Recently, my buddy Steve Raichlin was grilling up some great stuff on PBS. When he started grilling these cheese and vegetable skewers and nestled the toppings in a homemade pita, that’s when I really took notice. He made Indian Vegetable Cheese Kebabs using paneer cheese. I had never heard of paneer cheese before, but Steve described it as an Indian cheese that doesn’t melt as fast as other cheese varieties. It’s very similar to queso blanco, but  does not have salt added. It sounded like just about the tastiest way to make grilled cheese I’d ever heard of.

I made a trip to the grocery store and saw a tasty hunk of queso blanco and realized it was my lucky day. I did not go on an extensive search for paneer, because I had the queso blanco in hand, but I’d like to try it sometime. Steve’s recipe has an Indian inspired marinade with tumeric, cilantro and ginger, but since I wasn’t necessarily in the mood for that type of flavor, I stuck to a simple butter and garlic marinade and sprinkled the kebabs with sesame seeds. Steve did not demonstrate the making of the pita on his show, but said he had a simple recipe posted on the website for it. It did end up being pretty easy. The folding technique described to create the pita sounds more complicated than it is, so do not be frightened like I was. The dough holds up very well to the hot grill, but you have to watch them like a hawk because they are done in a minute. The recipe yielded enough dough for me to make 6 small pitas for our Vegetable Cheese Kebabs on Saturday, 2 grilled pizzas on Sunday and 5 more small pitas for Pita Burgers on Tuesday. I’ll share my three days of pita recipes.

Vegetable Cheese Kebabs

Adapted from Steve Raichlin, Serves 2

2 poblano chilies or bell peppers

2-3 red ripe tomatoes

1 large vidalia onion

1 lb. queso blanco (paneer or mozzarella will also work)

For basting mixture:

8 T. (1 stick) unslated butter

2 cloves minced garlic

1/2-1 t. red pepper flakes (depending on how spicy you like things)

kosher salt to taste

sesame seeds for sprinkling over basted kebabs

lemon wedges for serving

*If using a charcoal grill, get coals ready at this point. Create a 2-zone fire. Brush and oil the grill grates.

1. Cut the pepper into 2 inch square pieces, discarding the core and seeds.  Cut each tomato into 4 wedges and cut the seeds and pulp out of each wedge (save for stock or other use).  The remaining pieces of tomato should be about 1/4 inch thick.  You can cut the tomatoes in half again, but I liked the larger pieces.  Cut the onion in half widthwise and cut each half into quarters.  Cut the cheese into 2 inch squares.

2. To assemble the kebabs, carefully skewer a piece of pepper, tomato, onion and then cheese. Repeat until all ingredients are used up.

3. Make the basting mixture. Melt butter in small saucepan. After butter is melted add garlic and red pepper flakes and heat until fragrant, but not brown. Remove from heat and add salt to taste.

4. Brush kebabs on all sides with basting mixture. Sprinkle on all sides with sesame seeds. Place the kebabs on the hot side and grill until nicely brown, a minute or two per side, turning as the cheese starts to melt and continue basting with butter mixture.

5. Serve at once with lemon wedges for squeezing and freshly grilled pita.

Lachcha Paratha (Indian Puff Pastry)

Slightly adapted from Steve Raichlin, Makes 12-14 small pitas (or 11 small pitas and 2 pizzas!)

I did not use any butter with this recipe. I think I will try it next time, but if you want to cut some of the calories, it is delicious without the butter.

1 envelope active dry yeast

3 T. sugar

1 1/2 C. warm water (not too hot or you’ll kill the yeast)

4 1/2-5 C. AP flour, plus additional for dusting and rolling

2 t. salt

2 T. plain yogurt

1 T. vegetable oil, plus more for bowl

4 T. melted unsalted butter for brushing the bread (I skipped this step, but I’m sure it is yummy)

1. Combine yeast, sugar and 1/4 C. water in a small bowl and let stand until foamy, 5 to 10 minutes.

2. Place 4 1/2 C. flour and salt in a mixer with a dough hook (you can also use a food processor or mix by hand with a wooden spoon). With the mixer running, add the yeast mixture, yogurt and oil. Slowly add 1/2-1 C. of warm water until the dough starts to come together and sticks to the sides. You’re looking for a dough that is soft, but not too sticky. Add additional flour if necessary (mine came together after adding about 1/2 C. water to the dry ingredients and I did not have to add more flour). Knead the dough until smooth and elastic, 5-8 minutes by mixer, 2-3 minutes by processor, or 8 minutes by hand.

3. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turning to coat dough with oil. Cover with a kitchen towel and put in a warm, draft-free spot until  doubled in size, 1 1/2-2 hours.

