This is such a simple recipe and great if you are feeling like something a little bit fancy mid week as it takes very little time and effort to prepare.

Jus has to be a chefs best friend. It instantly adds a flavour boost to any meat dish but you have to make sure you use a good quality stock as your base which means no powdered stock cubes :)

For this dish I have used Moredough Kitchens Veal Stock. It costs about $6 for 600ml and you can get it from Harris Farm Markets, David Jones Food Hall an most good delis.

This recipe will give you enough jus for 4-6 servings but you can freeze any left overs and keep it for up to 3 months.

Serves 2 people, but you can double it up

1 small lamb loin – boneless and rolled.
1 bunch baby Broccolini
600ml good quality veal stock
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 ½ teaspoons sugar
OPTIONAL: A splash of red wine (whatever you are drinking) – about 50ml

You can ommit the red wine all together if you want and still get great results but a little splash ads some extra oomf :) If you put too much in you will overpower the dish.

How to put it together

1.       Preheat your oven to 220C

2.       In a small saucepan place the stock, sugar and leaves from 1 sprig of rosemary.

3.       Bring the stock mixture to a boil over a medium-high heat and leave it bubble away for about 20 minutes. This will reduce the stock and concentrate all the flavours. Remove from the heat when finished and heat it back up when you are ready to serve.

4.       Take your loin of lamb, rub some olive oil into the skin and season with salt and pepper. You can also sprinkle some fresh rosemary leaves over it.

5.       Place the lamb in an oven proof dish and roast for 25 minutes, turning it over after 15 minutes.

6.       Remove the lamb from the oven and cover loosely with foil. Leave it rest for 15 minutes.

7.       Wash and trim the broccolini and steam until tender, or you can cheat like I do and place it in a microwave proof bowl with a splash of water. Cover tightly with a lid and zap for 2 minutes.

8.       Carve your lamb into thick medallions, place on top of the broccolini and spoon over some jus.

So far this year I’ve managed to avoid being struck down with a man-flu ... that was until yesterday when I felt absolutely abysmal.

We all know that chicken soup has magical restorative healing powers but as my friends will tell you I can be a bit of a food snob and really don’t care much for the canned variety. In fact I do pretty much everything in my powers to avoid it.

Why avoid canned soup? Have you read the ingredients list on the side of those cans? The meat content would struggle to break the 2% mark and they are off the scale in terms of artificial flavours, preservatives and sodium levels.

My tummy was telling me it was time for some Potato and Leek soup, my favourite of all soups and some real comfort food so I rugged myself up and wandered down to the fruit market in search of some leeks.

As I made my way, bleary eyed, down the aisles I was caught off guard by a pre-packaged “Soup Pack”. Mabye it was the cold and flu medication talking but I felt a brief moment of inspiration and thought I would see what could be done.

At $2.99 it is perceived as reasonable value to the consumer but I am sure Harris Farm are making a killing on the margin. At least, as a consumer, I don’t have to spend $1.50 on an entire bunch of celery only to use 2 stalks and have the rest rot away in my kitchen.

The soup pack itself contained:

So here is my recipe for a quick restorative chicken noodle soup.

1 x Soup Pack (see ingredients above)
1.5L good quality chicken stock (not powedered)
1 chicken breast, finely diced
50g angel hair pasta or spaghetti broken up into 3-4cm pieces (about a large handful)
olive oil

There is no need to peel the vegetables (except the onion) - just trim the tops and bottoms, then dice.

1.       Finely dice the onions and put them in a bowl.

2.       Finely dice all the other root vegetables (celery, parsnip, carrots, potato, swede) and put them in a separate bowl.

3.       Remove half of the parsley leaves and finely chop. You want about 1 tablespoon worth – keep these to one side.

4.       If your soup pack has a celery tip like mine did, take the tip and the rest of the parsley and stalks and tie them together with kitchen twine. We’ll use this to help add flavour to the stock.

5.       Put a large stock pot over a medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

6.       Throw in the onion and cook for 3-4 minutes until softened.

7.       Now add the remaining root vegetables and cook, stirring constantly for a further 5 minutes.

8.       Add the chicken stock and celery tip/parsley thing and stir to combine.

9.       Cover with a lid and bring to the boil.

10.   Reduce heat to low, keep the pot covered and simmer for 15 minutes. Give it a stir every 5 minutes.

11.   Add the diced chicken breast and pasta, cover again and cook for a further 10 minutes.

12.   Remove from heat and use a pair of tongs to carefully remove the celery tip/parsley thing.

13.   Stir through the diced parsley leaves and ladle into big bowls – enjoy!

Paella is a wonderful rice dish from Spain that is traditionally made with snails and wild rabbit. My palette can’t quite handle that so I have modified it to use Chicken and Prawns instead :)

I have never been able to get good results making a paella in anything other than a proper paella pan. You can pick them up in varying sizes from Simon Johnson, Torres Spanish Deli or Online.

