Bert's Pizza Oven

A few weeks ago, we decided to 'test' Bert's new pizza oven. He has never, ever made a pizza  in his life and he didn't make it now either. 

The oven is obviously meant to be used outdoors and the fuel used are wood pellets.

A torch is used to light the pellets and when they've caught on you just fill up with more pellets.

 As soon as the pellets are glowing and the oven is hot I started assembling the pizza. Ah yes, I always have a well topped pizza.

If you do this too early, it won't slide off the pizza peel.

Close the oven.

 Ticktock ticktock ticktock ticktock ... x 90  or thereabouts 

Ready !

Next time we won't be putting the oven in such a windy spot. The flames licked the pizza a tad too much. 

Very tasty, nonetheless. 

Patricia xxx...x

Whoa There !

Every now and then I surprise myself. Yesterday was such an occasion as I got off my lazy bum and made a bit of food for the freezer. Not for the freezer as such but for us, to eat at a later stage and to make dinnertime prep easier for when I am busy doing other things.

Like sitting on my bum.

Bert has recently bought a pizza oven via t'internet (I really should keep him away from the 3 w's). It works with wood pellets. Which is great because we have them hanging around the house, seeing we normally use them as cat litter. As you do.

Anyway, I decided to make a head start with the dough. Just in case there will be a day somewhere in the future, without wind or rain, when he lights the pizza oven.

I made two batches of dough and divided each into 6 balls.

I wrapped them individually and placed them in the freezer.

 Last week I also organised two of our three freezers, by the way.

I still had massive beetroots from my friend Sophie which I had stored in the fridge.

They had a good roasting in the oven while I was busy doing other things. I saw this recipe on line for beetroot ravioli and thought if I portion off the right quantity of roasted beets, they can be frozen too.

The oven was hot from roasting the beets and I made use of that by chucking in two loaves of bread.

With the kitchen a mess, I thought, "what the heck! I'll make shortcrust pastry too"

Six portions went into the, yes, freezer and I made one pastry case for a quiche for today and one beetroot, goats cheese and smoked salmon tart for last night's dinner.

Layer sliced goats cheese, roasted beetroot and red onions sauteed with balsamico.

In a hot oven for 10 to 15 minutes. Add fresh goats cheese blobs and return to oven for 5 more minutes. Leave to cool for 10. drape with smoked salmon and drizzle with reduced balsamico. Sprinkle with black pepper. I just wish I had rocket to set it off a bit better, flavour wise and for photographic purposes.

The pastry was yummy. There is a reason why this is usually served as a small portion for a starter. It's rich !

Patricia xxx...x

Cakes

I am not into baking cakes and making desserts as I am more of a savoury type of person. In fact,  it could be said that I 'hate' (yeah, I know, it's a strong word) baking cakes.

I'll give it a go if there is a special celebration for a very special (to me) person. It takes me forever and a lot of dedication from start to finish and I'm always relieved when it's done and the end product is half decent.

The first time I ever used fondant icing was maybe 18 years ago and I haven't learnt much since. Ha ha! I can still remember the cake though. We had been living here in Ireland (the first time round) for a year or maybe two, when two of my Belgian cousins visited. One of them had a birthday while here and I made her a cake in the shape of an Irish cottage. With way too much fondant icing, everywhere. Still, it looked cute and the cake underneath was very tasty indeed.

My go to cake is generally frangipane, but I make exceptions.

The second cake was a couple of years later when Belgian friends visited and one of their boys had his birthday. This cake was a Burger, with yet again, a lot of fondant icing. The tomato, cheese and lettuce where all made out of thick icing.

Some really strange contraptions have passed the revue over the years.

 If you can't manage a level 3 tier cake, try and go all wonky like above.

These cakes were for two volunteers who were with us at the time and had their birthdays on the same day.

Still hadn't mastered the fondant icing thing. But it is six years later now and I still have the sugar polar bears.

The cream cheese frosting of my first ever carrot cakes wouldn't have won a price for its excellence, but the homemade marzipan carrots probably would. Lol.

It is not grated carrot on top. It's orange zest !

I have made two cakes in the past of which I am proud, sort of.

The first one was Princess Sarah's christening cake.

There was red velvet cake and frangipane. The third one I am not so sure, but was probably coffee.

The other cake with good results was one for a friend who turned 50.

