Friday Pizza ‘N’ Beer Night
My Middle Eastern Pizza ‘N’ Beer Night - All pantry ingredients plus no cheese
Ok so we are getting pretty low on fresh produce, but when you talk about cheese well we are totally out. We have not seen cheese since Lombok and that was many moons ago. So when it comes to Friday night pizza and beers I have to be a little bit inventive. Even though I make cheese onboard I haven’t yet mastered a good melting cheese that can be made from powdered milk.
See how I make cheese from powdered milk š½ http://dreamtimesailourgalley.blogspot.com/p/tips.html
Adding some Middle Eastern flair to your cooking is easy! Some of the classic flavours include sesame, olives, olive oil, lemon, garlic, eggplant, tomatoes, honey, dates, mint, and parsley. All of these can be pantry items, so having them onboard for when the need arises in perfect.
Most dishes Middle Eastern dishes are served with fresh pita bread, not unlike pizza. If you’ve got cumin, coriander, cloves, cinnamon, and a few other common seasonings, you can whip up a basic Middle Eastern-inspired spice blend to use on any type of meat or vegetable. So why not use them on a pizza. This is my inspiration for tonight’s Friday Pizza ‘n’ Beers Night.
Here are the main components that you will need, remember these have all come from my pantry, of course if you can run down to the corner store and pick them up please do so. There is no reason to judge people who buy ready made, but I will say your pizza will be far nicer if you do make the base from scratch.
1.
Labneh - is an uber simple Middle Eastern fresh cheese, you’re going to be blown away by how easy it is to make. All you do to make this deliciously creamy spread is to drain plain yogurt. That’s it. You press out the excess liquid (whey) from the yogurt and you’re left with…cheese! It’s downright magical how this process transforms plain yogurt into a silky cheese. Of course this has to be made the day prior but as we always have yogurt it was easy enough to just use some of our yogurt already in the fridge. I use a cheese cloth, load the yogurt into it. Twist the cloth so the yogurt is in a tight ball and suspended it over a bowl in the fridge to collect the excess whey overnight. (Make sure the yogurt is high enough not to touch the whey being extracted) Hey Presto! in the morning, twist it again if there is no more liquid you are done, if there is twist tight again and leave to sit for a further few hours.
2.
Nomad Spice Blend - A little bit of Morocco comes to the table with this mix of sumac, sesame seeds, and thyme. You will find the recipe for this on the Our Galley Blog under the page - Spice Blend Recipes and located under Middle Eastern Spice blends. ▶️ https://tinyurl.com/OurGalleySpiceBlends
3.
Hummus - yep go and buy some if you can, if your like me stranded on a deserted island. Oh poor me! You will have to make it.
Ingredients
1 can of chickpeas washed
1 teaspoon of cumin powder
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
30 mls of olive oil
60 mls of lemon juice (from the bottle)
Let’s get Cooking
Place all ingredients in a blender and pulse until combined, if it is not coming together completely into a smooth but thick paste add a little warm water at a time, don’t let it go runny.
4.
Masaman Curry Paste - thankfully this I had in the pantry ready made.
5.
Chicken - yep I am sweet out of chicken so canned chicken it is. I love this stuff.for toasties, pasta, pastry fillings there are so many uses for it. But ok you can use shredded roast chicken.
6.
Extra Spices - Fennel Seeds, Cumin Powder and Garam Masala
7.
Pizza Dough - this is my go to recipe. Now this will showcase the struggles onboard. Today Rob was making water, yep he hasn’t yet perfected making wine from water but he’s pretty good at making pure drinking water from seawater. Anyway the desalination unit uses all the power required for the water making process, I needed warm water to make the pizza dough and could boil the kettle. No problem! Oven was already on to bake bread so in when an oven proof container with water in to heat up!
So here is how I make my pizza dough (4 rounds)
Ingredients
1 1/3 cups (320ml) warm water
2 1/4 teaspoons (7g) instant yeast (1 standard packet)
1 Tablespoon (13g) granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons (30ml) olive oil, plus more for pan and brushing on dough
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 cups (about 450g) unbleached all-purpose flour plus more for hands and surface
sprinkle of cornflour for dusting rolling pin and the pan
Nomad Spice 2 tablespoons
Let’s get Cooking
Whisk the warm water, yeast, and granulated sugar together in the bowl.
Cover and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
Mix Use a large mixing bowl and mix the dough with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula by adding the sifted flour, water mixture olive oil and salt.
Knead the dough (yep I know you all have standard mixers, but I don’t) so I set the timer and knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 10 full minutes. As you knead add a little of the Nomad Spice to your work surface and knead it into the dough. Continue doing this until you have combined all 2 tablespoons.
Is your dough ready to rise? To see if your dough has been kneaded long enough: tear off a small (roughly golfball-size) piece of dough and gently stretch it out until it’s thin enough for light to pass through it. Hold it up to a window or light. Does light pass through the stretched dough without the dough tearing first? If so, your dough has been kneaded long enough and is ready to rise. If not, keep kneading until it passes the windowpane test.
Rise: Lightly grease a large bowl with oil or nonstick spray—just use the same bowl you used for the dough. Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to coat all sides in the oil. Cover the bowl with aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or a clean kitchen towel (I use shower caps, with pretty daisies on of course. Allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 60-90 minutes or until double in size.
Preheat oven to 250°C. Or in our case BBQ. Place your pizza stone in the BBQ/Oven. Allow it to heat for at least 15-20 minutes as you shape the pizza. Lightly grease baking sheet or pizza pan with nonstick spray or olive oil. Sprinkle lightly with cornflour, which gives the crust extra crunch and flavour.
Ok time to assemble these babies. You should have enough dough for 4 medium pizzas. I only use two keeping the rest in a piece of oiled baking paper then wrapped in plastic for a couple of days until pizza is required once again.
Cut dough into four, roll out on a lightly grease baking sheet or pizza pan with nonstick spray or olive oil. Sprinkle lightly with cornflour, which gives the crust extra crunch and flavour. Cover dough lightly with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and allow to rest for a few minutes as you get all of your pizza toppings ready.
Push up the edges of the pizza to make a crust.
Spoon on the Masaman Curry Paste and spread it all over up to the crust.
Next spoon on the Hummus and lightly spread over the top of the curry paste.
Add the Chicken breaking it into small chunks as you go.
Now sprinkle with the other spices, easy though just light sprinkle of each. (Use your own combo if you like other spices)
Dollop a few extra spoonfuls of Hummus here and there and we are ready to go into the BBQ/Oven.
Bake for 13-15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.
Slice hot pizza and serve immediately dolloping on some Labneh for that extra wow!
Enjoy! I would love to hear how you went with making this recipe and if it lived up to your expectations.
Thanks for catching our latest Blog, cheers R&K
You maybe interested in the following š½
We found paradise but we may never leave as our anchor is stuck solid. You can watch it here. š http://tinyurl.com/DreamtimeSailEp87
Comments
Post a Comment