The trick to making a perfect paella is to keep the heat even across the large surface of the pan. Coming into the warmer months one trick is to simply pop your paella pan onto the grill of your BBQ – just make sure you keep rotating it around to spread the heat evenly.

The Paprika

Don't skimp on the paprika and use dodgey stuff from the supermarket. Get the proper spanish stuff.

This recipe serves 2 people but feel free to double it up

Olive Oil
1 chicken thigh fillet, cut in pieces
6 large green prawns, peeled and deveined (you can leave the heads on for presentation)
1/3 of a dried chorizo sliced
salt and pepper
1/2 brown onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 red capsicum and 1/2 green capsicum, diced
1 roma tomato, skinned and finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon saffron
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
500ml chicken stock
80g flat green beans, sliced into 1-2cm pieces
1 sprig rosemary
200g Calasparra rice (you can get this from your local deli)
1 lemon, cut into wedges

1.       First, to de skin your tomato, fill a small saucepan with water and place over a high heat. Bring to the boil. Slice a thin “X” in the pointy end of your tomato and carefully place into the boiling water with a slotted spoon for 60 seconds. Remove and plunge into a bowl filled with iced water for 2 minutes. Be careful not to leave the tomato boil for too long otherwise it will turn bitter. Remove the tomato from the iced water and the skin should have blistered at the tip where you cut the X – you can now peel the skin off and finely chop.

 

2.       Heat the paella pan over a medium heat and add 1-2 tablespoons of the olive oil, the diced chicken and chorizo. Season well with salt and pepper and cook until brown all over. Remove the chicken and chorizo to a bowl.

Now we will make the Sofrito – a slow cooked concentrated flavour base of onion, capsicum and tomato. It is important to cook for a good length of time as this removes the acidity, resulting in a smooth, sweet, concentrated sauce.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So here I have 2 wines back to back from 2 large producers and neither of them have really done anything to make me rush back for more.

This time around I had the Peter Lehmann “The Futures” Shiraz (2006) from the Barossa Valley.

Crimson in colour with a strong white pepper smell this wine is well rounded but not exceptional. It’s got character but is lacking any real depth.

I certainly have no complaints about this wine and happily finished the bottle but I think you can find better drops for the same price.

I’m normally pretty wary when it comes to wine from big name labels and tend to avoid them, instead preferring to spend my money on wines from smaller vineyards where there is true passion for the craft rather than the corporate profit driven mentality.

I was however talked into trying a bottle of the Wolf Blass Presidents Selection 2006 Shiraz ($16) after they had it open for tasting at my local this weekend.

Shiraz grapes are sourced from all over South Australia. I’m pretty sure this bottle was made for the export market but is probably being sold locally due to the current state of the economy in the US and UK.

I let it sit in the decanter for about 20 minutes before taking my first sip and ... a little disappointed. Very flat taste, quite non descript really and very thin on the tongue.

Won’t be going back for more.

I ventured down to the Fish Markets on the weekend and could not go past these fantastic looking whole snapper.

Cooking them in a paper bag helps the fish retain moisture and locks in all the flavours. The Italians often bake fish like this in a wood fired oven which is absolutely sublime but the home brew version comes out pretty good as well :)

Serves 2, but feel free to double it up.

2 whole Snapper
1 small white onion, peeled, halved and cut into thin strips
1 baby fennel bulb or ½ a big fennel
1 lemon, halved lenghways and sliced into thin strips
3 - 4 sprigs fresh rosemary leaves, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
70ml extra virgin olive oil
70ml white wine, whatever you’re drinking
sea salt, pepper
a roll of Baking Paper

1.       Preheat your oven to 180C

2.       Remove the fennel fronds and finely chop. Core out your fennel bulb and thinly slice.

3.       In a large non reactive bowl, combine the fennel fronds, sliced fennel, onion, lemon, rosemary, garlic and olive oil – toss to combine. Don’t worry if this looks like heaps, it will cook down.

