Veggie Flatbread Pizza with Bean puree

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Pixar has done it again - with 'UP' - a heart-touching story, amazing screenplay, with cleverest talking animals and what not! I absolutely adore the Russell kid in the movie. He is sooo cute!!!. The best part of the movie though was a lovely dialogue-free montage, in the beginning of the film which follows the sweet relationship of Carl Fredricksen and his wife Ellie - from their contented marriage to old age. It a highly recommended movie for everybody and I thoroughly enjoyed it!!



Today's recipe is kid's favorite too. Its pizza time folks but with a healthy bean puree twist. :)

Veggie Flatbread Pizza with Bean Puree (Adapted from here & here)

Ingredients:

For Flatbread dough -

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp instant dry yeast
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup of warm water (105-110 F)
1 tbsp olive oil

For Bean puree -

1 cup pinto beans, canned & rinsed
few rosemary sprigs
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 cup oil-drained sun-dried tomatoes
1 tbsp lemon juice
salt & pepper to taste
3 tbsp olive oil


For assembling Pizza:

I used - couple of small cherry tomatoes, chopped onion, bell pepper and mozzarella cheese.

Preparation:

Pizza dough:

In a large mixing bowl, add flour, instant dry yeast, salt and oil. Make a well in the middle and add water little by little to make a dough.
Remove from bowl and knead. Place in a clean oiled bowl and let rise, slowly, about 2 1/2 hours.
Knead, divide dough into 2 portions, let rise again for 1/2 hour, and then roll out as desired.

Bean Puree:

Add pinto beans, rosemary sprigs and onion to about 3-4 cups of water & bring it to a boil.
Puree drained beans and onion, sun-dried tomatoes and chopped rosemary in processor. Add oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, puree until smooth paste. if desired, add 1/2 cup boiling water while blending in the processor. Ready to served as a dip or a spread.

Veggie Flatbread pizza:

Pre-heat oven to 400 deg F.
Roll out the pizza dough into desired shape. I ended making a rectangular one. Lightly sprinkle the pizza peel (or a flat baking sheet) with corn meal. Place the flattened pizza base on to the baking sheet. Spoon on the bean puree, place the veggie toppings and sprinkle lots of cheese :). Bake for 10-15 minutes. Serve warm !!

Enjoy!

Before signing off, there is a sweet treat to you all - Blueberry Pound cake :) made by Shri, who is a very dear friend of mine!!

Have a great Sunday ahead.

Best,
Siri

Friday Humour...

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-- A married woman writes to a technical support guy --

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and I noticed a distinct slowdown in the overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewellery applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NEWS 5.0, MONEY 3.0 and CRICKET 4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system.

Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,
Married Woman

Tech Support Reply -

Dear Married M'am,

First, keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system.

Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewellery 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1. Please note that Beer 6.1 1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-In-Law 1.0 under any circumstances (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly.

You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance.

We recommend: Cooking 3.0 and Hot Looks 7.7.

Good Luck Madam!

Source: My friend's email.

Eggs in Purgatory

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Life has been a roller-coaster ride from past few weeks. It all started with heavy stress at work, resulting in slowly skipping of my meals, constantly worrying about upcoming deadlines and the result is something, which I never expected to happen to me. It was in those painful 2 weeks, that I felt leading a stress-free and healthy life is so important.

Now, my god's grace and early diagnosis of the problem, I am doing fine and that was when I pledged again not to let my work pressures to control my life.


...On another note, recently I received my copy of Sukham Ayu, authored by Jigyasa Giri and Pratibha Gain, which I ordered from Indira's blog. I was always intrigued by the goodness of Ayurveda and hopefully this book would be my stepping stone towards a healthy lifestyle which I am aspiring for. Here is a quick review about the book and I will get back with mine soon.

Coming today's recipe, it can be considered as the best breakfast dish ever. It is comforting, delicious and tasted amazing when served warm. 'Everyday Italian' is one of my favorite shows and this was an instant hit at my place. Give it a try sometime and I am sure you will surprised too about how well the flavors blend in with each other making it a hearty breakfast item. :)

Eggs in Purgatory (Adapted from Giada's recipe)

Ingredients:

For tomato base -

1 cup tomato puree
1 garlic pod
1/2 medium onion, very finely chopped
some fresh cilantro
salt - to taste
1 tsp olive oil
1 bay leaf
1 cup water


For Potato pancakes-

1 cup mashed potatoes
1/2 tsp paprika
salt - to taste
2 tbsp all-purpose-flour

For Fried egg-

2 eggs
salt & pepper

Preparation:

1. Tomato sauce - In a saucepan, heat oil and add bay leaf, minced garlic & onion. Saute for couple of minutes and then add tomato puree. Season it with salt and add about a cup of water and let it simmer on medium heat until the sauce thickens. Finally mix in fresh cilantro leaves and keep aside. [One can use store-bought marinara sauce and skip this step].

2. Potato pancakes: In a mixing bowl, stir in mashed potatoes with all-purpose-flour, salt and paprika. Heat some oil in a fry pan. Form the potato mixture into pancakes and shallow fry them until golden brown for 2 mins each side. Transfer the pancakes to paper towels to drain. Keep the pancakes warm on a baking sheet in the oven.

3. Fried eggs: In a heated pan, crack the eggs, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook until the white is firm for about 2 minutes. Turn the eggs over and cook for 30 sec longer.

4. Serve: Spoon the sauce on serving plate. Place a pancake on the top of sauce. Slide a fried egg on the top. [Sprinkle some cheese over the top].

Note: All the three - sauce, pancakes and fried egg are to be seasoned moderately or else the final dish might turn out to be too salty!

Enjoy!

Siri

AWED: May edition

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Image Credit: Scenery enroute from Batalegala - Kadugannawa Sri Lanka

"To me the beauty of Ceylon lies not so much in its blue seas and golden beaches, its jungles and its mountain peaks, as in its ancient atmosphere. There is no nation, from Egypt of the Pharaohs to modern Britain, in whose literature this island has not at some time been mentioned by one or other of its many names -- Lanka, Serendib, Taprobane, Cellao, Zellan, to recall a few. History lies buried in its sands, and ghosts of romance lurk among its bastioned rocks, for Lanka is very, very old."

~ D. J. G. Hennessy,
Green Aisles, 1949

Time sure flies. I can't believe its been almost an year that I last hosted my dear friend's lovely event - AWED. ..and this time I am back with another exciting theme for all of you and Yes, you guessed it right! in this month 's 'A Worldly Epicurean’s Delight', - we are touring through the scrumptious cuisine of 'the Pearl of Indian Ocean' - Sri Lanka :).



A simple google search came up with these links which provide us a varied variety of dishes that can be made out of this delectable cuisine. refer to this, this and this.

Here are some rules of participation:

1) Make any dish - Vegetarian (eggs allowed) and post the same in your blog and link back to this announcement and also to DK's blog. Feel free to use the logo.

2) Multiple entries are most welcome - the more the better!.

3) Take a snap of your yummy dish and send it across with any size.

4) Send me your Name, Recipe, Recipe URL, Photo to : info[dot]siri[at]gmail[dot]com

5) Last date for the entries are June 5th 2009.

6) Non-bloggers can also participate by sending their entries with the same details to the above email address.

Let's get cooking then.

signing off for now,
Siri