Italian

‘Ome ‘n’ Onion Bread…

OK, It’s actually Roman Onion Bread but that’s just not as catchy!

This is one of my favourite flavoured breads to make and it’s so simple. This bread is great for a lunch or supper or when your entertaining as a tear and share bread. We quite often have it as an accompaniment to antipasti or as our Kids call it ‘Picky tea!’

Fresh rosemary really does taste the best for this. If you haven’t got any growing in your own garden, ask a neighbour as I’m sure someone will have some. Rosemary has to be one of the most common herbs that people have growing in their garden, the sad thing is probably about 90% of those people never use it!

‘Ome ‘n’ Onion Bread.

500g strong white bread flour
A good pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of rapeseed oil or olive oil plus extra for drizzling
2 heaped teaspoons dried yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
2 large white onions, peeled and finely sliced
1 large sprig of Rosemary leaves removed and roughly chopped (or 1 tbsp dried rosemary)
Salt & Pepper

Dissolve the sugar in roughly 50ml of warm water. Add the yeast and leave to activate for 10 – 15 minutes.

In a large bowl combine the flour and salt and make a well in the middle. Add the oil and the activated yeast mixture. Combine the mixture, adding a little more water if necessary, to form a slightly sticky dough.

On a floured surface work the dough, stretching it away from you to make a pliable, springy dough then knead back to a ball.

Place the dough in an oiled bowel and leave to rise, covered, for an hour. After an hour knock the dough back and leave to rise for another hour (although if you are short of time the dough could be used straight away).

Pre-heat your oven to 230°C gas mark 8.

Oil a heavy baking sheet or shallow, ovenproof tin, it wants to be at least 30 x 40 cm.

Take the dough out of the bowel and give a quick knead. Flatten out the dough with your hands then place on your baking sheet/tin. Flatten, stretch and pull your bread to the shape you want it, It wants to be roughly a couple of cm thick.

Give the dough a little drizzle of oil rub over the surface. Lay the onions on top of the bread leaving a little space around the edge. Drizzle more oil over the onions then sprinkle your rosemary and seasoning over the top.

Place in the oven and bake for 15 – 20 minutes. Take out of the oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes, resisting the urge to pick at the sweet, soft onion. Slice, serve and enjoy!

Dj’s SҠool DiИɳɘr Experience

So, for 1 week only, Dj requested to have school dinners. He was mainly tempted by the change from the ‘normal’ menu to ‘International Food Week’.

A week of dishes from 5 different places in the world.

We asked him if he’d like to write a blog on his experience & he jumped at the chance.

Everything that follows (apart from the actual Menu bit) is word for word that Dj wrote….we just corrected the spellings & some punctuation to make it easier on the brain for you good people.

Monday: French

Croque Monster, avec Pomme Frites et Harico

Tart Tatin with Ice Cream

I liked the cheese & ham baguette but the bread wasn’t as good as Daddys’.

I didn’t like the chips or the beans because the chips were soggy & the beans are out of a tin, unlike daddys, he makes his own.

The pudding was nice & my friend went mental on it.

*******

Tuesday: Caribbean

Chicken Stew with Rice & Peas

Sticky Ginger Bread

I liked the sticky bread but if my Daddy made it, it would be better, & I didn’t like the chicken stew & rice & peas because the peas weren’t in the rice & the chicken was soggy.

The pudding which was sticky bread was nice.

I don’t thinks that’s a Caribbean.

*******

Wednesday: Portugese

Portuguese Cheese Flan with Half Jacket, Coleslaw & Sweetcorn

Vanilla Biscoitos with Ice Cream

Today I had a cheese flan with half a jacket potato.

I liked none of it because the cheese was cold & yucky!

The jacket potato was yummy but it didn’t have any butter on. The sweetcorn was nice like any other persons.

The pudding was fab & my friend liked it & I loved it too!

& there wasn’t any coleslaw.

*******

Thursday: Indian

Chicken Curry with Boiled Rice

Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce

Today I had curry & I liked the curry & I don’t mean the rice & today the chicken was better than Tuesdays because the chicken that was in the stew was soggy but todays one was better.

The pudding was really nice & it was ice cream with chocolate sauce.

*******

Friday: Italian

Margarita Pizza with Potato Wedges & Sweetcorn

Iced Lemon Sponge

Today I had margarita pizza with soggy chips.

I liked the margarita pizza but Daddy’s ‘Ome Made pizza is 10 billion, trillion times better.

Todays pudding was sponge with grated lemon in & I liked it but Daddy’s ‘Ome Made lemon drizzle cake is better

*******

That’s the end of my Blog.

Thank you for reading it.

Love Dj XXXXXX

************

After reading Dj’s blog we know that some of you lovely people will be thinking ‘Yeah, well your Kids are lucky (& probably spoilt) to get nice food at home all the time’, & yes, you’re right!

We do tell our Kids that they are VERY lucky to have a Daddy who can cook them fabulous dishes at home (sometimes Mummy does too!).

We also make our Kids realise that for other children this maybe the ONLY good plate of food that they get in a day. For some busy/working full time parents it’s easier & they know their child is getting a meal at school. For some parents it’s the affordable option & a lifeline for their children.

Could it be better though?

This is just Dj’s 7yr old view of what he thought was going to be a fabulous week of school lunches. He did a fab job of sitting down everyday after school & writing (most) of his thoughts on paper.

We can’t help feeling he was a tad disappointed with the meals….apart from the puddings!!!

