New York Style Pepperoni Pizza

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Time saver: Phil saves you a trip to Manhattan (well, Sal’s at least).

New York Style Pizza SliceIf you haven’t had Sal’s authentic New York pizza, and you live in Auckland, you should go and have some. It’s $5 for the first slice, and $4 thereafter, and unless you’re some kind of insane eating machine that means it’ll cost you $9 to feel satisfyingly bloated and full. Once you’ve done that, you can cut out the middle-man, and make this instead (but at least you’ll know what you’re aiming for). A couple of years ago I probably would have turned my nose down at this pizza – thinking it’s not-very-complicated topping lacked interest. Now that I’ve tasted it, I’ve seen the light.

Unlike my last pizza, I’m going to go ahead and say that home-made pizza dough is a must. Bought bases save time, but since there’s really not much to this pizza you have to make sure everything is premium, and I’ve never seen a pre-made base that would do it justice. Likewise, with my last pizza I was happy to use cheddar cheese, with this one I’m saying mozarella all the way.

New York Style Pepperoni Pizza

  • 12″ pizza base (home-made, medium-thin with slightly higher edges)
  • 3 Tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 clove or ½ tsp crushed garlic
  • freshly ground black pepper and salt
  • 1-2 c grated mozarella (125g is roughly 1 cup when grated)
  • 100g good quality pepperoni, sliced
  1. Pre-heat oven to 230°C (about 450°F). If you’ve got a pizza stone, use it, otherwise just put one of your trays in to heat.
  2. Roll out/manhandle pizza base to a 12″ circle, then place on a sheet of baking paper. The base should be thin in the centre, and slightly raised around the edges.
  3. In a small bowl, combine the tomato paste, olive oil and garlic, mix well.
  4. Spread tomato paste over pizza base, going right to the edges.
  5. Crack some black pepper and salt over the base, then sprinkle with cheese. Leave a centimetre or two clear around the edges. For a real New York pizza, use about 150g of grated mozarella to get that mottled, not-quite-cheese-covered look.
  6. Spread pepperoni slices over the cheese – they’ll shrink a bit when cooked.
  7. Put the pizza in the oven (with baking paper) on your pre-heated tray/pizza stone. Cook for 14 minutes or so, until the base is cooked and the cheese is melted and golden.

Whole New York Style Pizza

Tuna melt parcels

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Time saver: Phil riffs on an old favourite with pastry. Cat is impressed.

Tuna melt parcels - with egg washSo last night I was making Spicy Pumpkin Soup and got hungry. You’d think that was the point of the soup, but for whatever reason I decided to make these as the soup simmered away.

Tuna melts are simple and tasty. Bread, tuna, cheese, a bit of pepper and a sandwich press are all it takes for a winning combination. But what if you don’t have bread? (Regular readers might wonder why I didn’t just whip up some artisan bread, but remember I’m using the stockpot I make the bread in to make soup, pay attention people.) Branching out I had no choice but to reap the health benefits of flaky puff pastry. Long term studies have repeatedly shown that flaky puff pastry is delicious and I guess the less said about the rest of it the better.

For the parcels I wanted to do a bit more than just tuna and cheese, so I whipped up a cheese sauce, threw in some blue cheese and then added the tuna to that. If blue cheese doesn’t appeal, stick with cheddar. If you want to make it a bit healthier, add some brocolli or spinach to the sauce.

One final point – tuna fish stocks are currently in danger of being depleted. With some species more badly affected than others. The situation will obviously change with time, but I think Pacific-caught Skipjack Tuna is currently OK. (While there’s a part of me that wants to say “It’s running out, make the most of it while you can”, I don’t think that’s really a position I can endorse. It would be a tragedy to overfish to a point where tuna can’t recover, and being aware of what you’re eating is what home cooking is all about.)

