Love Pizza

Who needs it to be Valentines Day to do a cheesy romantic gesture? These are always much more fun every other day of the year.  Around Valentines Day this year all of my usual amusing picture websites were flooded with images of terribly constructed heat shaped pizzas which people ordered for home delivery on V Day. We all know that V Day is a completely commercialised venture, and it would seem that a variety of (primarily American) franchise pizza establishments required their franchises to create something "romantic" with very limited training. This did not work. We can do better.

Pizzata: Pizza Frittata

Because - Why not?

I really want pizza.  But it blows my tummy up like a balloon and leaves me bloated and yuck.  So I thought I'd try something a little different as an experiment.  If the carby crust doesn't sit well with me, I may as well try another kind of crust.  I'm not going to pretend this is super healthy, but it could be if you made a few little changes. Plus it does have high protein and a few veggies.

Meatzza worked a treat! Sweet potato pizza base worked. Why not a pizza frittata? Even better - a pizzata! Badum tish!

Greek Chicken Rissoles

Rissoles are such an easy old timey favourite dish.  Sometimes you get bored of the same-old-same-old, and need to spice them up a bit.  A while ago I posted my favourite lamb rissoles which always go down a treat.  In our kitchen, we had some chicken mince, a few veggies and some Greek Yiros seasoning which were itching to be used, so I came up with a new spin on an old favourite.  It was SO GOOD! I shouldn't be surprised.  Lately I've been just rolling chicken breasts in Greek Yiros seasoning and cooking them and they have been De.Licious.

We served the rissoles with quinoa tabouleh because our parsley, mint and spring onions were ready for harvesting from our balcony garden, and it is one of my all time favourite sides.  We made these rissoles earlier in the week without the feta and tomato paste, then immediately made it again with the additions once we finished the first batch.  We loved the original recipe, but knew that those couple of additions would take it to the next level.  Love. These. Rissoles. We will have them again!

Mediteranean Chicken and Sour Cream Pasta

So this meal does not exactly match up with my lower-carb focus of late, but it is incredibly delicious and easy.  It does require a little time in the oven, but it is oh-so-worth it.  Despite being high in carbs, this meal is actually pretty healthy. I can promise you that it tastes like the creamiest naughtiest thing off the menu at your favourite Italian restaurant, without the extra fat.  Don't believe me?  Give it a whirl.

Hunter's Stew (Chicken Cacciatore)

When I was a kid, chicken cacciatore was a common family dinner and I loved it.  It consisted of cooked chicken in a jar of pre-made sauce on rice.  It was an easy meal for my busy Mum to throw together mid-week for her picky kids (well to be honest I was the picky one, my brother was the easy kid).  Recently I started craving it again after many years, but I wanted to make a more authentic version of this Italian nomfest.  After cooking from scratch for the past few years, I just can't go back to sauce from a jar - it just tastes like preservatives, sugar and salt to me.  I've gone and spoiled myself.

Traditionally, Cacciatore means Hunters Stew.  It can be made from chicken, bunny (eep!), pork, pheasant or any other white meat and refers to cooking how a hunter would.  Traditionally the whole carcass would be chopped up and used, however while I wanted to do this semi traditionally, I couldn't be bothered going to quite that level of authenticity.  I have just used four large lean chicken breasts.  It has been argued that Cacciatore is the Italian version of the French Poulet Chasseur, but I personally love the Italian style.  

The base ingredients are: white meat, onion, capsicum, garlic, white wine (Northern Italian style) or red wine (Southern Italian Style) and herbs. In my opinion most Italian and French food is better when started with a mirepoix, so I have added celery and carrots to the onion base. A lot of recipes will include mushrooms (which a hunter could easily gather from the forest) but I hate them  so you won't find any mushrooms here.  Rosemary and other woodsy herbs are also more traditional, but I was keen to harvest some of our basil so I opted for this instead.  The other non traditional addition was asparagus, just because I love it so much and couldn't help myself.  Omit it if you want to stick to a more authentic recipe. I also threw in some leftover cherry tomatoes, but did not include this in the recipe because they are not necessary. This meal is traditionally served on pasta or polenta, but we chose to serve it on brown rice.  It adds a nutty flavour and doesn't bloat me up like a balloon like pasta does.

