Tomato and Mozzarella Pizza

Taken From "Healthy Food Guide" Sep 2012

(serves: 4)


Tomato and Mozzarella Pizza
250g passata

275g plain flour (or gluten-free plain flour)
7g sachet fast action dried yeast (easy bake yeast that does not require reconstituting in water)
1 tsp caster sugar
1 medium egg, beaten
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp sugar
Handful of basil leaves
2 x 125g reduced-fat mozzarella balls, drained, sliced
350g large vine tomatoes, sliced and drained on kitchen paper

Put flour, yeast, 1 tsp caster sugar in large bowl
Mix egg with 125ml warm water and pour into the dry ingredients. (* I add about a tbsp of olive oil in as well)
Mix well and knead lightly to make a soft dough, adding more water if needed.
Divide in two and roll out thinly. (* I try not to use too much extra flour and use a little veg oil to spot it sticking - and roll as big as the tin/tray I'm cooking it on)
Transfer to baking trays, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place for 30min (*GREASED TRAYS! or they stick!)

Preheat oven to Gas 6 / 200C / Fan 180C. 

Heat passata, oregano and 1 tsp sugar in a pan for 5 mins until thick. Add torn basil reserving a few leaves
Top each base with the tomato sauce, then the mozzarella and tomato slices.Season with black pepper and cook for 25-30min until crusts are golden and the cheese has melted. Garnish with the reserved basil.

*** I make my own tomato sauce.
1 400g tin toms (can be chopped or whole)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
dried herbs
tom puree
1 tsp sugar
salt, pepper

Put the onion, garlic in a pan with 1 tsp (or so) oil and cook gently for a few mins until soft.
Add the tinned toms (if whole, chop up with spatula/wooden spoon - I don't mind chunks of tomato), add in the dried herbs (oregano / basil / mixed herbs - whatever is in cupboard), add in sugar and a squeeze of tom puree (about a tbsp). Cook on a gentle blip until excess water has evaporated and sauce is thick. Season. Cool slightly before topping pizza.
Does make extra sauce which you can freeze and use in pasta sauces...etc...

I made the above dough and made 3 pizzas:
a small 6" Cheese and Tomato pizza for my son (watch it when cooking as it may not need as long in oven - I think I cooked for around 15 mins).
a medium sized Pepperoni and Red Onion Pizza for Mr Leaf
a medium sized Veg Pizza for me (red onion, green pepper, mushroom, fresh sliced tomato and once cooked,  topped with wild rocket leaves) 

The dough is quick and easy to prepare, and is wonderfully light and crispy.  I have made it using gluten-free flour too and it works brilliantly!

You can adapt the pizzas anyway you like, Ham & Pineapple; Cooked Chicken and Pesto Sauce; Goats Cheese and Red Pepper; Bacon, Mushroom & Tomato....the permutations are endless :)

Quick & Easy Chinese Dinner - Dishes from my Childhood

Growing up in my mother's kitchen she has always been a great source of inspiration and when we were younger, we were lucky to have a WAHM.  It meant that she was always there for us when we finished school and would cook us all kind of goodies.  We are older now and have our own homes and families and I can't wait for the day she retires so she can spend more time again in the kitchen trying out new recipes and snacks and all sorts of good things to eat!

Many of the chinese dishes I attempt now are influenced from my childhood and are things mum would cook for us to eat as our one plate meals.  We'd often have a one plate meal where we have our own bowl of rice and it'd be topped with a stir-fried dish of meat and veggies.  Simple cooking and often eaten in front of the TV!  We'd only sit around the table and share multiple dishes when dad was at home or if we had guests.  Now, as mum still works (not at home anymore), when she has her day off from work she still likes to cook various dishes that we sit at the table and share - even if it's only 2 or 3 of us.

My hubbs likes courgettes and I don't mind them but have had a few from the supermarket that are bitter to eat.  No idea why so I only buy them in the summer months (am growing them in garden at the moment too!).  I have found that my half vietnamese/half chinese hubby seems to enjoy the oriental style dishes that I cook.  Some of the dishes he suggests cooking (or what he used to cook for me before we were married) are very similar to what my mum cooked.  The only difference I find is that he tends to use fish sauce in cooking whereas my upbringing would be to use soy sauce.