Tuna melt parcels – makes 4

  • 185g tin tuna chunks in spring water, drained
  • 2 square sheets flaky puff pastry
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • 1 Tbsp flour
  • ½ c milk
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 80-100g (about 1 c) grated cheddar, or 40-50g (½ c) cheddar and 40-50g blue cheese
  • 1 egg + 1 Tbsp water for an egg-wash on the pastry, or just use milk
  1. Pre-heat oven to about 200ºC.
  2. Melt butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat.
  3. Add flour to make a white roux. Stir well to combine and keep from catching on the bottom. Cook for around 1-2 minutes.
  4. Gradually add the milk and stir well with each addition to avoid lumps. Stir with a wooden spoon or whisk.
  5. After adding all the milk you should have a reasonably thick white sauce. Season with black pepper, then add the cheese, stirring thoroughly until it’s all melted.
  6. Add the tuna chunks (and any vegetables – strictly optional) to the sauce, and stir to combine.
  7. Cut each of the pastry sheets in half (giving you four long rectangles of pastry). Decide which end will hold the filling, then stab through several times with a fork. (This is to stop big pockets of air forming, causing the pastry to rise and push out the filling.) Don’t be afraid to get mean with it, but avoid putting any holes within about 1 cm from the edges.
  8. Put 4 Tbsp of the tuna filling in the centre of each of your fork-stabbed bases. Use a little water to wet the edges, the fold the (unstabbed) top half over and press down. Seal by pressing down on the sides with a fork. Make a couple of holes in the top of each parcel with a fork.
  9. Transfer the four parcels to a baking tray (lined with baking paper if you want to make it easier to get them off/clean up). If using an egg-wash, lightly beat an egg with 1 Tbsp of water then brush on to any visible pastry. (You won’t use even close to all of the egg wash. Maybe feed it to the cat, or make a miniature omelette.) If using milk brush that on instead.
  10. Bake in oven for around 15-20 minutes until the pastry is golden-brown.

Cooking tuna melt parcels - montage

Spicy Pumpkin Soup

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Time saver: Phil gets cold, busts out the soup.

Two bowls of spicy pumpkin soupIt’s been a few days between posts, but never fear – I haven’t stopped cooking. In fact I have a bit of a back log of recipes to write up, so hopefully my ambition is matched by motivation.

We’ve had some pretty bad weather over the last few days, and winter seems to have really set in. When it gets cold there’s nothing quite like a bowl of hot soup, so bust out the stock pot and let’s get cracking.

Just a quick note about the pumpkin. I’m really sorry, but I’ve never weighed it. If you think a large pumpkin is one that wins prizes at country fairs then you’ll probably want to go with half a small pumpkin. Also, if you’ve got the time and the inclination, you’ll get a richer flavoured soup if you roast the pumpkin first. If you’re short on time or just can’t be bothered, then don’t worry about it. Note that if you do roast it, the actual time to prepare the soup will be less. So you could roast the pumpkin the night before, and then make a fresh hot soup pretty quickly the next day. If that’s your thing.

Spicy Pumpkin Soup – serves 4-6

If roasting the pumpkin, heat oven to about 220°C-230°C. Put pumpkin chunks in a roasting dish, pour in a couple of Tbsp of oil (I used peanut oil for a bit of flavour, but olive oil or whatever you have handy is fine) and mix the pumpkin around to get it evenly coated. You can season it if you like, but you’ll need to adjust the soup seasoning accordingly. Roast for 15 minutes, then give the pumpkin a bit of a stir around, reduce heat to 200°C and roast for another 15 minutes.

