Lamb and Lentil Curry

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

 

When I was in Sainsburys looking for some stewing lamb I found a boneless lamb shoulder, which worked out cheaper than those packets of diced lamb. As it was boneless it was easy to cut up into pieces and I managed to make 2 meals from the joint. One was a Thai Massaman Curry and the other was this curry.

 

I adapted a recipe from an old Fresh magazine and I cooked it in my Tefal 4-in-1. The meat was meltingly tender and had incredible flavour as the lamb shoulder had a good bit of fat on it.

 

I served it with brown rice and home-made naan bread.

 

• Serves: 2 (the amount of sauce could serve 4 people if you double the meat)

 

Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons oil
• 500g lamb shoulder (or leg) cut into 4cm chunks
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 1 green pepper, cut into chunks
• 2 Tablespoons of Rogan Josh Curry Paste (I used Pataks)
• 1 (400g) tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tin of water
• 1 Tablespoon of concentrated liquid stock (I used Knorr Touch of Taste Beef)
• 2 handfuls of split red lentils, rinsed and drained
• 1 whole green chilli, poked a few times with a knife

 

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the lamb in batches until lightly browned all over. Remove the lamb from the pan (set aside in the Tefal cooking bowl) leaving the oil in the pan.
2. Add the onions and pepper to the pan and cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes until soft and golden.
3. Return the lamb to the pan, stir in the curry paste and fry for a couple of minutes to release the spices.
4. Add the tomatoes, tin of water, the Tablespoon of concentrated liquid stock, the red lentils and the green chilli.
5. Bring to the boil, then transfer to the Tefal cooking bowl. Cook for 4-5 hours. You can transfer the curry back into the pan and simmer uncovered to thicken the sauce whilst you cook the rice in the Tefal.

 

COOK’S NOTES:

• You can cook this on the hob by covering the pan and simmering gently for 1 hour 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Or you can cook it in the oven at Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C for 2-2½ hours.

Chicken Cacciatore

MUNCH RATING: 3/5

I was talking to Steve’s sister about this dish as I was disappointed with the Giada De Laurentiis recipe I’d tried. She said she uses a Nigella Lawson recipe which uses pancetta and cannellini beans. I doubt these are traditional ingredients for this Italian dish, but they add good flavour and texture.

CHANGES TO THE RECIPE:
I did adapt Nigella’s recipe by adding more herbs and I just used normal garlic as a substitute for the garlic oil. I also omitted the celery salt as I didn’t have any. I also added some spinach at the last minute for colour and because it needed to be used up!

TASTE TEST:
It’s a nice one-pot dish for an everyday meal, but it’s nothing really special so I will tweak it until I think “Wow!”. I think I will add some chilli next time as I think it would benefit from some heat.

• Serves: 4 (or 2 very greedy people!)

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 75g pancetta cubes
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 6 spring onions, finely sliced
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 bay leaves
• 450g (approx. 4-5) chicken thighs, skinned, deboned and cut into bite size pieces
• salt and pepper
• ½ cup white wine
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• ½ - 1 teaspoon sugar (depends on your tomatoes)
• 400g can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

Directions:

1. Put the oil into a pan with the pancetta, garlic, spring onions and the herbs and fry for a couple of minutes.
2. Add the chicken pieces, stirring well, and season with salt and pepper.
3. Pour in the wine and let it come to a bubble before adding the tomatoes and sugar.
4. Simmer for 10-15 minutes until the chicken is cooked and the sauce has thickened.
5. Add the cannellini beans and when they have warmed through serve immediately.

Chicken Tikka Shashlik

MUNCH RATING: 3/5

I first came across Shashlik when Steve had a Chicken Tikka Shashlik Masala Curry in a curry house a few years ago. It’s not a dish that I’ve seen on any other Indian restaurant menu. This is basically the same thing without the masala sauce.

Shashlik is essentially meat on a stick. Apparently it originally comes from central Asia, but there are versions from Russia, Turkey and Pakistan.
Pieces of lamb or chicken are marinated in spices and either oil and lemon juice or in this case yoghurt. The meat is then threaded onto skewers with pieces of onion, green pepper and tomato and traditionally cooked in a tandoor or over a charcoal grill. I had to settle for under the grill.

