VEGETARIANA PIZZA SANDWICH

Recipe : inspired by Gino D' Acampo
Serves: 4 to 6
This makes 2 Pizza bases

INGREDIENTS
200 grms of Strong Whole meal bread flour and extra for dusting
7 grms (2tsp) fast action dried yeast
1/2 tsp salt
3/4th Cup of warm water nearly
of warm water
2tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tbsp Italian Herbs

FOR THE TOPPING
1 Green Capsicum/Pepper
1 Red Capsicum/ Pepper
1 Large Onion
1/4 cup chopped Kalamata Black Olives
6 to 7 Jalapenos (I used one in Jars)
1 tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
100 grm Passata
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/4tsp Red Chillies
Mozzarella cheese as much as you need 🙂

METHOD
Prepare the dough first, In a large bowl take warm water add yeast then add salt, Oil, Italian Herbs and flour toss them all together then pour water first 1/2 a cup mix well then start adding water until you make a dough then turn the dough onto a well floured surface and start kneading with your hand until it is smooth and elastic.
Next make your filling, First of all pour 1 tbsp of oil and heat it in a frying pan over a bit high flame, fry the Onions and  Capsicums for a few minutes switch off the stove add Jalapenos and Kalamata Olives chopped add salt , Pepper powder & chillies mix well and keep it aside to cool

Preheat the oven to Gas mark 5**/ 180 degrees
As I baked this in a 12" round cake tin I lined the cake tin with Parchment paper
Once the dough is rested and would have swollen up, take it on to the floured surface and divide it into 2 parts.

With the help of your hands push each one out from the centre and make 2 round disc, place one of the disc into the prepared tin to this apply Passata then spread the filling evenly then spread the grated cheese on it, now slowly place the other disc on top of it, and tuck them completely into the other one nicely then brush the top with milk. Bake it in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean or the bread is browned nicely on top.

Take it out on to cooling rack for few minutes, take it on to a board cut them into how many wedges you want and serve them or like me I packed them in their lunch boxes.

NOTES:  I could have used capsicum & onions just like that with other ingredients, but sauteed them as capsicum tends to give out water and the bread becomes gooey and soft, which my kids don't like so fried them both used them in the filling.
Hope you make it love it and enjoy it...
take care
c you soon....

Who doesn't like Pizza, I think that's everybody's favourite, especially kids, I don't eat cheese for 40+ reasons, I mean as I am 40+ and... I have reasons!! , but I love cheese in my pizza, I am no way better than a kid when it comes to pizza I just love it with the gooey cheese on it Just love it..., I have tried and still trying  different kind of pizza dough to get the perfection, one more which I have to still try is the OO' grade flour to make pizza and see the difference.
Coming back from my disastrous holiday which was only for 2 weeks which later part of the 2 week  got ended up with one week of food poisoning, ended up with a migraine. That was when I remembered I had to do the Baking Partner Challenge and decided to make the dough and thought will make it the next day when I come back from work, funnily..,  God knows what happened,  even though my mind was ready to accept as always my body wasn't ready to accept that I was Jet lagged and poorly,  coming back from work, cooked something for my kids and hit the bed It's been such a long time and I have never slept like that for almost 7 hrs till 10 O' clock in the night and kids woke me up  and telling me that they were hungry!!, I cooked up something and went back to bed again!!  I had an overdose of sleep I think, through all this I had completely forgotten about my resting dough in the fridge, so decided to make it the next day, without my knowledge I had rested my dough for 72 hours and the result was really amazing, that was an awesome pizza, Three of our friends from our group asked us to bake Pizzas, I chose Pam's recipe which she had adapted from 2 blogs one for Pizza crust and one for Pizza Sauce.

PIZZA TOPPING:
1 Small Green Pepper (Capsicum)
10 Olives
1 Small Yellow Pepper
1 Small Pink Onion
7 to 8 Vine Tomatoes
3 to 4 sprigs of Basil leaves
1 tsp Chilli flakes
1 tsp Italian Herbs
Salt to taste
Grated Mozzarella cheese
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reading through many blogs and books,  when I first started baking pizza at home I used to bake with plain flour , then I started using Bread flour and mixture of flours for healthy baking, I have yet to use OO' grade flour, will surely do once I get hold on it and want to see the difference.  I have come to know that the Italians use this grade flour to make their pizza's!.
Coming back to this recipe, I too make the same kind of sauce changed it our family taste a bit, I made it a bit spicy so increased the chilli flakes,

NEW YORK STYLE PIZZA SAUCE
Recipe Source: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/10/new-york-style-pizza-sauce.html

INGREDIENTS:
28oz / 3 Cups Peeled Tomatoes
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tbsp Butter
2 Cloves Garlic
1 tsp Dried Oregano
1 tsp Red Pepper flakes
1 tsp Red chili flakes
Salt as required ( If using tinned, there will be salt already so check before you use)
2 sprigs of Basil leaves
1 medium yellow Onion peeled
1 tsp Sugar

