Spring is a time of picnics and outdoor activities. Fresh air invigorates, improves mood and causes appetite. The menu in nature is simple: light snacks, vegetables, barbecue. A great option - fried pita bread with filling. Thin cakes go well with fish, meat, herbs, aromatic spices and cheese.
This appetizer can easily cope with hunger and contains much less calories than regular bread. In the Caucasus and the Middle East, fried pita bread is a common food. In addition, it is used for shawarma, for serving kebab and kebab, fish is baked in it, pilaf, meat are cooked. So the dishes are more tender and juicy.
Lavash appetizer is a universal dish; any products in various combinations are suitable for filling, including fruits, sweet cottage cheese, jams, chocolate. This option will appeal to children and will be a great snack for a walk.
How to fry pita bread
To cook thin cakes, you need a hot surface. Main condition: oil and fat are not used. Spread the dough on a baking sheet and fry on both sides. Ready pita dries very quickly. To avoid brittleness, it is removed from the pan, a little sprayed with water and immediately covered with a towel. The cooled cakes are used immediately or stored in the freezer, simply wrapped in a bag.
Storage
Ready pita bread is not necessary to use immediately. Part of the cakes can be left in reserve.
The residues can be frozen and left in the refrigerator or dried - the finished cakes are simply stacked, covered with a towel and stored for a week to two months. In this form, they do not mold for a long time. To return the pita to softness, it is enough to sprinkle it with water and warm.
Yeast Dough Recipe
Wide round cakes are easy to prepare. We offer a way to quickly get pita bread, fried in a pan, without using fat. You can use yeast, which we will do. Below is a variant of a fresh yeast-free dough. So, of the products we need:
- dry yeast - 1 tsp;
- flour - 3 cups;
- salt - 1 tsp;
- sugar - 0.5 tsp;
- vegetable oil - 1 tbsp. l .;
- water (only warm) - 1 cup.
Cooking step by step
- Mix flour, water, oil, salt, sugar, yeast and knead the dough. Water must be warm, otherwise the yeast will not ferment and the dough will not rise. We cover with a film and wait about half an hour until the dough comes up. Then we knead it and put it under the film again - let it rise again. The consistency of the dough should be soft, slightly softer than for dumplings.
- Divide the resulting mass portionwise (about 15–20 small pieces), roll into balls and let stand under the film for another twenty minutes.
- Now - rolling out the dough for pita bread. Sprinkle each ball with flour and roll into a very thin cake to a translucent state. We heat the pan without oil and fry pita bread on both sides in just a few seconds. Lack of oil is a prerequisite. They are baked only on a dry, well-heated surface.
- Spread the finished cakes on a prepared board or a wide dish, sprinkle with water and immediately cover with a towel. Otherwise, they will dry out and become brittle.
- It remains to prepare the filling and wrap it in pita bread.
This is one of the options for using tortillas. Some of them can be rolled up and cooked fried pita bread stuffed in oil or batter.
There are a lot of recipes. The convenience is that you can wrap and combine any products. Also, pita bread can be used instead of parchment for baking fish or meat, for cooking pilaf. These dishes are unusually juicy and aromatic.
Yeast-free dough
In this case, the dough is cooked much faster than with yeast. Only water, flour and oil are used. You can knead in the combine, or you can just do it by hand. We take:
- 350 g of flour (its amount may be different, it all depends on its quality);
- glass of water;
- 30 g of vegetable oil;
- some salt.
Flour should be poured on a table on a table, a small depression should be made, a little water and oil should be poured into it, a little salt added and the dough should be gently kneaded. It takes about five minutes. The dough is quite tight. Wrap it in cling film or just cover with a towel and give a little "rest." After 20 minutes, the dough needs to be kneaded again and divided into small pieces. Flatten each one by hand, roll in flour and roll into very thin cakes with a thickness of about 2 mm.
The dough can be stretched a little by hand, it is quite elastic and does not tear. Bake the cakes in a well-heated pan for a few seconds on both sides. We lay the finished pita bread on the board, slightly sprinkle with water and cover with a clean towel.
While the cakes are cooling, prepare the filling. It can be minced meat, fish or cheese with greens. By the way, fried pita bread with cheese called "Yoka" is very popular in Armenia. It is filled with filling, wrapped with an envelope and fried in a pan in oil. Melted cheese and crispy crust make this dish simply amazing. The recipe is very simple, it will take a little time.
Yoka Hot Appetizer
So, let's try to cook fried pita bread with cheese in Armenian style. Hard cheese should be grated, chopped greens: cilantro, green onion, dill and parsley. Their number depends on taste, on average 100 g each.
