Spring Pizza - Kale, Zucchini, Mushroom and Parmesan on a Rye Base

This is my green machine pizza. I am slowly, but surely mastering the art of pizza. The right base, the right sauce and the right toppings. Last night i catered for my uncle's 50th birthday and I made lots of different pizzas! It's hard to go wrong with a good ol' slice.
Lately, Kale has been a good friend of mine. I use it in my smoothies, eat it with my eggs in the morning and now, i top my pizzas with it.

The thing i love about this pizza is that it stays really juicy from the zucchini and mushrooms while the rye base is nice and nutty and crunchy. Frying the kale in coconut oil, tamari and garlic before putting it on the pizza is absolutely imperative to the flavour!

The Base

(Makes 2 pizzas)

1 1/2 cups. Rye Flour

1 cup. White Flour

1 tsp. Salt

1 3/4 tsp. Dried Yeast

1 tbs. Olive Oil

200ml.

Luke Warm Water

Combine the flours and salt. In a separate bowl whisk the yeast in to the luke warm water and leave for 5  minutes.

Make a well in the flour mixture and add the yeast mixture and olive oil.

If you have a mixer with a dough hook, use that until the dough is combined, otherwise knead for 10-15 minutes. Place in an oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place for half an hour to an hour.

Once your dough has risen, separate it in to 2 and roll out on a floured bench.

The Topping

1 cup Tomato Passata or 1 tin diced tomatoes (I like to cook up some garlic in lots of olive oil and reduce  my passata to a thick garlicy sauce!)

1/4 Bunch Kale

1 1/2 tbs. Coconut oil

1 tbs. Tamari

1 Clove Garlic

1 large Zucchini, sliced

6 Mushrooms, sliced

1 Handful Shredded Mozzarella 

3-4 tbs. Good quality grated or shaved Parmesan Cheese

1 tsp. smoked paprika

1/4 tsp. chili powder

Fresh parsley for garnish

Salt and Pepper

Coat your base in passata and sprinkle with mozzarella. 

Kale: In a frying pan, heat your coconut oil and tamari and fry garlic until soft, add the kale and fry until coated and slightly wilted. 

Zucchini: Brush each slice of zucchini with olive oil and sear on the bbq or fry until brown and slightly tender. 

Cover the base of the pizza with the fried kale and layer the zucchini and mushrooms on top. 

Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with smoked paprika and chili and half of the parmesan.

Cook for 25 minutes or until dough is crispy and cheese has melted.

Before serving, sprinkle the rest of the parmesan on top and garnish with chopped parsley.

Banana & Muesli Bread With Natural Yoghurt and Maple Syrup

 I've been on a bit of a hiatus lately -a bit of an unintentional break from the old blog. Lots of cooking has happened since my last post, but sadly, no time for photos and sharing. While i haven't been at the screen, I'll have you all know that I have been having a lot of fun! I've moved in to a beautiful mud brick house a little way from my work (where i was previously living) and have been having many a fun time in the sunshine. It is now well and truly Spring! Lots of work and lots of training and a new found passion for rock climbing.... watch this space!

Anyway, that's what I've been up to and I really have been meaning to update you all with a new recipe. Today's is spontaneous  I hadn't planned to cook today or even blog for that matter, but it all worked out so well that I might just share what happened in my kitchen this afternoon.

Banana and Muesli Bread Ingredients
1/3 cup. Almond Meal
1/3 cup. Rice Flour
1/2 Cup Rye Flour (or Gluten Free alternative)
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 cup. Mixed Muesli (oats, nuts, seeds, dried fruit etc)
1 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Nutmeg
1/2 tsp. Ground Ginger
4 Very Ripe Bananas, mashed
3 Eggs, beaten
3 tbs. Natural Yoghurt
1 tsp. Vanilla Essence
1/3 cup. Coconut oil melted
1 tbs. Maple Syrup (optional)
1/4 cup. Milk of choice

Method
Preheat Oven to 180-200 and grease a medium sized loaf tin.
In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients. If you do not have muesli, use rolled oats and throw in some sultanas. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas and add all wet ingredients, saving the coconut oil until last. Combine the dry and wet ingredients together and mix through the melted coconut oil. Fill the loaf tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour or until a skewer comes out clean.

Serve with natural yoghurt and a drizzle of honey or maple syrup. 
 Enjoy this Beautiful Banana Bread for Breakfast, Brunch, or just Because (how's that for alliteration?!)

Buckwheat Porridge with Strawberry Puree and Crunchy Maple Bits

Spring has almost sprung and I can’t say how happy I am to have some sunshine back in my life. My reptile self is warmly welcoming the early change of season and basking in whatever it gives me. So far it’s been very nice.

The other week I bought some buckwheat groats and since then, have been experimenting different uses.  Today was porridge. 

Before I go ahead and talk about the recipe, I’d like you to just divert your attention to the beautiful board on which my porridge sits. 

