Pizza made with Love and Care

Hi ! I apologise for not posting any recipes recently but as a university student I concentrate mostly on my studies and I simply don't have much time for cooking. Well, except for today !

























 



 My friend from my course is staying over and I want to surprise her with something delicious (besides, I myself want something that is not from a take-away), but the problem is she does not eat any vegetables and apart from that the list of what she likes is very short...

- Meat
- Chocolate
- Water
- Tea
- Mushrooms
- Tomato if they're a sauce
- Raw Peas
- Potatoes (as chips and crisps)
- White Wine
- Bread
- Cheese

... and that's more or less about it. From this list I see only a couple of options and because it will be a girly night with movies and probably sewing (we're studying Costume Design and our Final Crit is coming to us with big steps) I decided to make a Mighty Meaty Pizza with Mushrooms and Chocolate Muffins. Also another friend of mine is coming and he doesn't eat pork so ham and pepperoni cannot make an appearance on the pizza. Let's get it started !

For a muffin recipe click here http://butterfingered-chef.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/quick-easy-and-delicious-muffin-recipe.html 
To make a fully chocolate muffin melt chocolate and add to the mixture.


Ingredients for the pizza : 

- Slices of beef
- Champignons
- Cheddar Cheese
- 7g of Dried Yeast
- Tbsp of Sea Salt
- Tbsp of Golden Caster Sugar
- 1kg of Strong Bread Flour
- Lukewarm Water (650ml)
- A can of Peeled Tomatoes
- Oregano
- Pepper
- Sugar
- Damp Cloth

Start of by pouring lukewarm water into a large bowl. Slowly add yeast, caster sugar and sea salt while stirring with a fork. Add flour in small amounts. Keep stirring. Keep adding the flour until it creates a spongy dough. On a dusted with flour surface knead the dough with your hand until smooth. Put a dough into a flour-dusted bowl and cover it with a damp cloth (the cloth should touch the dough). Keep it in a warm room until the dough doubles in size. It can take around 30-40 minutes for the dough to expand. Pour the can of peeled tomatoes in a small pot and cook it on a medium heat. Add in normal white sugar, pepper, salt and oregano (the measurements for this are up to you). Preheat the oven to 200°C. Dust a baking tray with flour and pop the dough in. Depending on how big is your tray and how thick you like your pizza this portion of dough can be enough for two trays of pizza. Normally you should stretch and flatten the pizza dough before popping it on a tray but for those who like really thick pizza base I suggest skipping that part. I skipped it and popped my dough straight on a tray and spread it around it with my hands. This created a very thick and delicate base. Spread a thin layer of the sauce on a pizza dough. Now add the toppings. Cheese goes first, then beef and mushrooms. On top of that add more cheese. Pop the pizza in the oven. It should take around 20 minutes for it to be ready. 

Voila ! Very thick, super delicious and as my friends described it "awesome !" pizza. A delicious way to show your friends that you truly care about them. 

I hope you'll try this recipe out and that your friends will love it as much as mine did.

With Love,

Butterfingered Chef 

Butterfingered Chef's Turkey Pie

Hello ! Today I want to share with you a recipe I am very proud of.  Trust me - it is simply delicious ! Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside.  Simple to make and great for a family dinner. 















Ingredients : 

- Champignons
- Bacon
- Double Cream
- Rosemary
- Minced Turkey 
- Pepper 
- Chicken Broth Cube 
- Batatas (Sweet Potatoes) 
- Olive Oil  
- Fresh Bread Crumbs 
- Garlic 
- Shortcrust Pastry Sheet


Start of by heating up an oven to 200ºC. Slice the champignons and cook on oil of olive on high heat for 3-4 minutes. Remember to wash the champignons well. Cut bacon in any way you wish (you can have small pieces but I personally liked them quite big). Add bacon to champignons and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Wash, peel and slice sweet potatoes and arrange them at the bottom of the pie dish. You want the slices to be approximately 5 mm wide.  Cut the minced turkey into big pieces and add to the pan. Cook it for 4-5 minutes on a low heat until the turkey meat goes white but is not yet cooked throughout. Season with pepper. To a small pot pour double cream, add finely chopped rosemary, freshly ground pepper and 1/5 of a chicken broth cube, stir and on a low heat cook for 2-3 minutes. Keep stirring. When it's done pour the cream over the sweet potatoes. On top of that lay the turkey/bacon/mushroom mixture. Sprinkle some fresh bread crumbs and freshly minced garlic over the whole thing. Now it's the time to make use of shortcrust pastry sheets*. After arranging the pastry cover it with a thin amount of olive oil. Put in the oven for 35-40 minutes. 



* Remember to take the pastry sheets out of the fridge 30 minutes before the cooking time. When they're cold they break. 



I hope you will like my recipe ! Leave your thoughts on it in a comment and help me improve it !  

Enjoy ! 

Butterfingered Chef 

Blood Sausage Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner !

Blood sausage ? Wait, what ?

Well, if you never ate anything like that then you definitely should !

Kaszanka - it's a traditional Polish cuisine. It's a combination of buckwheat, pig offal (like liver, skin, lungs, fat) and pig's blood stuffed in pig's intestine. Sounds disgusting ? Well, don't let it put you off.

Kaszanka is somewhat similar to a Scottish Haggis (sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach). It is usually served with onions and potatoes but personally I love to eat it with scrambled eggs and toast. It can be eaten cold or grilled. I think the grilled version is much better and the crunchier the skin the more pleasure from eating it you will have. It is great for breakfast, lunch, dinner or as an appetiser !

I love Kaszanka for it's taste but also for the memories I have connected to it for example family grill at my grandparents summer house. 

I bet that even if you have doubts about it the smell of it will convince you to try it . 

Bon Appétit !

Butterfingered Chef

Breakfast with my family where Blood Sausage was the Queen of the table. 

Jamie Oliver's Recipe - Beef Strips Stew

Today I made Beef Strips Stew based on Jamie Oliver's (I love him) recipe.

Ingredients needed : 

- olive oil
- 2 red onions
- 3 carrots
- 3 celery stems
- 4 garlic cloves
- a few twigs of fresh rosemary
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 small handful of dry cep mushrooms
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 kg of beef strips
- salt and pepper
- 2 cans of 400g of tomatoes
- and it should be 2/3 bottle of Chianti wine but I accidentally added some kind of Cherry...

The recipe says that I should cook it in the oven but because I didn't have deep enough baking tin I decided to cook it on a gas-stove.
First thing you have to do is to heat up a few spoons of olive oil in a pot. Turn the heat down and throw onion, carrots, celery, garlic , rosemary, bay leaves, mushrooms and cinnamon in and cook for 5 minutes. All the vegetables should be chopped into thick pieces. Don't peel the garlic.

Cut the meat into 5 cm squares. Sprinkle the meat with some flour mixed with salt and pepper. Add the meat to the vegetables in the pot. Add in tinned tomatoes, Cherry (which should be Chianti but as I said before I made a mistake), salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, cover with a lid and cook on a low heat for around 2 hours. Just in case I stirred the stew every 15 minutes. You know it's ready when the meat is really soft.

At the end remove the cinnamon and rosemary.
Even though I used Cherry instead of Chianti the stew tasted delicious. The sweetness of Cherry evaporated during cooking.


This is a delicious and healthy meal which goes great with buckwheat. I would really enjoy it on a colder evening surrounded by my family.

Hope you'll try it and enjoy it as much as I did ! 

Butterfingered Chef