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I’ve always loved a good pizza! Always. I think. As far as I can remember anyway. Gourmet pizzas hit the spot, are easy to eat and can combine all of my favourite food groups, bread, meat, mushrooms and cheese! Of course, there is the odd occasion (read: hangover), where even the lesser fast food style pizza may be consumed. But best of the bunch is still the good ol’ home made, dough and all, pizza!
If you’re not on the eastern seaboard of Australia you may not be aware that it has been hot. Damn hot. Lately. So, how best to utilise the heat in the air that just won’t move? By activating yeast, that’s how! Hence my misadventures in homemade pizza. That and the fact that it would take at least an hour to rise, the time remaining in Mister Emmet’s journey home from a long day in he city watching films and writing subsequent reviews. I believe the man has found his dream job – unfortunately, it’s an internship and unpaid – and to come home to pizza, well, icing on the cake, just saying!
Basic Pizza Dough
1 1/2 cup warm water
2-2 1/4 teaspoons dry yeast
3 1/2 cups plain (all-purpose) flour + some extra along the way
2 tablespoons olive oil + a little extra
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon caster sugar
Toppings
Tomato paste or finely chopped can tomatoes
Anything you fancy really! I used:
Sliced mushrooms
Sliced leftover barbecue chicken breast
Sliced pepperoni
Lotsa cheese!
Dry Italian herbs
First things first, place the warm water into your bowl and sprinkle the yeast over the top. Leave this to sit for around 5 minutes while the yeast dissolves. After 5 minutes give it a stir. It’ll look like a bit of a cloudy mess, but that’s about right. Mix in the flour, salt, sugar and olive oil until just mixed. I used a wooden spoon as this doesn’t take too long, but you could use the electric mixer’s paddle attachment on low.
Because I’m in love with the Kitchen Aid, I attached the dough hook and using a medium speed kneaded the dough for around 10 minutes. During this time you’ll be able to see whether you’ve added enough flour. If the dough looks a little too sticky and is not easily forming a ball slowly add a little extra flour, say at a tablespoon at a time. Alternatively, if you don’t have a heavy duty mixer, flour those fingers and place your dough mix on a floured board. Same process here really, knead until it’s the right consistency and forming a ball, again, around 10 mins of smacking it around.
If you haven’t already, shape the dough into a rough ball and cover it with a light layer of olive oil. The best way to do this is drizzle the oil onto your hands and give the dough a rub. Then place it back into the mixing bowl and cover with cling wrap. Leave the bowl in a warm place for around an hour (or longer if you have the time), so the yeast can do its magic and rise!
At this stage you might want to prepare your toppings, chop your mushrooms and grate your cheese.
If you have a pizza stone, great, if not, use a flat tray and place it in the oven at about 200c to warm up for about ten minutes before you’re ready to place the pizza in.
Take your dough out of the bowl, it will have doubled in size and be nice and airy by now. Divide the mix in two, you can save one for later, or use them both to make a nice big pizza like mine! Roll the dough with your hands on a floured board. You can use a rolling pin too but it’s fun to get your hands ‘dirty’ (which of course they’re not, as you will have washed them prior to all of this). Flatten any thicker bits, but the overall thickness is personal preference – thin and crispy or a little bit bready?
When you’re happy with the thickness and size of your pizza, rub a light drizzle of olive oil over the surface – this will (hopefully) prevent your base from going soggy as the juices from your toppings sink in. Next, add your tomato base followed by cheese and toppings…and maybe a little more cheese. Chuck on a sprinkle of Italian herbs, or even better some fresh ones if you’ve them handy and into the oven it goes!
It should only take around 10-20 minutes in the oven, of course, this does depend on your oven so keep an eye on it so as not to burn the edges or have a soggy middle. Lets face it, nobody likes a soggy middle. And, if for whatever reason your husband’s train is delayed, don’t worry, you can leave the pizza in the oven to keep warm. Just turn off the heat and leave the fan on, this will push the residual heat around the oven without overcooking, or turn the oven off completely and leave the door ajar. Of course, you don’t want to be leaving it in there too long, or else the neighbours will knock your door down as the smell wafts around the neighbourhood!
Last but not least, slice and enjoy!
What could possibly be more wonderful than blueberry buttermilk pancakes for brunch!? Very little I would think!
Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes
2 cups self raising flour
2 tbls caster sugar
1 egg – lightly beaten
2 tbls melted margarine
600ml buttermilk
1-2 punnets of blueberries
spray oil for greasing the pan
the Sunday paper – these pancakes are thick so you might want to get in some perusing while you’re waiting.
Sift the flour into a bowl. Add the lightly beaten egg, melted margarine and buttermilk and mix with a wooden spoon until combined. Gently fold in as many blueberries as you care to. You can break them up in the mix, but I recommend keeping them whole as when they’re hot in the pancakes they will give a nice little burst of flavour!