Then mix with cheese, salt, pepper. We divide the pita bread into three parts, lay out the filling, wrap it with an envelope or a corner. Put on a preheated pan with the seam down and fry in vegetable oil from two sides until golden brown. Serve warm and as a separate dish, and in addition to the broth or barbecue.
What to cook stuffing
Recipes of fried pita bread are surprisingly simple and do not require special culinary talents. There are no exact proportions here, you can safely experiment and try new combinations of products.
For example, such:
- Cottage cheese, salt, herbs, garlic, mayonnaise.
- Hard cheese, cottage cheese, garlic, fresh cucumber, dill, salt.
- Cream cheese, mushrooms, fried with onions and carrots, herbs, sour cream.
- Salmon, greens, fresh cucumber, Adyghe cheese or feta cheese.
- Boiled eggs, rice, dill, sour cream.
- Crab sticks, boiled egg, cream cheese, greens, garlic, mayonnaise.
- Smoked meat / sausage, greens, sweet bell pepper, fried onions, mayonnaise.
- Boiled beets, carrots, nuts, garlic, mayonnaise.
- Shrimp, garlic, butter.
- Cheese, ham, tomatoes, garlic, sour cream.
- Fried mushrooms, pickled onions, suluguni, egg, greens.
- Brynza, basil, unsweetened yogurt.
- Cream cheese, garlic, mayonnaise, dill.
- Baked turkey, paprika, parsley.
- Salmon, bell peppers, goat cheese, yogurt.
- Chicken breast, green peas and garlic.
- Greek salad.
- Sour apple, pickled onions, herring.
- Nuts, boiled condensed milk.
- Apple, cottage cheese, sour cream, vanilla.
Fried pita bread served separately, with various sauces, broth. Before applying the filling, the cake is recommended to soak with sour cream or mayonnaise. You don’t need much, otherwise the pita bread will blur. But if there is too little mayonnaise, the snack will turn out to be rather dry.
Lavash cold appetizer
If time is short, it’s much easier to make a cold appetizer out of flat cakes. No need to fry anything. The prepared stuffing is simply wrapped in pita bread with a roll.
For convenience, it is cut into portions. If desired, you can use a different feed: divide the pita into several parts, add a filling to each and arrange in the form of envelopes or corners.
Alternatively, you can use a whole cake and fill it with a shawarma type. In general, pita bread is absolutely democratic and welcomes any of the options. Turn on your imagination, open the refrigerator and start creating culinary masterpieces.
Cooking fried pita bread in batter
There is another way to make a hot appetizer of pita bread in a pan - fry it in batter. Of the products we need:
- 3 sheets of pita bread;
- Suluguni cheese - 200 g;
- smoked chicken - 200 g;
- champignons - 350 g;
- mayonnaise / sour cream - 4–5 tablespoons;
- dill / parsley - a bunch;
- 2 eggs;
- bow.
Cut the mushrooms, fry with onions, set aside, let cool.
Dice the cheese. We are not in vain using suluguni in the recipe. Thin thin pita bread is especially good with cheese that melts. It gives juiciness to the dough, helps to achieve a crisp.
Smoked chicken cut into thin strips or cubes. We use only meat, remove the skin.
Grind greens. We mix all the ingredients, season with mayonnaise or low-fat sour cream. If desired, you can add salt and ground black pepper.
We divide the pita bread into four identical parts, put the prepared filling in the middle of each, turn it with an envelope and dip it into batter. To do this, beat the eggs with salt with a fork.
Each envelope is laid on a heated frying pan with a seam down and fry until golden brown.
Serve hot. You can take this appetizer with you for a picnic and warm it up on the spot, putting it on the grill for a couple of minutes.
Sweet rolls for kids
If you plan to go outdoors with children, you can think of a separate menu based on pita bread for them. We use apples, cottage cheese, sugar for this.
If desired, you can add a little cinnamon or vanillin. We grind the fruits and send them to the microwave - so they will become a little softer. Cottage cheese is carefully rubbed with sugar and vanilla, if desired, you can use a blender. Combine with apples.
Lubricate a wide sheet of pita bread with a thin layer of sour cream or thick yogurt, put the filling and carefully roll up the roll.
Preheat the oven, grease the baking sheet with oil or cover it with parchment and spread the pita bread with the seam down. For a golden crust, you can grease each top with beaten egg yolk.
Bake at 175 degrees for about 10 minutes.
We take out the finished rolls and cut them into rings even warm. Let cool. Spread on a dish in the form of chamomile. Sprinkle icing sugar on top or pour over jam.
Well, the food is ready, the mood is festive, we take glasses from the sun and go to relax in the fresh air!