The chicken was really nicely cooked and the marinade gave it loads of flavour and kept it moist. The vegetables became quite nice and charred, but Steve said it wasn’t quite the same as in the restaurant. I think the grill struggled to get hot enough.

Overall, Shashlik is a healthier way to have curry as it’s not laden with lots of cream or ghee, plus it’s grilled. I served it with rice, but I think it would actually be much better stuffed into a soft naan bread and slathered with loads of mayonnaise. Hey, I never said I was on a diet!

• Serves: 2
• You will need: 8 bamboo skewers, soaked in water

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken thighs, deboned and cut into large chunks
• 2 Tablespoons curry paste (I used Korma)
• 2 Tablespoons natural yoghurt
• ½ onion, cut into wedges and layers separated
• ½ green pepper, cut into chunks
• 2 tomatoes, cut into wedges

Directions:

1. In a large bowl mix the chicken, curry paste and yoghurt. Cover tightly (unless you want to stink out your whole fridge) and leave in the fridge for a couple of hours to marinate.
2. Preheat your grill to high.
3. Thread pieces of chicken, onion, pepper and tomato onto your skewers, leaving a gap at the end so you can turn them.
4. Cover a baking tray with foil (this will save on washing up) and place your kebabs on the tray and season with a little salt and pepper.
5. Cook under the grill for 15-20 minutes, turning occasionally until the chicken is cooked and the vegetables are nicely charred.

COOK’S NOTES:

• If using lamb or chicken breast instead of thighs, then they should only take about 10-12 minutes to cook.

Sausage and Tomato Quiche

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

When I made my Leek and Bacon Quiche I came up with the idea of doing a Breakfast Quiche with sausage, bacon and mushrooms. I wanted to add some cherry tomatoes and now that Steve likes my home-grown ones, I decided to just do a Sausage and Tomato quiche (plus we didn’t have any bacon as we’d had Bacon Sarnies the day before!).

I thought the tomatoes tasted fantastic so I’d definitely put them into a quiche again.

I used the pastry that I’d previously made and put into the freezer. I defrosted it in the fridge overnight and it had little white spots all over it. It looked a bit like mould, but it didn’t smell off and Steve said it was probably just the fat in the pastry that had separated. So I just kneaded the pastry until it was smooth and it was fine to roll out.

• Makes: 1 quiche but enough pastry for 2
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C
• Prep time: 20 minutes
• Cooking time: 1 hour
• You will need: an 8-inch flan tin

Ingredients for the Shortcrust Pastry:

• 225g plain flour
• 55g butter, cold
• 55g lard, cold
• approx. 9 teaspoons water

Directions for the pastry:

1. Sift the flour and a pinch of salt into a mixing bowl.
2. Cut the fat into small pieces and add to the flour. Rub the fat into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. If you shake the bowl, any big lumps of fat should rise to the surface, so you need to rub these in.
3. Make a well in the centre, then add the water and using a round bladed/palette knife, mix into a firm dough. Don’t force the mixture together, if you need to add another teaspoon of water to bring together the dry bits at the bottom of the bowl then that’s fine.
4. There is no need to chill this dough, so you can roll it out and use it straight away or store it in the freezer for another time.
5. You only need half the amount of pastry for 1 quiche, so split it in half and freeze whatever you don’t need - if you have a spare flan tin then it’s ideal if you line that tin with the pastry and then pop the whole thing in the freezer, then it’s ready to use for next time!
6. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C.
7. Roll out your pastry to 2-3mm thick and use it to line an 8-inch flan tin, pressing it into the flutes, then neatly trim away the excess with a knife. If your tin has a lip then make sure it is covered with pastry as when it bakes it will shrink. Then line the tin with some greaseproof paper and fill with a layer of baking beans and bake blind for 15 minutes, it should be pale golden brown. Remove the baking beans and the paper and return the pastry to the oven for about 5-10 minutes to dry out the base.

