Frugal living is a bit trendy now, but it's not so much fun when it's done out of necessity (something to do with having the choice, I think). However, it's nowhere I've not been before and even food I ate when I was cash strapped student can be made nice, with the addition of some thing like...home made pitta bread. I used the recipe from the BBC recipe site here. If you don't like clicking on links, I've popped my tweaked version of the recipe at the end of this post. (It's really just a basic bread formula).
As I don't have a large kitchen work space, I used a little child's rolling pin to roll them out with. Which did the job nicely. They have to be rolled out very, very thinly, to get the magic 'puff'. Otherwise you end up with proper flat breads.
Personally I'm not too fussed about getting equal sizes, as you can see. I also dust the tray with just flour, no fat or oil. A very hot oven should make them puff and form the handy pockets.
They take about 5 minutes to bake, depending on your oven. Mine's a bit dodgy and is nick named 'Dante's Inferno', for good reason.
I used two packs of very cheap savoury rice (25p each) to complete the meal. As we couldn't possibly eat all of it, there are leftovers. The cost of the meal is under £1 per head, for two. And of course, if you're feeling flush, you could also add chopped sausage, chicken bits or anything tasty to go with it.
Basic Pitta breads (UK recipe)
250g bread flour
1x 7g sachet instant yeast
1 tsp of salt
a good glug of oil (I used olive oil)
160 ml of warm water.
Mix the dry ingredients, then the glug (1-2 tablespoons) of oil. Add two thirds of the water and bring the dough together, adding more of the water if you need it (I always do). You should have a soft dough which is not sticky. Leave it to rise until it's a good size, the usual 'doubled in size' is a good bench mark. Split the dough into 6 or 8 bits, depending on how large you want your pittas. Roll them out very thinly, using spare flour for dusting. I bake mine in batches of two, in a hot oven. They should take about 5 - 8 minutes each, depending on your oven. That's it. Then add them to something nice.
