The Perfect Pizza Dough Recipe

Homemade pizza is on our table every Saturday for dinner! Today I will be sharing with you my foolproof pizza dough recipe. This recipe makes 4 large thin pizza bases and or 3 medium size deep pan bases. With this recipe, you can make pizza with your favourite toppings. You can also make focaccia bread or garlic and Parmesan knots and many more wonderful recipes.

Ingredients for the pizza dough:

4 ½ cups of plain flour (You can use whole wheat flour if you like to)

½ cup of whole milk powder

2 cups of warm water (40°C)

1 tbsp of honey (or caster sugar)

2 tsp of salt

1 sachet of dry yeast (7g)

4 tbsp of olive oil (or vegetable oil) for the dough

1 tbsp of olive oil (or vegetable oil) for brushing

Method:

1.        Add yeast, honey and warm water in a bowl and stir well. Allow to sit for 5 minutes. (I normally put the bowl in the microwave with the lights on). It should be foamy.

2.      In the meantime, add the flour, dry milk, salt and oil in a large bowl.

3.       Add in the yeast mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well until a ‘sticky’ dough forms. (You can use a standing mixture if you want to).

4.      If the dough is too ‘sticky’, add extra flour slowly and keep kneading for 10 minutes until the dough becomes very smooth and elastic.(4 ½ cups of flour and 2 cups warm yeast mixture works perfectly fine for me).

5.      Oil a bowl and place the dough in that boil. Brush the surface of the dough with oil too so that it does not form a dry coating.

6.      Place a plastic wrap/cling film on top of the bowl.

7.      Place the bowl in a warm place for one good hour. (I normally place it in the microwave with the lights on).The dough should look like this after one hour: 

8.      When ready to use, preheat oven at 220°C  for 15 minutes

9.      Deflate the dough and knead for few seconds.

10.    Cut it according to the amount of dough you need.  (I normally cut the dough into quarters)

11.     Place the dough on a floured surface and stretch it using your hands to form a disc. (You can use a rolling pin instead to shape it).

12.    Place the dough on a pizza peel side and add in your pizza sauce all over the surface, your desired toppings, mozzarella cheese on top and sprinkle oregano on top .

13.    Place the pizza on the pizza stone and bake for 15-20 minutes (rotating halfway through to ensure even cooking).

If you don’t have a pizza stone, you can use a baking tray (which I normally use)

1.        Oil the baking tray and place the disc.

2.      Bake for 1 minute.

3.       Remove it, add the pizza sauce, your desired toppings and bake for 15-20 minutes (rotating halfway through to ensure even cooking)

If you have leftover pizza dough, you can freeze it and whenever you want to make pizza, just remove it and leave it at room temperature for a 1 hour or until it is soft to handle. You can also make yummy focaccia bread or garlic knots, parmesan knots and any pizza you like to have.

My favourite is veggie pizza and margherita. So, I made myself a half-and-half one :D  

Some of my family favourite toppings:

·        Chicken Tikka, Jalapeño and Red onions.

·        BBQ chicken, Sweet corn and Onions.

·        Tuna, Sweet corn, Olives, Onions and Peppers

·        Red and green peppers, Olives, Sweet corn and Pineapple

·        Paneer (Indian Cheese), Very small amount of Sour cream all over , Green Peppers and Onions

·        Grilled vegetables and Caramelised onions.

Just play around with the simple ingredients that you have on hand to make your yummy pizza :)

Enjoy and stay tuned for more yummy recipes : )

Eggless Raspberry and White Chocolate Chip Muffin

Hello peeps

I have been craving for some nice raspberry and chocolate chip muffins whole day. So, once back home I started baking some!!  I used to buy the raspberries & white choc muffins from Millie’s Cookies however they have been discontinued :-(  They now sell the lemon meringues, banoffee, blueberry, choc chip, double chip and the carrot muffins which are yummy too!!! The lemon meringues and banoffee are my favourites after the raspberry & white choc muffins :-D

Anyway, I wanted to get some baked once back home with fresh raspberries that I had on hand. Even though I did not have eggs in stock and with a huge craving I went on baking some eggless ones :-D

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

2 cups of plain flour

1 tbsp of baking powder

1 tsp of baking soda

1 cup of buttermilk (You can make your own buttermilk by adding 1tbsp of vinegar to a cup of milk and allow it to stand for 5 minutes)

1 tsp of vanilla paste

½ cup of coconut oil (I use coconut in eggless cakes because it makes it more moist but it’s totally fine to use vegetable oil)

3/4 cup of white chocolate chips

1 cup of raspberries

1 to 1 ½ cups of sugar (depending on how sweet the raspberries are)

Method:

1          Preheat oven at 180°C

2        Line up a muffin tray with paper liners

3         Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and baking soda) and set aside

4        Coat both the raspberries and white chocolate chips with flour. This will allow them to spread throughout the batter (and not sink at the bottom)

5        In a large bowl, mix all the wet ingredients (buttermilk, oil, vanilla paste and sugar) to form a batter

6        Add the flour and fold

7        Add in the choc chips and fold again

8        Add the raspberries and slowly fold in

9        Pour the mixture into muffins cases

10      Bake for 20-25 minutes or until you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean

If you using coconut out to make the muffins super moist like I did, it’s better to store them in an air tight container (if there’s any left, of course :D ). If you keep in the fridge, the coconut oil will solidify and hence making the muffins dense and hard. I have just made a batch and having a warm one right now with a nice tea :)

Enjoy and stay tuned for more yummy recipes : )

Octopus Vindaloo (Mauritian Octopus Vindaye)

Hello Lovely People!!! 

