Pizza The Hutt

The sky was a deep blue and in the shade and on the higher ground there was still snow and sheets of ice. It didn't stop me having a long walk in the winter sun; just as the weather hadn't stopped us exploring the beer selection at a newly opened bar in town the evening before.

On my walk I'd bumped into someone I'd not seen since schooldays; and we had a good chat and he mentioned he'd seen my cooking exploits on Facebook. That said I decided to challenge myself in the kitchen that day. As well as the morning's talk being my inspiration I remembered that the dad of a friend of mine has the rare skill of making quality homemade pizzas from scratch, he's told me that one day he'll sell his secret pizza recipe; he should do as they're delicious.

More music from my distant past was on the player; in fact the record I chose was one that I first bought around the time I last saw the bloke I'd seen on my morning walk. It was Dire Straits' multi platinum selling Brothers In Arms; a record that people tend to either wax lyrical about or downright despise. It's perhaps not their very best record but anything that contains hit songs like "So Far Away", "Money for Nothing", "Walk of Life" and the title track amongst others clearly has a lot going for it.

Task number one was to make the topping by lightly frying in Sunflower Oil two diced Shallots and eight ounces of cubed Butternut Squash for 20 minutes. The key in doing this was to make sure the Butternut Squash was softened properly and the Shallots were translucent but not burnt.

I left the Shallots and Squash to one side in the frying pan once they'd cooked and turned my attention to the dough. I mixed 14 ounces of White Bread Flour with 7 fluid ounces of water and 1 teaspoon of Yeast. The technique for getting the consistency of the dough is not the easiest but if you start by mixing the Flour and the Yeast before adding the water gradually you stand a decent chance of ending up with a dough that's sticky but can be shaped using your hands into a circle.

After I'd got the dough into a flat, yet chunky circle I left to rise for half an hour on a south facing window ledge to allow it to rise.

To finish the topping I tiled the dough, until the top was almost fully covered, with slices of Double Gloucester and then I spread the Shallot and Butternut Squash pieces across the top with a liberal scattering of Pine Nuts.

I then cooked it in the oven for 25 minutes on Gas Mark 6. This allowed enough time for the Double Gloucester to melt properly and bind the other elements of the topping together and also to ensure the dough was totally cooked.

The end product was a pizza that contained a topping containing two super foods, pliable dough that was soft and rich and perhaps, as the bloke I'd seen earlier that day pointed out on Social Media, gave a local takeaway a run for its money.

Straight out of the oven complete with melted Cheese and Pine Nuts aplenty.

Taking a slice: even a quarter of the Pizza provided a surprisingly filling meal.

Seasonal Scallops Order

At this time of year, i.e. the interregnum between Christmas and Springtime, it's easy to find things difficult with the short days and chilly weather. Some people call this Seasonal Affective Disorder and others the Winter Blues. Either way the experts say one of the best ways to combat it is to eat lots of green vegetables and seafood.

The Sunday Dinner I had in mind combined both these ingredients with a tasteful sauce thrown in as part of the bargain. Often I find that my weekend dinners consist of binging on Cheese and Crackers after a morning walk with my mouthy Terrier. Sometimes it's good to break the mould though and, as a good friend of mine often says, get out of my comfort zone.

If the recipe was something out of the ordinary for my Sunday Lunch, the choice of music wasn't. Sometimes at this time of year or when I think the chips could be stacked against me, or both, I'll go back to familiar things from my past and so the album on the player was Dire Straits' 1984 double live record "Alchemy" that I purchased one dark and wet February as a fifteen-year old about to survive his GCSEs. It's an album that is still top drawer after all this time and with Mark Knopfler's Guitar sounding like a highly amplified Spanish Guitar throughout proceedings what isn't there to like about it?

Scallops are food that's the province of specialist and generally high end restaurants. I'd first tasted them several years previously at a long defunct country pub and then again a few years later in Glasgow at a specialist seafood restaurant with an exciting companion and a bottle of champagne. In the food budget of a (fairly) young homeowner they can make a little bit of a dent but expensive luxury that they are, one of my New Year's Resolutions has been to save more but spend money on good quality food instead of other more trivial things.

These Scallops had come from the seaside via my freezer and I defrosted them by rinsing them thoroughly in a colander which in turn stopped them from sticking together.

While the Scallops defrosted I laid out four large Lettuce leaves on a dinner plate, having first washed them, the Lettuce came from my local independent fruit and veg shop that generally runs rings round the local supermarkets in terms of price, quality and variety.

Next I lightly fried the Scallops in a small amount of sunflower oil in a frying pan for ten minutes while turning them occasionally to stop them sticking to the bottom of it.

In between turning the Scallops I made a sauce. I did this by melting three ounces of Margarine in a sauce pan and then mixing two ounces of chopped chives, a pinch of Black Pepper, a pinch of Mustard, the zest of one Lemon a tablespoon of White Wine Vinegar and four ounces of Pine Nuts into the Margarine. This created a rich sauce that contained at least one super food.

I warmed the sauce through and then put the Scallops, once cooked, onto the Lettuce and poured the sauce evenly on top of them. As I sat in the conservatory watching the rain close in from the hills I started my lunch. The flavoursome and fresh taste of the Scallops coupled with the, local Lettuce, Pine Nuts and the rest of the sauce made this feel a healthy yet delicious lunch that was a departure from the norm. A sign of things to come perhaps?

Golden Globes: the Scallops taste best when smothered in this sauce.