Ingredients for the filling:

• 4 sausages (I used Lincolnshire)
• big handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
• 75g mature cheddar cheese, grated
• 2 large eggs
• 150ml double cream (I used Elmlea)
• salt and black pepper

Directions for the filling:

1. Grill the sausages until they’re golden brown. Slice on an angle about 5mm thick.
2. Arrange roughly half the sausages into the blind-baked pastry case, sprinkle on the cheese, then arrange the tomato halves and the rest of the sausage over the top in a pretty pattern.
3. Whisk the eggs with the cream, salt and pepper. Pour the liquid into the pastry case, being careful not to overfill it (you might not need all of it).
4. Place in the top third of your oven and cook for 25-30 minutes at Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C. Serve hot or warm.

Haddock and Chorizo Gnocchi

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

This is my interpretation of a Gregg Wallace recipe from BBC Good Food Magazine. He used potatoes in his dish instead of the gnocchi, but I like the way the gnocchi absorbs some of the sauce, plus it’s quicker to cook!

I added some Parmesan to the dish as I’d just bought some from the Farmer’s Market in Epsom (read more about it here) and it worked well.
This is a really quick and easy recipe and the chorizo gives so much flavour. It’s quick garlicky, so there was no need to add any extra garlic!

• Serves: 2
• You will need: a frying pan with a tight fitting lid

Ingredients:

• 250g potato gnocchi (I used ½ 500g pack of Trattoria Verdi from Tescos)
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small chorizo sausage, thinly sliced (I used Cooking Chorizo from the Tesco Ingredients range)
• good handful cherry tomatoes, halved (home-grown of course!)
• 1 teaspoon Knorr Chicken Stock Granules
• 2 skinless thick haddock fillets (or other white fish)*
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Cook the gnocchi as per pack instructions, drain but reserve a couple of Tablespoons of the cooking water and then set aside.
2. Heat a large lidded frying, then add the oil. Add the chorizo and fry for 2 minutes until it starts to release its oil, then add the tomatoes, the reserved cooking water and the chicken stock. Cook until the tomatoes burst, then add the gnocchi and mix in well.
3. Season the fish with salt and pepper. Lay the fish on top of the gnocchi, put the lid on and leave to cook for 5 minutes, or until the fish has turned white and is flaky when prodded in the middle.
4. Sprinkle with a small handle of parmesan cheese.

*Take the fish out of the fridge and allow to come up to room temperature before cooking.

Rick Stein’s Rabbit Stifado

MUNCH RATING: 1/5

I knew I wanted to make a stew with the rabbit I bought from the Farmer’s Market in Epsom last Sunday, but as I’d never eaten or cooked it before I looked for some guidance. Even though I don’t like Rick Stein, I decided to have a flick through his Mediterranean Escapes book, which has been sitting unused on the bookcase since Steve’s Mum bought it last year. I spotted a recipe for Rabbit Stifado and thought it would be perfect because I had a packet of stifado herb and spice mixture that Steve’s sister brought me back from Halkidiki.

The herb mixture contained:

• thyme
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• bay leaves
• black peppercorns
• allspice

So I just replaced all of the spices in Rick’s recipe with about a third of my packet and the flavour of the sauce tasted authentically Greek. But the rabbit itself was a huge disappointment. It was really tough and dry and lacked flavour. What a waste of a fiver! I was a bit dubious about the short cooking time of the recipe and I REALLY regretted not cooking this in my Tefal slow cooker! The sauce was also very watery, so I added some cornflour at the end to thicken.

I served the stew with rice and potatoes as that’s what was served to us in the restaurants we visited in Greece. I sautéed the potatoes with garlic and rosemary and they were the best part of the meal!

So now I have even more reasons to not like Rick Stein! Here’s Rick’s recipe if you want to make the mistake of making it!

