Pizza dough—

Last week we visited my sis’s house. My niece was making pizza for breakfast …I was there to see her making!  She had a mixture of milk cream, Suji , green chilies, green coriander etc…etc.. she was just smearing the mixture on bread pieces and shallow fried them on iron skillet.i never imagined the pizza without  pizza base…then I explained her to make pizza base…

Random thought about Pizza dough

I make my pizza dough from scratch. It’s easy really. The ingredients are basic: flour, water, salt, sugar, yeast -  and a lot of kneading. I could do it the easy way. I could throw everything in my mixer and let the dough-hook form it. But I prefer to knead the dough myself. In a strange way I find it relaxing, therapeutic almost.

The first time my friend at Canada suggested that I make pizza dough, I looked at her aghast. Me, I thought,  make dough? I had never made dough in my life. We were living in Hisar at the time and I was thousands of miles away from home and from my mother’s advice. But I decided to give it a try. After all, I had seen my mum and Nanna make dough hundreds of times. How difficult could it be?

In fact, it wasn’t, and since that day I have continued to make my dough. And as I knead away with floury fingers (and nose and cheeks, usually), my thoughts chase unbidden through my head. In kneading and rolling the dough I manage to make time stand still. Because for centuries, countless women before me have gone through the same motions – maybe not to make  pizza, but definitely to make Roti . Kneading and forming and shaping – my hands almost feel like they have been taken over by the gentle spirits of those that have passed before. There is a continuity about it that goes back to ancient times. The most basic of culinary arts that produces that most staple of foods: Roti.  In the short span of 15 to 20 minutes it feels as if life has gone full circle. I could close my eyes and instead of my  modern kitchen I could be in a rudimentary hut, hundreds of years ago. In essence, not much has changed.

 

All the above pics snapped at my sis's house

 

XOXO