Fig and prosciutto pizzas

I love pizza. Love it. Homemade stuff never lives up to the ordered-in or restaurant variety (well, in my kitchen at least). That doesn’t stop me from trying out lots of recipes at home.

This week I made this one from the September 2012 edition of the Good Food magazine. It’s the best textured base I’ve tried, easiest to make and the taste was good too. Now all I have to do it find that sauce and figure out the best cooking method…

Fig and prosciutto pizzas

400g strong white bread flour

7g of dried yeast

1 teaspoon of salt

4 tablespoon of olive oil

250ml of warm water

Mix the flour, yeast and salt in a bowl. Add the oil to the water and then pour the whole lot into the flour. Mix with a spoon or your hands. In ever other yeast recipe I’ve read and tried you would always tip the dough onto your countertop and knead it for 10 minutes to stretch out the gluten in the flour. This recipe doesn’t say this, so in the name of research I followed its advice and covered the bowl with cling film and left in on a sunny windowsill for an hour. An hour later, the dough was happily gurgling away.  

Heat your oven to 220°c. Tip the dough onto a floured board and knead it for a moment. Divide into six portions and roll out and put one or two onto a floured baking tray.

Topping

The recipe says to mix 250g of crème fraiche with 50g of Parmesan, some cooked shallots and salt and pepper. Spread a little of this over the pizzas and bake for 10-15 minutes.

The crème fraiche I thought I’d bought and put in the fridge wasn’t to be found, so I cooked some finely chopped onion with some garlic for about five minutes and added a tin of tomato puree and two tins of water and used this instead. Or you could put the mozzarella on the pizzas now and cook them.

When all your pizzas are cooked, scatter the tops with some figs and prosciutto and some fresh, torn balls of mozzarella. 

The pizzas were good, but were better without the figs, so these were picked off and eaten as a post-pizza-pre-jellies-for-dessert snack.

ps: in the magazines intro to this recipe, it says “these are ideal for an impromptu lunch…”. Seeing as the dough takes an hour to rise, they are not as impromptu as GF thinks they are. 

Pork and fennel tray roast with lemon and coriander

I’ve made this three times now, and this is the first time I’ve been quick enough to get a photo before it’s devoured! It’s really simple, and the kind of dish you can pretty much prepare, pop in the oven and leave there while you potter around. From fridge to table, it takes an hour.

Roast pork and fennel with lemon and coriander

The recipe comes from the May 2012 edition of delicious magazine.

For four people:

2 large red-skinned potatoes cut into chunks (new potatoes are in, so I used 3-4 per person)

2 fennel bulbs, sliced into eights

3 red onions, quartered

Olive oil

2 pork fillets (I used 600g), trimmed and cut into 8

Paste

2 preserved lemons, rinsed and dried and cut into pieces

A dribble of olive oil

Garlic cloves (I love garlic, so I use lots)

Chili – whatever amount you like, either flakes, dried or fresh

1 teaspoon of smoked paprika

1 tablespoon of honey

chopped coriander

Heat your oven to 180°.

Put the potatoes and fennel into a pot of salted water, bring to the boil and boil for 2 minutes. Drain well and put into a roasting tin together with the onions and the olive oil. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes.

While all that’s going on, either blitz all the paste ingredients in a blender or chop up finely and mix together (second option = less washing up). I always add a crumbled stock cube too, and of course a little salt and pepper.

Rub the paste all over the pork pieces and leave aside.

When your veg have hit the 20 minute mark in the oven, tumble the pork pieces on top and return the lot to the oven for another 20-25 minutes, until the pork is cooked through and the vegetables are soft.

As I’d some parsnips in the fridge this week I used these too. I just boiled them with the potatoes and fennel first. Yum.

Photos are en route (probably tonight).

Friday favourites - easy chicken tagine

This is from Nigel Slater, via the BBC, and I could find all of the ingredients in the supermarket. I used preserved lemons – I got these in the Carrefour at the Dreve Rochelle in Waterloo, in the ‘foreign foods’ section. You can also get them in any North African corner shops, should you have one nearby.

For the spice paste

2-3 large, juicy garlic cloves, peeled, roughly chopped

pinch sea salt flakes

2-3 good pinches smoked paprika

2-3 good pinches ground turmeric

1 tsp cumin seeds

glug olive or groundnut oil

For the casserole

6 large chicken thighs, bone in and skin on (I used chicken three breasts cut into about 5 pieces each to feed four of us)

good glug of olive oil

2 onions, peeled, roughly chopped

1 lemon, cut in half, thinly sliced (I used a preserved lemon - make sure you rince it first)

pinch of saffron strands (I had none, so I just left this out)

handful green olives, pits removed

small handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped

Preparation

For the spice paste, crush the garlic cloves and sea salt with a pestle in a mortar. Add the smoked paprika, turmeric and cumin seeds and grind to a paste. Add just enough olive or groundnut oil to make the paste runny enough to pour, but thick enough to coat the chicken.

