Another Sunday pizza!

Another Sunday and another Sunday pizza though not the one I had planned to cook! Conscious of a request for vegetarian one, I had some chargrilled red capsicums on hand but had forgotten to buy the mushrooms and green pepper I wanted to use. Ah well next Sunday! This pizza is rather one of leftovers I had on hand but nonetheless delicious.

Ingredients

1 Wattle Valley wholemeal wrap

Basil & rocket pesto

Mozzarella 

Sopressa 

1/2 zucchini

1/4 red pepper 

1/4 green pepper

2 black olives

Mode

Preheat oven to 220c

Spread pesto on wholemeal wrap

Slice mozzarella and add

Place sopressa over pesto and cheese

Grate zucchini and add

Slice red and green pepper and olives and sprinkle over 

Bake in 220c oven for 12 minutes

Enjoy on a Sunday (or any time). 

Rocket pesto, salami and ricotta pizza

Ah Sunday evening! What is there to cook except a pizza after years of the tradition of Sunday night pizza? It would be very nice to meet some friends outside in a pizzeria, but that was another time before lockdowns. 

We have no idea when this time will end. So I continue to experiment. Pritikin modified pizzes are the basis of my experiments, though he would not approve of all my changes, as indeed I don’t approve of his low fat options. I have experimented with a few wholemeal/multigrain wraps or Lebanese bread. My absolute favourite to date is one produced by Wattle Valley as shown in the illustration. 

This time produced a delicious combination of wholemeal wrap, ricotta, rocket pesto, and vegetables accompanied by capers and ginger. I can’t say that it is a very traditional pizza but I enjoyed my Sunday night pizza a lot!! 

Ingredients

1 Wattle Valley wholemeal wrap

Ricotta

Salami slices

1/4 red pepper

1/4 green pepper 

2 mushrooms 

1/2 zucchini

1 heaped tsp capers

1 tsp crushed ginger

Mode

Preheat oven to 220c

Place wholemeal wrap on oven tray

Spread the rocket pesto on wrap

Spread with ricotta

Grate zucchini

Slice red and green peppers and mushrooms

Crush the ginger 

Place salami on the ricotta

Add zucchini, followed by peppers and mushrooms 

Sprinkle over capers and ginger

Bake in 220c oven for 12 minutes

Enjoy!

Smoked salmon, ricotta and pesto pizza

During Lockdown number five in Melbourne eating and cooking and comfort food have been again on the agenda. I started experimenting with pizzas again, this time going back to methods I had learnt long ago in Pritikin-based cooking. Much has changed since then in terms of the discreditation of his calls for extreme use of low fat products including nuts for example. But there is also much that is valuable in the recipes in relation to exclusion of refined products for example.

This pizza is based on the standard Pritikin pizza base, wholemeal Lebanese bread, with the addition of pesto, ricotta, smoked salmon, grated zucchini, spring onions and capers. It was yummy.

Ingredients

1 wholemeal Lebanese bread

2 spring onions

1 dsp capers

1/2 zucchini

100 gr smoked salmon

120 gr ricotta

2 tbs pesto

Mode

Preheat oven to 220c

Chop spring onions

Grate zucchini

Spread pesto on the Lebanese bread

Add ricotta and smooth

Break smoked salmon into pieces and add

Add spring onions, capers and zucchini 

Bake in 220c oven for 12 minutes

Spry pie

I have been doing some research into some local families named Spry who were boot and cigar manufacturers amongst other occupations. So when it came to cooking another pie yesterday that name was filling my head. The pie was a combination of Tasmanian salmon, red pepper, zucchini and dill. I love dill and don’t often have it on hand so this was a great opportunity to add some to a pie. 

Ingredients

1/4 red capsicum

1/4 zucchini 

1 spring onion

Handful dill

2 cloves garlic

2 tsp crushed ginger root

300 gr fresh Tasmanian salmon

2 sheets frozen puff pastry

Poppy seed

Mode

Remove pastry sheets from freezer to thaw

Preheat oven to 180c

Chop spring onion

Slice zucchini and red capsicum

Crush garlic and ginger

Chop dill

Place one sheet of pastry in baking dish

Add salmon

Arrange vegetables around salmon

Add garlic, ginger and dill

Cover with second sheet of pastry

Roll edges to seal

Add pastry forming a Σ for Spry

Sprinkle with poppy seeds

Bake in 180c oven for 45 minutes

Iso pie for Maria’s birthday!

Another day another iso pie. This one is for my dear friend Maria Brent in New Jersey on her birthday!  So sorry we can’t share it in celebration! 

Today is freezing in Melbourne. No not literally as 7c is not freezing. But I am particularly cold as my heating system has seized up and I am reduced to wearing ugg slippers to keep my feet warm. Faced with the chill, I guess that when I came to think about dinner I was always going to choose to cook something in the oven and let a little of its warmth permeate.