Spray the pan with a light layer of oil and place on about a half cup of the mix. These babies are thick so you might have to flatten them a little with your wooden spoon. When you see the bubbles on the top of the batter it’s time to flip them over. They’ll need about 2-3 mins on each side – during which you can catch up on the Sunday gossip pages!
Easy done! You might want to put the ready made pancakes into a warmed oven while you make your way through the rest of the batter. I recommend serving with a dash of golden or maple syrup – but this, of course, is entirely optional as these pancakes taste fabulous all on their own!
After a couple of weeks off from lessons in Hungarian cooking, we’re back…well kind of, with stuffed paprika. I’m discovering some limitations in learning from Nagymama. She doesn’t really have any measurements for her recipes. It’s very much a handful of this, or a few shakes of the pepper shaker. So please be a little forgiving with this one, most of the measurements are approximate. One thing worth remembering is that the beef mix should be about 3/4 beef to 1/4 pork, whatever the quantity you decide to use. The below recipe feeds about 5.
Stuffed Paprika
750g beef mince (preferably yearling)
250g pork mince
3/4 cup rice
1 1/2 tsp Vegeta or 1 tsp salt (to taste)
1 tsp pepper (to taste)
1 tsp dried marjoram leaves
1 egg
1/2 grated onion
1 – 2 litres pureed tomato sauce
1/4 cup plain flour
1 tbls olive oil
5 banana paprika – preferably yellow but green is okay too
First things first, chop the top off the paprika and remove the seeds and insides keeping the shell in tact.
Place the mince, rice, spices, egg and onion into a bowl and combine.
When combined, stuff the meat mix into the paprika with a teaspoon, pressing the meat in as far as you can and packing the mix so it won’t fall out.
Place the paprika into a large pot on the stove top. Pour over the tomato sauce until the paprika is covered. Bring to the boil and then turn it right down to a slow simmer. Simmer away for about 1 1/2 – 2 hours or until the paprika is soft enough to eat.
Just before serving, place olive oil into a small pot and bring to the heat. Add in plain flour and combine.
Put this into the paprika/tomato soup. It will help with thickening the sauce.
Once you’ve combined the flour mix in…it’s ready to serve. You might like to have some warm bread to sop up what is basically tomato soup with stuffed paprika! Enjoy!
Yesterday, in an effort to avoid the disappointment of election counts, I took to the kitchen to bake up a storm! Nagymama was otherwise indisposed – but hopefully next week I’ll have a nice Hungarian dessert recipe for you – so I thought I’d make something from my newly inherited Irish heritage! In honour of my husband, and because we all know a wife’s place is in the kitchen (tongue firmly in cheek there), I thought I’d try my hand at traditional Irish soda bread! Which, as it would turn out, is excessively simple to make, and is really a not too distant relative of Australian damper. Had I thought to try it earlier, I may have saved a few quid while we were in Ireland. All it really takes is a little bit of time. Anyway, here’s the recipe. All I would say is that next time I’m going to use wheat flour rather than the more refined stuff. I prefer the slightly nutty flavour.
Irish Soda Bread
4 cups plain flour
2 tsp bicarb soda
1 tsp salt
60g butter
2 cups buttermilk (you might need slightly more but check the consistency as you go)
First things first, preheat the oven to 190 degrees celsius and line a baking tray. Sift the flour, bicarb and salt into a mixing bowl. Using your fingers rub in cubes of room temperature butter until you get a crumby consistency. Mix in the butter milk with a wooden spoon to start, though you’ll need to get your hands in to bring the dough together. Tip the dough onto a floured surface and work it a little before forming into a round. Place it onto the baking tray and cut a cross into the top.
Baking will take between 35 mins and an hour to cook, depending on your oven. Mine took about 50 mins. My best advice here is to keep an eye on your bread beyond the 35 min mark. It will go nicely brown on the outside but you need to be sure that it won’t be raw in the middle.
I love soda bread with butter and cheese, or with lemon butter. The great thing is that there’s no sugar in it, so you can go savory or sweet no problem! Bain taitneamh as do bhéil!
Goulash – Gulyás
1kg round steak – cubed
2 large onions – sliced
1 large tomato – roughly chopped
1 yellow banana paprika – roughly chopped
1 tablespoon sweet paprika powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tbls vegetable oil
hot water
Heat oil in pot. Add onions and sweat until just translucent.
Add meat, tomato, banana paprika, paprika power and salt to the pot.
Add enough hot water to cover the meat. Bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer. Cover and simmer until the meat has cooked through and flavours penetrated the broth – this might take an hour or more. Slow cooked is best. But don’t forget to stir and season along the way.
Looking good! I like my goulash served with mashed potato made with sour cream and butter…but I’m sure you know how to mash some potatoes so I won’t detail it here. Cook. Eat. Enjoy! =)
