Cauliflower Crust Pizza

When I started this blog my brother in law Kent sent me a link for a cauliflower crust pizza, essentially an Hawaiian pizza with a base made out of cauliflower. Finally I have gotten around to buying a cauliflower and am therefore able to give it a try! My husband and I often make our own pizza usually using pita bread as a pizza base but this was random enough to draw us away from our usual to try something new. It was actually really easy to make, especially using a food processor to shred the cauliflower.  The recipe I used was by Recipe Girl http://www.recipegirl.com/2012/01/16/cauliflower-crust-hawaiian-pizza/#.T1aXBgE_CTo.facebook, however I did change a few things, and as you can see by the pictures the topping is the most obvious!

Lauren’s version of Cauliflower Crust Pizza:

(Gives you one 10 inch pizza – feeds 2-3, prep time: 25 min, cook time: 20 min)

Ingredients:

Crust:
1/2 large head cauliflower (or 2+ cups shredded cauliflower)
1 large egg
2/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt

Topping:
1/2 cup tomato passata (tomato puree)
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Any other topping you would like: ham, pineapple, salami, mushroom, capsicum, olives etc.

Directions:

Shred the cauliflower into crumbles, this is easily done in a food processor (don’t make a puree) or you can use a cheese grater. You need 2 cups of shredded fresh cauliflower. Place this into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 8 minutes (don’t add any water). Allow the cauliflower 10 minutes to cool.

Preheat the oven to 220C. Line a pizza pan/cookie sheet with baking paper. In a bowl combine the cauliflower (about 1 1/2 cups after cooking) with the egg, herbs, garlic and salt. Pat the crust into a 10 inch round base on the prepared pan (it wont be like dough). Spray the crust lightly with non-stick spray and bake for 20minutes (until golden). Remove the crust from the oven and carefully flip the base over, uncooked side facing up (easiest using another sheet of baking paper on top and flipping it over onto the new sheet). Return the crust to the tray and bake for another 5-10 minutes (until golden).

When the crust is done, spread the tomato passata onto the crust leaving a centimeter around the edge. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the cheese onto the base, add any toppings you would like. Craig and made two pizzas, one with ham, pineapple, capsicum and mushroom, and one with salami, mushroom, fresh tomato, pepper and parmesan. Once your toppings are on the crust sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and bake in the oven at 220C until the cheese is melted and bubbling. Cut into 6-8 slices and serve immediately.

Formula 1 Portuguese Chicken Wings

Each weekend that the Formula 1 is televised, with very few exceptions we make what we like to call F1 wings. This weekend the F1 will be in China however we won’t be making wings because last night Carlton played Collingwood (AFL) and we all felt that called for a wings night. Plus our good friend Dan was down on leave from the Army and Dan and Craig are the original instigators of F1 wings.

Wing nights started off with us buying Peri Peri marinade by Nando’s, but as the F1 family has grown so has the amount of chicken wings we cook and the store bought marinades have become too expensive.

Last night we used 8kg of wings (from the Dandenong market) and made 4 batches of the below Portuguese marinade, so essentially the marinade will do 2kg of chicken wings. We have adapted several recipes for Portuguese marinades found online to make this one that we are quite fond of.

Portuguese Marinade:
(10minutes)  

• 6 long red chilies roughly chopped
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp coarse ground black pepper
• 2 cloves of garlic crushed
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 tsp paprika
• 2 tbs parsley roughly chopped
• ¼ cup of coriander (cilantro) roughly chopped
• ½ a large brown onion roughly chopped
• ½ cup of olive oil
• The rind and juice of a large lemon
• Two fresh tomatoes roughly chopped

Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender and process until it resembles a smooth paste.

To make the F1 wings the boys have tried many different methods and they have found that the following is the easiest for large batches of wings and also it produces a very crispy wing!

Portuguese F1 Chicken Wings:
(Cooking time: 60minutes)

Combine the premade Portuguese marinade with 2kg of wings in a large bowl, or a zip lock bag. Let the chicken marinade for as long as possible; ideally sit this in the fridge over night.

Preheat the oven to 180 C (fan forced)

Once ready to cook, place the wings in a large tray lined with foil or baking paper.

Place the chicken wings to bake in the oven. After 20 minutes, take out the tray and turn the wings.

After 40 minutes remove as much of the liquid around the wings as possible (but keep the liquid) this allows them to become really crispy during the grilling process.

Place the tray of wings under a medium grill and after 5 minutes pull the wings out and drizzle some of the previously removed liquid onto the wings. This prevents them from burning.

 At 10 minutes pull out the wings and turn them over. And once again after 5 minutes more grilling time drizzle a little of the marinade onto the wings to prevent them from burning and at 10 minutes remove them from the grill.

Let them cool slightly (you don’t want to burn your fingers or mouth) and then enjoy!

Note: my little addition to the success of wings night is the provision of wet wipes – keeps the furniture clean!

And lastly – some F1 entertainment for the weekend!

