Grilled pizza... charred bits included

I've been pretty busy this past week.. which explains why I've been meaning to post this entry for ages. I've tried my hand at grilled pizza and well, it could do with a bit of improvement. The pizza dough was the best I've had in ages - thin and crispy and more importantly, made with the least of effort. The toppings were those typical for a Capricciosa pizza (without the anchovies and artichokes - beyond-the-border foods for hubby), so much loved by the husband, but not so much by our new gas barbeque. Although it didn't sound like too much on paper, a layer of cubed perzut tal-koxxa (ham), sliced mushrooms, quartered hardboiled eggs and grated mozzarella proved to be a teeny weeny on the kitchen-sink side. Which made for a charred-bottom pizza by the time the toppings were cooked through, despite following the rule for indirect cooking (flame underneath pizza switched off). We'll have to try again with a simpler pizza margherita (in my books: tomato sauce, mozzarella, basil, swirl of olive oil) and Parma ham pizza (tomato sauce, Parma ham, mozzarella).

After some time researching easy and practical pizza dough recipes, I decided to try out Heidi Swanson's (101 cookbooks) approach. The dough has a multitude of pros for a working housewife like myself - just have the very few and very basic ingredients ready and whizz everything into the food processor. Following Heidi's recipe, I had six small balls of dough, each yielding a medium-sized individual pizza. I wrapped the dough balls that I wasn't gonna use in plastic wrap misted with olive oil, and froze them (defrost overnight in the fridge, then place in a warm place for proving a couple of hours before intended use). Being based on a delayed fermentation technique, the pizza base had a notable yeasty flavour, and was impressively easy to spread out - in fact I just used my fingers till I got the right thickness. The only tricky part of the process was flipping the olive-oiled side of the pizza base onto the grill surface. I let the base cook slightly, with the barbeque lid shut to keep up that all-important high temperature as much as possible, then flipped the dough over (after brushing the uncooked side with olive-oil), spread enough tomato sauce and leaving the edges free to rise, sprinkled the toppings, then shut the barbie top again to finalise the cooking. I had to peep every now and then, to monitor the stage of cooking, and only removed the pizza from the grill as soon as all the mozzarella had melted nicely. The other toppings (ham, harboiled eggs, mushrooms) were all pre-cooked, so they just needed to be heated through. The result was very promising, despite the few charred bits, which I found quite pleasant anyway. This proved to be a very fast and tasty dinner, which we enjoyed alongside a medium sweet bottle of Rose' D'Anjou. Make sure you have all the toppings ready at hand, cause once you turn the pizza base you need to put your act together pretty fast!! The pizza sauce was one highlight which really pulled this simple dish together - cooked in a slowcooker over 6 hours on the LOW setting meant that the freshness of the tomatoes shone through, the onions melted and caramelised, and my nanna's secret tomato sauce ingredients - mixed spice and a sprinkling of cinnamon - worked their magic for a truly yummy sauce. Here's how I made it...

Tomato sauce for pizza

two large onions, chopped finely
5 large cloves of garlic, chopped finely
ten medium fully-ripe tomatoes, chopped roughly

2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoons freshly-ground pepper
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
fresh basil, chopped finely, or dried basil
dried mixed herbs
1 tablespoon mixed spice

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes

How it's done

Just put all the above ingredients in a slowcooker and cook on low for 6 hours, (whilst enjoying the aroma as it swiftly makes its way around your house). As soon as the sauce is done, use a hand blender to puree into perfect saucy decadence... hmm.. Oh yes, and freeze any leftover sauce along with the pizza dough - for those days when you realllly neeeeed to go clothes shopping after work :)

Carnivore's Chicken Salad

We've been indulging quite a bit these past couple of days, so while having our pre-bedtime cup of coffee on the terrace, the husband suggested I cook something light today. It's funny how men equate "cooking light" with "not steak or pasta". And it's not as if it means having a 100% vegetarian meal - when it comes to preparing a salad for example, I've now learnt that veggies on their own just don't cut it, so I tend to make it a bit more interesting. There are then the cardinal rules that I now know by heart - no cucumbers, no aubergines, no zucchini, no pumpkins, no anchovies.. oh yes and no fish mixed with pastry (our traditional Maltese lampuki pie is a no-no) and more importantly no fruit with any sort of meat (cranberry sauce, apple sauce, apricot chicken stuffing - I bid you all farewell). So when it comes to preparing our chicken salad for tonight (which he helpfully suggested), I had to scrap any thoughts of adding chopped apples, grapes or raisins like most recipes suggest, and stick to what I know will be something he'll love. Incidentally I too have my own red-light ingredients - raisins with anything chocolatey, green peppercorns and fennel all give me the creeps!

Coming up with my own recipe for chicken salad meant including ingredients which added interesting tastes and textures. Being such a versatile dish means that you can vary the ingredients according to what you like and what you have available. This particular combo worked well - I sliced rather than shredded the chicken to have something to chew on, I added croutons for extra crunch, bacon for umami, cherry tomatoes for freshness and colour, parmesan shavings for richness and potatoes and eggs for sustenance. Here's how I put it all together:

Carnivore's Chicken Salad

2 small chicken breasts

Marinade

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon lemon juice

salt and pepper

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iceberg lettuce

rucola, cleaned and washed

1 small red onion

1 red pepper, sliced thinly

12 cherry tomatoes, halved

3 small potatoes

3 medium eggs

6 thin slices back bacon

4 slices bread, brushed lightly with olive oil and grilled both sides, then cut into crouton-sized cubes

plenty of parmesan shavings

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Dressing

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

4 heaped tablespoons mayonnaise

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

3 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 tablespoons finely chopped dill
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

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What to do

Start off with blending together the marinade ingredients, hammer the chicken breasts till they flatten out into an even thickness, then bathe the chicken breasts all over with the marinade mix. Cover with cling-film and let the chicken sit in the fridge for around an hour or for as long as you can wait.

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Boil the eggs, cool, peel and quarter. Boil the potatoes (I like keeping the skin on) until just tender but you don't want them too soft, cool and quarter them. Grill the bacon slices till they're super crispy and chop them into small pieces. Use the proper attachment on your shredder to produce as many parmesan shavings as you prefer, or if you're skilled enough you could do this with a sharp knife. Chop the onion finely. Wash and clean the lettuce from the outer leaves. Break up the lettuce leaves roughly into manageable pieces. Slice the red pepper into long thin slices.

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Heat a non-stick pan with some olive oil, seasons the chicken with salt and pepper and cook the chicken breasts on both sides, pouring on the marinade as you go along. While you don't want to overcook the chicken make sure it's cooked right through (the fact that it's been hammered into even thickness will ensure that you won't get any raw parts). Pouring the marinade on top of the chicken while it's cooking will further prevent it from drying out, as well as giving it a nicely caramelised surface. Once the chicken's done (slice through it to check its doneness), keep it warm by placing it on a hot plate, then covering with another hot plate.

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In a large bowl, mix the salad leaves, cherry tomatoes and onion, pour over the salad dressing and coat evenly by tossing the salad by hand. Add the potatoes, eggs, parmesan shavings, bacon and croutons and mix gently. Slice the chicken into thick strips and place over the salad. Voila' your salad's ready to serve. Enjoy with thick slices of Maltese ftira like we did to mop up the juices (I would suggest the traditionally-baked ones from Rojolin bakery in Attard, topped with fragrant sesame seeds yum!). We paired this salad with a bottle of Medina Girgentina Chardonnay, an easy-drinking white wine from Delicata... which made for an even more relaxing dinner out on the terrace - just what we both needed after a crazy day at work!