Perfect Pizza Dough

 

It’s all good and well taking a pizza out the freezer, or dropping a call to your local take-away but there’s something really satisfying about making your own; you can make it fancy with prosciutto and caramelised pears, or make it spicy with tons of jalapeños and pepperoni or, let your kids go wild in the kitchen with all sorts of veggies, cheese and meats. In fact, if you have wee ones, or are an aunt or uncle or grown up cousin (can you tell I’m speaking from experience here?) of kids this is a great load of fun to have with them. I’m all for getting children in the kitchen, teaching them what goes into their food, and pizza is – in my experience – an excellent way to get anyone interested in anything.

This is a super simple recipe that makes a gorgeously crisp pizza base; this week I made a garlic bread/pizza-y thing with it but, as I said, you can throw whatever you’d like on top of this sucker and it’ll taste fab.

This makes two thin crust 10” pizzas.

Recipe

350g strong white bread flour

4g active dried yeast

2 tsp salt

13ml olive oil

25ml warm milk

160ml warm water

1. Combine together the flour, yeast and salt. Add the warm milk and oil and slowly add the warm water. I totally cheat and use my mixer/bread hook at this point and let it do the sticky hard work.

2. Once the dough is fully combined and kneaded until soft, pop it into a clean bowl and cover with a damp towel. Let the dough prove for an hour.

3. When the hour is up, and the dough has doubled in size, you need to knock it back and knead it once more. This time even I do it by hand, time to get those mitts dirty.

4. Once you’ve finished kneading cut the dough into as many separate pieces as you’ll need then pop on a tray, under the damp towel again, for a further thirty minutes.

5. Preheat the oven to 220.

6. Knead the dough a final time before rolling it out and topping.

7. Pop in the oven for 6-8 minutes, or until the crust is a nice golden brown, and enjoy!

If you want to make the garlic bread like I did place 5 cloves of garlic in 150ml of olive oil and place over a slow heat for 8-12 minutes. Brush the oil on the dough before it goes in the oven and, if you want, take the cooked garlic out of it’s skin and lay it on top of the bread for an extra garlicky kick. Sprinkle a little basil on the bread when it’s out the oven and enjoy!

 

Tasty Chorizo Sweet Potatoes

      I love this as a side or even, with a handful of salad leaves, as a main. It’s spicy, full of flavour and so easy to just bung into the oven and let marinade in all those gorgeous spices.

 

 

Recipe

 

3 sweet potatoes

4 spicy chorizo cooking sausages

4 garlic cloves

2 tbsp cumin

2 tsp paprika

Sea salt and fresh black pepper

Olive oil

 

 

1. Preheat oven to 200.

2. Wash and chop your sweet potatoes into nice, meaty chunks. Don’t fret about peeling all the skins off and empty into a nice big pan (you don’t want to crowd everything!).

3. Take your garlic cloves and chop into thirds. Once again, don’t stress about taking the skins off, you’re not going to be eating these…unless you want to, of course. Disperse garlic in amongst the potatoes.

4. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle on the cumin and pop in the oven for 20 minutes.

5. Chop up the chorizo – not too small now – and throw in the pan with potatoes and garlic. Allow to cook for another 20 minutes and, when the potatoes are nice, crisp and tender and the chorizo has a slightly crunchy coating take out the oven.

6. Season with paprika, salt and pepper. Shake everything up in the pan and serve – gorgeous!

 

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• Sweet potato and chorizo soup (hannahlbryan.wordpress.com)
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T’is the season…for sprouts!

      I am the first to admit that I am not a brussel sprout kinda gal. After enduring twelve vegetarian Christmases where my plate was bulked up with a mass of soggy, sad vegetables I had all but given up on those cheeky little green cabbages that seem divide people all over the place; there are those who love them, those who loathe them and those who can tolerate them if they wash them down super quick with a chunk of turkey and glug of gluhwein.