METHOD:

THE BEST NEW YORK STYLE PIZZA
Recipe source: http://feelingfoodish.com/the-best-new-york-style-pizza-dough/

INGREDIENTS:
6 Cups ( 28 oz or 780 grms bread flour) All purpose Flour / Bread flour / OO' Grade Flour
2 and 1/4 cup (17.4 oz) water
1 tsp Instant dry yeast
2.5 tsp salt
3 tsp olive Oil

METHOD:
1.    I used only half of the Ingredients and made half the dough, I halved the recipe on everything even yeast.
I used 390 grms of flour, In a large bowl take yeast add couple of tbsp of warm water to activate it, within a few minutes you can see the bubbles, this is to make sure your yeast is active.
2.    Now to this add all the dry Ingredients mix well, Now add water enough to make it a dough consistency**  (see notes), then add oil and bring it to pliable dough, The dough actually will be a bit on the stickier side,  knead the dough for 4 to 5 minutes hand kneading if the dough is kept for 72 hours But, if you are using it the next day that is for 48 hours knead the dough 8 to 10 minutes.
3.    Add oil at the end and bring the dough together, I halved the dough into two then place it in a large bowl and cover it with cling film and leave it in the refrigerator for 48 hrs or 72 hours, I left mine for 72 hours.
4.    The day you are baking take it out of the fridge and leave it for 1 or 2 hours for it to come back to room temperature.
5.    Meanwhile preheat your oven with your pizza stone for an hour, at the highest temperature, she asks to preheat at 550 degree. I just kept my oven at Gas Mark 4 for almost 1 hour (I was a bit worried about my pizza stone as I did not how good it was).
6.     Once the dough comes to room temperature, take one part of the dough with help of flour flatten it on to a parchment paper by pressing it around flatten it out thinly using more flour.
7.     Take another piece of parchment paper sprinkle semolina*(see notes) on to it, then place the flattened dough on to the surface
8.    Apply pizza sauce on to the surface, get all your chopped veggies top them on the sauce then grate Mozzarella cheese on to it, spread evenly  on the topped vegetables.
9.    Slide prepared pizza spread on to the preheated pizza stone and bake pizza for 6 to 7 minutes, cheese starts melting, just keep an eye that it doesn't get burnt.
10.   what else to say, take it out, slice them out take a bite and Enjoyyyy...., !!!

NOTES:
Important thing always weigh your flour, as each brand is different from each other.
As I said earlier I had halved the recipe the water was a bit extra for my dough so had to discard a bit, but the dough was a bit stickier in consistency.
The author of this recipe says we had to heat the oven to 550 degree but my oven only Gas Mark 9.
I was watching a TV show in which Chef was saying sprinkling semolina on to the surface of the pizza base ensures nice crispy bottom

VERDICT: Pizza was totally awesome, the first one I made was only with Tomato sauce, I mean the pizza sauce with cheese, my kids really relished it, next day I made with veggies topped with cheese, kids were totally bowled out, they loved it very much..,
I have planed to try out the base with OO' grade flour and will update here soon enough.
Thanks to swathi and Pam for this wonderful recipe.

Hi everybody, Hope you are all doing fine, enjoying the three days of pongal, I have loads of posts to post, starting you will be seeing two posts today..., Enjoy them...
Here is the first one, the first is for Baking Partners, this month swathi of Zesty south Indian kitchen gave us two pies one was an Apple Pie and the other one is Sun Dried Tomato Tart, Of course you would know which one I would choose, my kids love anything spicy than sweetness, and this Tart was perfect for me to bake, when my kids come home from college hungry and they love to eat something like this, I made 4 Tarts. Individually and they love it for their snack time.
This is how I made it...
This Tart was suggested by samantha, so, thanks to both of you we loved it..

SUN DRIED TOMATO AND ONION TART
Recipe Source: Martin Picard's Sundried Tomato and Onion Tart

INGREDIENTS:
1 Roll of Ready made Puff pastry
2 Medium Sized onions
6 tbsp of Sun dried Tomato Pesto (Home made)*
Chives and Onion flavoured Red Leister Cheese
few Basil leaves
1 tbsp dried Italian Herbs
salt to taste
1 and 1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard powder
1 and 1/2 tbsp Double cream

