Homemade olive flatbread with sister Sandy's homemade tzatziki (celebrating 999 page visits as of 2pm Aug 3rd, 2012!!!!)

As of 2:43 pm August 3rd, 2012 - there have been 1000 page views of my blog - I couldn't be happier than a clam with a nice big pearl in my mouth. Until my sister called and suggested we have a Friday night Olympic-rerun-watching-veggie-burger party :)

We made/assembled a very yummy dinner: Corn salsa appetizer, veggie burger and homemade tzatziki sauce, homemade olive flatbread, spinach and artichoke hummus.

I guess Sister Sandy had not-so-subtly hinted that she wanted me to create some homemade veggie burgers when she told me to look in the freezer "Guess what I got? Go look, go look!" after stepping into the door

"Ooo, frozen veggie burger patties!"  I said.

In her gentle yoga voice (like she was suggesting I try doing a Chaturanga but with an added hopeful lilt) "Maybe we can try making our own one day?"

OK! One day we shall create our own veggie burger, maybe with some cooked sticky purple rice to help bind and lots of mushrooms and herbs and spices. But until then, we got busy making our first veggie burger meal using the frozen purchased patties and it was delicious! Quite expensive though as each patty turned out to be roughly $1.75 CAD, but once in a while, we need to indulge, especially while watching the Olympic highlights!

Olive flatbread:
1/2 cup 100% hydrated yeast starter (or use 1 1/2 tsp instant rising yeast mixed with 1/2 cup water)
1/4 cup warm water
1 1/2cup bread flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
Small handful of Kalamata olives, pitted and roughly chopped

Add water into bread starter and mix thoroughly. Add in flour, sugar and oil and mix until smooth. Let proof for a few hours or until at least doubled in size.

Turn dough out onto floured working surface. Add in chopped olives and knead into dough. Knead for about 5 minutes. Let rest in a bowl, covered, for at least 1 hour.

Turn dough out onto floured working surface again and press flat. Cut into 8 equal pieces and roll out each piece with a rolling pin to about 1/2 cm thickness. Heat a cast iron pan on medium high and oil it slightly with canola oil. Gently pick up dough and fry on cast iron for about 2 mins or until golden, then flip over and lower the heat and continue to cook for 5 mins or until done.


Sister Sandy's tzakziki:
3/4 cup Balkan style plain yogurt
1 clove garlic, minced very fine
1 radish, julienned
10 - 15g cucumber, peeled and julienned
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

In a bowl, mix yogurt, garlic, radish, cucumber and lemon. Salt and pepper to taste. Keep in refrigerator until ready to serve (tastes better the next day because all the flavours have soaked into the yogurt).

This olive flatbread looked like 2-2