      However, I have discovered recently that it isn’t the actual taste of sprouts I dislike but rather the lack of flavour and texture when they’re boiled to death. With this recipe for gorgeous and tender roasted brussels there is no reason not to enjoy everything on your plate on Christmas day. They’re succulent, salty, crispy, crunchy and fresh; go on, give it a try…I dare you!

Recipe

500g sprouts

4 rashers streaky bacon

100g walnuts

Salt and pepper to season

Olive oil

1. Pre-heat your oven to 200.

2. Take all the loose leaves off your sprouts and chop them in half and lay them in a nice sized roasting pan – you don’t want to over crowd everything!

3. Snip up your four rashers of bacon into smallish chunks (not too small, you don’t want them burnt to little crisps!) and disperse amongst the sprouts.

4. Drizzle a little oil and salt – you won’t need either of much because of the bacon – and dust with some freshly ground pepper.

5. Roast for 25 minutes then take out the oven and add in the walnuts, pop back in for a further 10 minutes and enjoy (I promise you will!).

PS. for extra tastiness dust with a little parmesan cheese!

Drunken Cow Casserole (and fancy mustard mash)

This winter I’ve really gotten into the idea of one pot meals; tasty, hearty dinners that are cooked slowly and allowed to simmer in their own juices and spices until the meat is super tender and you can’t help but feel terribly twee and adorable as you set down a big brown pot on the table and ladle out thick, gorgeous stew-like concoctions. I think it just makes me feel incredibly traditional and domestic and, despite this love of cooking of mine, these are both things I definitely am not!

I served this with tasty mustard mash but you could do dumplings or just big lumps of yummy bread.

So, here it is, the perfect winter warmer for a cold December evening!

Recipe

400g beef shin

150ml ale/stout

450ml chicken stock

1 brown onion

2 cloves of garlic

2 tsp rosemary

2 tsp thyme

10 peppercorns

50g cornflour stirred into 100ml of old water

1 tbsp mustard seeds

3 carrots

2 parsnips

Salt

Olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 180.

2. Pop an oven-proof pot onto the hob, add a glug of oil and throw in your beef. Brown off the meat then remove from the pot and put aside for now.

3. Chop your onions and sweat them off in the pan with the meat juices; when they’re translucent throw in the garlic, mustard seeds, thyme and rosemary and give it all a stir.

4. Pour in your ale and add your chopped carrots and parsnips.

5. Then pour in your stock and stir in the corn flour water.

6. Empty your beef into the pot once more (make sure to get any lovely juices that ran out into the bowl) and throw in your peppercorns.

7. Season with salt, pop your lid on the pot and place in the oven for at least an hour.

Mustard Mash

Recipe

4 large potatoes

2 tbsp sour cream

50ml milk

1 tbsp mustard

Salt and pepper

1. Peel and chop the potatoes.

2. Pop them into a large saucepan and cover with cold, slightly salted water. You don’t want to use boiling water really it definitely works better if you start with cold.

3. Boil until they’re semi-cooked and then allow to simmer until you can easily slid a fork into one.

4. Drain the water away and add in the sour cream, milk and mustard and, using an electric whisk, blitz the potato until it’s wonderfully silky and lump free! Season to taste.

Related articles

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Perfect Hangover Cure: Tasty Tomato and Chicken Risotto!

…Or, a culinary ode to one of my best friends, Jozef, who is currently meandering around India. Risotto would be one of those dishes that seemed to occur in Queens Road on hungover Saturday evenings when we were all feeling slightly delicate from the night before. It’s comfort food; tasty, filling and packed with carbs. It’s also one of those dishes you can make a huge batch of and feed several bellies with very little effort.