4.       Take your snapper and give them a quick rinse under the tap, inside and out. Pat down with paper towels.

5.       Take a good length of baking paper long enough to comfortably fit your fish on and place a quarter of the mixture in the middle. Place your fish on top and spoon some more of the fennel onion mixture on top – make sure you stuff some down the guts as well.

6.       Drizzle with white wine and season well with salt and pepper.

7.       Take another length of baking paper, same size and place it over the top. Start in one corner and gradually crimp the paper over to create a nice tight seal all the way around. Carefylly (use a spatula) place on a baking tray.

8.       If you can’t get a tight seal, once you have wrapped it in the baking paper you can coven in tin foil.

9.       Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until the fish is nice and tender and just flakes away from the bone.

10.   Remove from the oven and tear the paper to release the steam. Serve with baked chips and lemon rosemary salt.

I love chips but always feel guilty when I indulge. This recipe bakes them in the oven using good quality olive oil and the lemon rosemary salt is a cracker. The result is not exactly super healthy but a much better and I think tastier alternative to the deep fried variety.

The Lemon Rosemary Salt will keep for months in an air tight jar.

1kg brushed/washed potatoes. Leave the skin on, halve them and cut into thick wedges
3 bulbs garlic, unpeeled
Olive Oil
40g good quality sea salt – Use Maldon or the pink Murray River Salt Flakes
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
Zest of 1/2 lemon

How to put it together

1.       Place a baking tray in the oven and pre heat it to 230C – you want the tray to be nice and hot.

2.       Put the chips into a large saucepan and cover with boiling water from the kettle. Place on the stove and boil for 8-10 minutes until par cooked.With the brushed potatoes you want to shock them with the hot water from the kettle rather than bring to a gentle boil.

3.       When the potatoes are just tender, drain them in a colander for a couple of minutes.

4.       Place a heavy based fry pan on the stove and heat up a good glug of olive oil (like 3-4 tablespoons).

5.       Bash the garlic cloves with the flat side of a knife and toss into the oil along with the potatoes. Give it a good mix and make sure all the potatoes are well coated with the oil.

6.       Put the potato garlic oil mixture onto your pre-heated oven tray and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

7.       Meanwhile, to make the lemon rosemary salt – strip the leaves from the rosemary and place in a motar and pestle with the lemon zest and salt. Give it a really good bash to break down the salt and all the flavours. You should end up with a fantastic green looking salt.

8.       When your chips are done, put them in a large bowl with a good pinch of the salt and toss to combine.

The Sunday Roast has started to have resurgence in popularity of late. While hidden gems such as Bar Mattino have been embracing it for ages some heavy hitters in the Sydney dining scene such as The Berseford Hotel, Forbes & Burton and even Kingsleys are starting to get in on the action.

I absolutely love a good roast dinner, be it Sunday or not and my favourite roast of all time would have to be lamb.

This recipe uses a lamb shoulder, still on the bone. The slow low temperature cooking causes the connective tissue in the meat to break down to a point that you won’t even need a knife to carve it. Simply pick up the bone and the meat will literally melt off.

The lamb shoulder is also a very economical cut. You can pick them up from the butchers at David Jones for around $15.

For the lamb

1 lamb shoulder, on the bone
2 bunches fresh rosemary
1 whole garlic bulb
Olive oil
Salt + Pepper

For the Gravy

1 tablespoon plain flour
500 ml good quality chicken stock
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Serve with roasted root vegetables – potato, pumpkin, parsnip and carrot. This should comfortably feed 4 people.

How to put it together

1.       Pre heat your oven to 160C

2.       Take your lamb shoulder and carefully score the top at 1cm intervals on the diagonal.

3.       Rub the meat down with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper

4.       Take your whole garlic bulb and with a sharp knife slice off the top and bottom. Break up into cloves.

5.       In a heavy based roasting tin scatter half the garlic gloves and line with half the rosemary sprigs.

6.       Place the lamb on top of the rosemary, then put the remaining garlic/rosemary on top.

7.       Cover with a tight fitting lid or seal with tinfoil.

8.       Whack it in the oven and leave it there for 3.5 – 4 hours.

9.   When the meat is done, remove the baking tray from the oven and VERY carefully (remember the meat will just fall off the bone) transfer to a large serving platter. Use a spatula and a pair of tongs.

10.   Cover with tin foil and a tea towel and leave to rest for 10 minutes.

11.   Discard the rosemary and garlic (it has done its job) and pour off most of the fat left in the bottom of the pan (all but about 2 tablespoons).

