Make your own! Homemade Pizza for Two

How to make pizza? During the current recession climate, everyone's watching their pennies and we are no exception. So we decided to have a homemade romantic evening together.
Ingredients for pizza base
400g Strong white flour
A packet of Fast Action yeast
250ml luke warm water to help the yeast
A couple grinds of salt
A drop of olive oil
A drop of milk

Toppings
Be creative, pick whatever takes you fancy and put them on the pizza. Enjoy your own creation! This is whatwe did.

100ml Tomato sauce (I bought a small tub of Tesco Bolognese sauce)
2 gloves of garlic, sliced (optional)
1 chilli, chopped (optional)

Mozzarella and Avocado Pizza
Mozzarella cheese
5 cherry tomatos
A handful of spinach
Half avocado, stoned and sliced
3 slices of parma hams

Spicy Veggie Pizza
Grated cheddar cheese, or of your choice
1 red chilli, sliced
Half an onion, quartered
Half a red pepper, diced
4 mushrooms, sliced
A quarter of a courgette, sliced


Step 1
Mix the flour, yeast and salt well. Gradually add the luke warm water and bring the mixture together. As it starts to bind, add a drop of oil and milk. Continue to bind until the outside is smooth.

If it's too slack, wet, add a bit more flour; if it's too dry, hard, add a bit more water.

Step 2
Cover the inside bowl and surface of dough with olive oil, to stop crust from forming when the dough starts to raise. Place the bowl in a warm part of the kitchen to help yeast action. (I put it on the shelf directly above a radiator) Leave for 2 to 3 hours to rise.

Step 3
The dough should have doubled in size. Poke the surface to let out some of the air. Transfer the dough to a floured surface and start kneading for a couple of minutes.

Cut the dough in two. Roll it flat (about 1-1.5cm thick) with a rolling pin (It doesn't really matter what shape it is, I think that's the beauty of homemade food) and place on a pizza tin, or just on a piece of foil. Leave it to rest until you sort out the toppings.

Step 4
Heating up the tomato sauce with garlic and chilli is optional. You can just spread a thin layer of tomato sauce straight on the pizza base.

Heat a pan with a teaspoon of olive oil, after one minute put in the chopped garlic and chilli. Stir it a bit and add the tomato sauce until it just starts to bubble. Leave it aside to cool.

Spread a thin layer of the sauce on the pizza base. Make sure you don't put too much, or it'll go soggy.

Step 5
Pre-heat the oven at 180 degree.
Now do your magic and place toppings on the pizza base in the style you like.

Step 6
Place the two pizzas in the oven and cook for 10-14 minutes.

Enjoy your homemade romance with a glass of good wine!

The Perfect Wine for Pizza

Where Italy comes to Australia from Premium Vineyards with a Wine for Pizza!

Totoiseshell Bay Shiraz/Barbera - South East Australia @ £5.99 per bottle

This is an intensely fruity wine, bursting with brambly Shiraz fruit, spice and herb notes. Barbera adds structure and freshness to the blend, which has soft tannins and a long clean finish.

When the sun goes down, let the wine warm you so you will settle down and sip some sunshine and pleasure with you Pizza!

Lamb Kebabs on Pearl Barley Broth

This dish is inspired by a recipe found in May '08 Runners World (UK) magazine by Michel Roux Jr. A protein rich broth ideal for an after-race meal. Helps replenish depleted stores of carbohydrates and salts.

If you happen to be wondering why I'm so bothered about running all of a sudden its cos I'm down to run the Berlin Marathon. Follow my training at my Tumble log http://runberlin2008.tumblr.com.

Ingredients
For the kebabs
325g lamg leg steaks (diced)
Cumin powder
Salt
Chilli flakes (or chilli powder)

For the broth
Half a leek (sliced)
5 chestnut mushrooms (quartered)
60g pearl barley
chicken stock (300ml)
olive oil
garlic (clove, finely chopped)
white pepper

Step 1
Heat oil in a pan and cook the garlic, leek and mushrooms until softened. Then add the chicken stock and pearl barley. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes or until barley is tender. Season with white pepper.

Step 2
Heat the oven to 190°C. Thread the diced lamb onto skewers place on a baking tray and sprinkle with salt, chilli flakes and olive oil. Cover generously with cumin powder.

Step 3
Cook the kebabs in the oven for 10-15mins. Serve with broth.

