Homemade Pizza

I still remember a pizza in Rome a few years ago, the first night we arrived, in a touristy square where I presumed it was going to be nothing special, but was SO good, a white pizza with wild mushrooms and sausage, wafer thin with melted cheese delicious mushrooms and crumbled sticky sausage meat... I shouldn't be writing this hungry...

Then there is that pizza slice place in the Grainger market, my god, it's so thin, it's so cheesy, it's just so good. The courgette and sausage pizza at Zonzo's, really good. The white pie at Cal's Own, so garlicky and cheesy and delicious... and my very own first pizza made at home, a simple Margherita, it was just really so very surprisingly good... I could do with a slice of pizza now... I'll battle on...

Key things I have learnt making my own pizza, give the dough time the time it needs, if you rush it it's no where near as good. Take time with the tomato sauce too, cooking it slowly for long enough, and finally go easy on the toppings, you think you want loads then you just end up with a soggy mess, and no body wants a soggy bottomed pizza.

These amounts will make 2 large or 3 medium pizzas. Start with the dough, mix 325g of strong white flour, a teaspoon of dried yeast and a teaspoon of salt together in a large mixing bowl and stir in 15ml of olive oil and 25ml of milk. Followed by 170ml of warm water, then mix it well to form a soft dough. Turn the dough out on to a floured work surface and knead for about five minutes, until smooth and elastic. I really enjoy kneading dough, it's very relaxing...

 

Put the dough in a clean bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave somewhere warm to rise for about 1 hour, until doubled in size. When the dough has risen, knock it back, then knead again until smooth, roll into a ball and set aside for 30 minutes to 1 hour until risen again. Preheat your oven to its highest setting, about 240°C

While your dough is rising you can make the tomato sauce, slowly cook half a chopped onion in olive oil with a pinch of salt, cook until it is soft and golden, then add a chopped clove of garlic and a pinch of chilli flakes. Cook for another few minutes then add a tin of chopped tomatoes and a teaspoon of sugar. Cook slowly for 10-15 minutes, check for seasoning, you might need more sugar, salt or pepper, it should thicken and be sweet rich and delicious...

Divide your dough into two or three balls and roll each out onto a lightly floured work surface until 20cm in diameter. Then top! Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce over the dough, I love a margherita, with just tomato and fresh mozzarella, tasty every time, but I have also been experimenting with my toppings recently.

 

When you have assembled your topping just pop it in the oven for about 5-10 minutes depending on its size. The white pizza was pretty special; I used mozzarella, parmesan, ricotta, thin slices of garlic and added parsley after it was cooked. I tried a new idea recently with fried cubes of aubergine; a base of tomato sauce, mozzarella, I then added the aubergine, some pine nuts and a scattering of sumac... Delicious, a Middle Eastern inspired version. Chorizo and shallot was very good, spicy and sweet... So have a go at making your own, it's a bit of a waiting game with the dough, but not at all difficult and the results are so good!

 

Summer Supperclub date announced

'The Grazer's Summer Supperclub
6th July 2013 7.30pm

SOLD OUT

What is this?

'The Grazer's Supperclub' a regular pop-up feast hosted by The Grazer at Ouse Street Arts Club. A night of feasting in a totally unique space, fire, food and booze...

What will we eat?

A three course summer feast, think table long smorgasbords full of homemade breads and butters, devilled eggs, beer cheese, spring chicken terrine and summary salads. Slow braised rosemary lamb, anchovy haggerty, salsa verde... a scattering of puddings, meringues, herb jellies and chocolate black puddings... The menu will be confirmed and sent out to you a couple of days before the event.

What will we drink?

There will be a special cocktail on arrival, inspired by the menu and setting. Following that this is a BYO affair. You will be sent the finalised menu prior to arrival so you can decide on your chosen tipple to bring.

Where is it?

OuseStreet Arts Club, a brand new creative space within Newcastle’s vibrant Ouseburn Valley. An interventional development with xsite architecture converting 2 ISO shipping containers to realise a unique and innovative social event space.

How much will it set me back?

You will be given an envelope at the end of the evening. We ask you to leave what you think your whole evenings experience has been worth, venue, food, drinks and service... How do you put a price on an evening of feasting in a shipping container, you decide... Please bring cash.

How do I book?

Just email me at annahedworth@hotmail.com to reserve your place, these events sell out very quickly so don't hang about... We will let you know asap if you have got a place.

Wild Garlic Devilled Eggs and lunch on the Farne Islands

I had a pretty beautiful and exciting start to Monday morning this week. It began at the crack of dawn packing my car with so much food and crockery in huge boxes that it felt like I was moving house. Next thing I knew I was on a tiny boat speeding over to the Farnes on a beautiful calm sea in lovely warm sunshine. I even forgot to worry about the task ahead it was so beautiful; puffins diving around us and naughty gulls eyeing the boxes packed with food...