• Serves: 4
• Cooking time: 55 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 large rabbit, weighing about 1.5kg, jointed
• 6 allspice berries
• ½ teaspoon black peppercorns
• 3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon flour
• 5 garlic cloves
• 50ml red wine vinegar
• 600ml red wine (I used Merlot Pinot Grigio)
• 400g chopped tomatoes
• 5cm piece cinnamon stick
• 6 cloves
• 2 fresh bay leaves
• 50g currants (I left these out as I’ve never had stifado with them in!)
• 15g butter
• 450g small pickling onions or shallots*
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Season all the rabbit pieces with salt and pepper.
2. Grind the allspice berries and black peppercorns into a powder.
3. Heat the olive oil in a flameproof casserole. Dust the rabbit in the flour and knock off but reserve the excess. Add half the rabbit pieces to the casserole and fry over a medium-high heat until nicely browned on both sides. Remove to a plate and repeat with the rest of the rabbit.
4. Return all the rabbit to the pan with the garlic and the remaining flour and cook for 1 minute.
5. Pour over the vinegar and leave it to bubble for a minute or two, then add the red wine, tomatoes, ground spices, cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves, currants, 1 teaspoon salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Bring to the boil, part-cover and simmer for 55 minutes or until the rabbit is very tender and the sauce has reduced.
6. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a medium-sized pan, add the pickling onions or shallots and the sugar and fry, shaking the pan now and then, until they are richly golden all over. Then add 2 Tablespoons water, cover and cook gently for 10 minutes until tender. Uncover, raise the heat and cook more rapidly for a minute or two, shaking the pan until the onions are covered in a shiny glaze. Season with a little salt and pepper and set aside.
7. When the rabbit has had the required cooking time, stir in the caramelised onions and simmer for a further 5 minutes.

* I bought a packet of baby onions and to make it easier to peel them, I blanched them in boiling water for about 1 minute, so the skins came away more easily.

Jamie Oliver's Sweet Cherry Tomato and Sausage Bake

MUNCH RATING: 3/5

This is a Jamie Oliver recipe and I think it’s the first recipe of his that I’ve actually used! I thought the recipe would be perfect for using up my glut of cherry tomatoes, but I didn’t have enough (even though I halved the recipe, the full recipe is below) so I just made up the quantity with normal tomatoes.

I also got to use the rosemary and thyme that is growing very nicely in my herb pot, which I was very excited about (yes I know I need to get out more!).
The original recipe is incredibly easy to make as you just throw everything into a baking tray and shove it in the oven. My only criticism is I would like more specific quantities for the oil and balsamic vinegar, as it’s quite hard to make an educated guess when you’re drizzling.

CHANGES TO THE RECIPE:
I added my own twist to the recipe by blitzing the sauce and then passing it through a sieve to create a silky smooth sauce, because Steve doesn’t like tomato skins. However, this was a waste of time because he didn’t like the sauce anyway! He wasn’t keen on the balsamic vinegar, but I really liked it. I’ve got loads of sauce leftover, which I was going to use as a pasta sauce or to top a pizza, but I’ll have to think of a different way to use it up!

I was going to serve it with mashed potatoes, but I decided that since I had the oven on, I’d cook up some nice rosemary and garlic potatoes instead as they will cook at the same time.

• Serves: 6
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 5/375°F/190°C
• You will need: a large roasting tray (lined with foil to make cleaning up easier)

Ingredients:

• 2kg ripe cherry tomatoes
• 2 each fresh rosemary and thyme sprigs and bay leaves (I used 1 dried bay leaf)
• 1 Tablespoon dried oregano
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 12 good quality Cumberland or coarse Italian sausages
• Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
• Balsamic vinegar for drizzling

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 5/375°F/190°C.
2. Find the largest roasting tray you can – make sure it’s large enough to take the tomatoes in 1 snug-fitting layer.
3. Put in all your tomatoes, the herb sprigs, oregano, garlic and sausages.
4. Drizzle well with the oil and balsamic vinegar. Toss together, then make sure the sausages are on top.
5. Bake for 30 minutes, then give the pan a shake and turn the sausages.
6. Return to the oven for a further 20-30 minutes, depending on how golden you like your sausages (I put the sausages on the top shelf for the second half of cooking).
7. Once it’s cooked, you will have an intense, tomatoey sauce. If it’s a little too thin (mine was quite watery), lift out the sausages and place the tray on the hob for 5 minutes to cook it down to a thicker consistency.*

* I didn’t think my sausages were very brown, so I added them to the pan that my potatoes were cooking in and turned the oven up to Gas 8 and cooked for another 10 minutes. For the sauce, I poured it into a saucepan and cooked on the hob for 5 minutes (only because I didn’t think my roasting tin could take the heat on the hob!). I also added about a teaspoon of sugar to balance out the vinegar. I then used a hand blender to blitz the sauce, then passed it through a sieve. To serve, I ladled some sauce onto a plate, placed the sausages on top and scattered the potatoes around the plate.

