Greek Home Pita: soft, hollow, super versatile, engraved with Mediterranean street warmth

toronto is always chilly in autumn and winter. When the wind blows, I want to grab some warm and soft staple food. As a person who grew up in Athens, Greece and later immigrated to Toronto, what I read most is the aroma of Greek pita that can be smelled in the streets of my hometown. It's not the kind of dry and hard flour cake, it's the kind with a slightly tough outer skin and a hollow and soft inner skin. When it's just baked, it's steaming. It's wrapped in barbecue, scooped up hummus, or clip some refreshing vegetables. One bite is full of Mediterranean warm fireworks. Whether it's breakfast, a simple meal, or a staple food with salad, it's all-match.

To tell the truth, I always thought that this kind of exotic flour cake could only be made in a professional oven. The ones bought outside were either too hard or too hollow, and it didn't taste like eating at all. It was not until I found out grandma's homely recipe at the bottom of the closet and tossed it around at home several times that I found out that the Greek homely pita cake didn't need complicated equipment at all. One pan could burn it into a perfect hollow and it soft for two days, it has completely become an explosion of small food bars in my community. Even local neighbors come to buy it every day, saying it is much better than what supermarkets sell.

First of all, I am Elena Petridis, a female student, born on April 18, 1990. I am a Greek Canadian. I learned how to make Greek home-cooked noodles from my grandmother in the old city of Athens. Now I have opened a small community Greek restaurant in the eastern district of Toronto. I have shared authentic Greek home-cooked food in aifoodnews for just two years, specializing in Mediterranean home-cooked staple food with zero professional equipment and zero failure, reject the complicated process of the restaurant version and only do the down-to-earth taste passed down from generation to generation by Greek families.

I am gentle and slow in character. I always like to put Greek folk songs in the kitchen. I am especially nostalgic. my pet phrase is "good dough cakes, give dough enough time to wake up". my taste prefers staple food with rich wheat flavor and soft and slightly salty flavor. I especially resist dry and hard dough cakes. I always improve the old recipe taught by my grandmother into a version suitable for home operation. each dough will be tried out by Greek villagers and local neighbors in the restaurant first, adjust to the most palatable taste, and then share the non-threshold homely practices aifoodnews, so that everyone can eat authentic homely pita without going to Greece.

I first made pita cakes at home because of homesickness. When I first immigrated to Toronto, I went to Greek supermarkets all over the city and didn't buy the taste made by my grandmother. I simply tried to make them according to the formula written by my grandmother. As a result, I stepped directly into the big pit for the first two times: the flour was used wrong, and the dough was too hard to move. It was baked like biscuits and completely hollow; the second time I woke up too short, I was in a hurry to put it into the pot. It was flat, solid inside, hard to bite, and not soft at all. At that time, looking at the failed flour cake, I almost felt wronged to tears and felt that even the taste of my hometown was not good.

Later, I made a special overseas phone call to grind with grandma for a long time before I found out the core trick: to use medium gluten flour, the dough should be kneaded until it is smooth and non-sticky, the first awakening should be twice as large, and the second awakening should be done after the dose is divided. when baking, the pan must be heated with high fire, and the flour cake can expand rapidly after being put into the pan to produce perfect hollow. According to my grandmother's instructions, I slowly kneaded the dough and patiently woke up. The third time I finally succeeded. I watched the flour cake slowly bulge in the pan. The break was full of hollow, wheat fragrance mixed with butter fragrance. At that moment, I almost cried, as if I had returned to grandma's small kitchen in Athens. Later, when I put this pita cake into the dining bar, it became a signboard. Many Greek villagers said that eating it tasted exactly the same as their hometown.

This Greek pita (Pita) is the national staple food of Greece and even the whole Mediterranean region. It has a diet history of thousands of years and is an indispensable existence on the Greek dining table. It is slightly different from the Middle East pita. The Greek homely version pays more attention to soft and hollow, pure wheat flavor, salty and not greasy. It focuses on the aroma of wheat itself and is suitable for various Greek classic side dishes, it is the dual protagonist of street food and family table.