 

I had prepared lunch for 40, luckily I think I only realised how ambitious this was once it was over, it was a huge amount of work... This summer will see some very exciting Supperclubs that I have been planning jointly with the National Trust. This lunch was both a trial run and an introduction to the concept of literally shipping my Supperclubs up the coast...

 

 

The setting matched the weather. A long table ran the length of the 14th Century chapel on Inner Farne. I dressed it with white tablecloths and jars of wild garlic flowers, cowslips and rosemary, the whole place smelt beautiful, and that was before I even got the food out. Wild garlic devilled eggs, pork pies with pickled apple, tiny caramelised garlic tarts, rollmop herring, chicken and pistachio terrine, pickles, beer-cheese, home-made bread and butter, cauliflower and hazelnut salad, radish and mint salad, mint lemonade and tiny meringues and strawberries for a sweet ending.

 

 

The devilled eggs were an amazing new discovery, simply hard boil eggs, scoop out the yolk, mix with mayonnaise and wild garlic and scoop back in... I boiled my eggs for 15 minutes, cooled them, then halved them. I made my own mayonnaise as I had left over egg yolks from the meringues, you don't have to but it's worth it and you can see how here... Mix each yolk with a tablespoon of mayonnaise and as many herbs as you like, I blitzed a big handful of wild garlic with some olive oil, add a tiny dash of cider vinegar and some salt and pepper... They were a delicious fresh herby egg mayonnaise delight..

 

Sunshine streamed through the stained glass windows onto the table as everyone tucked in and perched on the wooden pews that lined the walls of the tiny chapel. It was a little stressful getting it all ready on time, a surprise for all the National Trust benefactors visiting the island, but so worth it, it looked stunning and there were gasps of delight and lots of lovely kind words floating around the pretty chapel as everyone tucked in.

Over almost as soon as it began I sat peacefully on Seahouses harbour in the sunshine and and treated myself to a bag of chips...

 

Dining in Lyon

I mentioned Lyon in my last post but thought I'd tell you a little bit more as it was so delicious. A beautiful city that I didn’t really know much about before I visited, I had heard talk of amazing food, Michelin stars, markets and cocktail bars, which was all I needed to know really...

 

I was there for a few days, having taken a laborious route via Schiphol, where the plane left everybody's bags behind; thank goodness that we only had hand luggage. I did not want to spend all weekend in one outfit with no make up or toiletries, the poor people of Lyon did not deserve that...

The food, the delicious, delicious food... We ate so well, Le Café des Fédérations being the highlight. A poached egg in red wine with lardons to start, who would have thought it could be so delicious! Cured meats, creamy lentils, salad Lyonnaise, black pudding, praline tarts and all the cheeses... Saint-Félicien, my new best friend. Amazing. Raymond Blanc was there the week before us, we obviously have good taste!

 

We drank delicious cocktails, I've never been to so many lovely cocktail bars in one weekend. La Passage with it's Luxury Spritz is still stuck in my mind; Aperol, Champagne and soda, my god, so so good... L'Antiquaire where we sat outside with Negroni's and The Monkey Club, my new favourite bar, pity it's 850 miles from Newcastle... Full of taxidermy, butterfly's and cocktail Archaeology; Absinthe in teacups and long forgotten recipes revived... Then there were the little pots of red wine everywhere we went; ahh, the tasty pots...

 

 

 

Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse, the most amazing covered market, full to bursting with every meat, cheese and fish you could think of. A lunch of oysters, tiny grey shrimp and wine. Amazing. The pink praline tart was a pretty special way to finish. La Garet was another good Bouchon and Butcher was a lovely steak filled way to spend our last night. I was struck down with some awful bug on the way home, thankfully it didn't ruin any of the holiday, I would have been devastated to miss out on any of the pots, cocktails or feasting that went on...

...and I think we've found a woman who knows a woman who can get hold of some Saint-Félicien back home, so fingers crossed we can carry on being friends...

 

 

Shakshuka

I've been from one extreme to the other recently, a week of chickpeas, lentils and hunger followed by a few days in Lyon where I ate and drank far too much... Which ended in being terribly ill on the way home, I think I picked up some bug from somewhere, or it was my body just telling me to calm down with the 3 course meals and the wine... I fainted in the end! But have recovered to tell the tale... Lyon was beautiful, a lovely picturesque city. We ate in some amazing Bouchons and drank in some lovely cocktail bars. It is a city of offal and wine, my kind of city... We enjoyed black pudding, chicken liver cakes, cheese and praline tarts all day long. It was sunny and generally delightful. I hear summer happened here while we were away, but it's back to a grey cold day out there today.