METHOD:
Thaw Puff pastry as indicated in the pack
Take a Large Pan heat 2 tbsp of Olive oil to this add chopped onions and saute until it turns translucent, add a bit of salt which helps to cook quickly.
Then add Tomato pesto, dried Italian herbs some more salt ( required quantity beware you have already added some salt to the onions and also you have some salt in your pesto )
Add chopped some fresh Basil leaves
In a bowl mix mustard Powder and fresh cream and keep it aside
Meanwhile  Cut your Puff pastry into 4 squares, press them on to the tart tins and cut the extras and keep them aside in the fridge until needed.
Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4 / 180 degrees
Prick the bottom of the pastry and bake them in a preheated oven until the bottom becomes slightly brown. Take them out and leave it to cool.
Meanwhile your onion and Tomato filling would be cooled as well.
Fill the tarts with Sun Dried Pesto and onion filling to this add the double cream sauce into the four tarts.
Grate the cheese and top each of them with it.
Now take the cut out pieces from each tart, make them into long roll twist them to give a design join both the ends together and place them on each of the tarts and bake them now for around 20 to 25 minutes until they puff and start turning to golden brown.

Take them out once well done, on to a cooling rack, after 5 to 10 minutes slowly push  the bottom and release the tarts carefully and serve them on individual plate sand serve with some salad leaves and sauce or ketchup of your choice.
Totally awesome and my kids just loved it...
Will post my Home made Sun dried Tomato pesto Recipe soon..., stay tuned ...

This is Challenge # 6 Baking Partners

As you all know that I am member of a blogging group called The Secret Recipe Club, this is a vast club where we make recipes from each other's blog in secret, I always enjoy so much this lovely little family, A few days back I received a mail from our Admin - April, that one of our blogger friends from our Group passed away, and it was none other than Daniel and it was such a great shock. April announced that the only way as food bloggers we could show our tribute to Daniel by doing this special revel to him and his family. Do check out all the recipes from our dear Daniel's blog in his memory from the following links below.

I haven't known Daniel Saraga personally, he blogs at The Haggis and The Herring and his dear Wife Meridith also blogs.  Daniel never forgot to visit my blog and leave his comment.  Past 2 months have been very busy and I have never visited any blogs as my Mum is here visiting me, and now how I wish I should have visited and left my comments. But alas, somethings you can never undo  right ?, and I regret them very badly.
As it was going on in my head that I do have to make it to the tribute, yesterday night I sat and started going through his recipe collection, I was amazed with his collection, he is such a versatile blogger, I think he  makes recipes from every nook and corner of the world.  An other thing I noticed in his blog was the love he had to his family and friends and especially his child - Oh! my I feel terrible to write about the loss both his kids will go through, and the hollow in their heart when they grow up to find the writings in his blog about them and his dear wife.  My heart and the tears goes to her I have no words to describe it in just a simple sorry for your loss, My thoughts and prayers will always be with you and your family Meredith, Let the Lord be with you in every step you take in your future and not just walk with you but carry you and Bless and take care of you and the two J's and the little J3 in your tummy always.
This is my little tribute to our Dear Blogger Daniel, Food bloggers  - we are a big Family, we love each other and enjoy each others recipes and have learnt a lot from each others culture, tradition and cuisines, You are one such person I have enjoyed going through your blog. I have bookmarked a few with time constraint and to please my kids appetite when they are back from college I made this wonderful, quick and yummy Pizza.

CHICKPEA FLOUR PIZZA IN CAST IRON
Recipe source : The Haggis and the Herring

Makes 3 pizzas
serves 3 teenage kids 🙂
2 Cups Bengal gram Flour / Chick pea flour
2 Cups water (extra if needed**)
2 tbsp Olive oil
1 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Italian Herbs
Green Pesto
1/4 tsp powdered pepper
2 small Onions minced
1 Large Tomato
1 Green Pepper / Capsicum Chopped
1 Red pepper / Capsicum chopped
2 tbsp of Jalapenos minced
1/2 cup Mozzarella grated cheese (or as much as you like)

METHOD:
Take Chick Pea Flour, Oil, salt, pepper powder and Italian Herbs, mix them all well together then start adding water, ** I have used this mark to indicate that use water accordingly to the flour you are using, Besan / Chick pea flour you get might be different from the one I might be using.
Make this batter like Idli batter or should I say Pancake batter but a bit thicker. Leave this batter for 30 minutes.
Chop all the vegetables and you can add any other vegetables you like too.. :)), Chop the tomatoes in quarter and remove the middle part / pith of the Tomatoes and chop only the outer part of it.
Heat a skillet / cast Iron pan, I used my crepe pan and as it is a non stick one, apply a tsp of olive oil pour a ladle full of the batter and spread it around.
Close a lid for just 2 to 3 minutes then spread Pesto on to the base top it with peppers, onions, Jalapenos and Tomatoes.

Top it with Mozzarella, close the lid for an other 2 to 3 minutes where in you can see the cheese melting.
Remove it on to a baking sheet and Bake it for an other 5 minutes when it starts turning golden in colour, remove it on to a plate and serve with with Tomato Ketchup.
Daniel, thank you for this lovely recipe, never ever thought I would making it and posting it this way, I would have loved it if I was assigned your blog from our club it would have been much more wonderful to post this recipe.