In Greece, pita cakes are indispensable for both the street's Giro barbecue shop and the ordinary family's dining table. Street shops will use professional ovens to bake the crust, which is crisper, while the family version mostly uses a pan with small fire, which is softer in taste and can be eaten by the elderly and children. The most magical thing about it is that it naturally bulges into a hollow space after being heated, like a small pocket, so it is often called "pocket cake". It can be stuffed with roast meat, feta cheese, tomato and cucumber salad, hummus and tahini sauce at will. It is the core representative of "simple, healthy and versatile" Mediterranean diet. It is low-fat and free, and can also be made with vegan formula, adapt to vegetarian, fat reduction crowd.

I sincerely recommend all friends who like foreign staple food and don't like to eat little light steamed bread to try this Greek home-made pita cake. It is really a treasure of home staple food and has no production threshold. The most unique thing is the taste, which is soft and hollow, wheat is rich in flavor, and does not harden when it is cold. When it is just baked, the outer skin is slightly tough, the inner skin is soft, hollow and large, and can be loaded with any food. The wheat is pure in flavor, with a little salt flavor to improve freshness, and will not be weak at all. Even empty stuttering is very fragrant. Keep it in a sealed bag and the next day.

What is more worrying is that its ingredients are common and do not need professional equipment. Medium gluten flour, yeast, salt, warm water and a little olive oil are all common ingredients in the home. It can be baked in an ordinary pan without an oven. The whole process does not need complicated skills. As long as the dough is awakened patiently, the novice kitchen can also make perfect hollow. Kneading, awakening and baking can be done in three steps, as a daily staple food, breakfast, simple meals are suitable, versatile to the extreme.

Moreover, it is healthy and low-fat, suitable for all kinds of eating methods, vegan, oil-free and salt-free, belongs to the Mediterranean healthy diet, and has no burden to eat during the fat reduction period. Roasted chicken and vegetables are simple meals for fat reduction, with hummus is a classic Greek snack, wrapped in jiro barbecue is a street explosion, and even torn into small pieces and soaked in thick soup. The whole family loves to eat it and has no room for pickiness.

I now bake pita cakes in the dining bar every day and make them once a week at home. Every time I do it, I will share the awakening skills and baking temperature taught by my grandmother in aifoodnews in detail. I have specially simplified the steps. I don't need to knead the film or knead the noodles for a long time. It is the taste that I usually make at home. I just want more people to easily re-engrave the authentic Greek taste. Every time I see fans leave a message saying that they have made perfect hollow pita cakes, I am very happy, as if I have passed on the warmth from the Mediterranean to more people.

In fact, the most moving thing about food is never the complicated craftsmanship, but the homesickness and fireworks hidden in the taste. This Greek pita is not only a staple food for me, but also the love of my grandmother. It is the taste of my hometown Athens and the sense of belonging of immigrants abroad. It has no gorgeous appearance or fancy seasoning. It is a simple homely noodle cake, but it can cure the missing of a foreign land with a soft and warm fragrance, and also make the dining table of ordinary people have more exotic flavor.

Every time you knead the dough, listening to Greek folk songs and smelling the slowly floating wheat fragrance, you will feel extremely calm. This is the power of home-cooked food, simple but warm enough. You don't have to go to Greece, you don't have to spend a lot of money, you can spend a little time at home, you can eat the authentic Mediterranean home flavor, it's really happy.

If you are tired of eating ordinary bread and steamed bread and want to try the versatile foreign staple food, you must make this Greek home-made pita cake. Believe me, you will fall in love with this soft wheat flavor and full of fireworks.

Do you usually like these hollow pocket cakes? Have you ever tried to eat them with Greek hummus? Talk to me in the comments section, I will reply one by one, and I will continue to share more authentic Greek home-cooked food aifoodnews to accompany you to unlock more warm exotic home-cooked flavors.