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.

Red 2

Carrying on from the morning after the night before there was still some of the Red Cabbage dish left. I thought it would be a different twist on the recipe to turn it into a Red Cabbage Hash. The way I did this was by quartering a medium-sized red potato, after first peeling it of course, and frying it on a medium heat turning the potato pieces frequently.

After twenty minutes the potatoes were passed al dente I added them to the Red Cabbage, which remained in the Le Cresceut from the day before, with the yolk and white of an egg. I turned up the heat to medium on the hob and stirred in the potato pieces and the yolk and white for around ten minutes until I was sure the egg was cooked properly prior to serving.

There is something about pre-cooked red cabbage that's been allowed the night to ferment in alcohol that gives it an extra edge to its taste. This dish was no exception to this rule and with the fried potato and egg it felt like a very rich brunch with a twist.

Purple Haze- freshly cooked with the steam still coming off the top of it.

Red Pole

Although the cons of the winter months are the shorter days, sometimes dangerous weather and lower temperatures the trade off is that winter ingredients give you the excuse to make lots of one pot recipes and warming soups. Often these recipes involve the use of plenty of alcohol, which again is a plus.

On the final Saturday evening of November 2016 I was on a high having coming off a couple of pre-booked days from work where I had caught up with numerous important people in my life both old and new. Not only that but the winter sun had shone brightly on me during some excellent country walks.

With the cleansing and pure electronica of Tangerine Dream's 1974 masterpiece Phaedra flowing through the speakers I set about making a red cabbage dish that is Polish in origin and it contains the following ingredients:

1 Red Cabbage.
1 Red Onion.
2 Sprigs of Rosemary.
1 Tablespoon of White Pepper.
2 Tablespoons of Chilli Flakes.
Quarter of a pint of Red Wine.
2 Tablespoons of Red Wine Vinegar.
Quarter of a pint of Chicken Stock.
Quarter of a pint of Water

The first job was to tail the Red Cabbage and remove the outer leaves. Next I topped and tailed the Red Onion and skinned it before finely dicing it. The Red Cabbage was also sliced up finely. I then poured some Sunflower Oil into the bottom of the Le Cresceut Dish and sweated the Onion, Cabbage, Rosemary, White Pepper, Red Wine Vinegar and Chilli Flakes with the Le Cresceut's lid on the dish on a medium heat for ten minutes.

I then added the Red Wine Vineger and the Red Wine and simmered the food on a medium heat with the lid on for another twenty minutes until the Red Wine and the Red Wine Vinegar had almost been absorbed. At this point I added the Chicken Stock and after another fifteen minutes of simmering with the lid on this too had almost been absorbed.

Then I added the water to the Le Cresceut and after another ten minutes of steady simmering, which meant about an hour and five minutes' simmering and sweating in total, the stewed Red Cabbage was ready to serve. This I did with some fried Vegetarian Sausages and glazed Carrots.

The Red Cabbage was rich and flavoursome with a tint of sourness, due to the Red Wine Vinegar, but not so sour that it undermined the rich and revitalising flavour. In fact there was so much of the dish prepared that I kept half back for a very exotic cooked breakfast that you'll hear all about in the next edition of this blog...

Deep Purple- perfect as part of a main meal with Glazed Carrots and Vegetarian Sausages

Dr Pepper and Mr Fennel

It was time to crack open a can of Gin and Tonic, left over from my birthday party in August, as I had a bit of a break from the busy professional life I lead.

I'd heard the weather was on the turn and the chilly weather, that froze my tailored suit trousers during a wonderful curry with great company the previous week, was to return. As a result my thoughts turned to making a strong soup with some Fennel Seeds that I'd purchased.

The ingredients for the soup were as follows:

1 Red Pepper, de-seeded, topped and cut in half lengthways.
1 Large Red Onion, topped and tailed and cut into large strips.
5 Cloves of Garlic, topped and tailed and cut into small pieces.
2 Teaspoons of Fennel Seeds.
2 Teaspoons of Italian Seasoning (containing Rosemary, Thyme and Marjoram).
2 Teaspoons of dried Parsley.
1 Tablespoon of Red Wine Vinegar.
0.3 litres of water.
1 Teaspoon of Chilli Powder.
1 Teaspoon of White Pepper.

On the player was an excellent collection of BBC recordings by the Who showing how vital their early live work was when they were trying to establish themselves in the mid 1960s as a viable force in contemporary music.

To start the preparation I covered the bottom of my Le Cresceut Dish with cooking oil and put the halves of Pepper in there with the inside facing up. I then filled them with the herbs, spices and the Garlic.

Next I put the Onion pieces in the dish and spread them out between the halves of Pepper and I added the Red Wine Vinegar evenly.

After this I turned the heat up to medium on the hob and sweated the contents of the Le Cresceut for twenty five minutes with the lid on. I turned them occasionally and adjusted the heat to stop them burning too much while still keeping the temperature high enough to smoke the peppers.

After twenty five minutes I added the water and let the food cook on the hob for another twenty minutes until it was a little more softened. I then turned the heat off and left the food to cool for a time.

Later I blended it and returned it to the Le Cresceut dish and warmed it through prior to serving. I served it in a soup dish with a healthy sprinkling of fiery Cayenne Pepper on top. Keeping the skin of the Pepper on gave the soup a real texture and the garlic, fennel seeds together with the other herbs and spices gave this soup a kick and an energy that went well with my lunchtime cheese and biscuits as I enjoyed some time out.

Spark to a flame; this soup has an orange glow to it.