Quick Pizza For The Kids

This margherita pizza can be cooked from scratch, faster than you can order one to collect! I found it especially handy for my 2 boys who love their typically “only cheese and tomato pizza”. I made this one this evening and we all devoured it with absolute delight.

I didn’t have time to take many pictures as it’s such a messy process with the dough but I found it very therapeutic. Especially kneading and pushing the dough into the tray to form the base. Hope you enjoy it. The olive oil also gives the base a scrumptious crunch. Have a beautiful day friends, much love D x

INGREDIENTS

DOUGH

200g plain flour
7g instant yeast
1 tsp sugar
¼ tsp salt
125 ml warm water
Olive oil for baking

TOPPING

100g tomato passata
Pinch of dried oregano
Salt to taste
Grated mozzarella or cheddar cheese

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 220°c, grease a large rectangular tray with the olive oil

In a bowl or food mixer, throw in the flour, sugar, salt and yeast together.  Mix well, slowly pour in the water.  Knead until smooth. 

Transfer into the greased tray and using your fingers press the dough into the corners, making a rectangular thin dough base

In a small saucepan heat up the tomato passata with the oregano and salt.  Cook on a low heat for 5 minutes to warm through

Spread the tomato sauce onto the pizza base, top off with cheese and place in the oven, bake for 15-20 minutes or until based is nice and crispy

Recipe from BBC Good Food

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Melted Mozzarella…Need I Say More?

A very light meal was made in the form of melted mozzarella bruschetta.  Oh my! what a yummy meal it was.  Not too heavy or light, absolutely spot on!
Mainly eaten as a starter but I fancied a few more pieces than you would have in restaurant.  The best thing about this version was the melted buffalo mozzarella!  Did I mention it was melted?!!  So very rich, gooey, stringy and delicious!  I was in cheese heaven!

Try it out at the weekend friends, have a good one! See you next week, much love D x

INGREDIENTS

Fresh buffalo mozzarella in thin slices
Tomatoes diced finely
Red onion diced
Green chilli sliced finely
Salt to taste
Chunky pieces of toasted bread
Garlic butter Recipe here
Balsamic vinegar optional

METHOD

Place the tomato, onion, chilli in a bowl, season with salt.

Spread the toast with the garlic butter, top with the tomato mix and be generous with the mozzarella to finish

Heat in the oven or grill until the mozzarella has melted

Corn & Mozzarella Poppers With Italian Herbs

Since starting my foodie group on Facebook, SHARING FOOD WITH SHIVAAY DELIGHTS. I have met sooo many lovely people. We have all formed a foodie friend community and today I present you with a guest recipe from a very talented and innovative cook and friend Suchit Save

Yesterday he put these poppers up online and had us all drooling!!! So I thought it wasn’t fair, if I didn’t share this superb creativity with all WordPress friends.
Suchit is always coming up with funky food recipes and thinks about flavours and components that go so well together. I feel he is always thinking about food as are we, so he is in great company. I’m trying to convince him to come and join us on the food blogging scene. I know he will have a lot to offer and everyone will take to his genuine down to earth personality and gorgeous food recipes!

I will be hosting guest recipes here more often to encourage those awesome cooks out there, that don’t blog, to blog! and post their recipes! As we are missing out on all this delicious food at the moment…I’m working on it 😉

A very BIG Thank you to Suchit for allowing me to showcase his food and here’s to much more! Have a wonderful day, full of food, love and laughter. Much love, D x

INGREDIENTS

1 cup boiled corn (Add salt, pepper a little butter and a stock cube for that added flavor)
1 cup boiled and mashed potatoes
Mozzarella Cheese (cubed as per your wish! I kept them a tad bit bigger as I want more cheese to filling ratio)
2 tsp Mixed Italian Herbs (Only Oregano and Chili flakes work best as well)
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh coriander
1 tsp garlic powder+ 1 tsp olive oil/1 tsp finely chopped garlic slowly cooked with a tsp of olive oil
Salt & Pepper to taste

METHOD

Combine all the above ingredients (except the mozzarella) and set aside. Now, take a tablespoon of the mixture and insert a mozzarella cube in the centre so that it is completely encased with the potato and corn mixture. Repeat till the filling is all used up.

Now here’s the fun part: Take 3 bowls…

Bowl 1: Maida + Salt + Paprika
Bowl 2: Egg (lightly beaten) with a little salt OR buttermilk (for vegetarians)
Bowl 3: Breadcrumbs

Dip the poppers in bowl 1 (shake off excess flour)
Then in bowl 2 (let the excess egg drip away) and finally into bowl 3 the breadcrumbs
Repeat for all poppers

Store poppers in the freezer for at least 15 mins before deep frying them to a golden brown!

