. The Ale yeasts are active at top of fermentation, and the Lager types are active at the bottom of the fermentation.

Cervesa wed 13th Nov

Finally got around to bottling the Stout that I'd set up before going up to Zoe's. So that is now bottled and so I did the Cervesa. I noted that you could use the Enhancer 2 by Coopers for it (I initially thought that it was for the European Lager but that needs Enhancer 3,  so I set up the fermentation for that.
I really enjoyed the Lager I made before, maybe the physical work at Zoe's or else a crisper brew than the Real Ale. So I'll look forward to the Cervesa. OG was 1038. I did add about 300g of Dextrose to the enhancer as well, I thought it might have had a slightly higher OG, but it didn't.

 Tuesday 26th Nov- bottling

FG was 1012, a bit higher than I thought it would be , so  only about 3.4% alc/vol, although Coopers Calc puts it at 4% ish.  I used finings and hopefully the beer will be clear, we'll see in 2 weeks.
I had over 40 bottles so used them for bottling.

European Lager Tuesday 26th Nov

So, on to the next batch.  This time I've used about 300g of Dextrose and the Pilsner Brewblend.
A bit of a different method of mixing. I ended up putting in the dextrose, brewblend and the can of extract all together before the hot water, it was a bit lumpier, but there was not as much extract up the sides of the barrel . There was a bit of clotting with the Dextrose I think, but I gave it a vigerous mix and it all seemed desolved.
OG of 1040

After a week I checked on the beer. It had been smelly for quite a few days, I'd taken the top off the air trap and put it on the hose that I have venting into the roof space. On trying to do the FG (1010) it was really really cloudy and still smelt a lot.
On looking on the web it says:

Sulfur/Hydrogen Sulfide

Tastes/Smells Like:
Sulfur, burning match, rotten egg, raw sewage Possible Causes:
Hydrogen sulfide, which is the chemical responsible for giving sulfur its unpleasant smell, is naturally produced by all yeast during fermentation. Many lager yeasts
can create overwhelming sulfur-like aromas. Ale strains generally make such small amounts that the odor is unnoticeable. How to Avoid:
During fermentation, the production of hydrogen sulfide is inevitable. Co2 will carry most of the hydrogen sulfide away. Conditioning or lagering after primary fermentation is complete should make any left over sulfur smells or tastes fade over time.

from this website.

So maybe its just this Lager. It says to maybe cool it down and slow the fermentation. I'll keep an eye on the FG and maybe leave it in the cupboard for a week more and also use the finings. I hope it hasn't got a bacteria infection (other possible source of issue through contamination).
It was still reading 22 deg C for the brew, and puting it up on the counter it was still bubbling through the trap. So maybe its too warm.
There is a process called lagering, where you cool it down, but that is a lot of liquid to try and cool, so I've taken the towels off it and left it in the airing cupboard. I may have to move it to a cooler part of the house later.

I may pause after this as I seem to have a large stockpile of beer, and the last one is a Draught, so no rush for that at the moment.
I just hope this one is not mogadored.

Bottling on 12th Dec 

I put finings in and left for a few more days and it seemed to settle down. Still at 22 deg C in the cupboard. So willl wait a couple of weeks and see what it tastes like.
No real smell at bottling stage, so hopefully all that smelly stuff was needed and has now gone away so I get a lovely lager.

Draught Thursday 12th Dec.

Decided to carry on brewing, but leave for a bit longer, so the beer can sit for a few weeks and plastic cask age. I've got too much beer at the moment, so need to drink some, otherwise i'm stock piling it. As it is I have 11 x 8 = 88 of .75l bottles isn the store, so need to start doing something about that, maybe start getting a few of each out and reducing the stockpile. I've also got a couple of cases under the table in the kitchen. Plus the latest batch and this one brewing.
Still not sure what a draght is, I suppose its an ale.

So current brew has 1 Can Coopers Draught, plus Brew House 1.125kg Big body brewblend plus .33kg of Dextrose (just to boost up alc level) so instead of 1.038 og its 1.042. This means hopefully its about standard Alc/vol for beers (some woked out about 3.5% which is a bit weak).
Anyway, all in the barrel, now I just need to ut vent in and leave. For the last one I used the hose to vent into roof space, I'll try that again, so airing cupboard hopefully has less odours. This one has lots of food for the yeast, so hopefully it will chew through all of that quickly as temp is about 22 deg C at this time of year.