This is one of my new weekend favourite breakfast brunches, especially on a cold damp morning like this. A bit of heat and spice with your morning eggs, courtesy of Ottolenghi, who's book Jerusalem is still one of my current favourites. It is a Tunisian dish of baked eggs nestled in tomatoes, soft peppers, and garlicky harissa spice. Comfort and spice...

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan, I just have one large one which I scooped the eggs out of to serve, if you have smaller ones it's nice to be able to serve individual portions in the pan.

 

Add 2 tablespoons of harissa, I used an amazing rose harissa I discovered recently, 2 teaspoons of tomato purée, 2 diced red peppers, 4 cloves of garlic finely chopped, 1 teaspoon of ground cumin and ¾ teaspoon of salt, then cook for about 10 minutes. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes then simmer for another 10 minutes until the peppers are soft and you have a thick sauce.

 

Then make little dips in the sauce to add your eggs, I used 4 eggs, you can add up to 8 depending on how many you are feeding and how many eggs you like. Swirl the whites of the eggs into the sauce a little bit and simmer for about 8 minutes or until the whites are set and the yolks are still runny.

Serve with a big dollop of yoghurt and some fresh bread. The runny egg yolks in the spicy tomato sauce are delicious, with fresh tangy yoghurt and soft sweet red peppers. A perfect start to a cold Spring day.

Live Below the Line - The Final Day

It's only a matter of hours until my Live Below the Line challenge comes to an end. It's been difficult in parts, more so on some days than others. I've been tired, forgetful and hungry most of the time, but that could just be me on a normal day sometimes... The initial shop was very difficult and I still don't think I made the best choices in some ways, I could have actually bought a larger quantity of stuff from value ranges, but I wanted to buy vegetables and was keen to try and make nutritious tasty recipes wherever possible... I think I have achieved that as much as I could. It's very difficult to buy small amounts of food on a small budget, bulk buy and you can get bargains, but if you only want a little of things it is an incredibly hard way to live. The lack of choice and variety has also been one of the most challenging aspects.

You can see below what I made each day and how much each meal cost, I'll be publishing the recipes in due course as the Dal and the Chickpea Curry were really tasty. I might wait a few weeks before making flat breads again, but at 2p a pop they are pretty good tasty value...

Thank you so much to everyone who has sponsored me, I have raised an amazing £640 which is just so much more than I ever thought was possible, you're a generous bunch out there.

My Menu 

Sunday

Butternut Squash Soup with flat breads – 37p
Lentil Dal with flat breads – 51p
88p

Monday
Butternut Squash Soup with flat breads – 37p
Chickpea, Tomato and Paprika Stew with flat breads – 51p
88p

Tuesday
Chickpea, Tomato and Paprika Stew (sick of flat breads) – 47p
Spaghetti with Tomato, Chilli and Anchovies – 67p
114p

Wednesday
Leek and Potato Soup with flat breads – 51p
Chickpea Carrot and Butternut Curry with flat breads – 37p
Banana – 12p
100p

Thursday
Chickpea Carrot and Butternut Curry with flatbreads – 37p
Lentil Dal with flatbreads – 47p
Banana – 12p 

96p

£4.86 in Total

www.livebelowtheline.com/me/annahedworth

 Below fed two of us for all meals for 5 days...

Live Below the Line - Day 4

Today has been the hardest day so far. I'm tired, hungry, light headed and forgetful. I am finding myself behaving strangely. I've been watching KFC adverts and thinking 'that looks lovely'; on a few occasions now, a massive bucket of chicken, and then a weird battered wrap thing with sauces and cheese. I bet it's not even nice?! I haven’t even had a KFC for about 5 years and I'm not that bothered about them. I was sniffing into the doorway of Greggs in town yesterday. I want bad food, it's funny how depriving myself of pretty much everything, meat, fish, dairy, sugar, caffine... makes me crave things that wouldn’t even cross my mind if I was eating a normal everyday diet.. Except wine, I really want a massive glass of wine... I cannot wait for Friday and wine.

Today I had Leek and Potato Soup for lunch, it was nice, I can't get more excited than that, and it worked out at 49p per serving. I'm definitely losing enthusiasm for my menu. Especially looking at the kitchen bench and the ever depleting tiny pile of food. It now consists of some flour, half a bag of lentils and an onion. That's all... so that's supper tomorrow then. Luckily I have soup pre made for lunch tomorrow and I've made a Chickpea Carrot and Butternut Squash Curry for supper tonight, working out at 35p per portion. Thank goodness for spices, it would be a pretty dull 5 days without them...