I made this in big batch style on a Sunday night to serve both of us for three to four week nights (depending on serving size), but just halve the recipe if you don't want to make such a big batch.  Alternatively just freeze the leftovers.

Lamb Burgers with Minted Yogurt

We have planted a herb garden!  We love it so much.  I wanted to use some mint and what goes better with mint than lamb?  This recipe is a beautiful Greek inspired meal that is thrown together in a jiffy. The lamb patties are even more delicious than you would imagine.  The mix itself is so versatile. This week we are in the mood for burgers, but they also make great lamb patties with a side salad (even better than burgers, unexpectedly - because it lets the flavour really shine), or as meatballs on matchsticks with side yoghurt garlic dipping sauce.  These are HANDS DOWN my favourite rissole/burger patties.  I absolutely love them.

Greek Baked Chicken

Moist, flavoursome, easy.  These are words that should always accompany chicken.  I hear people say that chicken is bland from time to time but I totally disagree.  Done right it can be downright mouth watering.

One of my favourite meals is Greek lemon potatoes. I love their lemony garlicy noms.  I had a craving recently, but am watching my waistline at the moment so decided to bake some Greek style chicken to serve with a side of (or on top of) quinoa tabouleh as a delicious and healthy dinner.  This was so easy to throw together and we adored the flavour.  Scoring the chicken means that the marinade can permeate it more fully.  The chicken was moist and tasted so good.  This recipe will go down in your list of regular go-to meals.

Caprese Chicken with Proscuitto Asparagus

I made this meal for a romantic dinner with the Dragon. It went down a treat. He loves Mediterranean  flavours and I thought this would be a fun and different meal to make him.  Caprese salad is a traditional Italian side of tomato, mozzarella and basil, sometimes drizzled with olive oil and/or balsamic vinegar. It is fresh and beautiful.  The first time I made this for my own lunch while home by myself and feeling fancy, I stuffed the chicken with boccocini, basil and cherry tomatoes.  It was good, but I thought it could be more flavourful using sun dried tomatoes and feta instead of boccocini/mozarella.  Asparagus and cured meats like proscuitto or even bacon are a match made in heaven and seemed a perfect accompaniment.  It made for a lovely candlelit dinner for two.

Roast Pumpkin, Goats Cheese and Chorizo Risotto

Our friend made us the most beautiful risotto we have had in ages a couple of weeks ago.  He  also happens to be a professional chef, so we felt pretty spoilt.  He made it for us while we watched and chatted over a glass of wine.  I kept asking him questions - how much of this are you putting in? How long for that? And he kept saying "there's no set amount, just what feels right".  I took three big take aways from that chat and from watching him create. 1) Rather than add white wine as an ingredient to be soaked into the rice as I have historically done, use it to de-glaze the goodness in your pan before you add your stock.  More details on this in my recipe below.  Nom. 2) Make your stock from scratch.  It is actually really cheap and easy to do if you take the time on the weekend and it tastes so much better when you do. Here is my recipe  3) Bring your stock to the boil before adding it to the aborrio rice - it absorbs better.

My first experience of risotto was a beautiful simple pumpkin risotto at a dinner party I was late to (and got in trouble for) at my best friend's place when I was a young frivolous 18 year old.  I got distracted talking after work as 18 year olds do and arrived late and made everyone wait.  Thankfully I have better manners now and am a bit more considerate of others.  The meal was creamy and sweet.  I wanted to make a beautiful pumpkin and sage risotto as a homage to both risottos.  Pumpkin is sweet, so I wanted to complement that with some roasted capsicum, and cut through the sweetness with the tart flavour of goats cheese and the saltiness of chorizo.  In a recipe I can't exactly say "use the amount that feels right" of X Y or Z, so I will give a general gist but I invite you to play with your own measurements.

