Smoked Duck and Roasted Sweet Pepper Pizza

I've been experimenting with no-rise pizza dough, which is pretty much the same as the two ingredient flat bread but rolled out to pizza size, but I've been having some trouble getting it crispy all the way through. I can't really justify buying a pizza stone right now but with a pizza shaped baking tin, a very hot oven with a very hot baking sheet I've managed to get  a crisp crust and a well cooked middle.

Squirrelface approves and as you all know, when it comes to Italian cooking if Squirrelface approves I feel like I've done a great job. I found the delicious sliced smoked duck I mention in Punchy Smoked Duck Stir Fry this morning, which melds beautifully with the smoky roasted sweet peppers and salty-sharp black olives.

I won't tell you how to top a pizza, you can do it however you want. I will tell you how to make a Kick-Ass Multi-Use Tomato Sauce you can double or triple up on and freeze. I added oregano as it's a pizza herb for me.

This is an easy and adaptable base for mid-week cooking and eating that will taste better and be better for you than any supermarket bought pizza.

Smoked Duck and Roasted Sweet Pepper Pizza

1 potion Kick-Ass Multi-Use Tomato Sauce

1 portion no rise pizza dough

1 ball low fat Mozzarella

5 thin slices smoked duck, snipped up with kitchen scissors

1 sweet red pepper, skinned and finely chopped.

Hand full black olives

Put a large, flat baking sheet in your oven  and preheat at top temperature.

Mix together flatread ingredients with your hands and roll out on a floured surface.

Transfer to a floured baking tray, I used a round one with holes in, and roll until the dough is evenly distributed.

Top with tomato sauce and then whatever it is you’d like on your pizza.

Pop in the oven and leave for  5 – 6 minutes and then turn the pizza around 180 degrees and then bake for another 5-6 minutes.

The heat of the oven will differ from appliance to appliance – what you’re aiming for is golden brown crispy crust, bubbling cheese and tomato sauce.

Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus Salad

Right now everyone is extolling the virtues of British asparagus...

...I did so a few weeks ago in a light and fragrant risotto with peas and lemon but what with the weather finally turning I thought a salad would be a decadent treat for you all to snaffle in the garden or on the balcony with a cold glass of white and a hunk of good bread.

Some people may scoff at the wrapping of the asparagus with streaky bacon is sacrilege, it isn't, I assure you. By griddling the bacon wrapped asparagus you allow the fat to subtly flavour the delicate vegetable and end up with a perfectly cooked asparagus that is great to eat with your hands as much as it is with a knife and fork.

I used tarragon vinegar for the dressing to jar slightly against the mustard and be lifted by the sweetness of the honey, any vinaigrette combination works - to your taste be true. This is also the same when concerning the leaves or vegetables to include, I want this to be more of a jumping off lily-pad type of a salad.

NB. Vegetarians – griddled asparagus is delicious – the bacon is a decadence, not an essential.

Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus Salad

as many asparagus spears as there are rashers of streaky bacon.

big bag of salad leaves (I used rocket and baby spinach)

handful of baby plum tomatoes, quartered

Dressing

2tbsp tarragon vinegar

4 tbsp olive oil

1tsp mustard (I used coarse Dijon)

1/2 tsp honey

salt and pepper

Stretch the bacon rashers with a flat bladed knife, blunt end towards you. This will make the bacon thinner, crisper and quicker to cook.

Wrap the bacon around your asparagus, which will need any woody stems trimming.

Heat a griddle pan to almost smoking and then turn down to low and pop the bacon-wrapped asparagus in the griddle pan. (Alternatively you could fry or grill).

Cook for around 2 minutes on each side, until bacon is browned and crisped.

Spin fresh salad in salad spinner after washing.

Scatter on a platter with tomatoes and arrange bacon-wrapped asparagus spears.

In a jar, put all dressing ingredients in, put on lid, shake vigorously and pour over salad.

Use vegetable peeler to add Parmesan or other hard cheese.

Serve with crusty bread.

Smoky Chorizo and Butter-bean Stew

I've got too much to do to spend all evening in the kitchen...

When leaving the house to go shopping is unthinkable, or economically unfeasible of a week night, when you’re tired and have myriad tasks to do with a hungry partner and/or kids,  a store cupboard meal is ideal. They don’t have to be pappy or flavourless if you have some chorizo, tinned tomatoes and tinned pules on hand. They are a basis of many a store cupboard meal, along with onions and some good vinegar you can slap this stew down with any old starchy carb.

