Pesto Lamb Pizza (slowcooker lamb part 2)

The holy grail combination. Everyone has some. Theres the very common dark chocolate and raspberry, honey and soy, lemon and fish... to the less common olives and white chocolate, oysters and kiwi or mushroom and blueberry (some of Hestons crazy favourites of course!) Everyone has favourites and to me, pumpkin and pesto and lamb and goats cheese ALWAYS hit the spot together. Put the two holy grails together and throw in some caramelized onion pine nuts and a delectably crispy pizza dough and this would have to be in my top 3 favourite meals ever. Just trust me. Don't question it, just make it!

Lamb Pesto Pizza

Prep time:20 (not including dough prep) Cooking time:30  minutes  Serves:4

Ingredients:

• Leftover slow cooked lamb
• 2 pizza bases or 1/2 quantity of pizza dough recipe
• 1 cup diced kent pumpkin 
• 1/4 cup toasted pinenuts
• 1 brown onion
• Small knob of butter
• 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons of vinegar 
• 75g of goats cheese
• 4 tablespoons basil pesto

Method:

1. Place diced pumpkin in saucepan and boil until soft but not mushy. Place into a bowl with salt and pepper and set aside to cool.

2. Chop onion in half and thinly slice onion. Add them to a frying pan over medium heat with the knob of butter and a small dash of oil to stop the butter from burning. 

3. Cook the onions until soft and transparent and add in sugar and vinegar. Cook for a further few minutes until mixture has thickened and is bubbling.  

3. Roll out your pizza dough into the shape of your pizza or baking tray and evenly spread on a layer of pesto- this can be as little or a lot, depending on how strong you want the pesto to be.

4. Top the pizza with pumpkin, lamb, caramelised onion, pine nuts and crumble on goats cheese. 

5. Bake in an oven until the pumpkin and goats cheese are browned and the bottom and edges of the pizza are crisp. 

Wonderful Wednesday: Privilege

I'm so lucky. It's something I don't say enough, something that most of us lucky ones don't say enough. I really am so lucky. 

In the crazy 40+ degree heat in Australia at the moment, and living in a rental with no airconditioning, I've been feeling oh so very sorry for myself and to be honest, doing a hell of a lot of complaining. It wasn't until I was watching the news tonight and saw the latest devastation in the South Australian bush fires, that I realised how trivial my complaint was and how much heartbreak was happening mere hours away from me. 

I am so thankful to have my gorgeous fiancé, my loving family and friends. At 19 years old I'm able to rent and live in a lovely 2 bedroom house with just my fiancé, in a great part of town. I work part time and love it and study full time and love that even more. So many people my age don't have the opportunity or means to do any of these things and I need to remind myself of that every time I go to complain about either. 

I feel so privelaged to have what I have and to live the life I do. Today, I'm feeling so very lucky and this Wednesday is wonderful. 

Creamy Chicken Volovants

Today is a sad week for me. My younger cousin, who happens to be one of my best friends is off on the trip of a lifetime to America for 10 months. I'm incredibly proud of her for taking on this adventure at only 17 but already feeling so lonely without her. Some comfort food to fill my sad little lonely self was on the cards and these volovants certainly helped- rich + creamy + hearty = comfort.

Creamy Chicken Volovants

Prep time:10 Cooking time:15  minutes  Serves:4

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken breast
• 3/4 cup button mushrooms
• Small bunch of spring onion
• 1 cup full cream
• 1-2 teaspooons seeded mustard
• Small knob of butter
• Salt
• Cracked pepper
• Olive oil
• 1/2 cup tasty cheese
• 4 large volovant cases

Method:

1.Dice chicken breast and cook in a large frying pan with a dash of olive oil and cook until sealed on all edges (not browned). Add bacon into the pan and cook with the chicken until both are browned and thoroughly cooked.

2. While the chicken and bacon is cooking, slice the mushrooms and spring onions. And add to the pan with a knob of butter until softened.

3. Pour the cream, seeded mustard and cracked pepper into the pan and let the mixture cook until thickened. 

4. Into the pan add the cheese and turn off the heat and let it sit until the cheese is melted. 

5. Pour the mixture evenly into the volovant cases and bake according to the instructions or until the shell is golden and the top of the volovants are browned.

Easy Peasy Pizza Dough

Some things matter. World peace, falling in love, getting an education, spending time with your family... and using fresh pizza dough. The flavour of fresh dough improves any pizza and with a recipe this fast and easy theres no excuse for using a pre-made base when you can take your pizza to the next level whipping up this quick delicious base.