Courgettes are bountiful in the supermarkets now and I cooked these dishes for our dinner on Wednesday:

Stir-Fried Courgette with Pork

150g sliced pork (I had spare rib chops again but chicken will work well or even beef)
2 medium sized courgettes, halved lengthwise then sliced
1 shallot, sliced
2 small garlic cloves, minced
dash of white pepper
few drops of sesame oil
splash of soy sauce (1tsp)
splash of chinese wine (1 tsp)
1/2 tsp cornflour
2 tsp squid sauce
2 tsp oyster sauce
1/2 cup water
cornflour and water mix

The pork was mixed with pepper, sesame oil, soy sauce, chinese wine and the cornflour and left to sit in a dish whilst I prepared the vegetables.
I heated 1 tbs of oil in a work and then slid the pork in.  Leave to fry for about 1-2 minutes before turningthe meat over to brown slightly.  Add the shallots and stir.
Add the sliced courgettes and garlic and fry for 2 minutes before adding the water, squid sauce and oyster sauce.  Leave to cook for 3 minutes.
Check the sauce for seasoning, thicken with cornflour and water mix.



Mum would often cook us tomato, egg and beef.  She says it's full of vitamins and nutritious.  I once cooked it for hubbs and he didn't like it.  Said it was neither beefy or tomatoey!  As I wanted another dish for dinner, (I usually cook enough so I can pack a ricebox lunch for hubbs.) I decided to try tomato and egg (minus beef this time).  It seemed to go down with no complaints this time! 

Tomato & Egg

3 medium sized eggs (my babies eggs are only around 55-60g with the shell)
3 medium sized ripe tomatoes (I only buy vine ripened ones as the flavour is more superior than regular salad toms) quartered, or cut into 1/6ths
1 shallot, sliced,
1 spring onion, white part sliced in thin rings and the green parts shredded
1/4 cup of water
2 tsp tomato puree (mum uses tom ketchup)
1/2 tsp sugar
cornflur and water mix

Heat 1 tbs oil in a wok and add the eggs (you can beat them up first or just scramble lightly in the wok).  Don't bash them up too much as you want large enough pieces of egg to eat later.  Put aside on a plate for later.

Add the tomatoes, shallot and the white part of the spring onion to the wok and let sizzle for 30 seconds or so.  Add the water and let the tomatoes cook a little.  If the water evaporates too quickly (my gas flame isn't particularly powerful) add a splash more water.  Add the tomato puree and sugar.

Tatse the sauce, it should be tomatoey and not too sharp - add more sugar if necessary.

Add the spring onion greens, add in the cooked egg and thicken sauce with the cornflour and water mix.

We loved this dish as kids and mum still cooks it occasionally now but she's not a beef fan so she sometimes cooks it with spam batons, fish cake slices or small minced pork patties.

Tofu Trial

My hubbs likes eating tofu - it's nutritious, low in fat, high in calcium and protein.  It's adaptable to various flavours and comes in a variety of different forms, fresh cubes sold in boxes with water to keep it fresh; in a sealed UHT box (usually the silky Japanese version - stored on supermarket shelf); deep fried tofu puffs - great in braises where the puffy sponge-like texture soaks up the tasty juices, or great for stuffing with meat pastes and fried; a soft silky version to be eaten as a dessert "豆腐花" (dou-fu fah); dried tofu; or preserved cubes in jars for cooking and then there are also variants with the beancurd skin that is produced when making tofu - but I'm not going there!  All from the humble little yellow soy bean!

I'm usually apprehensive with buying of tofu - although I've eaten it at home and also when in chinese restaurants, it's not something I really know how to prepare and cook with.  So, on our travels to Peterborough on Sunday, I saw a chinese supermarket in the High Street and of course I had to have a wander in!  I stocked up on a few essentials like soy sauce and dried noodles but also saw some fresh tofu.  Not sure if it's expensive but I paid £1.50 (GBP) for a box with three cubes in.  The cubes were probably 3"x3" square - enough for 2 and not too big a package for me to have to deal with.  I also bought a bag of choy sum - one of my favourite chinese vegetables - which I disappointedly, have failed to grow this year!

I had no idea how I should cook the tofu but fancied something like a tofu claypot where it's cooked alongside meat, vegetables and maybe prawns.  I resorted to phoning up my chinese culinary master - my mum!  She told me to cube it, blanch in some water, drain it and slip it into the wok once teh rest of teh ingredients were cooked.

This is what we ate on Sunday....

Dinner a deux!  Getting quite homely these days!

It couldn't have been too bad as my hubbs gobbled up his dinner fairly quickly.  He has a habit of taking a break halfway through his dinner and I think I can tell if dinner is to his liking as he doesn't stop for a 20-30 minute breather in between!  Bless!  No wonder he is the svelte shape he is!