12.   Place the baking dish on your stove over a medium heat and stir in the flour.

13.   Pour in the chicken stock and bring to the boil. Drop the heat and let simmer, stirring constantly for 10 minutes to thicken up.

14.   Remove the gravy from the heat and stir in the red wine vinegar.

15.   Use a couple of forks to peel the meet away from the bone and serve with some roasted root veg and a nice Cab Sav. 

 

The girlfriend is a mad seafood fan but now that it’s dark at 6pm and the temperature drops as soon as the sun goes down the weather isn’t exactly conducive to sitting outside shelling prawns and barbequing fish.

This dish however is the perfect winter substitute. Fresh snapper fillets, prawns, slow braised fennel in a creamy sauce topped with crispy potato - real comfort food for any seafood lover.

Most fishmongers sell their snapper fillets with the skin still on. This is great if you’re cooking them on the BBQ because you get that awesome crispy outer layer but the skin doesn’t work in a pie.

Just ask your fishmonger to take the skin off for you – they are more than happy to do this and because they have all the ultra sharp flexible knives at hand it takes them seconds.

I tried de-skinning snapper at home myself once using my regular chefs knife and ended up with what would be more described as minced fish rather than a fillet.

Serves 2-3 people, but you can double it up if you like

What you’ll need

2. Melt the butter in another heavy based saucepan over a medium heat and add the golden shallots, fennel and garlic. Cook for 5-6 minutes, stirring until nice and tender.

3. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.

4. Gradually add the warm stock mixture, stirring constantly until nice and smooth.

5. Add the lemon juice, season with salt and pepper and cook for 5 minutes until nice and thick.

6. Remove the saucepan from the heat, add the snapper and prawns and give it a good stir to combine.

7. Finley chop the reserved fennel fronds and add to the mixture with the dill and green shallots/scallions.

8. Pre heat your oven to 180C

9. Take a nice oven proof dish and rub some butter over it.

9. Place a layer of the sliced potatoes on the bottom of the dish in an overlapping format, then spoon in the filling. Place a second layer of potatoes on top.

10. Brush the top of the potatoes with some melted butter and pop in the oven 40 minutes until the potatoes and nice and golden.

11. Slice with a sharp knife and plate up with some steamed greens.

 

Okay so i'm not going to win any awards for my perfect half moon shaping skills but this still tasted sensational.

Before tackling this recipe I strongly recommend you read my previous post on perfecting the home made pizza dough. The dough recipe and process is absolutely vital to the end results and will give you those appetite educing scorch marks you can see on the photo above!

What you’ll need

This will give you enough to make 4 – 6 calzones depending on their size

2.       Soak your unglazed terracotta tile or pizza stone in cold water for at least 1 hour, then place on a high shelf in your oven and pre-heat to maximum temperature for at least 1 hour. Remember that the calzone will need more vertical clearence to get in and out of the oven than your pizza.

3.       Roll out your dough onto a piece of baking paper dusted with semolina. You will only be able to make 1 calzone at a time

4.       On 1 half of the dough lay down some tomato passata, then layer over slices of mozzarella cheese.

5.       For each calzone, place over 6 slices of salami and 6 slices of pepperoni. Sprinkle over a handful of chopped ham and a small handful of the sliced Spanish onion.

6.       Squeeze over a little lemon juice (makes all the difference) and add a pinch of dried oregano.

7.       Grate over some parmesan cheese, add some extra mozzarella if you like and then fold the calzone over and crimp up the edges by pulling the bottom layer up and folding it over the top layer. Make sure its sealed nice and tight so your fillings don't drip out everywhere.

8.       Using a pizza peel or the “baking tray slide method” drop your calzone in the oven on the tile and bake for approximately 10 minutes or until golden brown.

A lot of people get scared off at the thought of cooking a risotto, but it really isn’t all that difficult, just takes a little bit of practice.

Unfortunately when cooking a risotto there are no set quantities or ratios of water to rice or cooking times and temperatures. Different types of risotto rice from different parts of Italy all have different “absorption” rates, so the key to cracking the risotto code is to keep testing the rice as you cook until it tastes “al dente” just like pasta. You want it to be cooked but have just that little bit of bite to it.

You also have to keep stirring the rice constantly, so this is not the sort of dish to put on the stove and leave to simmer.

This is a fantastic seafood risotto recipe with a real tomato kick inspired by the dish I had at Ventunos earlier in the year.

The combination of a homemade seafood stock with some tomato passata yields great results.

