Sunday 5 June 2022

Pizza the Hutt

The Sunday before the jubilee found me on a wonderful walk with an old friend that saw us stumble across my parents and their ginger Dogg, lots of remarkable wildlife and a fistful of wild garlic that went into a gluten free pizza recipe.

After returning from my walk I opened the conservatory door and let sunshine slide in while I put on Status Quo's powerful and direct 2002 effort "Heavy Traffic". The Quo's music always sounds better on long, sunny days when cooking or going on a long drive. The record begins with the skilled shuffle of "Blues and Rhythm" and takes in along the way a strong cover of "Jam Side Down" with a good deal of trademark piledriving thrown in for good measure. 

For the Pizza dough I placed into a mixing bowl 400 hundred grams of gluten free bread flour, a heaped teaspoon of xanthan gum and five tablespoons of olive oil. I made a well in the middle of the mixture and gradually added in 250 millilitres of warm water. Then I added all the dry parts of the mixture into the water and then kneaded the dough powerfully to create a flat circle at the bottom of the mixing bowl. I covered the bowl with clingfilm and left it in the fridge for a couple of hours. 

When I resumed making the dish I took the pizza dough from the fridge and rolled it out on a greased baking tray. I spread evenly over the top of the dough, until it covered it, slices of charcoal cheese that I found at the wonderful Stretton Hall Farm | Facebook   . I used two of the five leaves of Wild Garlic that I had foraged locally to place on top of the cheesy base. 

Next I spread a tin of chopped tomatoes atop the pizza and the three other Wild Garlic leaves together with a diced, homegrown Cayenne Pepper. 

I cooked it in the oven for ten minutes on Gas Mark Seven and then served the Pizza with a side of homegrown lettuce. It proved to be a pizza that was spicy and rich with a dough that didn't make me bloated what with the lack of gluten. 



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