Put the chicken into a bowl, pour the spice paste over them and toss well to coat all of the meat. Cover with cling film and leave to marinate in the fridge for as long as time allows, overnight if possible.

The paste, not pourable but thick

Heat the olive oil in a large shallow pan, then cook the onions until softened. Add the chicken thighs and cook until coloured lightly on both sides. Add the lemon slices and pour in enough water to come halfway up the chicken pieces. Stir in the saffron, if you're using it, then season well, cover with a lid and simmer for about 25 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and tender. Add the olives and fresh coriander and serve.

Chicken tagine

Bulgur with green beans

Bulgur wheat from Delhaize

I served this with some bulgur, made with lots of chopped green beans cooked off a bit first in water. 

Friday favourites - flammkuchen

Flammkuchen

I found this recipe for flammkuchen on delicious days. It’s simple and pretty fast. I couldn’t find any rye flour, so I used normal flour. The result was excellent. I got three small flammkuchen from this, enough for three people, especially when served with a salad. It takes about two hours from start to finish.

250g flour

50g rye flour (as I said, I couldn’t find this, so I used 300g flour)

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

175ml lukewarm water

one sachet of yeast, or use fresh yeast

1 tbsp olive oil

200g soured cream

50g cream

salt, pepper and nutmeg

a packet of lardons

2 red onions, finely sliced

chives to decorate

Add the flours and salt to a large bowl, mix and make a well in the centre. Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water, pour into the well and add the olive oil.

Knead well, either by hand or with a machine for about 10 minutes. Shape into a ball, cover with a damp kitchen towel and let rest for about 45 minutes at a warm and sheltered place. After the dough has risen, punch it down, divide it into 2 equally sized portions, shape them into balls and let them rise again under your damp kitchen towel for 20 to 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 250° or as hot as your oven gets and place a baking tray on the bottom level, so it gets preheated, too.

Prepare the topping by mixing the creams with the salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste, cutting the red onions into thin semi-rings and finely chopping the chives.

Line the baking tray with baking paper. Flatten one dough ball with your hands and either roll it out thinly (similar to pizza dough) with a rolling pin or by stretching and pulling the dough with your hands. Pop this on the heated baking tray. Spread half the cream on top and sprinkle with the lardons and the sliced onions.

Bake in the hot oven for 15 minutes. You can remove the baking paper for the last couple of minutes. Take out and add some fresh chives and enjoy!

Friday favourites - Spanish meatballs (albondigas) and patatas bravas

It took me about an hour to whip these up, and they were delicious. The dishes are simple and easily to prepare. I also managed to take photos. For once.

Spanish meatballs

The two recipes are adapted from a gift from my Irish SiL; Tapas, meze and other bites to share, by Annie Rigg.

For the sauce:

about a tablespoon of olive oil

2 onions (I used two small ones and half a red one that was loitering in the fridge

loads of garlic. Loads. I think I used about five fat cloves.

a good sprinkle of dried oregano

a chilli, either fresh or dried

a sprinkle of freshly ground cumin seeds

200 ml red wine

a stock cube

400g tin of chopped tomatoes

salt n pepper

For the albondigas (that’s the meatballs – I learned that this weekend in my kitchen):

550g sausages or sausage meat or veal and pork mince

1 teaspoon of smoked paprika

a sprinkle of freshly ground cumin seeds

a small egg

a handful of breadcrumbs

a dribble of milk

chopped parsley, if you have any

Heat the oil in a heavy pot. Add the chopped onions and cook for five minutes, until they soften. Add the garlic and oregano and cook for another minute or two. Put half the cooked onion mixture into a bowl and leave to cool. Add the rest of the sauce ingredients to the pot and bring to a simmer.

Skin the sausages, adding the meat into the reserved half of the onions. Tip all the other meatball ingredients in there and mix with your hands. Make into 15-20 balls. I added these directly to the simmering sauce and cooked it for 30 minutes with the lid on and another 10-15 minutes without it to get a thick sauce. Taste the sauce and add more chilli or seasoning as you like.

The ‘magic’ ingredient in any meatball or burger is the breadcrumbs. I didn’t believe this for ages, but they really make the finished products really moist.

While the meatballs are cooking, you can get on with the patatas bravas. Heat the oven to 225°. You will need about one large potato per person. Peel and chop them into bite-sized chunks. Boil these for about seven minutes. While these are cooking, get the spices together. You will need:

-       2 tablespoons of olive oil

-       loads of garlic, I think I used 4 cloves, crushed

-       1 teaspoon of coriander seeds

-       1 teaspoon of cumin seeds

-       1 teaspoon of smoked paprika

-       a good pinch of ground, dried chilli

Cover the base of a large flat dish with the oil. Add all the other ingredients to the oil and mix them around. Drain the chopped potatoes and empty these into the spiced oil. Toss to coat and pop into the oven for 30 minutes.

Serve both with a good glass of Spanish red wine (or white, or beer).