http://www.spicychilly.com/2010/03/homemade-indian-flavoured-pizzas.html





Making a Pizza from scratch, rich in Indian flavours has been a long time dream for me.

And then Lavi announced the theme for the lovely event of Global Kadai and I was all set to venture this beautiful looking food.
Moreover, the overwhelming response from my dear blogger buddies in savoury buns, the recent post and the sudden expertise I gained in handling yeast on flour propelled me to come up with the fullest energy! :)

So here we go…

For the preparation of the Pizza Base I substituted Whole Wheat Flour with the regular All Purpose Flour.

Ingredients for the Pizza Base

A large cup of Wheat Flour (makes 2 medium sized pizzas)
¼-½ cup of Luke warm water
½ tsp active dry yeast
½ tsp each of sugar
A pinch of salt
2 tsps of Homemade Ghee(no olive oil here so as to make it more Indian) ;)

Mix ½ tsp of active dry yeast in ½ cup of luke warm water along with sugar and salt and kept it aside in a warm place undisturbed for 30 minutes.The frothy layer would have formed on top.(I used Hodgson Mill active dry yeast which works well with whole grain flours)


In a bowl containing the wheat flour, add the yeast solution as well as the melted butter and knead well into a soft pliable dough.Taste the dough and add more salt or sugar if you need.Brush melted butter on top the dough and keep it aside for 2 hours.The dough would have acquired double the size after this time.Punch down the dough to remove air and roll it out to make 1cm thick pizza base.I spread the dough with my fingers leaving the edge around a little thicker, since I preferred thin and crispy inside with soft and 'bready' edge.Prick it with a fork here and there and bake for 5-6 minutes in 180 deg C in a pre heated oven. Remove and keep aside the ‘pre baked’ pizza base.


Ingredients for the Pizza Sauce

A tbsp of oil
4 Ripe red tomatoes (less sour variety)-4- cut into bite sized pieces
1 Big onion
4-5 cloves of garlic
2-3 tbsps of water
½ tsp of dried herbs-I substitiuted Indian herbs- a few fresh Coriander and Tulsi leaves.
Salt- as needed
A pinch of freshly ground pepper


Chop onion and garlic, fry in the oil, red chillies next and the tomatoes.Saute until they turn soft and mushy.Add 2 tbsps of water if you want a runny sauce. Simmer.
Stir in the herbs,salt and pepper powder.Cool and grind to a smooth paste/sauce.

For The Topping, I used

Roasted Bell Pepper (insert a skewer across, roast in direct flame, rub off the black skin and cut into small cubes)


*Paneer Tikka ( I tried tawa method)- Scroll down for the recipe.

Corn

Roasted Bell Pepper- inspired by the post here.

Sliced Button Mushrooms

Finely minced Small Onions and Garlic

Homemade Ghee- drizzled here and there

Chilly flakes

Coriander leaves.

Cheese-I used mozarella cheese slices.



*Paneer Tikka

100 gms Paneer, cubed into 9 equal pieces.
A tsp of yogurt
1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste
A fewdrops of lime juice
1/4 tsp Chaat masala powder
1/2 tsp Tandoori masala
A pinch of Black pepper powder
Salt to taste
Ref oil to drizzle while cooking on Tawa

Mix the ingredients (except paneer) to form a thick paste.Marinate the paneer pieces with the paste evenly smeared (liberally) on them for half an hour.


Heat a tawa or a griddle and place the pieces 3-4 at a time.Drizzle a few drops of oil.




Turn the pieces carefully, so as to ensure that all the sides are cooked evenly and browned well on the surface. Repeat as batches.Once it cools down cut the chunks each into 9 pieces and use as the pizza topping.

Assembling the Pizza before Baking


Spread the Sauce over the pre baked pizza base. Sprinkle the toppings in the list in that order ending it up with cheese topping.Preheat the oven to 240 deg C , often the full blast in any oven. Bake the Pizza for abt 10-12mins or until the cheese melts. Check the pizza often to make sure it doesn't overcook or burn.

Remove from the oven and serve warm.

The roasted bell pepper, paneer tikka along with the crunchy bits of onion and garlic was Heaven, still bitten deep into the flavourful ghee enriched topping as well as the thin n crispy wheat flour base was YUM!..

Sounds delicious.

i m not a great cook but all i know is we dont use tulsi in this type of recipes.. it is more of medicinal use. we use coriander leaf and "curry patta" try googling with "curry leaves"