Pink and White Pizza (Beetza!)

31 08 2010

Pizza! The universally acceptable child friendly food and what used to be considered a healthier fast food alternative to burgers, chips and the like. In keeping with my image of being someone who has a tendency towards miserableness and one who likes to view things from a slightly negative way I’ve managed to make a very child unfriendly version. In my house anything with beetroot in will not be eaten in spite of the fact that none of the three teenagers that reside there have ever actually tasted beetroot in any shape or form.

Based closely on Paul Gayler’s Potato Pizza Bianco but with a standard pizza dough base. Much tastier than it sounds – honest.

For the base
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon salt
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups strong flour
1 sachet yeast powder

Do this the lazy way and place all the ingredients in a bread machine or food mixer and knead into a dough. Or do it by hand. Then leave for about an hour somewhere warm to rise.

Once risen knock out the dough then shape and roll it into a round pizza base shape. Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet and leave again to rise a little.

For the topping
1 beetroot – peeled and thinly sliced
1 pack mozzarella
2 tablespoons creme fraiche
a few sprigs rosemary
salt and pepper

Put the oven onto the highest heat it goes to.

Place the beetroot slices in a bowl and microwave for about 3-4 minutes until tender. Allow to cool. Spread the creme fraiche over the base, season then arrange the beetroot slices artistically on top. Fill the gaps with torn chunks of mozzarella, sprinkle over the rosemary then bake for 10 minutes or so until the base is well cooked and the cheese is starting to brown.


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Sweet Potato and Three Bean Stew

30 08 2010

This year I decided to break with the norm on our allotments and not grow runner beans. Instead I’ve been growing borlottis, and two types of french – one purple and one green. This recipe uses all three though you could substitute runners or any tinned varieties.

A cross between a soup and a stew this is one of those few dishes I make that doesn’t have garlic or cheese (or both) in them. I ate this two days running. Day one as a stew with saffron infused basmati rice and day two as a soup with olive focaccia. My advice is to make too much as it tastes better if left in the fridge for a day.

3-4 tablespoons good olive oil
1 onion – finely chopped
2 sticks celery – finely chopped
½ yellow pepper – diced
½ red pepper – diced
1 sweet potato – peeled and diced
1 chilli – finely chopped – de-seeded if you don’t want it too hot
beans – I used about 40 french beans and the beans from about 20 borlottis
4-5 tomatoes – chopped
a tablespoon each of thyme, oregano and basil
vegetable stock
teaspoon salt

Heat the oil in a large casserole dish then fry the onion and celery until soft. Add the sweet potato, peppers, chili and herbs and continue to fry, stirring occasionally until the peppers soften. Add the tomatoes and beans, stir for a few minutes until the tomatoes start to break up then add enough stock to just come up to the same height as the vegetables. Put the lid on and transfer to the oven at 180C. Leave in the oven for about an hour. Remove and add salt as required.


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Categories : General, soup

Beetroot, Walnut and Blue Cheese Salad

29 08 2010

A simple, tasty salad – the sharp saltiness of the blue cheese works well with the earthy sweetness of the beetroot.

1 medium beetroot
½ pack of blue cheese – St Agur, Dolcelatte, Roquefort, whatever takes your fancy
a large handful of salad leaves
a handful of halved walnuts
3-4 glugs of olive or walnut oil
1 glug sherry vinegar – you could use lemon juice
½ teaspoon caster sugar
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Place the whole beetroot into a pan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Simmer for about an hour until cooked through. Drain, allow to cool then slip off the skin. Cut into fine dice. Cut the blue cheese into similar sized dice.

Mix the oil, vinegar or lemon juice, sugar, mustard, salt and pepper together thoroughly.

Grab a plate or bowl and place the salad leaves in the bottom. Arrange the diced beetroot and cheese over the leaves, then scatter a handful of halved walnuts over. Drizzle with the dressing and serve on it’s own or with some posh bread.