I am however very much against this pairing of chorizo with pasta,  it’s just uncouth. Potatoes or rice or bread are obvious store cupboard staples, I would prefer these to be used, the rice simply boiled as I did here; potatoes boiled, mashed, roasted, what-have you; bread just to scoop and dab and polish the plate of the last morsel.

I think one of the most rewarding things about cooking is getting the best out of an ingredient, By skinning the cured chorizo before cooking on a low heat, you allow the complex and smoky fat to ooze out in a splendid rusty-ruby-red pool, you don’t need to add any oil or other fat to the dish. Adding a red wine vinegar or potentially balsamic while the stew is bubbling will offset any fatty notes to the dish and leave it deep and rich and savoury.

As I always say, play around with the recipe, use a different pules if you wish to, use dried if you have more time, use fresh tomatoes if you prefer and use whatever seasoning you desire, if you prep the chorizo as I describe, you’ll welcome that fraught moment when you think you have no food in aside form half a chorizo in the back of the fridge.

Smoky Chorizo and Butter-bean Stew

100g cured chorizo, skin removed and diced

1 onion, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 tin butterbeans

Squeeze of tomato purée 

1tsp smoked paprika (dolce or picante)

Juice of half a lemon

Pinch sugar

Salt n pepper

Fry the chorizo on a low heat until most of the delicious fat has oozed out, then add the onions and carrot, then raise the heat to medium and cook till onion is translucent and carrots are slightly softened.

Add tomatoes and tin full of water, sugar, tomato purée, stir well and cook on high heat stirring occasionally.

When reduced to desired consistency, add the lemon juice, paprika and butter-beans and heat through.

Taste and season.

Serve with your choice of carbs (BUT NOT PASTA, PLEASE!) or add two tins of stock and have yourself a soup.

Punchy Smoked Duck Stir Fry with Mixed Vegetables

I'm definitely not washing up tonight...

However much i enjoy cooking, i don't always want to spend hours in the kitchen making something wonderfully complicated after a day at work and with various chores to do once returning home. Stir fry is an easy go to option in this instance. I don't like buying pre-made sauces, they always have a chemical after-taste, mixing up some citrus, soy, heat and sweet takes seconds and yields much tastier results.

I've included smoked duck in this recipe, which isn't that easy to obtain, unless you have a budget German supermarket near you, not the one beginning with 'A', the other one. Look out in the special offers section, a couple of times a year it pops up at a really reasonable price and can be used like any other cured meat. The fat is great in this recipe as you don't need to bother using oil, plus both duck and goose fat are healthy animal fats.

I really enjoy the combination of punchy flavours in this dish, but nothing seems to overwhelm the individual ingredients, it enhances them. You could always use tofu and marinate in the sauce if you're vegetarian/vegan and substitute the duck fat for a tablespoon of sunflower oil or similar, or if you can't find smoked duck, chicken or pork would work well too. Use your imagination with the vegetables, whatever you have lying around is usually fine, tomatoes or harder roots are probably a no-no.

If you're canny it takes around 20 mins from start to finish and doesn't have the mountain of washing up some 'quick' recipes can create.

Punchy Smoked Duck Stir Fry with Mixed Vegetables

1/2 a pack of sliced smoked duck

2 carrots, scrubbed and julienned 

4 spring onions, snipped up

4 large or 6 smaller cabbage leaves, central stalk removed and shredded

2 handfulls of mushrooms, quartered

3 cloves garlic

thumb sized piece of ginger

juice of 1 lime

4 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp hot pepper sauce

1 1/2 tsp fig vinegar

2 sachets of straight to wok noodles

Snip the slices of duck with scissors into a hot wok and allow the fat to render, then throw in the mushrooms,  spring onions and carrots and coat with the fat, turn the heat down to medium.

Bash the garlic and ginger in a pestle and mortar with a generous pinch of salt, then throw in to the wok and fry gently.

Rinse the shredded cabbage and drain, then throw in to the wok and mix up.

I usually turn the heat down and stick a lid on (not technically stir fry, I know) while mixing the sauce and opening the noodles.

Quickly stir fry the noodles till they're separated and pour in the sauce. Cook on a high heat for 2-4 minutes, whatever you're comfortable with.

Serve with a fruity Italian red.