How to get your husband to say "yum" with an enthusiastic smile while eating something with spinach (Gözleme)

[Um....so it's been a while since my last post - there have been various things which have kept me from blogging, including the absence of the Photographer at the time when the food is being made (apologies for the delay). This time I tried to take matters into my (slightly less than capable) hands so there are slightly less photos than usual.]

For a long time, I have been reminiscing about Turkish Gözleme - an Australian market staple. Pretty much a filled fried bread, but light and amazing. Alone early on a Friday evening, I was hoping to find a good recipe for this which would disguise the spinach enough for the Photographer to eat.

Looking for the recipe, I stumbled upon the blog Almost Bourdain. Fascinated by our shared experiences of Sydney - she too has a story about Petersham Chicken and even has a recipe for it which I am dying to try - I read many blog posts in a row. Then I recreated her Gözleme, albeit with the more traditional filling of spinach and feta (and adding sausage to some to try and get the Photographer to eat them). 

Turns out I didn't even need to add the sausage....

 

Gözleme 

(adapted from Almost Bourdain)

Dough

3 cups plain flour
2 tsp salt
7 g sachet dried yeast
1 tsp castor sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water

Filling

2 bunches swiss chard, english spinach or baby spinach

2 cloves garlic

150g feta, crumbled

2-3 spicy sausages, e.g. mettenden or chorizo (optional)

Salt and pepper 

Olive oil for frying

Lemon wedges to serve

In the bowl of your mixer place your flour, salt, yeast sugar and cup of the water. Begin to mix with the dough hook and add the last 1/4 cup of water gradually until the dough begins to form. You have added too much when the dough looks wet and starts to stick to the sides again (check out these pics for more info on kneading yeast dough).

 

Once the dough is smooth and not sticky (after about 5 min with the dough hook), oil a baking sheet. Divide the dough into 8 pieces and cover loosely and place in a warm place (often an oven, preheated to the lowest setting before and then switched off works well)

 

 Leave to rise until doubled in size.

While the dough is rising, rinse your spinach.

 

Chop it finely.

Heat your frying pan over medium heat. Add olive oil and garlic.

Add the spinach.

Fry until cooked (or just wilted for the less tenacious varieties)

When the spinach is done, remove to a bowl and thinly slice and fry your sausages.

Once the dough is doubled in size, take one portion and roll it out thinly on a floured board.

Add the spinach.

Feta.

Sausages (if you are trying to trick a carnivore into eating vegetables) and salt and pepper to taste.

 

Fold the dough over and fold the edges over to seal like so: 

Heat your frying pan to medium-hot. Add a little olive oil and the Gözleme.

 

Once you see the "brown eyes"which apparently give Gözleme their name, flip it over.

  

 Once the second side it cooked, remove from the pan and serve hot with lemon wedges

 

If you have any left over dough, put in in the fridge and use the next morning for Breakfast Pizza :). [Note: The pizza tastes great and bubbles beautifully but using plain flour means that you don't get the same crispy base. Still tastes great!]

A taste of Australia (Pavlova)

 

According to Wikipedia, the ultimate authority on all things, Pavlova actually originated in New Zealand. However, as I have just three glorious weeks in Australia(the reason for my recent silence), I proclaim that this recipe is just as much Australian

(Turns out this actual recipe is Australian as it comes from Bill Granger's cookbook, Bill's Basics).

I have always been extremely intimidated by Pavlova's as I imagined they would be complicated and time consuming. However, I found this recipe so easy and the result amazing that I have made it several times. Bill substitutes in some brown sugar which makes the pavlova slightly caramelly in flavour. The addition of yoghurt into the cream dampens the über- sweetness of the meringue. Absolutely lovely!