Tikka Masala Curry Paste

Craig and I love curry and we tend to prefer making our own curry paste as its cheaper and always tastier! We get our recipes from all over the place, recipe books, the internet, a few random Indian ladies from our workplaces and one time my sister Camilla and I went on an Indian food tour in Melbourne where we learnt a few great tips and tricks. The following recipe is from the Jamie Oliver book: Jamie’s Ministry of Food. It is easily one of my favorite books because it has a wide range of really simple international meals.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/jamies-ministry-of-food/,

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Jamies-Ministry-Food-Jamie-Oliver/9780718148621?redirected=true&gclid=CInYkuX-kq8CFUwmpAodGEld0A.

One think I would always recommend is to slowly build up a good spice cupboard. When Craig and I first got married I didn’t cook much but I always had good intentions! So I started buying lots of different spices, that way when I wanted to make something I didn’t have to buy much. Also, when I make something like this curry paste I tend to make at least double the quantity the recipe suggests and then I freeze half to use another time. These last around 3 or so months in the freezer.

Ingredients:

• 2 cloves of garlic
• a thumb sized piece of fresh root ginger (this is always going to be better than ginger from a jar, but that is all I had this time so it had to do!)
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 2 tbs groundnut oil
• 2 tbs tomato puree
• 2 fresh red chillies
• a small bunch of fresh coriander
• 1 tbs desiccated coconut
• 2 tbs ground almonds

Spices for toasting:

• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp coriander seeds

Method:

Peel the garlic and ginger.

Put a frying pan on medium to high heat and add the spices for toasting to the dry pan.

Lightly toast them for a few minutes until golden brown and smelling delicious, then remove the pan from the heat.

Add the toasted spices to a pestle and mortar and grind until fine – or – put them in a food processor and whiz to a powder.

Either way, when you’ve ground them whiz the toasted spices in a food processor with the resat of the ingredients until you have a smooth paste.

To make Chicken Tikka Masala:

I just brown some onion in a pan with a little oil or butter, add the curry paste and chicken (a chicken breast of a couple of thighs diced) stir well to coat and heat through for a couple of minutes

I then add any chopped vegetables such as green beans, peas, potato, sweet potato, carrot etc, plus a 400g can of chopped tomatoes and a 400ml can of coconut milk.

Bring this to the boil and then turn the heat down simmer on low for about 20 minutes with the lid on. Add a little water if you think the curry is drying out, you want it to be pretty saucy.

When the meat is tender and the vegetables are cooked though add salt and pepper to taste and serve with some fresh coriander, a few flaked almonds and a couple of tablespoons of natural yogurt on some basmati rice that you have cooked in your rice cooker while you were allowing the curry to simmer!

Note: If you want to make a super hot curry add another fresh chilli when browning the onion. To make your basmati rice really nice (ha) add four or five cardamon pods, or a cinnamon stick to the rice cooker along with the rice. This gives the basmati rice a really distinct flavour.

For our curry tonight we added 1 1/2 cups of purple cabbage, half a sweet potato and a cup of green beans. For the rice I put in three pieces of cinnamon bark. You can get cinnamon bark and pretty much all the other ingredients in the curry paste from an Indian grocery store. If you live in Melbourne near me there is one on every corner!!

Tex Mex Black Eyed Pea Casserole

Although this does not look super appealing, it was REALLY TASTY and Craig loved it (big deal because Craig is really fussy)!

I am an avid Pinterest user (http://pinterest.com/) and this was a recipe posted on Pinterest from Recipe Girl (http://www.recipegirl.com/2011/12/29/tex-mex-black-eyed-pea-casserole/). It looked easy and I love tex mex (we can’t really get the real stuff here in Australia), so I though this would be a good one to try.

It was actually easier than I thought to find black eyed peas, just from a local deli, about $3-4 for a kilo, and you don’t need much. Also, a while back I bought 4kg of bacon when it was really cheap, so any chance to use up some of my bacon and free up some freezer space. The original recipe called for Rotel tomatoes which i’m sure would be hard to find here, so I just altered the recipe to include green chilies and a can of tomatoes which is pretty much the same! The recipe feeds 6 and takes about an hour.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups dried black eyed peas, rinsed
• 5 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (or more!)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion (about 1/2 medium)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 cups rice (your preference)
• 3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 300g canned diced tomatoes (3/4 of the usual 400g can of tomatoes)
• 1-2 large green chilies, seeds removed and sliced.
• 3 cups fresh spinach, cut into strips
• 2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese, divided
• chopped cilantro, sour cream and sliced avocado (for serving)

Method:

Bring a medium pot of water to boil. Add the dried peas and boil for 30 minutes, or until tender (as tender as a canned black bean would be). You don’t want them to have much of a bite to them, but you don’t want them mushy either. Drain the beans when you’ve got them where you want them.