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Taze Fasulye

23 08 2010

I got back last week from a week away on holiday. A quick visit to the allotment on Friday evening and I came home with vast numbers of runner beans – a whole carrier bag full. Now don’t get me wrong, I love runner beans, but they are hardly the most versatile of beans. Slice them, boil them, then serve as they are or with a little garlic and butter. I tend not to grow many as the occasional and seemingly unavoidable stringy one that gets caught in the back of the throat or between my molars puts me off whatever I am eating. Then I thought back to my holiday in Turkey a few years ago and the long afternoons spent at a lovely family run restaurant in Gumusluk. This Turkish green bean dish is usually made from the long flat beans available from Turkish and Middle Eastern stores, but works just great with runners too. It sounds simple and boring but give it a go – it’ll make you say “Wow!”

DSC_0350 (2)

400g prepared runner beans or french beans
2 small onions – finely chopped – or you can finely slice them into half rings if you prefer
3 cloves garlic – finely chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
5 ripe tomatoes – quartered (if you don’t have fresh tomatoes use about half a tin of chopped
salt

Bring a pan of water to the boil then add the beans and boil for about 5-10 minutes until tender. Drain.

Take a large frying pan and heat the oil. Add the garlic and onion and fry gently until soft. Then add the beans, tomatoes and some salt to taste. Cover and cook slowly for 30-40 minutes until everything is tender and the tomatoes have fallen apart.

Serve hot or at room temperature with breads.


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Gozitan Lentil Salad with Rice

14 08 2010

Holiday food. Bread and cheese. Sometimes with tomatoes. Sometimes with figs. The trouble with Gozo is local cheese is hard to come by. The villages are too small for markets and the supermarkets are full of Cheddar, Double Gloucester and Feta.

So to break with tradition I thought I’d try and make a lentil salad – something resembling the lentil salad I bought for lunch from Green Valley a couple of weeks ago. My family never cease to spring surprises on me and everyone wanted some. One tin of lentils doesn’t feed five hungry people and having been to the supermarket twice a day every day I wasn’t going back a third time.

So I started by cooking a couple of cupfuls of long grain rice.

Place the rice in a pan, rinse with water a few times. Then, leaving about 1cm of water above the rice, bring to the boil. When peaks form, turn the heat off and put the lid on. Leave until cool.

Now for the rest of the salad

1 onion – halved then finely sliced
½ red pepper – finely sliced
½ green pepper – finely sliced
1x400g tin of green lentils – drained
olive oil
salt
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon paprika

Heat about 4-5 tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan. When hot add the cumin seeds and onion, then turn the heat to medium and fry gently until the onion is soft and starting to brown. Now add the rest of the ingredients and cook slowly until the pepper starts to soften. Remove from heat.

When cool, add to the rice, mix well and serve with feta cheese, olives and red wine.


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Mozarella and Courgette Salad

1 08 2010

OK, OK, OK. So all I ever seem to eat are courgettes these days. Well here is a wonderful summer salad. I served this with Lebanese flatbreads (Khebz Markouk).

I added a few slow roasted tomatoes that I made last year and sealed in jars.

To make the tomatoes:-
Cherry tomatoes
Olive Oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
a little salt
a little sugar

Heat the oven to 120C. Spread the tomatoes out on a baking tray. Cover with 3-4 tablespoons olive oil, then add the rest of the ingredients. Place in the oven for 2 hours.

When done, boil the kettle and sterilise/heat a couple of empty glass jars and their lids. Spoon the hot tomatoes with the oil and their juice into the hot jars then screw the lids on tightly. When cool they should be vacuum sealed and will keep in the fridge – mine kept for about 12 months.

To make the salad
courgettes – two smallish ones – sliced
assorted lettuce and other salad leaves
a ball of mozzarella
lemon juice
whole chilis

Now take a frying pan and heat a little olive oil on a high heat. Slice some courgettes – I used two to feed two people – and fry them in the oil until well browned or slightly charred. Remove from the pan, sprinkle with about a tablespoon of lemon juice and leave to cool slightly.

Now prepare the plates by piling some salad leaves, then top with the courgette slices, some slices of mozarella – buffalo is best but the normal stuff works well too – a few slow roasted tomatoes and top off with a couple of chilis from a jar (you can buy these at al Middle Eastern supermarkets and some of the big evil ones too).

The salad doesn’t need any extra dressing as the oil from the tomatoes and oil and lemon juice in the courgettes gives enough flavour.


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