I have to say risotto was one of those things I was always slightly terrified of cooking; there are seemingly so many horror stories about the many ways it can go wrong. However, touch wood, I have to say I’ve never struggled with this dish. It just requires your time and patience. It isn’t a meal you can leave to bubble away by itself, you have to keep a beady eye on it and make sure it doesn’t burn or dry out. For me this isn’t too much of a hardship as I love spending an hour or two in the kitchen winding down and taking my time with whatever it is I’m concocting!

This recipe was for three of us but we have lots left over in Tupperware for lunch tomorrow so you could definitely feed four or five folk around the dinner table.

Recipe

3 chicken breasts

300g Arborio rice

1 litre of chicken stock

3 cloves of garlic

A generous glug of white wine

1 brown onion

1 red pepper

A handful of fresh basil

1 tsp oregano

4 tbsp tomato puree

200g cherry tomatoes

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Method

1. Dice your onions and finely chop your garlic and put aside.
2. Cut your chicken up into nice chunks and pop into a pan with a glug of olive oil; fry until the meat is sealed then fish out the pieces of poultry and pop into a bowl. Into the pan now tip the onions and fry slowly until they’re translucent and soft then add your garlic and stir, ensuring your garlic doesn’t burn and turn dark brown and bitter. Pour in your white wine just to deglaze the pan and pick up all those lovely flavours.
3. Empty your rice into the pan stirring lots to coat it all in the oil and onion and garlicy goodness. When the rice starts to turn a little translucent pop in the puree and mix in well.
4. Add 500ml of stock into the pan.
5. Chop your tomatoes and pepper, shred a couple of leaves of basil, and add into the pan. Be frequently stirring your risotto. Season with salt, pepper and oregano.
6. Pop your chicken back in the pan.
7. Over the next half an hour slowly add the remainder of the stock and allow to simmer and cook until your rice is sticky and still a little al dente.
8. Finely chop a few basil leaves and top before serving!

Related articles

• Oven Roasted Tomato Risotto (ontotheplate.wordpress.com)
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Fancy Lemon and Balsamic Roast

There’s something truly decadent about a sumptuous roast chicken and sticky-sweet vegetables late on a Wednesday evening. It feels almost Mediterranean to sit and drink wine whilst tearing off chunks of chicken late into the evening (the flavours of balsamic and lemon certainly helped allude to Italy a little, naturally). This dish is rustic, delicious and an utterly indulgent mid-week treat. And whilst I like tradition, I never much liked a roast on a Sunday – in fact, as a child, I hated roast dinners – and sometimes it seems much more comforting and necessary during the week.

I think fruit and acidity really help bring out the great flavours of meat and this dish, particularly if you use the juices from the chicken to make your gravy, is spiked with a great citrusy lemon flavour all over. It’s a diabolically simple meal but does require your time and patience and creates a fantastic dinner that’s perfect for dark evenings and winter chills.

This recipe was for two of us (and yes, we did eat way more than are fair share of poultry that evening…). We served our roast veg and chicken with some nice and crunchy al dente broccoli, just to add a freshness, you could choose to do this with peas, mange tout, sweetcorn or…anything, really!

Cooking time for chicken; 20 minutes for every 450g then an extra 20 minutes on top of that. You want the juices to run clear when you pop a knife or skewer into the meat. It’s always good to let meat rest for thirty minutes or so after cooking too.

Recipe

Whole free range chicken (size is up to you and dependant upon how many you’re feeding)

3 parsnips

4 carrots

2 generous sweet potatoes

1 red onion

1 brown onion

1 unwaxed lemon

6 cloves of garlic

Fresh thyme

Dried rosemary

Dried basil

Balsamic glaze

Olive oil

Sea salt

Black pepper

4 tbsp gravy granules

300 ml boiling water

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 240 and take the chicken out of the fridge, leaving it at room temperature whilst you prep everything.

2. Make a glaze for your chicken; pop two tablespoons of balsamic glaze into a small bowl, add a generous glug of olive oil, a pinch of sea salt, a little fresh grated lemon zest and a tablespoon of fresh thyme.

