Pita Chips

A long week makes for a short blog entry so here is a recipe for a dish I re-invented recently (these things exist commercially and I just improvised for a similar result).

Ingredients

Pita Bread, Cooking Oil, Butter or Margarine, Minced Garlic, Herbs and Spices

Preparation

The number of pitas one uses will depend on how many you want to serve. So far I have used two or three to serve a handful of friends. This is also as many as will fit in a pan. Take the pita bread and cut it into finger-sized portions. It's okay for it to be twin-layered and indeed for them to all be different shapes and sizes. Some may even curl in on themselves - it will just result in a mix of pita chips that vary in crunchiness.

Put the pita pieces into a bowl and then sprinkle herbs and spices liberally into the pile. I have been using a jar of Spicy Italian mix which combines the usual Italian herbs with some spices like chilli. I ometimes also throw in some finely chopped chives just to add a pretence of freshness to the snack. Now move over to the stove.

Moisten a frying pan with cooking oil then whack in a generous lump of butter or margarine. Mush the yellow stuff together with a kindly dollop of minced garlic. Now apply heat and watch the concoction melt. Once it starts bubbling throw in the pita. Stir regularly so that the pita gets well infused with the garlic-goop. The herbs and spices may well have settled to the bottom of the bowl so just tip them in over the pita as you go.

Keep stirring. It will seem as if the chips will never become crisp (some of them never entirely do) but keep at it and go with your own feel. Check the odd chip now-and-then for crispness. Eventually the right moment will arrive to remove the heat and tip the chips back into a bowl for serving. They are rather nice once done - just trust me on that.