Serves 2-3 people

Seafood

8 large uncooked green prawns. Heads removed, peeled, deveined and butterflied
2 balmain or morton bay bugs. Ask your fishmonger to cut them in half for you
1 small fish fillet (skinless and boneless) – I like to use a tiger flathead fillet or a small piece of barramundi.

800ml Water
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1 small onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 celery stick, roughly chopped
½ bulb of fennel, fronds removed and roughly chopped
1 roma tomatoe, quartered
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon olive oil

butter
olive oil
½  onion, finley diced
1/4 bulb fennel, fronds removed and finely diced
1 garlic clove
1 celery stick
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
a small pinch chilli flakes
200g risotto rice such as aborio
2 tablespoons tomato paste
125ml white wine
200ml tomato passata / tomato puree
6 cherry truss tomatoes, roasted
pinch of saffron – soaked in 2 tablespoons of water
½ lemon
Basil Leaves

 

 

 

To make the Risotto

2.       Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a small knob of butter (about 15 grams) together over medium high heat in a large heavy based pan. Add prawns and sear each side; remove and set aside. Now add fish fillet and sear 30 seconds each side until just golden, but not cooked through. Remove and keep warm with prawns.

 

3.       Add onion, celery, fennel, fennel seeds, garlic, chilli and safron. Cook very slowly over a low heat for 15 minutes or just until onion has softened. Give it a good stir every couple of minutes.

 

4.       Add rice and stir to coat in the buttery juices. After a minute it will look slightly translucent. Add the tomato paste and stir to combine.

 

5.       Add wine and bring to a boil; simmer to reduce the wine by ¾. It will smell fantastic. Any harsh alcohol flavours will evaporate and leave the rice with a tasty essence.

 

6.       Once the wine has cooked into the rice, add the tomato passata. Turn down the heat and simmer, stirring constantly until most of the tomato juice has been absorbed by the rice.

 

7.       Now add your first ladle of hot stock and a good pinch of salt. Keep the heat at a simmer so the rice doesn’t cook too quickly on the outside.

 

8.       Keep adding ladlefuls of stock, stirring and almost massaging the creamy starch out of the rice, allowing each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next. This will take around 15 minutes.

 

9.       Taste the rice — is it cooked? Carry on adding stock until the rice is soft but with a slight bite. 
 

10.   Once you’re happy the rice is al dente, stir in the cherry tomatoes, prawns and bug meat. Flake fish coarsely and cook a further 5 minutes.

 

11.   If desired, a little bit of stock can be stirred through at the last minute to loosen the risotto a little more.

 

12.   Serve in big bowls, scatter with freshly torn basil leaves and a wedge of lemon.

A quick visit to the butchers at David Jones this week and I could not pass up these cracking milk fed veal cutlets. By first pan frying and then baking in the oven the meat was so tender and sweet it just melted off the bone.

1.       Pre heat your oven to 180C

2.       To make the dressing, grab a mortar and pestle and throw in the juice of 1 lemon, 1 tablespoon olive oil, the leaves from 1 sprig of fresh rosemary and a pinch of salt. Use the mortar to bash and swirl around the ingredients. You will notice the liquid will take on a light green colour, this is all the flavour from the rosemary leaves permeating through the lemon juice and olive oil. Let sit on the bench at room temperature until the veal is ready.

3.       Using some kitchen twine, tie some string around your veal cutlets (see picture) to help keep the shape.

4.       Rub the cutlets with some olive oil, and season each side with salt and pepper.

5.       Pan fry for a couple of minutes each side until they are nice and brown. You are just trying to colour them not cook them all the way through.

6.       When nice and brown, transfer to an oven proof dish and pop in the oven. 10 minutes for medium-rare, 15 minutes for medium depending on how big your cutlets are.

7.       Remove from the oven and cover with foil – leave rest for 10 minutes – this is a very crucial step.

8.       Take a clean fry pan or grill and place over a medium heat and line with olive oil. Place the capsicum skin side down and fry for a couple of minutes until charred. Turn over and drop in the zucchini. Cook both sides until light brown and remove to your plates.

9.       When your cutlets have finished resting, snip off the string with scissors and plate them up.

10.   Pour over any remaining resting juices and spoon over 1-2 dessert spoons of the lemon dressing.

Enjoy!

I love a good Bouillabaisse on a cold winters night. Originally from the port of Marseille in France it is traditionally made with a mixture of fresh seafood and shellfish, however that can get very expensive and very messy.