Easy Peasy Pizza Dough

Prep time: (20 plus proving time) Cooking time:As needed by pizza recipe  Serves:6

Ingredients:

• 750g plain flour
• 250g wholemeal flour
• 14 grams of yeast
• 2 teaspoons of fine sea salt
• 2 tablespoons of castor sugar
• 600ml-650ml warm water
•  3 tablespoons of olive oil

Method:

1.In a jug or bowl, mix water, oil, yeast and sugar, cover with gladwrap and set aside for 3 minutes.

2. In a large mixing bowl or bowl of your mixmaster using a dough hook, add in your flour and salt.

3. In a mixing bowl form a well and add yeast mixture and use a fork to bring in the sides of the well and gradually combine until a rough ball is formed. If using a mixmaster turn onto the dough 'kneed' setting and pour in yeast mixture.

4. Kneed until mixture is clumped together in a rough ball.

5.Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and kneed until the ball is smooth and springs to the touch. 

6. Place the dough into a bowl lightly sprayed with oil and cover with a tea towel dampened in warm water and leave in a warm place for roughly an hour or until doubled in size.

7. Put the dough back onto a flour dusted service and knock the air out of it by kneeding it again and divide the dough into 6 even pieces, if freezing wrap in glad wrap and freeze immediately.

8. If using straight away, roll the dough into a circle or a rectangle about .5-1cm thick, place on a pizza tray or baking tray sprayed with oil and top with your favourite pizza toppings and bake until the bottom is crispy. 

*Tip* When cooking pizza from the frozen dough, make sure you allow the dough to become fully thawed and room temperature before its rolled.

The perfect sausage roll

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! I'm sorry for my absence.. it seems I thought I was a bit better at understanding blogger than I really am. I set up a quite long queue of recipes which somehow didn't post and has also disappeared from the face of the earth (or should I say, the face of blogland). If anyone knows what could have caused this/ if theres anyway to get them back your insight would be highly appreciated. Luckily I still had some edited photos on my laptop so I'll be able to retype some including this one I'm giving you today. From memory, the opening for this recipe was some witty remarks about how sausage rolls can be perfect for every occasion, perfect for every kind of person and perfectly easy to make for lunch dinner ... which is still all very true. This is an amended family recipe and can be as plained or jazzed up as you wish, the possibilities are endless. 

The Perfect Sausage Roll

Prep time:20 (using pre-made pastry)  Cooking time:30  minutes  Serves:6

Ingredients:

• 500g sausage mince
• 1 packet puff pastry slightly thawed or 2 quantities of puff pastry (link below)
• 2 large carrots
• 2 cloves of fresh garlic or 2 1/2 teaspoons or minced garlic paste
• 1 brown onion
• 1/4- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 bunch of parsley
• 1tbs worcestershire sauce
• Salt
• Cracked pepper
• 2 eggs

Method:

1. If making puff pastry from scratch, follow directions found in this link here to allow for chill time (for the purpose of this recipe I made puff pastry from scratch, images shown below). If using pre-made frozen pastry then take from the freezer to allow to thaw slightly. 

Pastry at the 'breadcrumb' stage

Pastry at the 'clumping' stage

The folding and rolling of the pastry

2. Preheat oven to 200c 

3. Cut the tops from carrots and chop in half (or smaller depending on the abilities of your food processor), peel and quarter onion, peel garlic and add all these ingredients and your bunch of parsley to your food processor and chop until pieces are small and well combined. 

4. In a large mixing bowl combine vegetable mixture, sausage mince, worcestechire, salt, pepper and 1 egg and use hands to combine, alternatively this can be done in a mixmaster on the 'dough' setting.

5. Once the mixture is well incorporated, slowly add breadcrumbs and mix until your sausage mixture can hold a sausage shape when squeezed into it but is still slightly gooey to the touch.

6. Cut the square of puff pastry into 2 or roll a portion of your pastry into a rectangle that is approximatley 20 x 10cm. Beat 1 egg and set aside with a pastry brush.

7. Working a centimetre in from the edge closest to you, spoon a sausage width amount along the length of the pastry with a little extra built up on the end. 

8. Brush the beaten egg along the opposite length of pastry, fold over the top edge of pastry and continue rolling until a log shape has formed. Brush the tops of sausage rolls with beaten egg.

9. Cut the sausage rolls into even sized pieces and place on a baking tray, seam side down and brush with beaten egg. Repeat for the remaining sausage mixture and pastry.

10. Bake sausage rolls for 20-30 minutes until dark golden and serve hot with homemade tomato relish.