At the beginning of this month, Cal and I celebrated the anniversary of 5 special years together. Normally, gifts aren’t on the anniversary agenda, we tend to plan exciting adventures or experiences instead so this gift came a little unexpected. When Cal handed this over he told me he'd bought this beautiful piece of Huon Pine in Tasmania 10 years ago! Not sure how it managed to slip under the radar all this time, I'd never seen it in my life. He had sanded it down and oiled it and it is now one of the most beautiful things i own.

So now that the board has been credited, here's the recipe!

Buckwheat really doesn't need all that much tampering with. It's so beautiful and nutty, i stepped away from the spices this time.

Buckwheat Porridge

1/2 cup buckwheat groats

1 cup water

1/2 tbs. apple cider vinegar

1 cup plant based milk

1 tsp. cinnamon

Soak the buckwheat overnight in the water and apple cider vinegar.

Drain and rinse thoroughly.

In a saucepan cook the buckwheat in the milk and cinnamon until the liquid reduces.

You can either keep reducing and eat the buckwheat as it is like porridge or blend it.

I blitzed my warm buckwheat in a blender for a few seconds to achieve a thicker, porridge-like texture.

Alternatively, you can make a raw version which consists of just soaking overnight and then blending. A beautiful cool version for the warmer months to come!

Strawberry Puree

1 punnet ripe strawberries

1-2 tbs. water

Blend strawberries in a blender or food processor and add water until desired consistency is reached. If your strawbs are ripe enough your won't need to add any other sweetener.

Crunchy Maple Bits

1 handful walnuts

1 handful buckwheat groats

1 handful flaked coconut

1/2 tbs. maple syrup

Dry roast the walnuts, buckwheat and coconut until brown. Pour over the maple syrup and stir through.

Enjoy this wonderful porridge in the sun!

Chai Spiced Pear and Coconut Icecream

This is the easiest ice cream ever. I have an ice cream maker, but i didn't even bother for this recipe. Stew, blitz, freeze, eat. The pears are easily interchangeable with any other sort of stewed fruit like apple, rhubarb, plums, apricots and the list goes on... There's no dairy and no added sugar in this recipe either, just the sugar from the ripe pears. You might even feel okay about eating this ice cream for breakfast... YEAH!

Stewed Pears with Chai Spices
3 Soft pears
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
1/2 tsp. Ginger
1/2 tsp. Cardamom powder
1 pinch Salt

Chop the pears roughly. In a saucepan on a low heat, add pears, a splash of water and spices. Cover and simmer until the pears are soft . Don't worry too much about how they look, you'll be blending them anyway. Allow the pears to cool completely.

Icecream
1 1/2 cups Stewed Pears (or stewed fruit)
3/4 cup Coconut Cream

In a food processor, blitz the pears and coconut cream until combined. Scoop in to a container and store in the freezer. Stir your mixture thoroughly every 30 minutes, 5 times.
Coconut cream freezes pretty solid so remember to take it out of the freezer up to 30 minutes before serving if you don't eat it all in one go!

Rosemary & Roasted Garlic Popcorn

 I love the thrill of making popcorn. Waiting with bated breath for that first.... POP! Like a ticking time bomb until a whole mine field goes off with tiny little yellow kernels exploding in to big white clouds.

I must say, I've become quite the expert in making popcorn. Cal and I are, you could say, slightly obsessed. Any excuse to make popcorn, we'll make it. The trend started when we were traveling in Berlin. It was the middle of winter and we were staying in a tiny little studio apartment with the bedroom as the only sitting room. Somehow we found ourselves tucked up in bed some afternoons munching down popcorn and watching movies on the laptop. Yeah i know, exciting tourists hey? It was in Berlin that we remembered how exciting and delicious popcorn was and since then we always have kernels in the house.

Today i thought i'd go a little gourmet and jazz up my everyday popcorn. Let me assure you, there is absolutely nothing wrong with plain old buttery salty popcorn, but it probably isn't all that interesting to blog about or take photos of. Hopefully i've inspired some ideas.

 The aim is to get as few unpopped kernels as possible. It takes skill.

How to cook popcorn
Ingredients:
1/3 cup popcorn kernels (will feed 2 hungry popcorn eaters)
Oil with  a high smoke point- rice bran, peanut or sunflower. I try to steer clear of canola and vegetable oils.

Put a heavy based saucepan on a medium to high heat and coat the bottom of the pan with oil. Drop in 3-4 kernels and wait. When the first one pops, add in all of your kernels and cover the pot. Keep the heat high, but make sure you shake the kernels around every few seconds or so to ensure they don't stick to the bottom or  burn. Your popcorn is ready when the popping slows and then stops.
How many are unpopped?

Rosemary & Roasted Garlic  Infused Butter
50g butter
2-3 rosemary sprigs
2 garlic cloves
rock salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 180-200 degrees. In a baking tray place 2 cloves of garlic, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast for about 30 minutes or until soft.

In a saucepan, melt the butter on a low heat and add in the rosemary sprigs and roasted garlic cloves (remove skin from garlic), salt and pepper to taste. stir occasionally and allow the flavours to infuse for 5 minutes or so.
Strain the butter through a sieve on to the popcorn and stir to coat. Don't be afraid to add a few garlic clumps to the popcorn. It's verrrry tasty!