4. Prepare a lightly floured rimmed baking sheet. Punch down the dough and then grab 2 inch pieces. Roll the dough between your palms into smooth balls. If you are making the whole batch, you will have 12-14 balls. Transfer to a floured baking sheet. If you are not using all of the dough, wrap the remaining dough in plastic and place in the refrigerator. Cover the dough balls with a clean and slightly dampened kitchen towel. Let rise again until puffy, about 30 minutes.

5. Set your grill up for direct grilling with a medium-high heat.

6. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough balls into 6 inch flat disks on a lightly floured surface. Here is where you can use a pastry brush to remove excess flour and brush with melted butter or oil. Starting at the end closest to you, fold accordion style (like you were making a paper fan, back and forth) with each pleat measuring about 1 inch. This will give you a long flat rectangle of dough. Now, starting at the end of the dough, roll the rectangle into a roll (from the top it will look spiraled, like a sticky bun). Finally, using your rolling pin, roll out the dough into another flat disk about 6 inches across. Lightly brush with butter or oil, if desired. Continue rolling and folding breads until done. (I put each disk back onto the floured cookie sheet from earlier and brought the sheet out to the grill).

7. Brush and oil grill grate. Arrange the bread, butter or oil side down on the grate. Only do a few at a time so you don’t crowd the grate. Quickly brush with more butter or oil if desired and check the progress on the other side. It burns very quickly, so check often. Turn when you have light brown grill marks and the top is bubbly. Grill the other side until lightly brown. You can, again, lightly brush with butter as the hot bread comes off the grill. Continue cooking in batches until all of the bread is cooked.

Variation: Naan

You can also use the same dough to make traditional naan. Make recipe though step 5 and instead of rolling and pleating the dough, roll out into 6 inch disks, gently slap dough from one hand to the other to stretch into an elongated 7 to 8 inch oblong disk with a narrow end like a teardrop. Lightly brush both sides with butter or oil and grill as a minute or so per side. Brush with more butter or oil when it comes off the grill and serve immediately.

Pita Pizza

my recipe www.dulanotes.com, Serves 2-3

Since I used the above dough for 3 recipes, I used a third of it for the Vegetable Cheese Kebabs and put the rest of the dough in the refrigerator. When I was ready to make the pizzas, I used a bit more than half to create 2 personal-sized pizzas. I put the dough in a bowl and covered with a kitchen towel in a warm place for about 1 1/2 hours until it was room temperature.

Roughly 1/3 of pita recipe above, brought up to room temperature

3/4 C. tomato sauce

1 C. mozzarella cheese

4 oz. bleu cheese

1 large tomato

3/4 C. mild yellow pepper rings

12 slices pepperoni

1. Create a two zone fire with oiled grates or use your gas grill. Get your toppings ready so that they are close to room temperature when the pizza is ready to cook. This will help the toppings to cook more quickly since the dough cannot be on the grill long.

2. Punch down the room temperature dough and kneed into a smooth ball. Split ball in half with a bench scraper. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a round personal sized pizza with a uniform thickness. Brush both sides with olive oil and transfer to a lightly floured rimmed baking sheet.

3. Grill first side of pizza until lightly brown. Watch closely so it does not burn. After one side is done, transfer the dough cooked side up to the rimmed baking sheet. Top the grilled side of the pizza with sauce and desired toppings. Put back on baking sheet.

4. Carefully put the pizza back on the grill (on the cool side), with the uncooked dough facing down and put the lid down for a minute and keep checking the bottom of the pizza while waiting for the cheese to melt and toppings to cook. Remove when bottom of crust is golden brown.

5. Cut into wedges and serve.

Pita Burgers

my recipe www.dulanotes.com, Serves 2-3

Roughly 1/3 of pita recipe above, brought up to room temperature

1 lb. 80% ground beef or bison or turkey

1 t. garlic salt

1 t. onion powder

1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper

pinch of kosher salt

Fresh toppings of your choice: tomato, lettuce, onion, cheese, etc.

1. Get your grill ready with oiled grates.

2. Follow steps 4-7 from the pita recipe above.

3. Combine the ground beef with the seasonings just until combined. Do not overwork the meat or you’ll have tough burgers. Using a flat hand, create a line down the middle of the ball of meat and separate into 2 even halves. Divide the two halves in half so that you have four mounds of meat, each roughly 1/4 lb. Create four patties from the mounds.

4. Depending on the type of meat you use and how hot your grill is, cook for about 4 minutes per side or done to your taste. Top with cheese just before ready to take off, if desired.  Transfer burger to a plate and tent with foil while you cook your pita.

5. Bring your floured rimmed baking sheet with disks of pita to the grill. Cook for about 1 minute per side, checking often so that they do not burn.

6. Put a burger on each pita and top with desired toppings.