Ingredients

Meringue

6 egg whites

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

230g caster sugar

80g soft brown sugar

1 tablespoon cornflour

1 teaspoons white vinegar

[Bill uses 2 tablespoons arrowroot and adds it with the cornflour but I didn't have any and it turned out great]

Topping

300ml whipping cream

150g Greek yoghurt

Seasonal fruit - I used raspberries and cape gooseberries this time but strawberries coated with 1-2 tablespoons of honey the last time I made it. Figs, passionfruit, mango, peaches would probably also work well.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Use a flat soup bowl (or other smallish plate) to draw a 20cm circle on a sheet of baking paper. Place the paper on a baking tray.

 

 Place the egg whites, vanilla and cream of tartar into a mixing bowl.

 

Beat on medium high speed until soft peaks form.

 Add both the white and brown sugars alternating 1 tablespoon of each at a time. Beat until thick and glossy and until all the sugar is incorporated and dissolved.

Sift in the cornflour and add the vinegar and stir until combined.

Empty the mixing bowl onto the circle on the baking sheet.

 

And use a spatula to spread gently into shape. I made it slightly indented in the middle.

Place in the oven and turn the heat down immediately to 130 degrees. Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes. Then switch off the oven, open the over door and leave ajar with the pavlova inside until cooled completely.

Just prior to serving, whip the cream.

 

Add yoghurt.

Spread over the pavlova, top with fresh fruit and....

Grün, grün, grün ist alles, was ich hab (Green vegetable and pesto pasta)

 Ah yes. Green vegetables. Apparently quite good for you.

This recipe morphed out of the lovely pesto mushrooms at Café Créme in Stellenbosch, the typical quick meal of pasta with a jar of pesto and the desire to try and squeeze more veggies into our diet.

The secret to this dish is to use good pesto, but not too much. The Pesto Princess sells their Queen and King size portions of pesto in a plastic tub at the Stellenbosch Slow Food Market which make them ideal for the freezer. I then use a sharp knife to hack out the right amount. Alternatively, you can make it or buy good quality try a farmer's market or deli) pesto in a jar. Use a few spoonfuls for this recipe. Spoon the rest onto a piece of cling wrap, wrap tightly and place in the freezer. Then you can just cut of pieces when you need them and the pesto doesn't go manky in the fridge.

Serves four

Ingredients

200g dried macaroni

1/2 head of broccoli, broken into small florets

125g button mushrooms, wiped clean and quarted

100g zucchini/courgette, sliced

100g mange tout/ snow peas or frozen peas

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons good quality ready made pesto

Salt and pepper

Grated Parmesan to serve (optional)

Prepare the vegetables as above and admire

Cook the pasta as usual in a large pot of slightly salted water until al dente. In the meantime...

Heat a pan over medium head. Add butter. When the butter is melted add the mushrooms and fry until tinged brown on both sides.

Add the broccoli and zucchini. Stir fry for about 5-10 minutes until the zucchini is cooked but still crunchy. Throw in the snow peas/mange tout or peas and pesto - stir fry for a further 1 - 2 minutes.

  

Add the pasta to to the pan. Mix through.

 

Use salt and pepper to taste and serve - if you like with some grated Parmesan.

A good excuse to stay in (Breakfast Pizza)

This pizza base recipe will mean that you will never want to go out for pizza again! Well, maybe not never - you might be too lazy to cook or you might live around the corner from an amazing pizza shop, for example, in Naples or Leichhardt.

However, this puts your home-made pizza into a different league - thin, crispy, puffy base.

The one rule is - do not overload your pizza with topping - eventhough you may be tempted - the base will not crisp up.

This recipe shows how to make it the night before  but you can use it the same night as well...

Makes 8 small and 4 large pizzas - you can keep the remaining dough in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Ingredients

Base

700ml White Bread Flour (I like to replace 200ml of the bread flour for 200mL semolina if I have it handy - it makes a crispier crust)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp Instant yeast
1-2 tbsp olive oil

Tomato Base

1 small 50g can tomato paste
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic
1-2 teaspoons ready made pesto (if you have in the fridge or freezer) or 1 teaspoon dried italian herbs
Salt and pepper


Toppings
Black forest ham
Olives
Peppadews
Grated cheese
Feta (crumbled)
Eggs

Put all the Base ingredients into the bowl of your mixer and attach the dough hook

Start to mix with a dough hook. Add up to 1-1 1/2 cups more lukewarm water
until the dough comes together and pulls away from the side of the mixer. Mix for a further 5 min until the dough is smooth and supple.