In a deep medium skillet, heat the olive oil at medium heat. Add onions and chili and cook until softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in garlic, then rice, stock, cumin, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover and cook for about 20 minutes (just until the rice has almost absorbed all of the liquid). Time will vary depending on the type of rice you choose to use (20 minutes for white rice, but longer for brown, etc)

Preheat the oven to 200C. Scrape the rice into a large bowl. Add peas, tomatoes, spinach, 1 cup of the cheese and bacon. Stir it all together and then scoop it into a 9×12-inch (or similarly sized) casserole dish.

Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and bake for an additional 10 minutes, just until cheese is melted.

Serve in bowls topped with sour cream, fresh cilantro and sliced avocado.

I must admit that both my lovely house guest and cooking assistant Jasmine and I agreed that we wanted lots of cheese on top (a bit naughty) so we added about half a cup extra! I used 5 rashers of bacon this time and I think that next time I will either add more or I will try it with some chorizo.

Meat Pie Scrolls

The concept of a meat pie scroll might not sound or look to appealing but trust me it is freakin’ awesome. It contains all the tastes that you love in a meat pie but in easy to eat scroll form. what more could you ask for. There is no dripping gravy on your top or the chance of the entire base falling in on itself and burning your hand. I guess that I am just not very good at eating meat pies. The good thing about this recipe is that it is easy, you know exactly what kind of meat your pie/scroll contains and most of the ingredients you will already have at home.

This recipe is found in the Australian Women’s Weekly Little Pies and Cakes book again. I love this book because everything is portion size and, because it is just Paul and I, if there are leftovers I  can store them individually for Paul to take to work.

ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small brown onion, chopped finely
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 3 rindless bacon rashers, chopped finely
• 300g beef mince
• 400g can diced tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup beef stock
• 1/4 coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 2 cups self-raising flour
• 1 tablespoon castor sugar
• 50g butter, chopped coarsely
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 cup pizza cheese

1. Heat oil in large fry pan; cook onion, garlic and bacon, stirring, until onion softens. Add beef cook, stirring., until beef turns brown. Add undrained tomatoes, paste, sauce and stock; bring to boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, about 20 mins or until sauce thickens. Remove from heat; stir in parsley. Cool.

2. Preheat over to 180C/160C fan-forced. Grease two 6-hole texas muffin pans.

3. Sift flour and sugar in medium bowl; run in butter with fingers. Stir in milk; mix to soft, sticky dough. Knead dough on flour surface; roll dough out into 30cmx40cm rectangle.

4. Spread beef mixture over dough; sprinkle with cheese. Roll dough tightly from one long side; trim ends. Cut roll into 12 slices; place one slice in each pan whole.

5. Bake about 25 mins. Serve top-side up.

I didn’t have any fresh parsley but for some reason I have a tonne of the dried stuff. I just used that, so mine scrolls weren’t as healthy looking as the one’s in the book because they are lacking green. Also, I am not in the habit of buying pizza cheese. I have tasty cheese in my house so I just used that. Much to Paul’s dislike, we also don’t have bacon. We already have 4 other types of meat in the house and don’t require any more so I just used finely sliced ham instead.

When we ate these we just had a salad with them. If you want you can make two 15cmx20cm rectangles and bake the scrolls in a normal muffin tray if you don’t have a texas one. These smaller scrolls can also be served at parties as finger food.

Until next time, enjoy your cooking (and eating).

Olivia

Baked Tomato, Bacon and Haloumi Gnocchi

As a premise to this first recipe blog I must admit that this meal was actually cooked by my wonderful husband Craig!

We got the idea for this baked gnocchi online and altered it to suit what we had in the kitchen.

Ingredients

• 500g of gnocchi (we used store bought, make your own if you are game!)
• 1 medium brown onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 4 rashers of bacon, diced
• 2tbs balsamic vinegar
• 2tbs olive oil
• 100g haloumi, cubed
• 1 400g can of crushed/diced tomatoes
• 200mls pasata (or some sort of plain pasta sauce)
• 1/4 cup of fresh basil, roughly chopped
• 100g parmesan cheese, grated
• flat leaf parsley or basil as a garnish

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C

Fill a medium sized saucepan with salted water and bring to the boil. Add Gnocchi and cook according to instructions on the packet, making sure you don’t overcook it. Drain immediately.

Heat oil in a medium sized saucepan (I use the same one as the gnocchi because then I don’t have to wash two), add onion and garlic, cook at medium heat until the onion becomes transparent.

Add balsamic vinegar and bacon, saute for 3 minutes.

Add tomatoes and pasata, bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Combine gnocchi, haloumi, basil and tomato mixture in a large ovenproof casserole dish. Top with parmesan cheese and bake in oven for 15 minutes, or until parmesan appears golden brown.

Serve while hot with fresh parsley or basil as a garnish.

Notes: Feel free to add salt and pepper before baking, however remember that most cans of crushed tomatoes and pasta sauces contain a lot of salt, so taste the tomato mixture before adding any extra. Also, for a vegetarian version of this dish just remove the bacon (your arteries will thank you).

Enjoy!

Lauren