Saturday, April 3, 2004

Pizzas

Damn, I make the best pizzas ever. For the dough: 580gm very strong bread flour 340ml tepid water four-second pour of olive oil sachet of dried yeast 2 tsp of salt Put the dry ingredients in a big mixing bowl and stir them up. Pour the four-seconds worth of olive oil into the jug with the water. Tip a bit of water into the dry ingredients. Mix it in. Tip a bit more and mix. Carry on until all the liquid has been added. Tip the lot out onto the counter and knead until you've got a respectable dough. Put it in the mixing bowl, cover with a cloth and leave, preferably in a warm place, for three or four hours. When you're ready to cook, preheat the oven to gas 7-8. Have one shelf right at the top of the oven and another in the middle. For the topping: half an onion a clove of garlic a tin of tomatoes Finely chop the onion and start frying it gently. Don't let it go brown. Lightly crush the garlic with the heel of your hand. This make it easy to peel the skin off. Chop the garlic and add it to the onions. When they've had a few minutes, tip the tomatoes in. Crush the tomatoes with a fork if they're whole. Add a pinch of Italian herbs, (or use a tin of tomatoes with herbs). Let this sugo boil rapidly to get rid of as much water as you can. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn. I don't add salt because the cheese added later is salty enough. Rolling the Dough There's enough dough to make two big pizzas. Knock the gas out of the dough by kneading it for a couple of minutes. Roll it into a worm and twist/tear it into two. Roll each half into a ball. Dough gets tough when its been worked, so let it sit for a few minutes. Flour the counter and flatten a dough ball out into a circle on it. Use a rolling pin to make your pizza base. Top Tip: when the dough is about an inch bigger than your pizza tray, leave it to sit on the counter. This way, when you peel it off to put in the tray, it won't snap back to a smaller size. Oil the pizza tray if you feel you need to. Press the edge into the corners of the tray and spread half the sugo on it with a crank-handled palette knife. (You don't need to use one of these, but they help if you need to work quickly.) Toppings When it comes to topping your pizza, the golden rule is don't lay it on too thickly. If the topping is thick and cold, then the center of the pizza may still need cooking while the outer crust is turning to charcoal. Kids Topping Sprinkle half a can of sweet corn over the pizza. Cover lightly with grated mozzarella, then again with cheddar. Our kids love this one. It's dead simple; there are no knives, chillis or hot stuff involved so they can make their own pizza, which they love to do. Jill and I think this one is delicious, whether or not you are a child. Feisty Adult Topping Thinly slice about four inches of chorizo and spread it on the pizza. Sprinkle the pizaa with Peppadew chillis. (These a gorgeous sweet, hot, little red chillis from South Africa that are shaped like miniature sweet peppers. They come in a jar with juice that can be used in salad dressings when the peppers are all gone. Don't open the jar too early - you might end up eating half a jar's worth before you start the pizza.) Cover the pizza lightly with mozzarella, then cheddar. One for the Veggies Scatter the pizza with bits of dolcelatte, gorgonzola or Roquefort. Add a jar of marinades artichoke hearts, which you can get from most deli's. Again, the liquid in the jar, olive oil this time, can be saved for salad dressings. Cooking the Pizza Get the pizza started on the top shelf where it's very hot. This gives it a good crust. Move it to the middle shelf after five minutes so the base can cook without the rim burning. If you find a mega-bubble inflating in the rim, now is the time to lance it. Turn the pizza 180 degrees when you move it. Use your nose to tell you when it's ready. That's usually after ten to fifteen minutes depending on how much topping you used and how cold it was to start with. Serving Let the pizza cool a bit before you take it out of the tray and slice it. If you don't then, the topping can slide off while you're trying to get it out, it doesn't cut cleanly because cuts in the melted cheese reseal themselves, and people burn their mouths on the larger, wet constituents like the artichokes. Top Tips Don't add salt to the sugo if you're using a salty cheese. Try not to get the pizza too wet with toppings that come in liquid. If you want a nice brown topping, grate the mozzarella on, then the cheddar. I use a round, perforated, metal pizza tray. Don't put too much topping on or you'll get a soggy base. Have a DIY pizza party and let people make up their own toppings; that's how I got started. If you want the kids to join in, pre-chop/grate all the toppings. Let the kids join in. 4:33:50 PM

Ah Hell, that's torn it

File under Yet another one of life's annoyances. 1:13:52 AM

River Cafe Easy my Arse

I have never, ever encountered such a discrepancy between the photograph in the recipe book and the finished result. The recipe says melt the chocolate and add the warmed cream. I think they meant to say add the whipped cream. Software isn't the only thing that doesn't get tested properly before release. I'm looking forward the River Cafe Easy 1.1. 1:12:25 AM