How to make Chilli Oil

Homemade chilli oil is an essential ingredient for any cupboard. Everyone knows a chilli addictive. I live with one. Once you've made batch of oil split between containers and give them out to friends and family. A sure fire way to make get on that Xmas card list.

Ingredients
125g Crushed Extra Hot Red Chillies
250ml Sesame Oil
1 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Szechuan Pepper Corn Powder


Step 1
In a small pan heat all the oil on high for 5-10 minutes.

Step 2
Meanwhile, mix the crushed chilli flakes, salt and szechuan pepper corn powder in a large heatproof bowl. Mix well.


Step 3
When the oil is very hot (smoking gently) pour over the crushed chillies slowly mixing all the time. Make sure that you add the oil small amounts at time. It should take you about 1-2 minutes to pour the oil, as you do the chillies will start turning a darker colour as the hot sesame oil cooks the chillies in the heatproof bowl.

Step 4
Leave to cool, then store in a jar/bowl and keep in a cool cupboard/larder.

Belly Pork Hot Pot

Mmm just thinking about writing this up is making my mouth water. I only had this a couple of days ago and I want it again...now. Seriously, if I had to name my top ten all time favourite dishes this would definitely make it. Its the way the fat on the pork simply melts in your mouth.

Enough! Back to the recipe.

Ingredients
Pork Belly (cut into 1 inch chunks/cubes)
2 green chillies (chopped)
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp white or brown sugar
olive oil
1 tsp finely chopped ginger
1 star aniseed
1 bay leaf
2 carrots cut into chunks
2 leeks sliced
recently boiled water (about 1 pint and a half)

Step 1
On a hot hob, in a flameproof casserole dish, heat a splash of olive oil until hot. Add the ginger, stir, quickly followed by the chilli and fry for a further 20 seconds. Then add the belly pork. Fry until the pork starts to brown (2 minutes or so).

Step 2
When the pork has browned add the sugar, light and dark soy sauce and stir contents so that the pork is covered. Then add water from the recently boiled kettle. The water should cover the pork by roughly an inch (2.5cm). Add the star aniseed and the bay leaf. Bring back to the boil, turn the hob down, then place the lid leaving a gap on the casserole dish and simmer for 1 hour.

Step 3
Add the carrots to the pot and simmer for 20 minutes. Then add the leeks and simmer for a further 10 minutes.

Serve with rice. Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelishous!!!

TOP TIP: the star aniseed is very important in this recipe as its adds a very distinctive flavour. You can usually pick them up from a Chinese supermarket. Well worth buying and they'll last you for ages.

Simple Sausage Casserole

A straight forward recipe to make a delicious sausage casserole using ingredients most of us have in the cupboard/fridge.

Ingredients
2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
1 green chilli (chopped)
6 pork sausages (ensure that the percentage of meat is at least 70%)
1 red pepper (sliced)
7 cherry tomatoes
a handful of mushrooms (sliced)
a heaped spoonful of wholegrain mustard
a splash of worcestershire sauce
an oxo cube
recently boiled water (about 2-3 cups)
1-2 tbsp olive oil

Step 1
In a cast iron casserole dish heat the olive oil on the stove. When the oil is hot fry the garlic and chilli until the garlic starts to change colour. Then add the sausages and fry until lightly browned.

Step 2
Add the pepper, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms to the casserole dish and continue to fry until softened. Turn the oven on at 180°C to heat up.

Step 3
Boil the kettle. Whilst the kettle is heating up stir in the mustard and sprinkle the oxo cube over the sausages. When the water has boiled pour over the sausages until it is about 1 to 1.5 inches deep. Splash the worcestershire sauce over everything and stir.

Step 4
Put the lid on the casserole dish and place the dish in the oven and cokk for 1 hour.

Serve with vegetables of your choice.

Tom Yum Tiger Prawns

Tom Yum paste is traditionally used as a base for a spicy, thin Thai soup. We found we had some left (about a teaspoon's worth) and decided to experiment with using it in a stir fry.

Ingredients
20 Tiger Prawns (with the skins but without heads)
1 carrot (thinly sliced)
1 leek (1 to 2cm chunks)
1 tsp finely chopped garlic
1 tsp finely chopped ginger
1 green chilli (chopped)
75g green beans (halved)
1 tsp Tom Yum paste
1/4 cup water
2 tsps dark soy sauce
2-3 portions of vermicelli
olive oil (splash of)

Step 1
Cook the vermicelli and set aside.

