Guest Posts . Snacks

Indian Style Baked Potato Pizza

On May 7, 2013 by Meghalee Das

Satarupa Mishra is one of my best friends and a member of the “Khaao Gaao Group” and “Vanity Fair.” Ya, those were the days when we used to have “groups” and would even give names to ourselves to feel special 😀 As far as the Khaao Gaao Group is concerned, the name says it all — it consisted of girls who loved to eat and sing. Some of us were not trained singers but Satarupa, including a few others, were very good. After every couple of weeks, we would bring simple eatables from home and sit in our college room to have a “class picnic”. It was a lot of fun, as we discussed our recipes, shared the diferent types of food, chatted and sang away to glory. Satarupa or Sattu is one the few ladies I know who loves to experiment with her cooking. Every time I visit her, she offers us something new and it is always delicous. Besides being an awesome cook, she also makes documentaries and shows for TV channels, especially on local socio-cultural topics. She also has a food blog and you can check out her recipes here http://dfoodieplus.blogspot.in/ It is my honour to present before you Satarupa Mishra’s Indian Style Baked Potato Pizza with multiple toppings.

Over to you, Sattu!

 

Hello,

It’s known to all is that pizza is the one of the most popular dishes worldwide. Be it the flaky crust, the multi-optional toppings or the irresistible cheese melting over the toppings, pizza has all the sumptuous reasons to be such a favorite. And for me, I think the most interesting specialty of pizza is that it can be prepared in a manner that can add indigenous touches of a country or a region. Naturally, being an Indian, I thought of giving an Indian touch to it, by creating a base that tastes like ‘aloo ka parantha’ (mashed potato stuffed chapattis); and toppings consisting of hot and sour paneer tikka (shallow fried cottage cheese cubes earlier marinated in yoghurt and spices), spicy deep-fried ladyfingers and pointed gourd, a tangy carrot and mango pickle, and deep-fried chickpea bhujia. This pizza tastes such that from the very first bite that you take, you realize that it tastes nothing but Indian. Anyways, enough of the description, now let’s start making it.

Oh! And by the way, don’t get scared by the list of ingredients or the length of this recipe. Trust me, if you can organize your work properly, and make the preparations earlier in the day, you will surely complete this recipe in 45-60mins. So, here it goes:

 

Ingredients:

For the base:

3 medium size Potatoes

10 tbsp Wheat flour

½ tsp Baking powder

1 tbsp Butter

3 tbsp Onion paste

Salt to taste

 

For the Sauce:

1 bunch of Spinach

3 tbsp Onion paste

1 tsp Garlic paste

A dollop of fresh cream

Red chili powder

1 tbsp Refined oil

Salt to taste

 

For the toppings:

100 gram Cottage Cheese (Paneer)

½ cup hung Yoghurt

½ tsp Cumin seeds

½ tsp Coriander seeds

½ tsp Carom seeds (Ajwain)

½ tsp Fennel seeds (Saunf)

1 tsp Paanch Phoron (cumin seeds, fennel seeds, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, black onion seeds)

1 medium size carrot

1 green mango

3-4 Ladyfingers

1 Pointed Gourd or Parwal (optional)

1 tsp garlic paste

1 tbsp chickpea flour (optional)

½ tsp black onion seeds (optional)

Red chili powder

Turmeric powder

2 tsp Dried Mango powder (Amchur)

Salt to taste

2-3 tbsp Mustard oil

Refined oil for deep frying

½ cup grated Mozzarella cheese

 

Method:

1) Peel, wash and boil the potatoes. Then mash the boiled potatoes, and add salt, butter and onion paste, and mix properly. Now add the wheat flour and baking powder, and knead a nice dough, that’s neither too soft nor too firm. Place the dough on a clean flat surface and roll it out to form a round, ½ inch thick chapatti, as shown in the picture below.

2) Brush some butter on both the sides of the chapatti. Preheat the oven to 170 C, and bake the chapatti on 165 C for 20-30 minutes. (325 degrees F)

3) Now for the sauce, blanch the spinach and blend it to a fine paste. Heat refined oil on a pan. Add the onion paste and fry until it turns golden. Now add the garlic paste, salt and red chili powder, and cook for another 1 minute. Finally pour the spinach paste, followed by a dollop of fresh cream. Our sauce is ready.

4) Meanwhile, cut the paneer/cottage cheese into medium cubes. Roast the cumin seeds, fennel seeds, coriander and carom seeds until they start releasing a nice aroma. Grind this into a fine powder. Now take the hung yoghurt and add it to the ground spices. Also add salt and red chili powder, and mix it thoroughly. Drop the cheese cubes into this yoghurt mixture and marinate for at least 20 minutes. While the paneer marinates, cut the ladyfingers and pointed gourd into thin long slices like matchsticks. Sprinkle some salt and mix. Now deep fry the vegetables on high heat until they are absolutely crispy. Strain the excess oil, and place the fried vegetables on a plate. Sprinkle dried mango powder and red chili powder and mix it carefully.

5) Once the vegetables are done, heat 2 tbsp refined oil on a pan, and mildly fry the masala-smeared paneer, not more than 6-8 pieces at a time, as shown in the picture.

6) Cut the carrot and mango into tiny cubes. Heat mustard oil on a pan. Add the paanch phoron, followed by carrot. Add salt, turmeric powder, red chili powder, and mango cubes, and stir for a couple of minutes. Don’t wait till the carrots turn absolutely tender. Carrot tastes great half-cooked.

7) The final topping that I chose is an optional one. I used it to give an extra crispiness and an Indian flavor. Take 1 tbsp chickpea flour. Sprinkle salt and black onion seeds. Add 1 tsp mustard oil, followed by a little water, and make dough. Take a tiny portion of the dough and roll it in between your palms to get an inch-long shape as seen in the picture below. Repeat the process. Deep fry these bhujia on medium flame, until they are light golden brown and crispy.

Assortment:

Spread the spinach sauce evenly over the aloo parantha crust. Now place the paneer tikkas on it. Next, randomly drop the carrots, the deep-fried vegetables, and the chickpea bhujia alternatively. Finally, sprinkle the Mozzarella cheese generously all over the pizza, and bake it for another 5-8 minutes at 180 C (350 degrees F) until the cheese melts. And your purely Indian style Baked Potato or Aloo Pizza is ready to be served. Try this, and I can assure you that you will never run short of compliments!