For the Rosemary and Garlic Potatoes:
Allow 3-4 new potatoes per person. Wash and dry them, then cut them into roughly 1cm pieces. Place them in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil until nicely coated and add a couple of cloves of chopped garlic and about a tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary. Put into a roasting tin or ovenproof frying pan and bake in the oven on the top shelf (at the same time and temperature as the sausages), turning occasionally.

Pasta Bake

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

This is basically like a lasagne, but instead of using lasagne sheets you use cooked tagliatelle, so it is much quicker to cook as it is just flashed under the grill. I’ve made dishes like this before with a mince beef tomato sauce, but the addition of the wine really makes a difference, as do the herbs and nutmeg, so they are well worth buying.

• Serves: 4
• You will need: an ovenproof dish about 9 x 9 inches

Ingredients:

• 225g (8oz) minced beef
• 2 Tablespoons oil
• 50g (2oz) lean bacon, chopped
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 small carrot, grated
• 2 Tablespoons red or white wine
• 65ml (2½ fl.oz) stock
• salt and pepper
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1 medium tin tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons tomato puree
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• bay leaf
• 100g (4oz) dried tagliatelle
• 450ml (¾ pint) Béchamel sauce*
• 100g (4oz) grated cheese

Directions:

1. Heat 1 Tablespoon oil in a saucepan, add the bacon and cook until golden brown.
2. Add the onion and carrot and cook slowly until soft and transparent.
3. Stir in the minced beef and cook until the meat changes colour.
4. Add the wine, stock, salt and pepper, nutmeg, tomatoes, tomato puree, garlic and bay leaf. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer gently for approximately 45 minutes.
5. Cook the tagliatelle in boiling salted water with the remaining Tablespoon of oil. Drain well.
6. Place a layer of meat mixture in an ovenproof dish, cover with a layer of tagliatelle, then a layer of Béchamel sauce and then a layer of grated cheese. Repeat these layers finishing with a layer of cheese.
7. Brown under a hot grill or in the top of a hot oven Gas mark 7/425°F/220°C.

* Make the sauce using 450ml (¾ pint) milk, 40g (1½oz) butter and 40g (1½oz) flour.

Mandy’s ‘Healthy’ Cajun Calzone & Dough Balls

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

I totally made up this recipe for the filling and I’m calling it ‘healthy’ because there’s no fattening cheese. I basically used tomatoes and ½ fat crème fraiche to make a creamy sauce so that the filling ingredients wouldn’t be dry. I have to say that for a total experiment it worked really well! I will definitely make this again as it’s a great way to use up leftovers and it was actually tastier than the pizza.

I made up the dough as per this pizza recipe and I used half the dough for the calzone and the other half I used to make dough balls (like the ones you get from Pizza Express).

• Makes: 1 calzone to serve 2 people and 8 dough balls
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 8/450°F/230°C
• You will need: at least 2 baking trays 

Calzone Filling Ingredients:

• 1 small chorizo sausage, chopped into small pieces
• 4 mushrooms, sliced
• 3 tomatoes, roughly chopped
• handful leftover roasted butternut squash chunks*
• leftover sliced and roasted red onion*
• 2 large handfuls of spinach
• 2 heaped teaspoons Cajun seasoning (I used Bart’s)
• 2 heaped Tablespoons ½ fat crème fraiche 

Calzone Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 8/450°F/230°C and place a baking tray in the oven to get hot (or ideally use a pizza stone!)
2. In a large non-stick pan fry the chorizo (no need to add oil) until crispy and the chorizo has released its oils.
3. Add the mushrooms and fry until soft.
4. Add the tomatoes with a splash of water, cover with a lid and cook for about 10 minutes until they have broken down.
5. Add the butternut squash, onion and spinach (or any other vegetables you want), the Cajun seasoning and the crème fraiche and mix thoroughly. Set to one side to cool whilst you roll the dough.
6. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out to a 10 inch/25cm circle and so that it is about 3mm thick.
7. Spread the filling onto one half of the circle, brush the edge lightly with water, then fold over the dough and pinch to make a semi-circle pasty shape.
8. Lift the calzone onto a baking tray and place this tray on top of the preheated one in the oven.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown (I spread some leftover garlic butter over the calzone 5 minutes before the end of cooking). 