  • ½ medium-large pumpkin, peeled and chopped into smallish chunks
  • 1 large onion, peeled and diced
  • 3 celery stalks, sliced into crescents (if you don’t have celery handy, just use another onion)
  • 1 tsp or 2 cloves crushed/finely chopped garlic
  • 1 litre liquid chicken or vegetable stock (if you don’t have it you can use powdered stock, 1 tsp per 250 ml) + additional stock/water if required
  • 1½ tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp mixed spice
  • 2 Tbsp oil/butter
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • sour cream/unsweetened plain yoghurt/greek yoghurt
  • chopped parsley to garnish
  1. Heat oil/butter in large stockpot over a medium-high heat.
  2. Add onion, celery and garlic to pot and cook till clear (around 3-5 minutes).
  3. Add pumpkin, stock, cumin and spice and stir thoroughly.
  4. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the pumpkin is soft and cooked through. (If using roasted pumpkin, simmer for 5-10 minutes, if using raw pumpkin this takes around 30-60 minutes.)
  5. Blend soup till smooth, either by blending it in batches or (carefully) with a stick mix/hand held blender. If the soup is very thick you can add more stock or just add water.
  6. Season with ground black pepper and salt, to taste.
  7. Serve with toasted/warm bread. Add a generous dollop of sour cream/plain yoghurt to each bowl, and garnish with a sprinkling of fresh chopped parsley.

Bowl of spicy pumpkin soup

Croque-croissant

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Time saver: if you like a ham and cheese croissant, you’ll probably like this.

First things first: this isn’t a recipe for croissants – I’ve never even attempted to make them, for a couple of reasons: firstly, it’s a lot of work, and secondly, seeing how much butter goes into them might put me off eating them. Sometimes it’s nice to keep a few things you don’t make just so you can enjoy them when you’re out. (Sushi also falls into this category for me – although I think making it is less involved than making croissants.)

I’m not sure if a croque croissant is an actual thing in France. They might just be for foreigners and the French may consider them some sort of travesty. Who knows? A local French deli (Pyrénées – if you’re in Auckland and you like French food I highly recommend it) sells these and I love them. It’s really just a “Croque-monsieur” (these are definitely a thing in France) but made with a croissant rather than two slices of bread.

The basic concept with a croque-anything is some kind of bread with ham, cheese, and bechamel (white) sauce, put together then grilled (broiled) to perfection.

As you may have guessed, since I don’t make my croissants I have to buy them. You could use supermarket croissants (some are better than others) but if you’ve got a French bakery (or really, any bakery) nearby it’s probably worth picking them up from there. Another good option is to get frozen  croissants and use those. (For some reason the Asian Food Warehouse in Christchurch used to have an awesome deal on these, I think sourced from the French Bakery. Unfortunately the food warehouse is out of commission because of the earthquake, but they may return.)

Here’s the recipe, pictures to follow…

Croque-croissant – makes 4

  • 4 medium sized croissants (already baked)
  • 100-200g shaved ham
  • ¾ c milk approx – for a thick white sauce (or ½ c milk and ¼ c cream for a richer creamier sauce)
  • 2 Tbsp plain flour
  • 2 Tbsp butter
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • freshly cracked black pepper and salt to taste
  • 4 slices cheddar cheese for tops (use Gruyère if you have it)
  1. Melt butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat.
  2. Add flour to make a white roux. Stir well to combine and keep from catching on the bottom. Cook for around 1-2 minutes.
  3. Gradually add the milk and stir well with each addition to avoid lumps. It’s most likely to go lumpy if you add too much milk in one go at the beginning. You can use either a wooden spoon or a whisk for mixing.
  4. When you’ve added all the milk, remove from heat. You should have a very thick white sauce. Add the Dijon mustard (if you’re not a fan, use a ½ tsp, or leave it out altogether), cracked black pepper and salt to taste and mix well.
  5. Cut an opening along one side of each croissant to allow you to fill them.
  6. Spoon about 2 Tbsp of the Bechamel sauce into each one, spreading within the croissant.
  7. Divide the shaved ham into four, and put a layer on top of the sauce in each croissant, then push the croissants closed.
  8. Put another Tbsp of Bechamel on top of each croissant, spreading slightly, then place a slice of cheese on top of this.
  9. Grill/broil in the oven until the cheese has melted and gone golden, then serve.

Chicken and lemon risotto

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Timer saver: risotto does not come in a box.

Chicken and lemon risottoWhen I first offered to to make my wife risotto (back in the days before she was my wife) she seemed a bit hesitant to accept. I told her it was delicious and she’d like it (I say that about all the food I like, I have a bit of a limited vocabulary in that regard) and she eventually gave in. It was and she did. Up till then though, she’d never had an Italian style risotto, and had only experienced the boxed kind. If you’re in the same boat, you need to ditch the boxes and bring on awesomeness.