Smoothie blender and mixer & smooth hummus

I had a couple of mini chopper/blenders for making hummus and salsas. One died, it was the more powerful of the two and more complicated to use, it allowed for pulsing and would make the blade go backwards on one setting. So, I had the more convenient one, but a bit weak. So I was looking out for another that was simple to us, cheap and would do heavy chopping.
Mary had a Nutribullet and they have quite gutsy motors and I thought I might get one of those as a substitute, as if you try to chop up a paua in one it buggers the motor, that is pretty tough to turn into a paua fritter.
Anyway, whilst at Brisco's looking for a lemon juicer, there was a deal on for a Zip blender that would make smoothies for 30$. A lot of the neutribullet type ones are about $100.
I like to try these type of things out, but I dodnt like paying a lot of money for them, especially if I don't end up using them.

So I decided to give this one a try as a smoothie blender plus also as a chopper upper.
The cup itself is narrow and deap, which is a bit irritating, but a long spoon will get to the bottom of  it.
The actual narrow vessel appealed to me as an alternative to a coffee cup to take on a walk. I can try to put this in my  jacket pocket to take for a drink on a walk instead, something cool instead of coffee.

 Hummus and Salsa (and paua?) blender

Not really for hummus as you need lots of liquid to make it work, also because its deep it might be hard to get a lot of it out. It might work for Salsa, but the blitzer does that fine.
Hummus recipe that looks really good as per this chaps videos:

This recipe is more like the lebanease hummus I'm used to, so adding garlic and 2 lemons is definitely the way to go, a more runny mix and more tart too. Very nice. I'll follow this recipe next time.
I'll also try some salsa recipes, although I quite like to weaker blender for that.

 Prices of produce.

its starting to warm up and i was going to buy a cabbage for making coleslaw. In Pak'n'Save it was 3.75 for a cabbage so I thought I'd go to the vege market and get some fruit and veges there. So things are cheaper, some about the same as supermarkets, but well worth going for the deals you can get. The cabbage was $2. But then I give the change to the Shelter people, so in the end I think its about the same price. But some cheaper fruits (apples/oranges) are definitely cheaper nand they are good for the blender, and that will be an addition to my diet.

Smoothie Recipes 

The gizmo comes with some recipes:

So far I've tried an apple & orange mix, but it needs liquid otherwise the bottom pieces pulp and the top bits just sit at the top. So I added some water, vanilla essence & milk and it was very nice.
I'm not sure how it'll do with ice cubes , I'll need to give it as try as I've just taken one of the bags of lemon I got from Zoe and put it into ice cubes (it made 10 quite big cubes. That will add a zing to the smoothies.

SUMMER AND FRUIT & ICECREAM MILKSHAKES

 With summer coming along there will be more fruit, Kiwi's pears (which normally I can leave but maybe the'll work in with smoothies. Also adding some icecream to them may be a way of making thickshakes with fruit (this may not be too healthy a contraption, now I think about it).
Anyway, I'll add some links to some recipes and see what works.

So far dec 2nd

I've been making a few as I bought some oranges and apples. I've been using milk and water as the fluid although adding some lime cordial in adds a punch.
I've bought some vanilla ice cream and put that in with the fruit and its a nice refreshingly cool drink, althoufgh thick.
Also, I've been taking it out on walks, coffee in one pocket, smoothy in the other.
I've used the lemon ice cubes, although I've tried to melt them first.
I found a whole lot of kiwi fruit in the freezer, I have a few bags of that, so I'm using those, taking some out and letting them melt.
Its a good way to get cheap fruit into me. I'm not a fan of apples, pears or oranges (too messy to peel/eat) but they are easy in the smoothie maker.
I've been trying some cheap coke and lemonade I'd bought for trying the beer mixers (totally unsuccessful) and the lemonade works well.
I need to stock up on cheap fruit when I go shopping as it adds a bit of something drink wise.

Sourdough Sandwich loaf & Sandwich loaf(yet to try)

A couple of weeks ago I had a hankering for Fish and Chips, so went to the local chipper to get some. I have a bit of a pommy habit of having Chip butties with them, so went across and boaght a white sliced loaf. As I make most of my bread at the moment, either Ciabatta or Baguettes from John Kirkwoods recipes this is a rare occurance.