DOUGH BALLS:

1. Portion the other half of the dough into 8 even sized balls and roll so they have a smooth surface.
2. Place on a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes until golden brown and they sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Serve with garlic butter (1 clove of crushed garlic mixed with 1 Tablespoon softened butter). 

*To roast the butternut squash and onion I just cut the squash into chunks and the onion into 8 wedges, tossed in a little oil and dried rosemary, then roasted on Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C for 45 minutes, turning occasionally.

You might also be interested in: Homemade Pizza

Homemade Pizza

MUNCH RATING: 3/5

It’s been a while since my last attempt at cooking with dough (Chelsea Buns in March) and I thought I’d try something a bit simpler, so I found this pizza recipe on the BBC Good Food website.

The dough was incredibly easy to make and had a really good texture, so I’ll definitely be making it again. I imagine these would taste even better if cooked on a pizza stone!

This might seem like a really long recipe, but so many things can be prepared in advance and apparently the dough can be frozen.

The original recipe called for passata for the sauce, but I didn’t have any and we had some tomatoes that had gone soft, so I used those instead to make my own sauce. Unfortunately my basil hasn’t grown big enough otherwise I would have added some! I would of also added garlic, but I’d run out! Plus I was making this pizza with Steve’s mum in mind and as she doesn’t like garlic I was trying to make it as plain as possible. She doesn’t normally like pizza as she doesn’t like the tomato sauce, but she tried some of my sauce and said it was very nice! I had some sauce leftover and this was great mixed with some creme fraiche to make a sauce for pasta.

I also added lots of extra topping ingredients as I find margherita a bit boring!

• Makes: 2 pizzas
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 8/450°F/230°C
• You will need: a large bowl, 2 baking sheets plus 1 in the oven
• Prep Time: 25 mins plus time if you let the dough rise
• Cook Time: 10-15 mins per pizza

Ingredients For The Base:

• 300g strong bread flour
• 1 tsp instant yeast (I used Tesco’s Fast Action Dried Yeast)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 200ml warm water

Ingredients For My Sauce:

• 2 handfuls of cherry tomatoes
• 3 large tomatoes, quartered
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 100ml vegetable stock
• 1 Tablespoon tomato ketchup
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Black pepper to season

Ingredients For The Topping:

• 125g ball mozzarella, chopped into small pieces
• 100g mature cheddar cheese, grated
• 4 mushrooms, sliced
• 2 sweet orange peppers, sliced
• cooked Cajun chicken, chopped into small pieces*

Directions:
1. Make The Dough: Put the flour into a large bowl, then stir in the yeast and salt. Make a well, pour in 200ml warm water and the olive oil and bring together with a wooden spoon until you have a soft, fairly wet dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 mins until smooth. Lightly oil the bowl before you put the dough back into it, then cover with a tea towel and set aside. You can leave the dough to rise if you like, but it's not essential for a thin crust. (I left my dough to rise and the middle photo shows it after 1 hour and the photo on the right is after 2.5 hours).

2. Make the sauce: Put all the sauce ingredients into a saucepan and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the tomatoes have broken down and the stock has reduced and you have a nice thick sauce. Pass through a sieve to strain out the tomato skins. Leave to stand at room temperature whilst you make the base.
3. Roll out the dough: If you've let the dough rise, give it a quick knead, then split into two balls. On a floured surface, roll out the dough into large rounds, about 25cm across, using a rolling pin. The dough needs to be very thin as it will rise in the oven. Lift the rounds onto two floured baking sheets.
4. Top and bake: Heat oven to Gas mark 8/450°F/230°C. Put another baking sheet or an upturned baking tray in the oven on the top shelf. Smooth sauce over bases with the back of a spoon. Scatter with your toppings (drizzle with olive oil and season). Put one pizza, still on its baking sheet, on top of the preheated sheet or tray. Bake for 8-10 mins until crisp (mine took between 10-15 mins as I made my bases quite thick). Repeat step for remaining pizza.
* To make the Cajun chicken I took the skin off and deboned 2 small chicken thighs and marinated in 1 Tablespoon olive oil and 1 Tablespoon of Cajun seasoning (I used Bart’s). Then I cooked in a George Foreman grill for about 5 minutes so it was crispy and charred as if it had been on the BBQ!
You might also be interested in:

• Calzone and Dough Balls
• New and improved pizza!

Butter Chicken Curry

MUNCH RATING: 3/5

When I first got my Tefal 4-in-1 I was desperate to find some decent slow cooker recipes and this is one I found on a forum. I’ve never had Butter Chicken in an Indian restaurant or as a takeaway, but the ingredients sounded nice and it was a simple recipe to follow.

This was the first time I’ve cooked chicken in the slow cooker and it was amazingly tender! We did enjoy the curry, but we couldn’t taste the butter so I would leave it out next time to save on calories! I would also increase the amount of spices as it needed a bit more flavour and chilli!

• Serves: 2 generously
• Cooking time: 4-5 hours

Ingredients:

• 500g chicken thigh fillets, quartered
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger (or ½ tsp ground)
• ¼ teaspoon chilli powder
• 1 cinnamon stick (or 1 tsp ground)
• 6 cardamom pods, bruised (or 1-2 tsp seeds or ground – I left these out)
• 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
• 400g tin tomatoes
• 1 Tablespoons sugar (I used honey)
• Salt and pepper
• ½ cup cream, plus extra if desired

Directions:

1. Heat a little oil in a large frying pan and brown chicken. Transfer to preheating slow cooker.
2. Add the onion and garlic to the pan, frying gently until the onion is softened.
3. Add butter and spices, and continue frying gently until spices are fragrant.
4. Add tomato paste, tomatoes, sugar, salt and pepper and increase heat to med - med/high. Simmer for a few minutes, stirring until mixture has thickened.
5. Add cream and stir well to combine.
6. Remove from heat and pour into slow cooker, stirring to distribute the sauce evenly. Replace lid and slow cook for ½ hour on high (if using traditional slow cooker), then about 3-5 hours on low, stirring occasionally.
7. Remove cardamom and cinnamon stick. Add extra cream or yoghurt to taste.

Italian Oxtail Stew

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

I haven’t eaten oxtail in years, but I remember my parents cooking it and the meat being really delicious. I cooked this Italian style stew in my Tefal 4-in-1 and it was really nice.

• Serves: 4-6 
• Cooking time: 9 hours 

Ingredients:

• 3 Tablespoons plain flour
• Salt and pepper
• 1.5kg/3lb 5oz oxtail pieces
• 1 Tablespoon oil
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 Tablespoon white wine vinegar mixed with 150 ml water (or the equivalent amount of red or white wine would be good)
• 2 x 400g/14oz tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 beef OXO cube 

Directions:

1. Put the flour on a plate and season with salt and pepper.
2. Roll the oxtail pieces in the seasoned flour and shake off the excess.
3. Heat the oil in a large pan, then fry the oxtail pieces until brown all over. You will probably need to do this in batches. Set the browned oxtail aside.
4. In the same pan, fry the onions and garlic until the are just starting to soften and colour.
5. Add the white wine vinegar and the water and rapidly boil until it has reduced by half.
6. Add the tinned tomatoes and bring to the boil.
7. Crumble in the OXO cube.
8. Pour everything into the slow cooker and cook for at least 9 hours for tender meat (this is the maximum time you can set the Tefal to slow cook), but anything up to 12-15 hours would be even better.

COOK'S NOTES:

• Ideally I would cook this in advance and allow to cool so I could skim off the excess fat as oxtail is quite fatty and then reheat to serve. 
• Oven Cook: You can also cook this in the oven in a covered casserole dish for 5-6 hours on Gas mark 2/300°F/150°C/very low.