Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Tibetan Flatbread on the Stove Top

Donations and Gifts
Who doesn't love getting parcels in the mail. Members of my household certainly do. The kids rush to check out who has sent a gift. The reactions on receiving these parcels from friends or family range from happiness to bliss.


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There are other parcels which causes the exact opposite reaction. I have a serious problem with parcels that come pretty regularly carrying within them beautiful printed labels with cute pictures but names misspelled and the Mr called Mrs and the Mrs called a Mr and all we can do is toss them in the trash. These are usually solicitations for a charity making me feel guilty for having tossed somebody's donation into the trash. One of the foremost children's cancer research hospital does something similar. Every donation made automatically triggers a gift to be sent like lapel pin or a necktie with name of the charity printed on it. Most often these useless objects either collect dust or land in the trash. It must not be that hard to add a checkbox to indicate if a gift would be preferred or not, would it? I'd rather have the money going for the cause I am donating than a useless gift. There are other non profits like my local radio station WAMU which makes it easy to forego the gift.


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Jacques Pépin might easily be one of my favorite chefs on TV his shows are crisp and to the point. The episode from 'More Fast Food My Way' was on a couple of weeks ago and it had this Tibetan flat bread that can be cooked on the stovetop. Yes on the stovetop. Catch the episode here. The Recipe Seemed so easy but it took a couple of weeks to give it a try and what a day it was. We went for an early morning swim and since it should take less than 20 minutes decided to cook it after getting back. Boy! was that a mistake or what and we ended up close to scratching and setting each other's nerves on edge. But it did not take all that long and the minute the bread came out of the pan, there was a silence. The bread was delicious and the best part is it cook less than 20 minutes and no powering up the oven.


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Recipe Source: More Fast Food My Way by Jacques Pépin

Tibetan Flatbread
Ingredients
1. 1 Cup Whole Wheat flour (I used chapati flour)
2. 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
3. 1 tsp baking powder
4. 1/4 tsp salt
5. 1 tbsp olive oil
6. 1 Cup + 2 tbsp Water (I should have used slightly more water for the dough)

Method
1. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt with water to form a gooey dough. I should have added a bit more water because of the WW flour.
2. To a 12" cold saute pan add the olive oil and then the dough and spread it around. Dip a rubber spatula in the oil and use it pat the dough around (my dough was slightly less gooey because of less water another 1/4 cup should have been enough)
3. Add the 2 tbsp of water around the dough to create steam. Cover the pan.
4. In medium high heat cook for 10 minutes.
5. Flip the bread over and cook for 5 more minutes.
6. Let it cool in the skillet, cut and serve.


We had ours with butter and some jelly. It is perfect for a quick breakfast, as a base for pizza perhaps. The choices are endless and best of all no oven to heat.

23 comments:

  1. St.Jude does that to me too! Although I send money to them twice a year regardless, they keep sending me this and that which I don't need but keep piling in my desk anyway! Wish they would just say Thanks and wait until I decide to send them again voluntarily!:P

    Sounds like one big wholesale Kulcha, easy to do too. I will try later after I come back from break! :)

    I am watching bits of Senator Edward's wife's interview with Oprah, my heart breaks every time I see her. That husband is an A..H... big time. She is dying of cancer for God's sake!!!

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  2. Yeah, The choices do look endless! Wow!!

    How did it taste, Indo? Like a naan? or a Scone? also, do you think some Italian style tomato sauce and cheese would go well on top? [I'm thinking instant pizzas for DD] I'll watch that episode soon! Thanks!

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  3. aah, this is a must try recipe ISG! And I'm sure adding fresh herbs or flavoring will only make it better. Thank you :)

    And like you suggest, giving the donor an option would work better for both parties. The junk mail and catalogs that find their way to my mailbox are enough to drive me crazy.

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  4. this is a totally new recipe... am still not convinced that I can make this on the stove top... I have a hard enough time with the regular chapathis and stuff :(

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  5. Those name labels silly things keep coming inspite of us donating n number of times. I wonder how much money of the donation they spend on junk like this, as if these would lure us into giving.

    This bread is something I have never heard of.. looks like a quick kulcha! WOW!

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  6. This is really unusual, the bread, never knew anything that could be cooked like this.

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  7. Well atleast here they don't do silly gifts, i am sure if the send gift we will have to pay for them too :-)
    The flatbread looks so good. I am bookmarking them .

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  8. Very new recipe to me, Indo!!! Sounds very interesting :)..A must try! :)

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  9. These bread looks lovely! Bookmarked to try!

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  10. How interesting... nice that we don't have to roll them out separately. Looks chewy and soft.

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  11. interesting.. never treid this. looks tempting enough to try!

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  12. Looks easy and good Indo and as Priya said, adding herbs etc. to it might heighten the taste
    sandeepa

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  13. That's a green bread! :) Looks great, ISG

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  14. I'm going to try this for sure. Stove top flatbread like this I have not tried. Thanks for sharing the recipe!

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  15. jelly sounds like a good combination :) sounds delicious Indo.

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  16. That looks like a quick pizza base. Should try it. But I am not contented with the baking-powder softness when compared to the yeasty ones. But this looks nice and chewy.

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  17. Totally new recipe for me. I will come back later and look into more deatils.

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  18. Interesting bread. I would love to use this as a pizza base.

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  19. That flatbread is just so interesting! I like Jacques Pepin too...in fact, I like all the PBS chefs a hundred times better than their Food Network counterparts.

    Thank you so much for stopping by my blog to say hello :)

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  20. Wow - thats a new one! Looks delicious - thanks for the heads up about the time though!

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  21. Wow this is new to me..looks deicious..never tried tibetan bread before..first time here..lovely space you have:)

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  22. this recipe works great with just organic all-purpose white flour too ...

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  23. People please comment if you have made it and if you liked it. I read through all the comments and seen wow and interesting way to many times. ;O)

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