This is not supple.....

This is supple (notice the smooth surface when you stretch the dough).

[If you don't have a dough hook mix by hand until the ingredients form a dough. Turn out onto a clean surface and knead until the dough is supple]

 

Form into a large ball. Drop a little olive oil on the surface and then spread over the surface of the bowl.

Cover loosely with clingfilm or an upside down plate and place in the
fridge overnight.


[If you want to use it the same night, cover with a tea towel damp with warm water and place in your oven. Switch the oven on as low as possible - no more than 50 degrees for 1-1 1/2 hours until doubled in size]

  

The next morning, (or after it has risen) shape into balls and let rest with some clingfilm loosely over it for 20-30 min in a reasonably warm place. While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to as high as it goes(250 or above) with an upside down baking sheet(or a pizza stone if you are lucky enough to have one) inside as it is heating up. This is essential.

[Be warned - if the oven is not very hot or you don't leave the baking tray inside, the pizza base will not puff up nicely]

 

Notice that the dough goes a bit puffy - this is good.

 

 Place some flour on a clean counter and flour your rolling pin (or a clean empty wine bottle). Roll out the dough to about 2-4mm thickness.

Place on a lightly oiled sheet of aluminum foil.

Mix together the ingredients for the tomato base.

Use a brush or the back of a spoon to spread a thin layer over the base.

 Add your toppings - remember less is more.

Perhaps some black forest ham

Olives -you should pit and slice these...

Peppadews....or roast red peppers

 

 Crumble some fetta

And some grated cheese

 

Et voila

Fold the edges of the foil up slightly to stop any run away eggs.

Once the oven is hot, open it and put the pizza and aluminum foil straight onto the baking tray in the oven. Crack an egg carefully on top of the pizza. Close the oven as quickly as possible.

 

 Watch the pizza bubble up nicely. Remove when edges are slightly brown.

  

Repeat with remaining dough.


[If you run out of toppings you can brush with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and italian herbs]

Bachelor Food (Bacon and cottage cheese pasta)

This is a recipe which my parents cooked often during my childhood. It evolved from a Hungarian dish but doubt that my Hungarian cousins will even recognise this.

The Hungarian version uses a different sort of cheese - called túró - which is much drier and finer. And instead of bacon, bacon fat.The pasta can be homemade, or often flat square noodles are used.

 

But growing up in an English speaking country - this is the closest you can get to this dish. I like it because it is a bit like a creamy pasta - but much healthier and less rich. And so simple that the Photographer can make it without written instructions!

This recipe makes two bachelor sized portions.

Ingredients

200g dried pasta

250g low fat cottage cheese

125g (3-4 pieces) bacon* - chopped

2 tablespoons parsley**- chopped  (optional)

Salt and pepper

*[If you are health conscious, use back bacon and cut off the fat. If you are semi health conscious cut off the fat and fry it in the pan with the bacon meat but pick it out the pieces but throw away before you serve. If you are not health conscious at all eat the bacon fat - it is very yummy fried crispy]

**[I usually buy a big bunch and chop it all at once. Then I put in a ziplock bag in the freezer and use as required]

Cook the pasta:

Pour some water into a medium pot so the water covers the bottom. Place it on high heat on the stove. Fill the kettle with water and allow to boil. Once boiled, pour the water into the pot. Once the water is gently boiling, add the pasta. Cook until the pasta is soft but still firm when you take a bite. Drain in a colander and return to the pot until you are ready to add to the bacon.

In the meantime, put a frying pan on med-high heat. Add the bacon and fry until crispy. 

Add the cooked pasta to the pan.

Add the cottage cheese.

Salt and pepper....

 

....and parsley....mix....  

And serve.