Tandoori Tofu Pizza for the Punch

Sweet Punch for this month is Pizza. The recipe Divya chose for the Punch is from Pioneer Woman. The recipe for the base was given to us and we had to let our imagination run wild for the topping. The recipe given to us yields two pizza crusts and I decided to make half the recipe and then make two crusts out of it. U is not a big fan of pizza and I was the only one who was going to eat it. I planned on making a savory and a sweet pizza. But my plans were dampened when I misread the ingredient list. I made the pizza dough on Tuesday planning to make the pizzas for lunch on Wednesday. My dough did not raise at all and that is when I went back to check the recipe, only to realize that I had used atta/whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour. I still went ahead and baked the pizza but I just could get the pizza off the pan. It got stuck to the pan. I scraped the pan to pull out as much pizza as I could and the taste was good. I used half the dough to make veggie pizza. I did not want to attempt the sweet pizza with the remaining dough I had kept aside. Hence, I made the dough again late that night. Yes, when I say late, it was late in the night, past 10:30 pm! If I made the pizza dough that late in the night, it does tell you how easy it is to make this dough! I let the dough raise in the fridge for at least 24 hours and made the pizza this afternoon for lunch. I also planned on making the sweet pizza today itself but changed my mind in the last minute. I will make it over the weekend.

Coming to the recipe, it is one of the easiest dough I have ever made and the beauty of homemade pizza is, we can choose whatever topping we want. I used tandoori tofu, red and green bell peppers, onion, Portobello mushrooms, onion, green chilies, cilantro and some mozzarella cheese for my topping. I did not use any pizza sauce and also used the cheese sparingly. One could easily double the quantity of the cheese in this recipe. This is how I made the pizza.

Source: Pioneer Women
Ingredients:
Dough:

2 cups All Purpose Flour
½ tsp. Active Dry Yeast or Instant Yeast
¾ cup warm (not lukewarm) Water
½ tsp. Salt
⅙ cup Olive Oil + more for drizzling

Tandoori Tofu:

3-4 oz. Extra Firm Tofu
1 tbsp. Yogurt
⅓ tsp. Chili Powder
⅓ tsp. Tandoori Powder (Rajah Brand)
⅛ tsp. Garam Masala (Rajah Brand)
¼ tsp. Salt
½ tsp. Lime Juice
¼ tsp. Oil and more for grilling

Veggies for the Topping:

¼ small Green Bell Pepper sliced
¼ small Red Bell Pepper sliced
¼ small sized Onion Sliced
3 baby Portobello Mushrooms sliced
2 small Green Chilies seeded and chopped
Cilantro chopped

Preparation:
Dough:

Add yeast to warm water.
In a bowl mix flour and salt together. Add oil to the flour and mix it with your hand. One can use a mixer but I used my hands.
Pour the yeast water to the flour and make the dough. The dough will be very sticky and don’t panic thinking that you added excess water. That is how it should be.
Take a separate bowl and drizzle some oil in it. Transfer the dough to the bowl. Coat the dough with the oil and form a ball. Cover the bowl with a saran wrap or with a tight cover and refrigerate it for at least 24 hours to 3 days. The dough will gradually increase in volume.
My dough is 36 hours old and it almost doubled.

Tandoori Tofu:

I used quarter of the tofu. My tofu was 14 oz. and I used quarter of it. I cut it into 3” rectangles and marinated it for 30 minutes. For the marinade, mix all the ingredients listed under tandoori tofu.
Sauté or grill the tofu in a pan greased with some oil. Grill it for 2 minutes per side. Then cut each block into 4-6 pieces. I cut mine into 4 pieces and we will have a total of 16 pieces.

Preparation of Pizza:

Preheat the oven to 500F or the highest temperature setting your oven has.
While the oven pre-heats, grill the tofu and slice the vegetables.
Drizzle the pizza pan with some olive oil (I use olive and when I say oil, I am referring to olive oil). Spread it around and lightly sprinkle some flour over the pan.
Divide the dough into two. We will get two small pizza crusts or 1 large crust with this dough. I decide to make two crusts.
Take some flour in your hands and roll the dough in it. Using your fingers, make a the base for the pizza. Put it on the pan and press the dough on the pan to make the crust/base as thin as you want.
Sprinkle half the cheese on the base of the pizza. Top it with veggies and tofu. Lastly sprinkle the remaining cheese on the top.
Bake the pizza for 12 minutes or until done.
Sprinkle some pepper & salt over the pizza and serve it hot. Don’t forget to sprinkle the pepper flakes before serving!

Suggestions:

My crust was not as thin as I wanted it to be. Next time I will make it even thinner. After my last experience with the pizza, I was afraid to make it very thin. Today, I did not have any problem removing the pizza from the pan.
Also, I would toss the vegetables with some oil, pepper and salt, before topping it on the pizza. By doing this, even the vegetables will be well seasoned.

This day, this month in 2011 - Bok Choy & Mushroom Soup.