Tandoori Chicken Pizza

We were originally inspired to make this pizza after eating it at the restaurant Pancakes on the Rocks (at Northmead). 

I was fortunate enough to receive a Baker's Delight voucher recently from The Food Mentalist and was keen to test out their new pizza bases. When I picked up the bases I was pleasantly surprised at how good they looked. I think they are great product and will definitely buy them again for those times when time doesn't permit to make my own pizza dough.

I made my own tandoori paste using this recipe and then mixed it with a generous amount of yoghurt to use as the base to my pizza.

The rich sauce is perfectly complimented by chicken, roasted sweet potato, roasted capsicum, red onion and mushrooms.

Serve with extra yoghurt and you have a delicious meal.

Vegetable and Gouda Stromboli

My last few days have been so busy. We have had family staying, I had all my hair cut off, I was able to catch up with some good friends, you get the picture. Amidst all of this I have been cooking and baking and taking photos but not sure when they will make it here!

This dish for vegetable stromboli, which is essentially a rolled up pizza, I saw at Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice. Once again Reeni did not let me down :)

The pizza dough is rolled out and filled up with lots of delicious vegetables that are pre-cooked on the stove top. First the zucchini.

Then the mixture of onion, capsicums, silverbeet, garlic, olives and capers.

Topped with some delicious gouda cheese.

It is then rolled up, brushed with egg wash, sprinkled with sesame seeds and baked.

What a delicious dish, I loved the fresh tasting vegetables in the filling and the dough was cooked perfectly. 

My little nephew was staying and was not so happy to be served up so many vegetables. Often people say how lucky I am my family appreciates all the food I cook for them. I realise I am very lucky that my family is happy to eat so many different style meals and that my little girl loves vegetables, and all sorts of interesting ingredients such as goats cheese, olives and wood ear fungus.....

The Talisman No. 13 Pizza

When we travel to visit my family we head west from Sydney to the country side. We like to plan our trip so we can stop at our favourite little cafe on the way located at Little Hartley just after you come down from the Blue Mountains. The Talisman Gallery features some amazing metal work and a cafe with a wood fired oven. 

When the weather is clear you can look across at the cliffs of the mountains

We always order the number 13 pizza and a nicoise salad, the latter being for my 3 year old daughter who for some reason does not love pizza. 

Well we have not made it out there for a while and so I decided to make my own. The base sauce is tomato based so I cooked some onion, garlic and a tin of tomatoes down and pureed. I rolled my pizza dough nice and thin.

The toppings are sweet potato (I baked one whole until very soft), eggplant (I baked some slices), capsicum (I roasted in the oven), artichoke (I used marinated from a jar) and bocconcini. Sadly I don't have a wood fired pizza oven so i just placed it on a hot pizza stone to cook in a hot oven.

This photo of our garlic pizza my daughter took!

It was quite yummy but not as good as the original. The main problem being the pizza wasn't cooked in a pizza oven! But I suspect they use eggplant that is marinated and their pizza also has mozzarella which would work nicely. Actually I am relieved that ours wasn't as good because I know where I can go for the best. I really enjoy stopping in and eating excellent food, drinking nice coffee and soaking up the atmosphere.

This is a photo I once took when eating the original.

Pork, Apple and Fennel Pizza

After we roasted our pork the other week we had a decent size piece leftover so we froze it. Yesterday I thawed it out to make pizza, and I was so pleased that when I sliced the pork it was still deliciously moist, tasty and tender.
I made a pizza base using wholemeal flour. It was just a basic pizza dough recipe and only rises for an hour so with a bit of organisation anyone should be able to make one! I topped the base with a paste I made from rosemary, garlic, fennel seeds, salt and olive oil (this is similar to the rub used on the pork for roasting).

I prepared the apple by slicing and caramelising in pan with sugar, balsamic and butter. I thinly sliced the fennel bulb and popped it in the pan for the last couple of minutes as well. The apple and fennel were next to go on the pizza followed by the sliced pork. I sprinkled with some sliced sage leaves and baked. Once the pizza was cooked I topped it with some fresh rocket.

I was really pleased with my pizza, it was really delicious. I don't like licorice and was nervous that by using fennel it would ruin it for me but I loved it. The flavours all worked together perfectly. It would of benefited with another couple of minutes in the oven, I was just nervous about drying out that perfect pork.