Step 2
Heat the olive oil in a large wok/frying pan. Fry the garlic, chilli and ginger until the garlic just starts to turn brown (less than 30 seconds). Then add the rest of the vegetables (green beans, carrots & leeks) and continue to fry for another 3-4 minutes.

Step 3
Add the prawns and 1/4 cup of water (if the prawns are frozen there is no need to add the extra water). Fry the prawns until they are pink all over and then add the Tom Yum paste. If the pan seems a little dry at this point add some more water, if not don't worry. Stir the paste in thoroughly.

Step 4
Once all ingredients are cooked through take the vermicelli noodles set aside earlier and add to the wok. Mix noodles in thoroughly and add the dark soy sauce.

Serve.

Spicy Stuffed Aubergines with Yakitori Pork Chops

Ingredients
2 pork chops
4 tbsp Yakitori sauce (Japanese)
1 aubergine (eggplant) - see Step 2 for preparations
1 courgette (diced)
a handful of (100g) mushrooms (chopped)
1 yellow pepper (diced)
1 green chilli (chopped)
1 clove of garlic (chopped)
Half a tin of chopped tomoatoes (200g)
1 tbsp chilli bean paste (optional)
olive oil
salt & pepper


Step 1
Marinate the pork chops in the Yakitori sauce. If you can't find Yakitori sauce the simply mix some dark soy with brown sugar and use that instead. Leave in the fridge to marinate for a while.


Step 2
Heat the oven to 180°C. Slice the aubergine in half longways. Scoop out the flesh to leave the skin. Set the flesh aside for step 3. Rub olive oil, salt and pepper into the skin of the aubergine. Place them on a baking tray and pop them in the oven for 15-20 minutes until soft.

Step 3
Dice the aubergine, mushrooms, courgette and pepper. In a large frying pan fry the garlic and chilli until the garlic starts to turn brown. Then add the vegetables, chopped tomatoes and chilli bean paste (optional) and continue to cook for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Step 4
Remove the aubergine skins from the over and spoon the vegetables into the skins. Place the stuffed skins back in the oven.

Step 5
Fry the marinated pork chops for 3-4 minutes each side. When they are done serve with the stuffed aubergines.

In Japan Yakitori sauce is traditionally used with poultry, in particular chicken. We stumbled upon the fact that it tastes great with pork simply because we didn't know that you're supposed to use it with chicken. Try it, you might like it.

Thai Green Monk Fish Curry

Monk fish is an ideal fish for most types of curry as its tougher than most supermarket bought fish. In many cases it can just be substituted for chicken to varying success. The fish itself does not have an overbearing flavour so it tends to absorb the taste from the dish.

Ingredients:
1 Monkfish skinned and cubed
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
100g mange tout (halved)
2 tbsp thai green curry paste
1 can of coconut milk
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 small chilli (chopped) (optional)
bunch of coriander (roughly chopped)
1-2 tbsp olive oil

1) Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan until hot. Add in the chopped chilli and fry for a minute. Then add in the rest of the vegetables and fry for a further 3-5 mins until they have softened.

2) Add in all the thai green curry paste, stir thoroughly. Then add the coconut milk, bay leaf and fish sauce. Bring the sauce to the boil.

3) When it reaches boiling point add in the monk fish turn down the heat and simmer for ten minutes or until the fish is cooked. Remove the bay leaf and serve with rice or noodles (or as in our case both).

Cumin Minced Lamb in Pitta

This dish takes about 10 minutes to cook after preparation and will serve four, although we gobbled this lot between us. It is one of Shanshan's favourite street foods in China.


Ingredients:
500g minced lamb
4 sticks of celery (sliced into 0.5cm slices)
4 pitta breads
pinch of szechuan pepper corn (use normal pepper corns if you don't have these)
2 tbsp of olive oil
2 tsp of cumin powder
1 tsp of hot chilli oil or hot chilli powder
salt (to taste)
1 tbps light soy sauce

1) Heat half the olive oil in a large frying pan or wok. When hot fry all the minced lamb until browned. Then drain the excessive liquid and set aside (placing the lamb on kitchen paper on a plate will do the job)

2) Heat the other half of the olive oil in the same pan and add the sechuan pepper corns, fry for 10 seconds then add the celery and fry until softened. Then add the minced lamb you set aside earlier, mix well then add the cumin powder, soy sauce chilli oil (or powder) and salt and continue to mix. Add water if the dish is too dry.

3) Toast the pittas for a minute each, slice in half and open up. In the pocket of the pittas fill stuff with the dish. Serve.