Month: March 2016

allconsuming kitchen staples: pizza dough recipe

My go-to pizza dough recipe that is as forgiving as the sun is hot.

There are eleventy gagillion pizza doughs out there and all of them probably work equally well. This is based on a Jamie Oliver recipe I have been making for more than a decade. You can make paper thin crusts with it or thicker doughyer (so a word) ones if you prefer.

Recently we’ve been getting more fancy with our pizzas, thoroughly pricking it all over with a fork, brushing it with oil, and topping with some sweet grape tomatoes. Into the hottest oven your oven will go until its clearly bronzed, pull it out, squish the tomatoes flat, drape over some prosciutto and rocket and let sit for a wee while so the meat and greens can wilt.

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Similarly, another pizza bianco – brush oil over your flattened dough, top with some roasted cubes of pumpkin or sweet potato (I do this while the dough is proofing so the kitchen is warm from oven) and again maybe some tomatoes or sliced red onion. Bake, then pull out of the oven and dot over some goats cheese or ricotta and greens.

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Finally, another one – brush the base with oil then cover with finely sliced mushrooms – and I mean cover generously – and dot over some crumbled blue cheese then cook. Heaven.

Anyway, this is meant to be about the dough not the toppings!

This dough is very forgiving. Sometimes I barely knead it, sometimes I think I over-knead it but it still comes up trumps. Basically operate on the mindset that once it’s smooth and has come together it’s done.

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I get 8 roughly-30cm bases from this.

 
allconsuming kitchen staples: pizza dough
 
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My go-to pizza dough
Author:
Serves: 6-8 bases
Ingredients
  • 20 g dry yeast
  • 30 g salt
  • 30 g sugar
  • 1 kg flour
  • 625 ml warm water
Instructions
  1. Mix all the dry ingredients together with a whisk
  2. Add the water and bring it all together into a shaggy mess
  3. Tip onto a floured bench and knead for 5-10 minutes until it all comes together into a smooth dough
  4. Oil the bowl you used to mix everything together, then put the dough back in the bowl, cover and put in a warm place for about an hour.
  5. When you're ready to use it, you can either portion it out into 6-8 portions or simply rip a large handful off to then roll out.

Zucchini fritters

A fantastic vegetarian dinner option, zucchini and haloumi fritters with mint and dill.

Remember the time-consuming but delicious zucchini gratin? Jasper has been requesting it with increasing desperation over the last few weeks but I just didn’t have the emotional fortitude or stamina to go there. I’m blaming the relentless heat and humidity over these past months.

So when I saw a Neil Perry recipe for zucchini fritters on the SMH website I hoped I’d struck a middle ground. I’ve added some mint to my recipe and would encourage you to do the same.

These were an absolute sensation, heading straight to the pool room of family dinner winners. You could even make smaller ones as a finger food option. Don’t think the yoghurt sauce is optional – as is always the case when there’s a sauce on the side it lifts the meal from yum to YUM!

zucchini fritter mixture

Zucchini fritters
 
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Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
A fantastic vegetarian dinner option
Author:
Serves: 18+ fritters
Ingredients
  • 1 kg zucchini, grated
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 200 g haloumi cheese, grated
  • 100 g stale white breadcrumbs
  • 1 heaped tbsp fresh dill, chopped
  • 1 heaped tbsp fresh mint, chopped
  • lots of freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 eggs
For the yoghurt sauce
  • 1 cup thick Greek yoghurt
  • Grated zest from half a lemon
  • 1 small garlic clove, crushed
  • pinch of sea salt
Instructions
For the fritters
  1. Using a food processor grate the zucchinis then toss with the salt in a colander and set in the sink to drain for an hour.
  2. Use the same grater blade to grate the haloumi which you're going to then tip into a mixing bowl
  3. Change the attachment and blitz your stale bread into fine breadcrumbs
  4. Mix the haloumi, breadcrumbs and herbs together while you wait for the zucchini
  5. In the meantime, make the yoghurt sauce by mixing the four ingredients together
  6. After an hour or so, squeeze as much liquid out of the zucchini as you can. When you think you've squeezed it all out go in for another round
  7. Mix the zucchini and the eggs in with the other ingredients
  8. You want to work quickly now
  9. Heat some oil in a pan, you want to shallow fry them, then shape the mixture into patties a bit bigger than a golf ball. You can really make them as big or as small as you like
  10. Cook for about two minutes on either side or until golden brown
  11. Serve with the yoghurt sauce.

 

 

 

Woog & Berry – episode 7

Onward!

stuff ‘n nonsense

It is a week since I had 70 people in my house to celebrate Oscar’s 18th and I am still amazed and somewhat smug I pulled it off.

For starters it is the finest example of me saying something ridiculous and then being so far into it there is no option but to plow on. There was once the announcement I was going to go in a round-the-world yacht race in boats made of steel sailing the wrong way (as opposed to backwards which is just ridiculous) but I feel pregnant with Oscar instead.

Cake!

There was basically a solid week of organised mayhem leading up to it and this week I have been so tired there was a morning I waved the boys off to school and went back to bed for a satisfying 2.5hr nap.

It meant a lot went by the wayside, primarily the children eating *proper* (as in nutritionally orientated) meals and my weekly menu planning. Once one of your kids has had a kebab twice in a week you know it’s time to get the notepad back out and get yourself into line.

The start of the night
The start of the night

So the party? I had a running schedule for the three days leading up to it with it down to 15 minute allotments before people arrived. Of course people arrived and it went out the window.

The menu:
Chocolate and lollies – which I forgot to put out and which Oscar found and ate for breakfast every morning this week before I realised
Chips and cheezles – compulsory
A selection of cheeses, dips and pate with crackers – almost forgot to put these out until I went to the fridge to get the sausage rolls out
Pork and fennel sausage rolls (I made about 100 of these)
Chicken and bacon sausage rolls (and 100 of these)
Honey and soy chicken wings – I bought already marinated ones which annoyed me but it was just for the fussy people and I didn’t have time for fussy people
Pulled pork – three pork shoulders, each slathered in spices then slow-roasted for 6 hours, shredded then reheated on the night and served with rolls and tortillas
Corn – charred on the bbq then taken off the cob and tossed with lime juice and crumbled fetta
Salsa – tomatoes, spanish onions, corn, cucumbers, mint, coriander, lime juice

It all disappeared faster than I could get it out and was indebted to my BIL for taking charge of the pork on the bbq and basically telling me EVERYONE’S HUNGRY! to stop me talking, drinking champagne and put the sausage rolls in the oven already.

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I wrote a speech which I promptly forgot on the night. I cobbled together some thoughts basically along the lines of what a goddamn legend this boy is and how he makes us all better people for knowing him. What more could a parent hope for?

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Still on a high.

ONWARD!

Woog & Berry – episode 6

Onward!