Lavash Crackers with Fruit & Sprouted Beans Salsa - A sweet n sour accompaniment to a crunchy cracker

I made Lavash Crackers from Peter Reinhart's book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice. Followed his relatively simple recipe, resulting in this "snappy Armenian-style crackers, perfect for breadbaskets, company and kids". Needless to say, my daughter was instantly hooked on to it and the cracker ended up being her dinner...almost. I had to bribe her so she would save some for snacktime tomorrow. Served it with this colorful chunky salsa.

Fruit & Sprouted Bean Salsa
The key to making a yummy salsa that not only tastes good but also looks good is to make sure the ingredients are all chopped up to almost same sizes. Adjust the level of sweetness/sourness/spicyness to your liking. You may not have to add sugar at all, if the fruits are sweet enough.

Ingredients-
Sprouted Azuki beans (red beans) - 1/4 cup Or alternatively, sprouted mung beans - 1/4 cup
Fresh pineapple, chopped - 1/4 cup
Fresh cherries, washed, pitted and chopped - 8 or 10 - about 1/4 cup
Fresh cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced into small pieces - 1/4 cup
Paprika - 1/4 teaspoon
Lemon Juice from 1 lemon
Salt - 1/4 teaspoon
Sugar (optional) - 1/4 teaspoon
Fresh Cilantro - washed, chopped - 3 or 4 sprigs
Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Salt - 1 pinch

Method -
Sprinkle the salt and turmeric powder on the sprouted beans, shake well to coat. Steam the sprouted beans for 8 to 10 minutes; I usually use my idli plate for all steaming purposes. Remove the steamed beans to a flat plate, allow to cool.
Add the cooled beans, the chopped up fruits, cucumber, lemon juice and seasonings to a mixing bowl and toss to mix well and to distribute evenly. Check for salt/sugar/spicyness. Chill for at least half an hour before serving.

While the salsa chills in the refrigerator, proceed to bake the crackers. In order to do this, you should have the lavash dough kneaded and fermented, waiting to be baked.

Lavash Ingredients -
Unbleached bread flour - 1 & 1/2 cups (6.75 ounces) - I used King Arthur's Unbleached bread flour.
Salt - 1/2 teaspoon (.13 ounce)
Instant yeast - 1/2 teaspoon (.055 ounce)
Honey - 1 tablespoon (.75 ounce)
Vegetable oil - 1 tablespoon (.5 ounce)
Water - 1/3 to 1/2 cup ( 3 to 4 ounces)
The recipe called for 1/3 to 1/2 cup of water but I had to use 2 additional tablespoons for the dough to come together. I am guessing this must be due to the difference in measuring a cup. If I had weighed the flour to be an exact 6.75 ounces, the amount of water that the recipe called for would probably have been sufficient.

Method-
The key to crisp lavash, according to Peter, is to roll out the dough paper thin. The method to make Lavash is mostly as described in Peter's book. I have only altered it very slightly.

• In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt, yeast, honey, oil and just enough water to bring everything together into a ball.
• Knead for about 10 minutes, or until the ingredients are evenly distributed.
• The dough should pass the windowpane test. It is a simple test to make sure the gluten formation is sufficient. It took me about 12 to 13 minutes of kneading to pass the windowpane test. The website sourdoughhome.com has detailed information of the windowpane test. Click here to read it. Towards the bottom of the page, the concept is clearly explained.
  
• Ferment at room temparature for 90 minutes. Or alternatively, mist some oil on the kneaded dough, cover it with plastic foil so the foil is in contact with the dough, leave it in the refrigerator overnight. If you are following the second method, leave it in the fridge immediately after kneading. (This is what I did - I mixed it the night before and left it in the fridge. About 2 hours before baking, I took it out of the fridge and left it covered, on the countertop).
  