Also - this is not diet food. It is divine comfort food.  This seems to be a theme for me of late, I must post some more healthy options again soon.  But for now, enjoy the deliciousness.

Beef Caprese Lattice

I have loved looking at images of pies with lattice tops on the internet but I've never braved one.  Then recently I got the sweetest idea from looking at some of the pre-made meals in the butcher's window.  I saw a puff pastry latticed steak with feta and spinach and I thought -  this looks like something I could make.  I had also recently been a bit obsessed with caprese salad, so I thought - why not combine these?  Caprese salad is a traditional (and delicious) Italian salad of tomato, mozarella and basil leaves.  It is a simple yet beautiful combination.  I'd been toying with making a steak and caprese dish and thought - why not combine a few things I've been dreaming about into one and make a lattice topped beef caprese dish!  I was not disappointed.  It's certainly worth a try and the flavours work beautifully together.

Pollo al Forno Con Puttanesca

Baked Chicken with Puttanesca Sauce

Spicy. Salty. Fragrant. Delicious.  Sugo alla Puttanesca is an Italian pasta sauce whose name literally translates to "whore's sauce". There are a few theories about the origins of this sauce's name.  One story claims that 19th century French working girls cooked it between clients, while another claims that judgemental women threw this sauce on prostitutes in the streets while insulting them. All interesting stories, but likely myths. The sauce seems to have actually originated in the kitchen of Sandro Petti, one of the owners of a restaurant and popular night-spot Rancio Fellone in Italy in the 1960s. This story goes that he had nothing but jarred or tinned olives, capers, anchovies and a few tomatoes left in the restaurant's pantry by the end of the night.  So he threw these together to "make any kind of garbage - facci una puttanata qualsiasi" - for late night customers.  This sauce bcame sugo alla puttanesca and grew in popularity.

Traditionally the sauce includes tomatoes, garlic, olives, capers, anchovies (omitted in Napolitan versions as well as my own) and chilli.  The sauce is quickly cooked in a fry pan and takes only anout 5-10 minutes to prepare.  It is usually served over spaghetti as a beautiful vegetarian pasta dish.

I've been dreaming, however of using this sauce with a soft and moist baked chicken breast because I thought the flavours would go beautifully. The name of this dish translates to: "Baked Chicken with Puttanesca". Nom.

Pulled Pork Pizza with Coleslaw and Mustard Sour Cream

Omigosh.

Yum.

This pizza is one of the best I've made. I absolutely love it.

In this recipe I've combined the traditional Tennessee version of pulled pork which is served with a barbeque sauce, and the South Carolina version, which is served with a mustard sauce.  Pulled Pork and coleslaw are a match made in heaven, so this pizza just made sense.  It is surprisingly filling, reheats well and will leave a lasting impression on your taste buds.  It is one that is coming back in my household again in the future.

Sundried Tomato, Proscuito and Goats Cheese Bake

Mmmm olives....sun dried tomatoes.....pancetta...and.....drool....goats cheese.

How could I not combine them?  That would be tantamount to sacrilege.

So I did.

And it was gooood.

I wanted to make a quiche/tart but I didn't want the carbs and butter in the shortcut pastry or the heavy cream.  I haven't been to the gym for a few weeks while on holidays, so I was trying to be good for my first week back.  Well...consuming goats cheese isn't technically being good, but when you are only eating 1/8th of this recipe then it works out ok I presume.  I wanted to effectively make the contents of a quiche in a crustless pie/bake/loaf form.  And it worked!  I was inspired by an amazing Baked Savoury Beetroot and Ricotta Pie from the Lab Kitchen which I have made for myself and recommended to my mum to make for a vegetarian friend - both times it was yum.  The Lab used bran on the outside of her pie instead of pastry, which works like a charm to hold it together.  I wanted to find out whether I could do this without anything on the outside or not, and it did work!

This dish is Mediterranean flavours in low carb heaven.  It makes 8 serves if you are good and don't go back for seconds...or thirds...

Enjoy.