Anyway, it got me thinking about making a sandwich bread. I looked up John Kirkwoods recipe for it and saw that he also had one for Sourdough Sandwich bread:

After being up country and leaving my sourdough startewr, which I mainly use for pancake mix nowerdays, I have been thinking ofdisposing of the sourdough starter.
Then I thought I'd try this recipe so decided to try it out.
It has the polish sponge that you put away the night before and after mixing ingredients in mixer there are just 2 rises, so a bit like the other breads I make. If the process is similar its worth a try.

Well, my adaptation was not as good. First, I had 2 baking tins, one metal and one silicone. The metal  one has a little rust on the bottom, and i use it for putting ice cubes into in the oven for steam.
Anyway the bread expanded sideways instead of being even, so it bloats in the middle. Its also splitting a bit in the vertical direction, I think because it hadn't risen much in the tin rise (of 1 hour in the oven slightly warmed).
I decided to put some seseme seeds on the top, as that is my current method.
After 30 minutes on 180 degrees C this is what it looks like.

I've sprayed it again and put it in for a further 5 minutes to brown, not in the tin. I've sprayed it, like I would the Ciabatta and baguettes. Then another 4, then another 4, it didn't get much browner than the first 5 minutes.

Now wait for 1/2 hour to let it cool down before I can taste.

Conclusion
I'm finding the sourdough starter not really giving very good results. I'll think about going back to Pam's yeast, that seems far more reliable and consistent.
I had some after letting it cool down and it was lovely, but all bread does after coming fresh out of the oven. In the morning I made some bacon and omelet sandwiches and the bread was very sour. There was a lingering flavour that I didn't like.
I did an extra hour rise on it and mabe that gave it the extra sourness. Also, I'd just topped up the sourdough starter after using it for pancakes that morning, and although just mixed it was not as gluey as it normally is after a week. Also it didn't seem to rise as much as the video, so that is why I gave it a 2nd rise.
Overall this is not something I'd rush back to do. I'll keep what I have and see if its any better toasted.
I've decided to make the recipe below, with one heaped teaspoon of yeastit will rise a lot faster than thios one. 

Basic Sandwich Bread recipe. I need to try this one instead

The video of basic sandwich bread. Dissapointed with the sourdough one above I decided to have a go at this one.

Ingredients
430g / 15.2 oz of Strong White Bread Flour
245g / 8½ oz of Warm Water 40°C / 104°F
 20g / 1½ tbls of Vegetable or Olive Oil
 7g / 1 heaped tsp of Active Dried Yeast
 9g / 1½ tsp of Kosher Salt or 6g / 1 tsp of Table Salt
 6g / 1 tsp of Granulated Sugar

It mixes well, and I've just got its first rise on the benchtop, and that went pretty quick at 30 minutes, so I've buttered and oiled the baking pan and put timer on for 20 minutes, so I can heat the oven whilst it does the last 10 minutes of the 30 min proofing.
It did not rise that much in the tin, but it baked well and browned better than the loaf above. After cooling for 30 minutes I tried a sandwich. It was crusty on the end piece and soft.
The proof will be in trying it tomorrow. 

Vanilla Extract

I have been experimenting with mint extract and left some in a bottle with some alcohol for quite a while and in the end used it as an aromatic in the bathroom. It evapourated quite quickly but was very pleasant.

I'd watched John Kirkwoods video on Vanilla Extact, quite a while back, and thought it was a good idea. I use vanilla essence when I'm making pancakes.

 PART 1. MAKING THE ESSENCE

Mary told me Vanilla pods came from Sri Lanka and I didn't think any more about it. Today though, I was down the sunday vege market at the Waterfront and there was someonew selling Vanilla pods, apparently they grow them in the Cook Islands, so I thought I'd give making a vanilla essence a try.
The prices of the pods were from $1 to $4. The $1 ones were for making in to essences , so I bought 3 of them. 
I've got a couple of old glass bottles that did have Vanilla Essence in them, so I used one for this exercise, it is 50ml.
 I chopped up the pods and put them in the bottle then poured in Gin. Unfortunately I did not watch the video above first, so only chopped them up, I didn't split them leanthways to increase the surface area and expose the inside.
 I only have Gin so used that instead of vodka, but any alcohol in a storm.
So, I've put the bottle in a cupboard with the coffee with today's date on it,so I'll shake it every day for the next 3 months then give it a try.

PART 2 . TESTING IT

To be continued in 3 months