Perfect beer snack, movie snack, day time snack or party snack to wow your friends.

Mushroom, Caramelised Onion and Goats Cheese Tartlets

Good Morning All!
Posts may start to become scarce over the next few weeks because I'm headin' back up to the hills for work again. It's been nice to bypass a lot of winter work and enjoy some down time in the warmth of my own kitchen, pottering away at my own pace. There's been a lot of room for creativity over the last few months, but now it's back to reality. The kitchen where i live on site at work is small with minimal bench space and and an old, electric stove stop. I'll also have a lot less time for cooking, but I'm going to see what i can do!

Today i thought I'd leave the sweets for some cute little lunch-time (or dinner time, or anytime) Mushroom, Caramelised Onion and Goats Cheese Tartlets. They're a perfect meal size and it means there's no fighting over who got the bigger piece of pie because everyone gets a tartlet to themselves!

Ingredients

Spelt Shortcrust Pastry
makes 4 x 12cm tartlets or 1 small tart
1 cup Wholemeal Spelt Flour
50g Salted Butter
5-6 Tbs. Ice Water

1. In a food processor combine the flour and butter. Slowly add the water until the dough starts to form a ball. Careful not to add too much because the dough will become sticky and hard to work with.
Cover and put in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Caramelised Onions
3 Onions
3-4 Sprigs Thyme
1 Tbs. Balsamic Vinegar

2. In a heavy based pan and add the onions and thyme. Cover and leave on a very low heat stirring occasionally. If the onions become too wet take off the lid. I tend to take the lid on and off during the process. The onions will take about 40 minutes to caramelise. Half way through stir through the balsamic.

The Mushrooms
500g Mushrooms
1 Garlic Clove
Salt and Pepper to taste

3. In a frying pan, heat some oil and add 1 clove of crushed garlic. add the mushrooms and fry until soft.
 
The Filler and Topper
1 Egg beaten
Splash of Milk
1 Small Handful Chopped Parsley
Small Handful Pine Nuts
30 g Goats Cheese

4. Combine eggs, milk and parsley in a a bowl.

Preheat oven to 180-200 degrees.
Grease your tart form/s. Roll out pastry dough thinly on a floured bench.
Cut out 4 circles about 15cm wide and line each form with pastry.
Add some mushrooms to each tartlet, then onions. Divide your egg filler in to 4 and pour over each tartlet.
Sprinkle each tartlet with Pine nuts and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.
When the pies are done, crumble the goats cheese over the warm tartlets.

Serve warm

Dark Chocolate Coated Cinnamon Oat Biscuits

Last weekend, i stumbled across an ANZAC biscuit recipe from Wholehearted Eats and got inspired to bake again... I'm a bit obsessed with my mate oven at the moment.
The recipe seemed really straightforward, just like an ANZAC recipe should be and although alternative ingredients have been used to substitute white flour, butter and refined sugar, the traditional wonderful-ness of the good ol' ANZAC hasn't been altered. I must give credit to Wholehearted Eats' blog and her beautiful recipes and photos.

I've decided to step away from the whole ANZAC theme though and call these Oat Biscuits. I don't want to offend anyone with the non-traditional-ness of my recipe, plus i added cinnamon and chocolate for winter warmth... don't think that was readily available during war times...

I prepared these biscuits in my room. I wish i got a photo of me on the floor of my bedroom, stirring and measuring and rolling out biscuits. There's oats all over my carpet! I got home from doing some groceries and was in a bit of a rush to get out again for an afternoon tea I'd planned with my aunties, but when i got home, the cleaner was there. I was trying to tiptoe around her, but cooking in the kitchen wasn't going to work out so i gathered everything and proceeded to put the ingredients together in my bedroom. Not baking the biscuits wasn't an option either- I'd be thinking about them all day! The cleaner was probably wondering where in the world i pulled a tray of biscuits from when I came back in the kitchen to put them in the oven.... I gave her a taste of the finished product though so any qualms she might've had with me must now surely be settled.

 Ingredients
Cinnamon Oat Biscuits
Makes 10
1 Cup Rolled Oats
1/2 Cup Spelt Flour
1/2 Cup Unsweetened Dessicated Coconut
1 tsp. Cinnamon 
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp. Raw Sugar
1 Tbsp. Rice Malt Syrup or Maple Syrup
4 Tbsp. Coconut Oil (or butter, both room temperature)
1/2 tsp. Bicarb soda
 2 Tbsp. Boiling Water

30g 75-85% chocolate, chopped and melted

In a bowl combine oats, spelt flour, coconut, cinnamon, salt and sugar.
In a separate bowl combine the syrup, bicarb soda and boiling water. 
With your hands mix the syrup mixture and coconut oil into the dry ingredients until combined. Roll into small balls and flatten gently, but not too much!
Bake in the oven on 180 degrees for around 10 minutes or until golden brown on top.
Leave to cool. The biscuits will be quite soft when you take them out of the oven. Don't be deceived- they firm up once they start to cool. Beware you don't over cook them!
In the microwave or over a double boiler, melt the chocolate.
When the biscuits are cool enough drop a spoon of the melted chocolate on to the top of each biscuit.