It didn't come without its problems. Big problems.

 I made a start on the flowers a couple of weeks beforehand. With only a few kitchen tools and my own fair hands I shaped the fondant icing into something that resembled primroses/primulas.

By the time I had finished with them, I came to the realisation that when you start molding and kneading the fondant it becomes more pliable and easier to handle. Finally !

The day came when I had to start on the cake. It was early February 2014. While I was making the cake batter, the wind was picking up and turned into a proper storm. One of the worst we've seen so far. I knew the power would soon go, but I put the cake tins into the oven anyway. Indeed, 15 minutes later there was a power cut. I left the cake in, thinking it'll come back on any minute now. A day later and the power was still off. 

Thank goodness for corner shops in villages where you can buy 12 madeira cakes at a time ! I was already pumping myself up for the chore of making buttercream by hand when the power came back on. That was approximately 48 hours after I had put my cake into the oven !

It was a sprint to the finishing line, but the madeira cakes were a success.

The most mahoosive cake ever was for our friends at Blueberry Hill Farm when they celebrated their 20th anniversary of living in Ireland.

The cake tells a little about their story.

I was lucky enough that the volunteer (Pat) we were hosting at that time was (is!) an amazing sculpture artiste. 

And didn't we have fun with this project, Pat ?

And then there was Nora's cake. The youngest of our crochet circle at the time. It was her 17th birthday and I made her this cake.

What made me write this post ?

Weellllllll. I only ever make a cake for someone I know and love or a very special occasion that I'm involved in. It is something that takes a lot of my energy and creativity. And I really hate making cakes.

Last week however, I made an exception. A friend asked if I was willing to make a cake for the 5 year old son of his friend. And I said okay, without thinking. What about a Thomas the Tank Engine ?

No, he likes Ironman.  Who ?

Two days I worked on this. I didn't know anything about this Ironman. He stumped my creativity and he made me lose the will to live. He gave me a cold sore and all.

I can only hope that the boy and his parents liked him more than I did. I told our friend not to ask me again, because I can't say no and I actually hate making cakes !

And don't get me started on cupcakes.

*Wink Wink*

Patricia xxx...x

PS  Any orders for cakes won't be accepted.

Capiche !?

Blue Cheese and Nut Bread

Ingredients

• 1 kg plain flour
• 2 tbsp provençale herb mix
• 30 gr instant yeast
• 200 gr mixed nuts or a single kind of your choice - I used hazelnuts, almonds and walnuts
• 75 gr soft butter
• 2 tbsp liquid honey
• 20 gr salt
• 500 ml milk
• 200 ml water
• 175 gr blue cheese

Method 

Note : I only add the walnuts near the end as they can give off a very bitter aftertaste when they get mixed in at the start.

• In the bowl of your mixer, put the flour, yeast and mixed herbs
• Mix them well with a spoon
• Add the softened butter, honey and salt

• And the nuts (except the walnuts) and the milk

• Start the kneading process and add as much water as necessary to get a supple dough. I do this in stages, as sometimes the flour absorbs more liquid than other times.
• Knead for about 8 minutes on a low-ish setting

• Leave the dough to rise until doubled in size.

• When it has sufficiently risen, you will see the texture has lots of air bubbles, like in the picture below

• Divide the dough as you see fit onto a floured surface. I had one large tin and two small ones.
• Gently press the dough out so that you have a flat surface. 
• Sprinkle the walnuts over it and the crumbled cheese

• Lift up one of the edges of the dough and start rolling it up on itself, enclosing the cheese and walnuts as you go.

                                                   

• You should end up with a loaf shape like below. Tuck the ends in to prevent too much cheese escaping.

• Put them in the bread tins seam side down. Dampen the loafs with some water and make some cuts diagonally with a knife.

• Leave to proof for 30 minutes, while you preheat the oven to 210°C (fan assisted) 
• Bake the bread for about 45 minutes. The bread should sound hollow when you tap it from the bottom (you'll have to take it out of the tin before doing that, obviously)
• Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Never mind the holes. You can always stuff them with butter ;-) The cheese hasn't gone anywhere. It has just seeped into the rest of the bread.

Will you be having pumpkin soup this weekend ? This bread makes an excellent accompaniment. It also goes well with Celeriac Soup

Enjoy a Freaky Halloween Weekend.
Patricia xxx...x