Today, I will be sharing with you all my favourite Octopus dish. It is simple , easy and super fast to make.

Ingredients:

1kg of Octopus (cleaned, washed and chopped into pieces)

1 tsp of tamarind paste

3 large chopped onions

1 tsp of fenugreek seeds

5 large cloves of fresh garlic - grated

5-6 chopped green chillies

1.5 tbsp of freshly ground mustard seeds

1 tbsp of turmeric powder

1 tbsp of WhiteVinegar

Salt (to taste)

4 tsp of Oil

Method:

1          Put the octopus in a skillet with ½ cup of water, season with salt and tamarind paste (this adds a little of tangy taste to the dish).

2         Cover the skillet and allow it to cook on low heat until the water dries out and the octopus pieces have turn soft and develop a pinkish colour. Allow it to cool.

3         In a skillet, add oil and allow heating up on a low flame.

4        Add in the fenugreek seeds and onions and when the onions have started to become translucent, add in the freshly grated garlic (Do not let it become brown). Allow to cook for couple of minutes and add the mustard and let it cook for a further one minute.

5        Remove the skillet from the heat, add the turmeric powder and stir well. (The reason I do it this way is because if I allowed it on the heat for longer it might overcook and hence taste bitter)

6        Add in the vinegar and stir.

7        Add the cooked octopus piece s followed by the green chillies. s and put back on the stove for 2 minutes (still on low flame)

I personally love to have the Octopus Vindaloo/Vindaye in a freshly baked baguette (French Loaf) but on a cold and rainy day, I would have it with piping hot white rice and ‘Tarka dhall ‘.

If you are not a fan of octopus, you can substitute it by using Fresh Tuna Fish. But You will need to cut the fish into pieces, fry them and allow to cool before adding in the vindaye/vindaloo .

Enjoy and stay tuned for more yummy recipes : )

Deep Fried Squid

I have been wondering for a while which first recipe to share with you all. I was born in Mauritius, a paradise island in the Indian Ocean where we have the freshest seafood available. So, let me share my quickest seafood dish with you today- Deep Fried Squid. It’s on our dining table quite often. It can be served as a starter or a side dish along with a nice chilled beer ;) The Deep fried squid from the pictures below were made on 2 different occasions- in the first picture, I used fresh squid and I found the texture and the colour different from second picture where I used frozen carved squid. But both were tender inside and crispy on the outside :) Hurry up, make yourself a batch of these babies and enjoy!!!

Ingredients:

500g of fresh squid (You can use frozen one if it’s not available but make sure it’s thawed before cooking. You can also buy the carved ones so as not to take time for cutting)

1 cup of liquid milk

1 cup of plain flour

5 tbsp of cornstarch (corn flour)

Salt (to taste)

Black Pepper (to taste)

Oil for deep frying

1tsp of Paprika (optional)

1 tsp of garlic powder (optional)

Optional:

1 tbsp of finely chopped garlic

1 large onion chopped

1 red chilli finely chopped /chilli flakes

Finely chopped spring onions

1 tbsp of oil

Method:

1          Take the squid and lay it flat on a chopping board and with the help of a knife make a criss-cross pattern on the flesh. Cut them into bite size pieces. Cover the pieces with milk and refrigerate for a good 5 hours. (This will make the flesh tender, else it will be too chewy)

2        When you are ready to fry, heat up enough oil for deep frying and whilst this is being heated, mix the dry ingredients- cornstarch/corn flour, plain flour, paprika (optional), garlic powder (optional), salt and pepper.

3         Drain the squid and pat it dry using a kitchen towel.

4        Coat the pieces well in the dry mixture.

5        Shake off any excess flour before deep frying.

6        Fry until golden brown.

7        Place on kitchen paper to absorb excess oil.

If you serving as a starter, you can do so by serving it with lemon wedges, garlic mayonnaise or simply ketchup, sweet chilli sauce or Tabasco sauce.

If you serving it as a side dish along with fried rice or fried noodle, then follow the following steps.

Method:

1          Take a non stick pan and heat it up.

2        Add in the oil, chopped garlic, onions, and chillies. Once the onions become translucent add it the deep fried squid pieces and toss them.

3         Sprinkle the spring onions and give a final toss and serve hot.

Enjoy and stay tuned for more yummy recipes : )