The other week I had a sensational Bouillabaisse from Mohr Fish in Surry Hills that was made with a combination of fresh fish fillets that I thought was so good I had a crack at making one myself …

Here is my recipe for an all fish fillet Bouillabaisse. This dish uses a combination of both oily fish and fleshy fish fillets to give you contrasting flavours and texture.

Serves 4 – 6 people

500g white fleshy fish fillets such as snapper or flathead (skinless)
500g oily fish fillets such as kingfish, snook or skate (try and find the kingfish its sensational!)
Olive oil
1 brown onion, finely diced
1 celery stick, diced
1 leek, white part only, trimmed, washed and thinly sliced
½ bulb of fennel – fronds removed (and reserved) - thinly sliced
1/2 tsp ground fennel seeds
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 x 400g tins chopped Italian tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp brown sugar
600ml good quality fish stock (not powedered)
2 generous pinches saffron soaked in 300ml hot water for at least 15 minutes
Crusty Bread to serve

1.       Chop your fish fillets up into a 2-3cm dice and in place the white fish fillets and oily fish fillets into separate mixing bowls.

2.       Drizzle each with a little bit of olive oil and add to each bowl ½ teaspoon minced garlic and 3 tablespoons of the saffron water. Mix to combine, cover and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour to marinate.

The fish fillets will soak up the saffron and garlic and take on a nice yellow colour.

 

3.       Place a large heavy based saucepan over a low heat and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil – enough to coat the bottom.

4.        Add the onion, celery, leek, fennel and fennel seeds and stir to coat in the oil. Cover with a lid and sweat off the vegetables over a low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring a couple of times. The idea here is to sweat out the vegetable juices, not to colour/fry them.

 

5.       When the vegetables are ready, remove the lid and turn up the heat to medium. Add the remaining garlic and fry for 3 minutes.

 

6.       Add the tomatoes, puree, bay leaf, sugar, fish stock and remaining saffron water. Add a couple of grinds of pepper and stir to combine.

 

7.       Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.

 

8.       You can make the base ahead of time and keep in the fridge if you like. When you are ready to serve bring the soup back up to a simmer.

 

9.       Add the oily fish fillets and simmer for 3 minutes, then add the white fish fillets and simmer for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and ladle into big bowls.

 

10.   Garnish with chopped fennel fronds and serve with crusty sourdough.

Friends of mine know that I am a lover of good pizza, and I mean really good pizza. There are some fantastic pizzerias out there in Sydney such as Franks, Napoli in Bocca and Ventunos to name just a few, but there are also some absolutely shocking incarnations of this wonderful dish.

For the past decade I have been on what some would call a quest, or perhaps more of an odyssey to replicate that awesome traditional Italian pizza taste at home.

Most recipes that you see on the internet or in books will call for you to dissolve yeast in luke warm water with some sugar, mix in the flour and let it rise for an hour or until “doubled in size”. This will give you a very average pizza (believe me, I have tried).

Most pizzerias run their ovens at between 450C and 550C so they can cook a thin based pizza in minutes. Most home ovens will struggle to get up to 250C.

To make a really top notch pizza at home you need to get the timing right between cooking the crust so it’s light and fluffy and melting the cheese without burning it. To do this we will make a very wet dough and give that dough time to ferment. The yeast will slowly react with the natural sugars in the flour and give you a light and naturally sweet crust.

It’s worth reading this entire post before you jump in the deep end as a little bit of planning is required.

I now share with you dear readers the culmination of my quest ...

The humble pizza is a simple rustic dish with very few ingredients and as such it is vitally important to use top quality produce.

It’s best to avoid the pre-mix already grated cheeses from the supermarket. They will all claim to be the “perfect pizza blend” but really aren’t that good at all.

For around the same price you can get nobs of very good quality mozzarella from your local deli or Harris Farm Markets.

Traditional Italian pizza is usually made with Buffalo Mozzarella, but you need a REALLY hot oven to cook this properly otherwise it just congeals into a globby mess. Cows milk mozzarella will work fine at home, just look for one that is whiteish/pale in colour, not glow in the dark yellow like the “Perfect Italiano” stuff :)

Also, thinly slice the mozzarella ball with a sharp knife or on a Chinese mandolin rather than grating it.

Yeast

A lot of recipes out there on the internet call for the use of filtered water. Feel free to try this if you like, but the quality of the tap water in Sydney is pretty good compared to a lot of other places in the world so I don’t tend to bother.

