Wednesday 29 August 2012

Home Made Pizza

Makes 4 large pizzas

Ingredients for dough:

500g strong white bread flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1x7g sachet dried yeast
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
350ml lukewarm water


Ingredients for base:

400g tinned tomatoes
tomato purée
salt & pepper
1-2 clove(s) garlic


Ingredients for toppings:

pesto
sundried tomatoes
mushrooms
goats cheese
mozzerella
parmesan
rocket
spinach
blue cheese
beetroot
balsamic vinegar
cheddar cheese


Method:



- First things first, make the dough. Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the salt, mixing it through.

- In a mixing jug, add the oil and sugar to the water, then add the yeast and mix thoroughly. Leave it alone for a few minutes until it starts to froth up. Make a well in the centre of the flour and begin to incorporate the liquid mixture in slowly, mixing the flour into the liquid with a fork.

-Once the dough begins to form, turn out onto a well floured surface and begin to knead with floured hands. Knead the dough until it forms into a springy ball (about 10 minutes). Once kneaded, leave to rise for an hour in a floured bowl (flour the top of the dough as well), covered with a damp cloth. 

- While the dough is rising, prepare all of the other ingredients, starting with the pizza sauce. Mince the garlic finely and sauté in a little oil in a saucepan, for a minute or so on a medium heat. Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato purée and salt and pepper, and simmer until reduced to a thick sauce, then take it off the heat.

- It's also a good idea to lay out all of your ingredients and get them prepared so it's easy to just throw them onto the pizza base once it's onto the baking tray. For the pizza I made, I used goats cheese, beetroot, rocket on one half, and mushrooms and pesto (from a jar, oops) on the other.

- 15 minutes before the dough has finished rising, pre-heat the oven as high as it will go, with a baking tray inside it to heat up as well. 


- Once the dough has risen (after about an hour), knead once more on a floured surface to 'knock it back', for about 5 minutes. This dough should portion into about 4 medium pizzas. In my experience, I've found it easiest to do one pizza at a time. So, roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin into whatever shape you wish, be it square, round, oval, triangle, whatever, just make sure it's thin! 

- When it's thin enough, take the baking tray out from the oven, dust with flour, and transfer the base (carefully!) across to it, then go crazy with toppings! Add the sauce first, then all the toppings you desire, and finally the cheese on top. Try and do this as quickly as possible so the tray doesn't cool down too much.


- Once all the toppings are on, put into the oven at 200°C, until golden and crispy (about 15 minutes ish?)


Et voila!

Tuesday 14 August 2012

Mushroom risotto!

Serves 2 people

Ingredients:

1 shallot

2/3 cloves garlic (depending on how much you like garlic)

Chestnut mushrooms (chopped/sliced)
Dried mixed mushrooms
Olive oil
Butter
White wine (1 small glass)
Parsley
Arborio/risotto rice (6oz)
Vegetable stock (1 litre)
Parmesan cheese (freshly grated)

Method:

- Boil kettle for hot water to reconstitute mushrooms, pour over mushrooms in a bowl and leave for 10-15 mins. After this time, remove the mushrooms and squeeze them out to get rid of the excess water within the mushrooms, but retain the stock to be used for later.

- Meanwhile, finely mince shallot and garlic and fry for 2-3 mins in oil and a knob of butter until the shallot begins to soften. Add most of the chopped chestnut mushrooms and fry for a further 2-3 mins until they have begun to soften as well.

- Pour in the rice and stir to coat with the oil in the pan. Then add the glass of wine. Pour some more wine into the glass, and drink it!

- Simmer on a medium heat until all the rice has been absorbed. Using the mushroom stock first, add 1 ladleful to the pan and simmer until it has been absorbed. Repeat this with first the mushroom stock, then the vegetable stock, until the rice has softened but is still al denté (has a bit of bite).

- While the rice is cooking, take the remaining chestnut mushrooms and fry in a frying pan with a little oil and butter. Also chop the reconstituted mushrooms up.

- Add the reconstituted mushrooms once the rice is ready and stir in. Then finely chop some parsley, stir in with a handful of parmesan, another knob of butter, salt and pepper to taste.

- Split into bowls and top with the fried mushrooms, a sprinkle of grated parmesan and chopped parsley.

 
Et voila!

Thursday 9 August 2012

Okay, so...

I have about 5 drafts of posts that i need to post, and i can't at the minute! Reviews and recipes are cominggg.

Friday 3 August 2012

Hickory's smokehouse (Chester) Review

Yesterday, it was my brother's birthday, so obviously we went out for a meal (looks like it's not just me in my family that wishes they could go out for food every day, we'll use any excuse). It being his birthday, chose the restaurant and landed on Hickory's Smokehouse. This place aaaalways reminds me of Man V Food with Adam Richman because of all the authentic american 'que!


Bearing in mind i'm pescetarian, this wasn't the best place to go for a meal for me, there was very little choice as not surprisingly, most things were smoked meat. I had 3 choices, vegetable fajitas (i hate all mexican food), a whole sea bass on the bone, or a salad. Not the best choice... I ended up going for the sea bass because my boyfriend promised he'd help me remove the bones (i should probably know how studying marine biology and everything...), however, last time a situation like this arose (holiday last year, paella with crab claws) it ended disasterously, there was crab shell everywhere.


Everyone else got meat dishes my boyfriend ordered the pulled pork, which Adam Richman always seems to make look so nice, even to me! It comes with baked beans and chips on the side. He said it was way too rich for him, but the portion size wasn't that big so i'd have thought it'd even out. My seabass was nice, it was cooked with lemon and rosemary, it was a bit plain, maybe i just don't like sea bass in general. We also ordered a side of onion rings and they never arrived! Our fault for not telling them again i guess.

If you're a lover of BBQ, i'd definitely recommend, but vegetarians and picky people be wary of this place, and definitely peruse the menu before you go.