3. Chop up your brown onion into nice thick chunks, take three of your peeled garlic cloves and chop roughly, then finally cut your lemon into halves and a dissect one of those halves into eight smaller chunks.

4. In a roasting tin make a bed of onions with two of the chopped garlic cloves, four lemon pieces and a handful of fresh thyme. Mix this all together and place your chicken on top.

5. Take the glaze you made earlier and, using your hands of course, massage it into the meat. Into the cavity put the final chopped garlic clove, four lemon segments and a few sprigs of thyme. Place the other half of lemon in the opening of the cavity, sealing it off. This will all steam inside the bird making the meat juicy, tender and full of flavour.

6. Add a final sprinkling or sea salt and a liberal pinch of roughly crushed peppercorns before turning your oven down to 200 and popping the chicken inside. Let it cook at 200 for twenty minutes before turning down to 180 for the remainder of the cooking time.

7. Time to prep your veggies. Peel and chop your carrots and parsnips and cut into batons, drizzle in a little oil and and balsamic glaze then sprinkle with salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme and put aside ready for roasting later. Then peel your sweet potatoes (or leave the skin on, they really are just as tasty) and chop into nice chunks, cut up your red onion into sizeable pieces and throw in the remainder of your garlic cloves; coat it all with a fine layer of oil, sea salt and dried basil and toss all together in a pan.

8. Roast vegetables go in fifteen minutes before the chicken is due to come out, then once the bird is out of the oven whack the heat back up to 220 and let them roast away until soft, caramelised and tender (this should take 25/30 minutes).

9. So, once that chicken is out of the oven, pop it onto a plate and cover with tin foil or a tea towel and set it aside to rest. In the pan you should be left with an excellent foundation for making wonderful gravy. Take out of the lemon chunks but leave everything else in there, the onions will have pretty much all been reduced down into the rue. Pour the whole lot into a saucepan. Place on a very low heat and add the gravy granules and hot water slowly, stirring until you reach your desired consistency.

10. This is also an excellent time to start steaming/boiling your other veg so that it can all be served at the same time.

11. Once your veggies are done, serve up and enjoy!

Fight-the-Chill Roasted Red Soup

The evenings are well and truly wintery now. Fluffy socks, exuberant jumpers (unless your brother steals them…) and hot, tasty dinners. For me, nothing fights away the chill better than a peppery, rich soup and oodles of delicious crusty bread. Now, I’m one of those odd critters who really doesn’t like tomato soup (or raw tomatoes, unless seasoned and in my bruschetta) but I do love a roasted tomato and pepper soup seasoned with paprika and caraway seeds. The flavours of this soup are almost eastern European – Hungarian – influenced and it really does add a zing to an otherwise fairly humdrum soup.

Recipe

200g tomatoes (I used vine tomatoes, but cherry or plum would work a treat. Get some that are sweet and fragrant)

2 red peppers

1 red onion

3 cloves of garlic

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp caraway seeds

2 tbsp paprika

750 ml vegetable stock

Sea salt

Olive oil

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 200.
2. Score crosses in the tops of your tomatoes, remove all seeds and pith from peppers and roughly chop the red onion. Place all of this in a pan, with the cloves of garlic, drizzle with olive oil and a couple of pinches of sea salt and pop into the oven for about half an hour. You want your peppers about to char and your tomatoes soft and squidgy.
3. Prepare your stock.
4. Pop the tomatoes, onions and peppers into the blender but only squeeze the juice out of the garlic before throwing away (they can be a little bitter and overpowering if put in whole!).
5. Add your spices and blend. The consistency is entirely up to you so add the stock slowly until you’ve reached your optimum thickness. It’s quite nice to leave some of the veg fairly chunky as well, so your soup has some bite!
6. Season with salt and pepper and enjoy with lots of lovely bread (this is a very low fat recipe, however, if you wanted it a little creamier and more decadent you could always add a little cream into the mix)!