Diastatic Malt Powder

This can be a difficult ingredient to get your hands on as you won’t find it at your local supermarket but well worth trying to get some. Diastatic Malt Powder helps convert the starch found in flour into sugars which are eaten up by the yeast over the extended fermentation process. You only need a small amount but it makes a huge difference.

You can order it online here or try your local health food shop or even home brew shop (after all beer is just liquid bread!)

If you can’t find Diastatic Malt Poweder you can get small packets of “Bread Improver” from your supermarket – try this instead.

A lot of homewares stores sell overpriced “volcanic pizza stones” that are only about 5mm thick and cost upwards of $20. Your best bet is to go down to your local tile shop (Amber Tiles/CTM) and ask them for a couple of unglazed terracotta tiles. They will sell you some samples from out back for around $5 and they will be 2-3 times the thickness of a commercial pizza stone. The thicker stone will help retain more heat when placed in the oven and help give you better results.

Make sure you soak your tile in cold water for at least an hour before you place it in the oven, this will stop it from cracking.

Never clean it with detergents as the tile will absorb the soap and your pizza will end up tasting like Palmolive.

The worst thing you can do is to roll your dough out on wooden shopping boards as the wood absorbs moisture out of the dough and dries it out. Instead lightly dust your bench or counter top with flour and use it directly. If you have a marble chopping board then sensational!

Get a good set of digital scales for your kitchen so you can accurately measure your ingredients.

An enormous amount of engineering has gone into the pizza trays I see around the shops. You can even get ones with little holes cut in the base to allow the air to flow through with the promise of a crispier crust.

The reality is that they are a complete waste of time. You will get much better results cooking your pizza directly on a stone.

I’ve destroyed so many pizzas trying to get it from the counter and onto the stone. The best technique I have discovered is to actually place the dough base on a sheet of baking paper / grease proof paper and then put your toppings on.

To get your pizza in and out of the oven you can either

a)      Use a pizza peel to slide the paper in and out like a pro (you can pick them up from Homewares or Catering Supply companies for $20-$30 and if you’re going to make a lot of pizza at home it’s a worthwhile investment).

Or

b)      Take a large oven/baking tray and turn it upside down.

Place the baking paper on the top of the tray, roll out your dough and place on the paper to apply toppings.

 Practice makes perfect

The key thing to remember is that practice makes perfect. If this is your first time working with such a wet dough or making pizza at home don’t be disheartened if your pizza doesn’t come out looking perfectly rounded and amazing the first time. It has taken me many years of trial and error (and many shocking pizzas fed to the dog) to get to this stage.

 

Okay, so enough of me being all philosophical about this stuff, onto the details ...

This recipe for Pizza base makes for a very wet dough which helps give you that great soft chewy fluffy crust that we all desire instead of a dense brick that most other home recipes provide.

Because this is such a wet dough you don’t actually have to knead it like in traditional recipes, instead you let the yeast do all the work for you to produce a soft subtle finished product.

I use a combination of high protein bread flour with a little bit of wholemeal flour thrown in. Feel free to use all bread flour (just combine the weights) but I find the combination gives the crust a little more texture and has a bit of a “rustic” feel to it.

I also do not use any olive oil in my pizza dough as it is strictly forbidden by the “Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana” the governing body for certified pizza artisans :)

This recipe will give you about 6 pizzas, but I like to save at least 1 to mix in with my next batch of dough (see section at end on refreshing your dough).

Mix the flours, yeast, salt and diastatic malt powder in a large non-reactive mixing bowl and using a wooden spoon make a well in the centre.

Slowly pour in the water, make sure it’s not too hot or too cold as this can kill the yeast.

Spend a good couple of minutes stirring and mixing the dough to make sure all the ingredients are combined. It should look like a slushy mess :)

Loosely cover the bowl with cling wrap making sure there is a little bit of a gap to let the gases escape and leave it sit on the bench for 4-5 hours. During this time the dough will rise rapidly and then collapse in on itself. If you leave it out overnight or for longer than the 4-5 hours this will be okay.

Once the dough has collapsed, cover the bowl and place it in the fridge for a minimum of 24 hours up to a maximum of 2 weeks.

Over this time the dough will develop even more complex flavours. Yes the dough will keep for up to 2 weeks, covered in the fridge!

The morning you’re planning on making your pizzas, pull the dough out of the fridge and leave it on a counter top somewhere to take the chill off. The time the dough has spent fermenting will have changed it from being a sticky mess to being a subtle and elastic dough.