• When you are ready to bake, divide the dough into two halves and press the first half into a square with your hand and dust the top of the dough lightly with flour. Roll it out with a rolling pin into a paper thin sheet. You may have to stop from time to time so the gluten can relax. At these times, lift the dough from the counter and wave it a little, then lay it back down.
  
• Cut the rolled out dough into diamond shaped crackers with a pizza cutter, transfer to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
  
• Preheat the oven to 350 F. If you would like to add spices like fennel, caraway seeds or sesame, mist the top of the dough with water and sprinkle a covering of seeds. I used just sesame seeds but the baked crackers wouldn't hold the seeds. In my second batch, I sprinkled the sesame seeds on the ball of dough and pressed them in before rolling out the dough. This was more effective, however I ended up with sesame seeds everywhere :)
  
• Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. The crackers were done at exactly 15 minutes. Half way into the baking cycle, I turned the crackers upside down once. This way they would be evenly browned on both sides.
  
• Remove the baking sheet from the oven, remove the crackers to a plate to cool.
• Proceed with the second half of dough.

These crunchy crackers were perfect to be enjoyed with the chunky sweet, savoury, sour and mildly spiced salsa with sprouted beans & chopped up seasonal fruits.

..another view :)

Enjoy!
This chunky sprouted bean salsa goes to My Legume Love affair - 13th Helping, conceptualized by Susan and hosted by SunshineMom, of TongueTicklers. For Susan's original announcement with the host lineup, click here.
The fruit & bean salsa is my own original creation, so I am also sending it to the Original recipes round up #14 hosted by Lore.
I am also sending it to Susan's YeastSpotting. Thanks a bunch Sadhana & Muskan.

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Pineapple Pachadi - Pineapple Curry in coconut paste with spices

Pineapple Pachadi is a regular in our kitchen during summer when pineapples are in season. The sweetness of the chunky pineapple pieces and the mild tangyness of the tamarind makes it a mouthwatering delicacy; the hint of mustard in the ground coconut paste adds a subtle yet distinct flavour to it. This sweet-tangy-yummy side dish is one of the delicacies in Palakkad Iyer wedding feasts. For the festive wedding look, fresh ripe and quartered grapes are added as a garnish.

Ingredients –
Ripe, Sweet pineapple pieces, cut into 1 inch cubes – 2 cups ~ ½ a medium sized pineapple
Tamarind pulp extracted from a marble sized ball of tamarind ~ ½ cup
Grated Coconut, fresh or frozen - ½ cup
Mustard Seeds – ¼ teaspoon
Thai green chillies – 2 or 3
Water - ¾ cup
Grated jaggery – 1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder – ¼ teaspoon
Salt – ½ teaspoon or according to your taste
For Tadka -
Oil - 1 tablespoon
Mustard seeds – ½ teaspoons
Curry leaves – 1 or 2 sprigs, cleaned
Dry Red Chillies – 1 or 2
Methi(Fenugreek) seeds – ¼ teaspoon

Method –

• In a pan, add the pineapple pieces, water, salt, turmeric powder, jaggery.
  Cover with a lid, cook for 6 to 8 minutes.
  
• Add the tamarind pulp, bring it back to a boil. Let it boil for a couple of minutes so the raw smell of tamarind is lost. By now the pineapple pieces would have got soft and mushy.
  
• Grind the coconut, mustard seeds and green chillies in a blender/mixie to make a fine paste. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water as required to assist grinding.
  
• Add the ground coconut paste to the boiled pineapple pieces, mix well. Adjust the consistency by adding 2 or 3 tablespoons of water as required, check for salt.
  
• Bring the curry to a boil, simmer for 1 minute on low heat, remove from fire.
  

Tadka-

• Add oil in a tadka pan. When hot, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add the fenugreek and fry without burning. Add the red chillies, curry leaves and remove from fire. Add this tadka to the curry, mix.
  

Serve with Rice, Tomato Rasam and papads. My mom makes an instant rasam with only tomatoes that goes well with this. Will post it soon.