Curry in a blender

Ah the first weekend in January, traditionally a time for rest and spending the vast majority of it in your pyjamas after the excess eating, boozing and general getting out and about that comes as an important and always enjoyable part of the Christmas Break.

The start of January is always an odd time for me, on one hand it's filled with endless possibilities that the New Year and making of New Year's resolutions brings while on the other there's a realisation that Spring, longer days and Eastertime are a long way away. After spending the Friday evening wrecking some scum on Streets of Rage 2 on my PlayStation 3 with a close personal friend of mine I spent the Saturday morning wandering with the dog through a part of the county that I'd not been to for some time. It gave me the opportunity for some thinking time about how it'll be generally and how it'll be a new way this year, one way or another.

So home then it was and a new soup, something that included carrots and spices and was to turn out like a pureed curry.

...and you will know us by the trail of the dead's excellent EP, a rarity these days is an EP, Festival Thyme played out with a mixture of ringing pianos, adventurous drumming and just the right amount of guitar while I prepared the soup. The ingredients for it were:

3 Large Carrotts.
2 Tablespoons of Cayenne Pepper.
2 Tablespoons of Ground Cumin.
2 Tablespoons of Garam Masala Spice.
12 grams of dried Red Lentils.
Half a pint of Chicken Stock.
Quarter of a pint of Soya Milk.

The way I made it was as follows:

1. I topped and tailed the carrots and then, without peeling them, cut them into slices.
2. I then put the carrots into my Le Cresceut with enough Sunflower Oil to ensure they didn't stick to the bottom.
3. I added the spices and the Lentils and stirred them into the Carrots and Sunflower Oil on a medium heat for a couple of minutes before putting the lid of the Le Cresceut on and sweating the ingredients for another ten minutes.
4. After ten minutes I added the Chicken Stock and let the Le Cresceut's contents simmer on a low heat for an hour. This way it meant that the Lentils were thoroughly cooked as, unlike the Carrots, there is no way you can serve Lentils raw or even Al Dente.
5. Once the hour was up I set the dish to one side and once it had cooled down I blended it and added the Soya Milk before warming it through and serving.

Even though I don't usually associate carrots with curry, the addition of the lentils and spices gave this dish the taste of a smoky Tikka Masala except that the low fat Soya Milk was a much healthier option than the buckets of cream often associated with Tikka Masala served in curry houses.

The taste was reminiscent of a great curry I had over the Holiday Season on a frosty night.

21st Century Macaroni Cheese

Recently I saw a post on Facebook that invited you to name something that you remember that someone younger than you probably wouldn't. Having gone through the obvious things such as Pogs, Tazos, Mini Boglins and Monster in My Pocket another one that crossed my mind was Macaroni Cheese. I thought of this one because a lot of my first memories of this world were of the dark and dusty house I lived in during the mid-eighties when Thatcher and Kinnock were always on the TV, the Pet Shop Boys owned our radio and every other meal seemed to be my mum's homemade Macaroni Cheese.

Since then I've not had this dish a lot and while I was living at home my mum graduated to more sophisticated dishes like risotto and various Avant Garde vegan recipes. However the memory that the Facebook post evoked made me, with a kitchen at my own place all to myself, decide to have a go at a Macaroni Cheese dish.

Choosing the soundtrack wasn't difficult and was inspired by my reading of Bruce Springsteen's autobiography, that someone who is very kind and wonderful had bought me as a Christmas Present, and so I put his flawless double album The River on the player. The album is chock full of powerful rockers that helped give some much needed energy for cooking on a dark January night.

My take on a Macaroni Cheese had the following ingredients:

12 ounces of cubed Butternut Squash.
12 ounces of Macaroni Pasta
Half a Red Onion thinly sliced.
Pine Nuts

For the sauce:

4 ounces of Margarine.
2 ounces of Plain Flour.
3 ounces dried Sage.
A pinch of Mustard.
Quarter of a pint of Milk.
3 ounces of grated Cheddar.

First I steamed the Butternut Squash for fifteen minutes until it was soft enough to push a fork through with ease. Second I boiled the Macaroni in a pan of water for ten minutes in accordance with the cooking instructions on the packet.

While the Squash steamed and the Macaroni boiled I greased a baking tin and spread the Red Onion pieces evenly with a little grated Cheddar throughout the bottom of the tin. When the Macaroni and the Butternut Squash pieces were cooked I did the same with them having first drained the Macaroni.

Next I prepared the sauce by melting the Margarine in a milk pan on the hob and stirring the flour into it thoroughly. Then I added the Mustard and dried Sage before mixing the milk into it all on a medium heat until the sauce thickened. Finally I melted the Cheddar into it and poured it evenly over the top of the Macaroni, Squash and Red Onion.

I then sprinkled Pine Nuts, a good food to ward off seasonal affective disorder so the professionals say, on top of the Macaroni Cheese and then cooked it on Gas Mark 4 for thirty minutes. When it came out of the oven the top of the Macaroni Cheese was crisp and the Pine Nuts toasted. However beneath that the sauce was soft and just right in its consistency as was the Macaroni, Squash and Onion. Certainly the taste in flavour and richness was light years away from the mid-eighties Macaroni of my early years.

A bit more colourful than your average Macaroni Cheese

The layers of the Macaroni; Onions on the bottom, Macaroni and Squash in the middle and Sauce and S.A.D busting Pine Nuts on the top.