WOOD FIRED SAN MANZANO PIZZA

Wood Fired Pizza's 

There is nothing more satisfying than making your own SAN Manzano Pizza and cooking it in your own wood fired pizza oven.  My mum built this pizza oven herself and is very proud of it.  Check out her blog Flower pot kitchen build your own wood fired oven.  

The secret to the most amazing pizza dough is in the ingredients and proving method, the professionals make their dough using the very best Italian 00 flour and leaving the dough to slowly prove in the fridge, YES the fridge over 24hrs, this is actually a easy method giving you more control over time.

Ingredients 

(Makes 6 pizza's)

The Dough

500g 00 flour

15g dried yeast

10g sea salt

50ml olive oil

320g water room temperature

Toppings 

San manzano tomatoes 

Di Campaina Buffalo mozzarella 

Fresh basil leaves 

First make your dough, you can once made leave to prove in a warm kitchen for around one hour tomprove, then your dough is ready to go the difference in proving your dough slowly in the fridge for 24 hrs is the improved texture in the dough when cooked as the slow proving gives you a crispier base.  Also the added bonus of being ahead on the day!

BONUS

Once your dough has proved you can now FREEZE the dough in portion balls so that all you have to do to be ready to go I whip out the dough, leave to defrost and come up to room temperature for about one hour and your a pizza a go go!

Place the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl, in the measuring jug of water add the yeast and leave for a couple of minutes, its woth noting that if salt comes in contact with dried yeast before mixing it can de activate the yeast which will result in a low proven heavy dough.

Add the oil to the mixing bowl along with the water and yeast, mix bringing together to form a dough ball, either by hand or with a dough hook on a mixer knead the dough for seven minutes until smooth and elastic.  

Prove how you want to, when ready to use roll out on a slightly 00 floured work top and top with your favourite toppings and cook, these take a couple of minutes in a wood fired oven or if using a pizza stone in your oven around 8-10 minutes.  Enjoy.

TURMERIC CHILLI SQUID

CLEAN AND GLUTEN FREE

Salt and pepper squid seasoned with turmeric and Kashmiri chilli and lightly tossed through corn flour.  Using corn flour instead of potato flour was a risk well worth it!  Potato flour guarantees a light crispy finish to the squid, but I wanted to remove the starchy element, so I decided on corn flour.  As soon as I tossed my squid in the corn flour it became moist rather than the dry fluffy coating from potato flour, however this sticky coating crisped up really well in the pan and added a gorgeous layer of flavour that made these some of the best salt and pepper squid I have ever cooked!  

Prep time 5 minutes / Cooking time 3 minutes / resting time 5 minutes 

Ingredients 

(Serves 2)

2 large squid tubes prepared and tentacles 

4 tbsp corn flour

1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp Himalayan sea salt

1 tsp ground black peppercorns 
1/2 lemon 

4 tbsp ground nut or coconut oil for frying

I get my fish monger to prepare my squid for me, then all I have to do is slice the tubes in to rectangles, score the inside with a criss cross pattern, this is for presentation, and that's the squid ready to use.

Pre heat a small skillet with the oil to 180 C, don't heat above this level unless you are using a high temperature oil.  

Mix the dry ingredients, corn flour, turmeric, Kashmiri, salt and pepper together, toss in the squid and coat well.  Drop the squid in to the hot oil and leave to cook for around 45 seconds then turn and cook for another 45 seconds, at this point your squid should be cooked, an solid white colour all the way through, remove and place on paper towel to drain and rest then serve with a wedge of lemon.

Squid shopping at our local beach fish mongers.

TURMERIC MAYONNAISE

This is a super good for you recipe that is a brilliant way to get some turmeric in your diet every day, turmeric fights inflammation and also has anti fungal and anti viral protection, I have been eating turmeric forever!  I have some homemade chicken bone broth everyday loaded with lots of super ingredients, turmeric being one of them.

Quick and easy to make in under 3 minutes! 

Ingredients 

(Makes 150ml)

1 organic egg yolk

200ml cold pressed olive oil

1 tsp white wine vinegar 

1 pinch Himalayan sea salt 

1 pinch white pepper 

1 tsp mustard Dijon 

1/2 tsp ground turmeric 

Place the egg yolk and white wine vinegar in a large jug or bowl, start whisking and very slowly drizzle in some of the olive oil, whisking all the time, if you add too much oil at the beginning the yolk can not absorb the oil and will split and become watery in texture and will not make mayonnaise.  Once you feel the egg yolk thicken you can add more oil at a much faster rate, whisk in the oil until you have a nice thick mayonnaise.

Season your mayonnaise with the sea salt, white pepper, turmeric and mustard, that's it, super quick and super say to make, brilliantly good for you home made free from any preservatives mayonnaise.

KETONE PALEO GLUTEN FREE CHIA AND FLAXSEED BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

WoW these are super AWESOME and so Ketogenic Diet friendly as low on the glycemic index chart.  These are great for my dad too who has Diabetes, he thought these felt like a really naughty cake treat, that was my aim and Chef Oscar succeeded!  What's more I cannot wait to play with lots of other flavours so look out for my next blog! 

Prep time 8 minutes / Cooking time 15 minutes

Ingredients 

(Makes 15)

Dry Ingredients 

30g chia seeds

220g flaxseed milled

3 tbsp xylitol 

150g blueberries 

1 tbsp cinnamon 

1 tsp baking powder

Wet Ingredients 

50ml XCT coconut oil

3 eggs 

60ml water

This is super easy, pre heat oven 180 C / 360 F whisk the wet ingredients preferably with a hand blender for around thirty seconds until fluffy.  Place all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix evenly, add the wet ingredients and using a spatula fold in until evenly mixed.  

Place your muffin cases in you tin and spoon in the muffin mixture, fill the cases almost to the top as these will not rise very much.  Pop in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, take out immediately and transfer to a cooling rack, if you leave the muffins to cool in the pan they will be dry.

That's it, enjoy on their own, with butter, with cream cheese or what ever you fancy.