Enjoy piping hot with any dip of your choice!

Perfect pizza @ home

My very first memory of eating pizza was at my grandparents home. My uncle and aunts would treat us to Pizza Hut, which they would go and pick up. I will always remember my uncle bringing in the brown pizza boxes with the famous hut logo with the salad container that he was so good at filling up to the brim! He always has said there is a technique to his salad bowl filling! I must learn this from him soon!

I absolutely adored the margherita and the mozarella cheese! Omg! The cheese! I would leave some of the cheese to savour at the end and I still do lol!

I would say pizza is my ultimate comfort food from deep pan to thin and crispy to the Italian base. I just love pizza as does my whole family. So what better than to make delicious pizza at home from scratch. That includes the base! But you maybe thinking what a long process! but I assure you it is much simpler than you think, as I found out.

Nothing beats homemade pizza so come on… pour yourself a glass of wine, put some music on and start rolling out that dough!

INGREDIENTS

For the dough
500g strong white bread flour
7g yeast
2 level tsp salt
30ml warm milk
25ml olive oil
325-350ml warm water
400g tomato passata
Dried oregano

Pizza toppings of your choice

METHOD

Mix the flour, yeast, oil and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Gradually add the warm milk and water and bring together to form into a dough

Knead for 5 minutes with a little olive oil, cover with a plate and set aside in a warm place. I put mine in my airing cupboard. You could preheat the oven at 160°c for 10 minutes and then turn it off and place the dough in there. Prove the dough for 1 hour

Knock back the dough and knead again using a little plain flour, form into a smooth ball and prove again for a further 30 minutes

Preheat oven to 220°c. Divide the dough into 6 equal balls. Roll out onto a clean floured surface

Oil out a pizza tray ideally with holes in it using a pastry brush. Place the uncooked base in the oven to bake for 5-10 minutes. The base may rise and once cooked remove from the oven

Spread 2 to 3 tbsp passata and sprinkle a little oregano onto the cooked pizza base and then add toppings of your choice. Cook for a further 10-15 minutes until your toppings are cooked, tender and the cheese has melted.

We had Buffalo mozzarella, green chillies, baby plum tomatoes and onion

Also check out my homemade pizza top tips!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend x

Folded paratha pizza

I sit here typing away with this delicious breakfast I have just made in my hand. It got made so quickly and is being indulged even quicker! Normally I make my parathas but when I went shopping I noticed a ready made frozen lacha paratha and couldn’t resist.

The pizza element came from the fact that I had made home made pizzas last night and I had a wonderful tomato sauce staring me in the face saying use me!
So both the paratha and sauce, along with generous mozarella married this morning and became my delightful breakfast. I’ve just finished the one posted in the picture here. I think it’s time to make some more!

INGREDIENTS

Lacha paratha cooked (home made or frozen)
200g tomato passata blended
3 cloves garlic whole peeled
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp salt
Pinch of sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
grated mozzarella

METHOD

1. To make the tomato sauce, heat oil in a small saucepan, add garlic and oregano let the flavours infuse into the oil on a low flame for a few minutes

2. Pour in the passata, mix in the salt and sugar and combine well. On a low heat let the sauce take on a thicker consistency. Once the consistency is a little thinner than a paste take off the heat

3. Heat a non stick frying pan and place your cooked paratha into the pan. Spoon out some tomato sauce with whole garlic pieces and smother with grated mozarella, fold the paratha in half and cook gently on both sides until the inside is nice and melted and gooey!

Home made pizza top tips!

I don’t think there is any pizza better than home made pizza! You can probably make a pizza quicker at home than ordering from outside, having it collected or delivered.    

I have written up my top tips for making home made pizza easier to make and the experience even more delicious! Hope you enjoy as much as we do!

Top tips
☆ grease pizza tray (with holes) and place in oven whilst preheating. This gives an incredible crispy base

☆ pre cook the fresh dough base so that you know it’s cooked through and then add your favourite toppings

☆ add a little garlic to your tomato sauce to give more flavour to the rest of the pizza

☆ spread your tomato sauce on your cooked base. Then sprinkle grated cheddar cheese,add all your chosen toppings and finish off with a handful of grated mozarella cheese. Great combination of cheeses!

☆ make sure your oven is at maximum temperature.  Mine is kept at 220c and I have found it to give great colour to the pizza, and almost a wood fired taste to the base especially if you roll the base out thin