Tandy from Lavender and Lime made this lovely graphic thank you Tandy.
Meredith has written a beautiful Eulogy about Daniel, it is heart aching to read through.  My dear Meredith take care, we love you..., all those lovely days ,ordinary days and Important days even though were very short keep your memories evergreen. Daniel where ever you are we really miss you in our little world of Food Bloggers.

BASIC PIE DOUGH
Adapted minimally from Martha stewart
Makes 9 inch crust

INGREDIENTS:
1  and 1/4 Cup Whole meal flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
100 grms ( nearly 1/2 cup ) butter
6 tbsp ( nearly 1/2 cup around 100ml ) Cup cold water

METHOD:
Mix the flours, sugar and salt well together.
Chop the cold butter into pieces, mix them in a food processor, as I do not have one I used my spatula ( a hard one ) and mixed them as much as possible, you can even use your hands and flour resembles like crumbles to this dough start adding cold water I started of with 1/4 cup and then started adding tbsp of cold water until the flour became a dough!.  Do not handle the dough too much.
Place this dough in a plastic wrap and chill it again in your fridge for at least an hour, so the butter firms  up again. ( you can even keep it overnight )
After an hour or so, take it out, I used a cling film, I  first spread it on my table top then placed this firmed up dough  on top of it placed an other cling film covering it, so I won't be touching the dough, and rolled it thin as I needed an 9 inch crust, I had to take them out of the cling film as it was not big enough and rolled them again a bit more from the middle rolling it around for an even base.  Or you can lightly flour the surface and roll out the crust, as I did not want to add more flour I made it this way.

Butter the tart case thoroughly, Sprinkle some corn meal on the base. Lift the dough carefully and place it on the tart case and press them completely and trim of the edges if any.
Prick the base with a fork this makes the dough not puffing up then place a baking sheet and put some baking beans ( or Rice ) on top of them, then put it back into the fridge for an other half an hour to firm the butter again or until you make the filling.
Blind Bake this case in a oven at 190 degrees/ Gas Mark 6 for 20 minutes you can see the crust turning gold at the edges.
Remove it from the oven and place it on a wire rack,
I learnt a trick from a book that if you add hot oil ( olive or any oil ) on the base of the pie crust immediately after taking it out of the oven the  crust will not become soggy and firms up.., I can't remember which book, anyway I added 2 tbsp of hot oil on to the crust immediately after taking it out of the oven after removing the baking beans, then put it back again in the oven reducing the temperature to 180 degrees/ Gas mark 4 for a further 5 minutes ( you can even skip this and just add the filling and bake your quiche )
Check out this website for some cool ideas on how to bake a perfect pie crust with lot of variations

SPINACH AND MUSHROOM WITH CHEDDAR FILLING

INGREDIENTS:
250 grams Spinach
150 grms Mushrooms
2 Onions
2 garlic pods
1 tsp of Pepper powder
1/2 tbsp Italian dried herbs
1 and 1/2 tsp of Salt
1 Cup grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup Creme fraiche
1 tbsp Chia seeds ( + 3 tbsp of Hot water )
1/2 Cup Milk
1 tbsp Arrow root powder

METHOD:
First step Soak Chia seeds in hot water for few minutes.

Next chop onions and  garlic.  Heat  2 tsp of oil add all the chopped ingredients and saute them.  Meanwhile wash and dry out the spinach with the help of a kitchen towel spreading the washed spinach on a towel, then chop them and chop Mushrooms too.., Once the onions become translucent add spinach and mushroom and saute them on a medium to high heat until they wilt away then sprinkle pepper powder, salt and Italian dried herbs mix well, and saute them. As veggies sometimes release water try to Sauté until it evaporates, actually it doesn't completely evaporate so not to bother.  Once done you can add 1/4 Cup bread crumbs, so it will absorb all the water. Take it out and allow it cool.

Meanwhile mix milk and arrow root powder and put it in a pan and cook it until it starts thickening, remove immediately when it is almost semi thick like a  sauce.
In a blender take  chia seeds, creme fraiche , and the above said sauce, blend them all well together, until it becomes like a thick creamy sauce.
Add this creamy sauce to the cooked spinach mix well, pour this onto the pre baked crust, add grated cheese on top of it and put it back in the oven and bake the quiche for a further 30 to 40 minutes until the quiche has a golden top.
Take out the quiche when done, leave it on a wire rack to cool down a bit then cut them out and serve them warm to enjoy with some salad leaves, Roast potatoes with ketchup or what ever you like.

Little Tips:
Take out the quiche when the middle is still soft this makes the quiche looks creamy custardy texture.
Check out Gayatri's Baking Eggless group round - up in her blog for a variety of baking eggless Quiches!