Perfect Pita Bread

A while ago, you might remember me saying I had some 5 or so different types of flour in my pantry. Well I think I'm down to maybe 4 now, thankfully as I'm not too impressed with our new house guests, the weevils, who think our flour supply is 'da bomb'. And it never ceases to amaze me, how many food items we can make ourselves here despite lacking certain ingredients or small ovens or natural elements being against us.

Jason has been messing around with a pita bread recipe for the last few months. His second to last go was pretty darn good with about 60% actually having the "pocket" inside! So when our friend called the other day, saying it was his wife's birthday and her choice of cuisine for the evening was Mediterranean, and could Jason do the pitas if our friend does the lamb?...well of course Jason couldn't say no. How many people? Um...20...which turned into 30...which at last count was 40 people. So bless his heart, he bit his lip and set to making pita bread from 9am to 5pm and boy does he look good kneading bread! Kneading the dough for more than 90 pitas is a fabulous upper-body work-out. Single guys reading this might like to take note -- as soon as you mention you can make bread, she will melt like putty in your arms! Well, I guess that's not the point really. The end of the story is that he had about a 95% success rate, his pitas where the hit of the party and the Chinese actually ate the Mediterranean food (after they stared it down and poked at it for about 1/2 hour), the dough apparently multiplied because we have left-overs (hooray!) and Jason has vowed never to make that many pita breads in one shot ever again!

For good measure and if you ever find yourself in a country where Mediterranean food is as scarce as hen's teeth, here's the recipe. (Oh, no! We're turning into a food blog!)

Jason's Pita Bread Recipe (aka But how do you get the pocket?)

250 grams or 1 4/5 cups white bread flour

250 grams or 2 cups and 2 tsp whole wheat flour

1 tsp fine sea salt

1 tsp yeast

1/2 tsp granulated sugar

300 mls water at body temperature

2 tbs vegetable oil, preferrably olive oil (but not if you're making for 40 people -- especially if they are Chinese)

*Sift the flours and the salt into a large bowl. Some grains from the whole-wheat flour will be caught in the sifter, tip them into the bowl and make a well in the centre. In a separate small bowl, cream the yeast and sugar with 1 tbs of the water. Add the yeast mixture and oil to the well in the flour, with enough of the water to make a firm but soft dough. Note: if you are using instant yeast, you can skip the creaming step.

*Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until it is smooth, supple, and elastic: about 15 minutes. It will be quite stiff at first but will stretch and become easier to work after a few minutes. Place it in a lightly oiled bowl, turn to coat evenly with oil, then cover with a damp dish towel and leave to rise for about 1 1/2 hours, until it has doubled in sizes.

*Divide the dough into eight pieces and shape each into a ball. Roll out on a lightly floured work surface to the characteristic pita oval, about 9 inches long and a quater-inch think. Cover with the dish towel again and leave to proof for about 20 minutes

*Punch down the dough, knead for 2-3 minutes, then rest, covered for 10 minutes.

*Preheat the over to 218 C or 425 F. Dust two baking sheets lightly with flour and preheat in the oven for 5 min. (Or if your oven is only big enough to do two pitas at a time as ours is, you can skip this step after the first batch).

*Place the ovals of bread on the two hot baking sheets and return them to the oven immediately. Bake for 5-10 min until the breads puff up. Wrap in a clean dry cloth to keep the crusts soft, because the breads, can dry out fairly quickly. If you're making enough to feed a hungry mob, wrap the freshly cooked pitas in a towel and store in an esky or ice box depending on the country you're in (minus the ice of course) to keep warm.

I too can cook -- here's my Baba Ganoush and my fake Tabbouleh with couscous instead of bulgur wheat. We do what we can here! Still tastes pretty good...