Get this right and it’s so tasty you almost can’t stop eating it. I often find myself going to put the leftovers away and then just eating them before I can (we’re talking a whole extra bowl here, and I wasn’t skimping on my serving the first time around).

When I made this for my friend Marty he was shocked by the lack of vegetables, I tried to tell him it’s just the style, but if you feel the same way you do have options. I’ll often chop up a red capsicum and throw that in towards the end, or sometimes even some corn (½ c – 1 c). Marty was keen on baby spinach and that works too (in a green sort of way). Or you could keep it pure and just serve a salad on the side.

Risotto With ParsleyChicken and lemon risotto – serves 4

The first time you make this it probably pays to have everything ready to go before you start cooking. After you’ve done it a couple of times you can leave a bit more of the prep to do as you go. Stirring should all be done with a wooden spoon to help release the starch from the rice.

  • 1½ c arborio rice
  • 1 litre of good quality chicken stock (homemade is ideal, but most liquid stocks from the supermarket are fine)
  • 1¼ c white wine (major part of the flavour here, so skip that $6 bottle and splash out on something a little better –  say, an $8 bottle…)
  • 2 chicken breasts – for around 400-500g chicken, chopped into small cubes/pieces
  • 1 medium-large onion, or 2 small ones, peeled and diced finely
  • 2-3 sticks of celery, washed, sliced into crescents (1-2mm wide)
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed or chopped finely
  • 3 Tbsp olive oil or a knob of butter (or a mix if you prefer)
  • zest and juice of 1 large lemon or 2 small-medium ones
  • ½ tsp dried thyme
  • plenty of freshly cracked black pepper
  • 200g mushrooms (if buttons, chop into quarters/halves, if large flats cut into half slices) + 1-2 Tbsp additional olive oil
  • 1-1½ c grated cheddar cheese, or ½ c grated parmesan for the purists (plus more to taste)
  • (optional) parsley to garnish (sprigs or chopped)
  1. Put stock in a small saucepan and heat to just below boiling – maintain at this temperature throughout.
  2. Heat olive oil/butter in a stockpot (or very large saucepan) over medium-high heat.
  3. Add onion, celery and garlic, and soften – probably around 3-5 minutes.
  4. Add arborio rice, stir thoroughly to ensure rice is evenly coated with oil. Stir for around a minute, the rice should make a slight popping sound, go opaque, and start absorbing any moisture in the pan. The clock starts now – you want to cook the arborio for about 20 minutes for optimal texture. (Too much longer than that and it will be mushy. Too much less and it will be too firm. You want “bite” – a kind of yielding firmness to each grain.)
  5. Add 1 cup of white wine, stir well till absorbed.
  6. Add all of the lemon zest, and ¾ of the lemon juice, and stir. (There’s a lot of stirring involved in this one I’m afraid.) Reduce heat to medium.
  7. Start adding the hot chicken stock, a ladle or two at a time. Stir in between each addition, keeping the rice moving and preventing it from catching and burning on the bottom. Add the thyme, and cracked black pepper.
  8. About ten minutes after first adding the arborio to the pot, add the chicken. This will poach it (leaving it tender) – but to make sure it’s well-cooked you want to add it ten minutes before the end.
  9. Continue adding the chicken stock and stirring.
  10. Eventually you’ll run out of stock, this should happen around the 17-20 minute mark. Add the final ¼ cup of wine, and the remaining lemon juice. Start testing the rice periodically, it should be firm but not hard. Continue stirring.
  11. When the rice is ready, remove the pot from the heat, and stir the cheese through. Put a lid on the pot and leave it to rest for around 5 minutes.
  12. While the risotto is resting, quickly fry the mushrooms in a little extra olive oil. I often just use the pot I had the stock in to do this (saves messing up another one). When cooked, stir them through the risotto then serve. Garnish with parsley if desired.

Bowls of risotto