Yes salmon I had as the basis. On checking the fridge, zucchini, red pepper, coriander and spring onions emerge as the preferred candidates. A bit of garlic and ginger. Frozen puff pastry and M on the top. Perfect. So simple to do with an oven. 

Ingredients

1/2 red capsicum

1/2 zucchini

1 spring onion 

2 cloves garlic crushed

2 tsp crushed ginger root

Fresh coriander

300 gr skinless Tasmanian salmon

2 sheets frozen puff pastry

Poppy seed

Mode

Remove pastry sheets from freezer to thaw

Preheat oven to 180c

Chop spring onion

Slice zucchini and red capsicum

Crush garlic and ginger

Chop coriander

Place one sheet of pastry in baking dish

Add salmon

Arrange vegetables around salmon

Add garlic, ginger and coriander

Cover with second sheet of pastry

Roll edges to seal

Add pastry forming an M for Maria

Sprinkle with poppy seeds

Bake in 180c oven for 45 minutes

Tuna, coriander and vegetable pie

On this last day of the year I thought I should try to finish 2019 as I want 2020 to be, at least some of the time. So I cooked, wrote a recipe and blogged. So I guess this means that in the New Year I want to cook, write recipes and blog them. I even thought about reviewing my online presence in #blog12daysxmas. It has been a while.

I must confess I was checking my memories on Facebook this morning when I discovered that a few years ago on New Year’s Eve I celebrated by cooking a pie with tuna and coriander. Yum I thought this morning! I will do something similar this year depending on what I find when I go shopping!  This is the result.

Ingredients

2 sheets frozen puff pastry

300 gr tuna

1 spring onion

1/4 red capsicum

1/4 zucchini

1/2 bunch coriander

2 cloves garlic

2tsp minced ginger root

Poppy seed

Mode

Remove pastry from freezer to thaw in advance

Preheat oven to 180c

Place one sheet of pastry in bottom of ovenproof dish

Place tuna in dish on pastry

Chop spring onion and sprinkle over tuna

Chop red capsicum and zucchini and place in dish

Chop coriander and add

Crush garlic and ginger root and add

Place the second sheet of pastry on top and seal edges

Sprinkle poppyseeds on top of pie

Cook in oven for 45 minutes

Fresh tuna and vegetable pie

Another evening another pie? Well maybe. But I use this blog to document what I cook so that’s how it is. Last week I had a delicious beef pie at a favourite pub and I can’t begin to think how I might emulate that. But I am going back next week to investigate further. However, I enjoy cooking pies with fish and can do it myself!

Today what caught my eye while shopping was some fresh tuna. Yum! Fresh tuna, some vegetables, with garlic and ginger in puff pastry was what I thought as I shopped. And so it was! The added pleasure with the tuna is that tuna always reminds me of Greek (and Mycenaean) colonization following the tunny schools to the Black Sea and my mind has been involved with the Black Sea recently. 

Ingredients

260 gr fresh tuna

2 sheets frozen puff pastry

1/2 zucchini

1/4 red pepper

2 cloves garlic

2 teaspoons crushed ginger root

Poppyseed

Mode

Preheat oven to 180c.

Remove pastry from freezer to thaw.

Meanwhile crush the garlic and ginger

Julienne the zucchini

Chop the red pepper into 4-5 pieces

Place one sheet of the pastry in the bottom of baking dish

Add the tuna 

Place the vegetables on top and around the tuna

Add the garlic and ginger

Place the second sheet of pastry on top

Fold the edges to seal

Sprinkle with poppyseed

Bake in 180c oven for 45 minutes

Salmon pie

I was just back from a trip to Adelaide for the first time in decades and needed to do some food shopping. But the skies opened! And the wind rose! I hunkered down and read my book but eventually decided (once the rain had calmed down) that a quick trip to Piedimonte’s was needed and what I wanted to cook was salmon pie.

Ingredients

270 gr Atlantic salmon

1/2 red capsicum

1/2 zucchini

2 spring onions

2 tsp crushed ginger root

2 tsp crushed garlic (2 cloves)

1.5 tsp Sambal Oelek

2 slices frozen puff pastry

Poppy seeds

Mode

Take puff pastry out of freezer to thaw

Preheat oven to 180c

Crush ginger and garlic 

Chop spring onions

Thinly slice zucchini lengthwise

Roughly chop red capsicum

Place one sheet of pastry in ovenproof dish

Add salmon, zucchini, red capsicum and spring onions

Add ginger, garlic and Sambal oelek

Place second sheet of pastry above and seal edges

Sprinkle poppy seed on top of pie

Place pie in oven and cook for 45 minutes at 180c

Enjoy!