Tofu with Pork and Courgette

150g sliced pork (I used pork spare rib chop - boneless but any meat will be fine)
1 medium sized courgette cubed
a few scallops sliced in half ( I would've like prawns but I didn't have any)
2 cubes of tofu, drained and cut however you like
1 shallot, sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
dash of white pepper
dash of chinese wine (for marinating - optional)
dash of sesame oil
splash of soy sauce
1/2 tsp cornflour
blob of oyster sauce
1/2 cup water
cornflour & water mix

I mixed the pork with the pepper, sesame oil, chinese wine, soy and 1/2 tsp cornflour in a small bowl and let it sit whilst I prepared the rest of the ingredients.
I blanched the tofu in boiling water for about 1-2 mins before removing them from the wok and leaving them to one side.
I heated up the dried wok and added 1 tbs oil and let it get hot before I added the sliced pork.  I let it sizzle on one side for a bit before turning it over.  Then I added the shallots, and the courgette cubes and minced garlic and let them fry for 2 minutes.
I then added the water so the courgette could cook.  When it's simmering away I add the flavourings, a shake of squid sauce - about 2-3 tsps (my hubbs is half vietnamese and this is his essential cupboard item!), a blob of oyster sauce.  A shake of soy - about 1tsp.  I then add the scallops - I don't like tehm to overcook so add them towards the end. 
I taste the sauce and adjust where necessary before thickening with the cornflour & water mix.

5-Spice Tofu Fingers

1 cube of tofu cut into fingers and drained on kitchen towel
1 tsp 5-spice powder
2-3 tbs cornflour

I was inspired to make this dish after reading Elin's blog on tofu.
I kept this one simple and mixed the cornflour and 5-spice powder on a plate - I can't remember whether I seasoned with salt and pepper!
All I did was coat each tofu finger in the corn flour and let it shallow fry gently in some oil in a frying pan.  Cornflour doesn't brown that easily (which I didn't realise) and I just let it fry and fry and fry!  It certainly was crispy but I would just fry until the cornflour coating has gone crispy and turn it over to fry the other sides.  I think if you cook the tofu this way (perhaps with out the 5-spice) you could use it as a meat substitute for other dishes like sweet and sour or served with a creamed corn sauce, or even a lemon sauce.

The choy sum was simply blanched and dressed with oyster sauce.

All in all, my tofu trial was easier than I expected without any kitchen mishaps!

Garden Update

Golden Shallots growing in garden trough

In early April I had visions of having an easy maintenance vegetable garden. Knowing I would be supporting a swollen belly in the summer I knew I couldn't expect to be on my hands and knees weeding and harvesting salads and chinese vegetables like I do most years.

Sugar Snap peas that have germinated
Looks like we'll get a good harvest!

Well, all I can say is that our chickens had other ideas! Just when I thought the warm Easter weather had given the garden a good start, the chickens (well my 2 babies, I have 3 chickens. I call them babies as they were newly acquired last July when they were 17wks old and reaching the stage when they would start laying eggs,) had other plans. As the farmer in Chicken Run said to Mrs Tweedy, "The chickens are revolting!"

The same bed 2 days later - trashed by chickens!

In my veg bed 1, (18 x sweetcorn kernels, and 60 x peas) Stan Laurel and Daffy Duck managed to find their way into the covered veg bed and scratch, eat and trample everything in site! Maybe I could've sprouted some more peas indoors and planted them outside but I was so disheartened (especially as Daffy Duck got stuck in the bed again the following day and finish of any remaining plants they missed the previous day!) I didn't bother!

WANTED! Have you seen this chicken?
Called Stan Laurel as the feathers on top on her head
reminded me of Stan Laurel's hair that stood up on end!

My chinese veg in pots didn't fair much better either! I had choy sum and pak choi growing in pots. I sprinkled crushed eggshell on top of the soil surface in an attempt to deter slugs and snails from getting a free buffet. It didn't work. I was soon left with stumps and no veggies for me!

Partner in Crime!
Daffy Duck as she made some odd clucks that sounded more like quacks!

The squashes and courgettes that I germinate indoors did well. They germinated (not 100% success but sufficient to plant) but I was too lazy to transplant them outside and they were too weak and lanky to survive and needless to say have long since died.

Rooster potatoes in a potato grow sack - makes harvesting easier

The only garden success I have had this year is the one courgette plant that I sowed outside next to the onions in Veg bed 2. Well, there were 4 seeds, only one came up to say "Hello!". Still, I have harvested 2 small courgettes and threw away one brown wrinkled specimen (they wrinkle and don't grow if the female flower fails to get fertilised by the male flower). I haven't even been religiously watering and feeding the courgette plant either - only the occasional long watering! Today, I was overjoyed and rather surprised to see an over-sized courgette snaking it's way along the soil hiding under the canopy of speckled leaves. The leaves of a courgette are large and the underside is a bit prickly too. I find that if my hand brushes past the leave they make your hands smell a bit pongy too! Nasty!

I'm pleased with today's find and am hoping it's the start of many more courgettes! I only wish there were more than 1 courgette plant!

The prized green wonder! It's the size of an aubergine and the small wrinkled ones are fruits that didn't get fertilised so won't grow but will shrivel go brown and eventually rot.

What do you suggest I do with this lovely pale green wonder then?