Soak your pizza stone or unglazed terracotta tile in cold water and leave for at least an hour.

Lightly dust your work surface with flour and using your hands slide the dough out of the bowl. RESIST THE TEMPTATION TO KNEAD THE DOUGH.

Gently work out into an even shape with your hands and divide into 6 using a dough cutter, knife or even scissors.

Alternatively, if you are only making 1 pizza you can cut knobs of dough off about the size of your first directly from the bowl.

Fold your dough into a tight ball by stretching it out between your hands, holding the tops with your thumbs and tucking the edges of the dough underneath itself with your fingers. Work the dough into a ball by repeating this action stretching the surface area out and turning the dough in a circular motion.

There is a good video (embedded below) from ExpertVillage.Com on Shaping a Boule (ball) of bread. It's meant for larger loves of bread but the technique can be easily applied here on a smaller scale. 

Place the dough balls on a floured work surface and cover with a clean tea towel to prevent it from going crusty. Leave it rest for about an hour.

During this time place your stone/tile on the top shelf of your oven and crank the temperature up to max. Let the oven and stone heat up for at least an hour.

Tear off a piece of baking paper about 30cm square (just bigger than your pizza or about the same size as your stone) and dust it with semolina.

Using the fingers of both hands gently press down on your dough ball and work it into a flat disc. Pick the edge of the disc up in both hands and rotate it between your hands like you would turn the steering wheel of a car (practice the motion and you’ll get what I mean). This will help stretch the dough out into a thin pizza shape.

It will take practice to get the right shape and desired thickness. If you leave the dough too thick you will end up with a deep pan style pizza as the crust will puff up in the oven. I take it down to about 3mm thick and find this gives me the best results.

If the dough springs back when you start to stretch it out, leave it rest for 5 minutes and then start again.

Don’t worry about trying to create a “lip” around the edge of your pizza as this will happen naturally. When you drop your pizza in the oven the dough will spring up, but the weight of the ingredients in the middle will help a natural lip to form.

When your happy with the rough shape of the pizza crust, place it on the baking paper and finish stretching it out with your hands ready to top.

I’m sure people could go on for hours about their favourite pizza toppings so I will leave this up to you. Personally I am a big fan of the traditional Margherita Pizza.

First spoon some of your tomato sauce over the base, then place on some thin slices of mozzarella and grate over a little parmesan cheese (helps give a little more flavour).

Add whatever other meats/vegetables you want being careful not to overload your pizza. Less is more – you want to be able to taste your pizza base and not just cop a mouth full of tandoori chicken (yes I have issues with “Gourmet” pizza that I’m working through separately).

Finally, drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the top and your ready to pop it in the oven (see note above about getting your pizza into the oven).

I find my pizzas cook perfectly in about 8 minutes. The dough is baked through but still fluffy and the cheese has melted.

I finish my pizza with some fresh basil leaves and wash it down with a good bottle of red and a garden salad.

The dough recipe above will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. What I do is always keep a little bit of left over dough and “refresh” it by mixing it in with the new batch. This helps keep the flavour maturing.

When you’re ready to make a new batch, cut the left over dough into small chunks and mix it in with the flour, salt and yeast. Add the water and stir to mix.

I keep using the same bowel and have not had the need to clean it out in between batches.

You can use this same dough recipe to make all other sorts of breads, think outside the square beyond the humble pizza!

 

This is a fantastic Italian salad that was originally an invention of necessity rather than anything else as Italian cooks waste nothing and this was a way to utilise stale bread and vegetables from the garden.

Despite this less than glamorous history, it’s a great dish to serve as an entree or to even have as a meal on its own.

Serves 2 for an entree but feel free to double it up ...

1.       Pre heat your oven to 160C to bake the croutons.

2.       Put a heavy based fry pan on a medium heat. Peel/Devein and butterfly the prawns and cook in a little bit of olive oil for 2 minutes either side or until well coloured and cooked. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes.

 

3.       To make the croutons, cut the baguette slices in half and place on a baking try. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake in the oven until golden brown (about 8 minutes). If you’re using large slices of sourdough bread, remove the crusts and break the flesh into chunks and then bake.

4.       Peel a garlic clove, and using the end rub each of the croutons a couple of times to transfer the flavour. 

5.       Place the Prawns, tomatoes, croutons, parmesan and basil in a mixing bowl. Season with Salt & Pepper and drizzle over some good quality extra virgin olive oil. Toss to combine and serve on a nice platter.