Great work Dj!!! XXXXX

‘Ome-Made Pizza

So, I was going to do a post on pizzas at some point but not necessarily now… and then I get a tweet from someone saying they tried following my pizza recipe but it didn’t quite turn out right?

Right, so which pizza recipe was that then because I don’t recall putting one on here!

Maybe they were looking at someone else’s site?

No worries though! “I’ll put a fail safe recipe on the blog for you” I tweeted back.

So here is my guide to making a basic pizza, that’s a piece of bread topped with tomato sauce and cheese, I’ll save the poncey ones for later!

We will start with the pizza base. You can make a pizza base from a basic bread recipe. So if you have a favourite bread recipe that you are comfortable with try using that first. Otherwise give this one a go.

Pizza Base recipe (enough for 3 medium or two large pizzas)

You will knead… sorry need!

500g Strong white bread flour (you simply can’t use plain flour, well you can but it will go crumbly round the edges, soggy in the middle and just won’t be right!)
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoon dried yeast (or 1 x 7g sachet)
1 ½ teaspoon sugar
1 ½ table spoon olive oil (or sunflower/vegetable oil if you have no olive)
320ml/½ pint lukewarm water

Method

in a jug or bowl add your sugar and yeast to the water. give a quick mix and leave for 10 – 15 minutes (it should start to foam and bubble, if it doesn’t your water was possibly too hot, your yeast is old or your water is too cold. Don’t be tempted to dissolve your salt in the water as salt will kill the yeast)
in a large bowl (use a larger bowl than what you think… Trust me!) mix your flour and salt and then drizzle your oil in.
make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in your yeast/water mixture. Pull in some of the flour into the liquid to form a thick paste and then leave for another 10-15 minutes to allow the mixture to ‘Sponge’.
Now mix in the rest of the flour. You should end up with a nice smooth dough. If the mix looks too dry add a little bit of water. If the mixture looks too wet and is sticky add a little more flour at a time until it you get a nice consistency.
You now have to knead the dough. Sprinkle a work surface and the dough with either bread flour or even better fine ground semolina (semolina gives a lovely silky finish). Put the dough on the work surface, hold the near edge of the bread with one hand and with the other push the dough away from you. The idea is that you are ‘stretching’ the mixture. At first the dough will pull apart but after 5 minutes or so the mixture will become more elastic as the gluten develops. If the mixture is still sticky keep sprinkling with flour (or semolina)
when you have a nice stretchy dough knead it into a nice smooth ball rub some oil over the surface put back into the bowl and either cover the bowl with a clean tea towel or cling film. The dough now needs to rise for about an hour.

Step 2 Making the tomato/pizza sauce

You will need

2 fat cloves of garlic chopped
1 small onion chopped
100ml/3½fl oz white wine or cider vinegar
3 teaspoon sugar
small tin (140g) tomato puree
1 tin (400g) chopped tomatoes
2 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
pinch of dried thyme
seasoning to taste

Method

Gently fry the garlic and onion ’till soft.
Add the vinegar and sugar, turn up heat and reduce the liquid until it’s a thick syrup.
stir in the tomato paste and fry for a minute.
add all the other ingredients, stir to mix and let cook for 20 minutes.

Assembling The Pizza

Knock back the risen dough (knock the air out of it by giving it a brief knead) and divide the dough into two or three depending on how many pizzas you want to make.
On a work surface dusted with semolina (or flour) flatten a ball of dough into a circle with the palm of your hand. Roll out the dough in a rough circle to just short of the size you want it, it wants to be about 5mm thick for a nice thin crispy pizza. If you want a thicker pizza leave the dough a little thicker.
Place the dough on whatever you are cooking it on. I use either pizza screens (with the holes in) or a good heavy baking sheet is fine. If using a baking sheet grease it with oil and give it a dusting of semolina or flour first.
Pull the dough disk to the shape and size you want. If you have made a nice elastic dough it will keep resisting, push it down onto the sheet gently to help it along.
You are now ready to top. First of all you want your tomato sauce. Put a dollop in the middle and work out towards the edges leaving about 1cm free.
If you are just using Mozzarella cheese (you will need about 500g/1lb in total) the cheese can be put on. If you are topping with anything else then sprinkle a layer of cheese on the pizza before putting your other ingredients on (don’t overload the pizza!) and then finish with some more cheese.
to finish the pizza off give it a grind of black pepper, sprinkle with some dried oregano and then give it a light drizzle of olive oil.
If you like a thicker base allow the pizza to stand for 40 minutes to allow the base to prove again. If you like a thinner and more traditional Italian style base then put in an oven at 220°C/428°F (if using a fan oven lower the temperature to 200°C/392°F).
Give the pizza 12 minutes and then turn and give another 10 – 15 minutes. When golden and bubbling take out the oven. leave for about 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

I sometimes brush some melted garlic butter over the pizza about 5 minutes before it comes out of the oven. This gives it an amazing finish!

As for toppings? Anything goes. Our favourites are sliced chilli peppers, black olives, chorizo, sliced red onion and thinly sliced mushroom (not too many, they’ll make the pizza soggy). I tend not to put fresh tomato on as again it tends to make the pizza soggy.

You don’t have to use processed, grated mozzarella either. Try tearing strips off fresh mozzarella for the top of your pizza (don’t worry about having areas with no cheese on, we prefer them that way!). Goats cheese makes a lovely topping too, try a goats cheese and rocket topping for a sophisticated touch!

Happy Pizza making and eating!