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recipe

Lifestyle

The delicious way I use up Christmas leftovers

16th December, 2022

Without a doubt one of the best things about Christmas is all the feasting. I love being able to sit down with my family and enjoy loads of delicious food. However, this also means we’re often left with lots of leftovers and there’s only so many ham sandwiches you can consume after December 25! So, over the years I’ve tried to get creative with how we use up everything we have in the fridge post-Christmas lunch.

One of my favourite ways to use up common Christmas ingredients like ham and turkey is to pop it all on a pizza. I often take a gourmet approach, adding everything from garlic oil to a beautiful ricotta mixture to take it to the next level. One of my favourite new additions to my kitchen is the Breville The Smart Oven™ Pizzaiolo which achieves an authentic woodfire pizza result at home. It’s quick and easy to use and definitely achieves a great finish. It’s also one of the best ways I’ve found to put all the delicious Christmas leftovers to good use. This year, why not try my Flavours of Christmas pizza recipe? I guarantee it’s almost as good as sitting down for Christmas lunch all over again…

 

The Flavours of Christmas Pizza

Prep time: 30 min

Total Time: 35 min (plus 8 hrs rest time)

Serves 2-4

 

For the dough

3 ¾ cups (560g) bread flour

1 tsp instant dried yeast

2 tsp salt

1 ½ cups (360ml) cold water

semolina, for dusting

For the garlic oil

1 clove garlic, thinly sliced

1/8 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil

For the ricotta mixture

½ cup (125g) ricotta cheese

2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

¼ tsp dried oregano

¼ tsp fennel seeds

1/8 tsp dried chilli flakes (optional)

For the pizza

¼ tsp balsamic vinegar

1/8 tsp mixed spice

¼ cup baby rocket

2 tbsp cranberry sauce

85g cooked turkey meat, sliced

 

 

1. To make the dough, place the flour, yeast and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the dough hook attachment, mix to combine. Add the water and knead on low speed for 5-6 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Transfer the dough to a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to proof in a warm place for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

2. Once doubled in size, scatter some semolina onto a clean benchtop. Turn the dough out and divide into 4 even portions. Shape each portion into a smooth ball.

3. Lightly sprinkle 2 baking trays with semolina and place 3 dough balls on the trays, leaving 10cm between the balls. Cover each tray with plastic wrap and refrigerate to use another time (up to 5 days).

Tip: Alternatively, you can individually wrap each one in plastic wrap and place in an airtight container in the freezer. Remove dough as required, allowing the dough to come to room temperature before use.

4. Place the remaining dough ball back into the medium bowl and cover. Allow to proof in a warm place for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

5. Meanwhile, make the garlic oil by tossing the garlic and the salt in a small bowl. Heat the oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and cook gently for 3 minutes, or until lightly coloured. Pour through a strainer and allow to cool to room temperature. Divide the oil into 3 bowls:

  • 1½ tsp in a medium bowl for the ricotta mixture
  • ½ tsp in a small bowl for the rocket dressing
  • Use remaining for brushing

6. Add all the ricotta filling ingredients to the medium bowl with the garlic oil and stir to combine.

7. Add the balsamic and mixed spice to the small bowl with the garlic mixture and stir to combine.

8. Preheat The Smart Oven™ Pizzaiolo by selecting the Wood Fired setting. This can take up to 20 minutes.

9. Meanwhile, use a bench scraper to lift the dough and dip both sides in the semolina to coat. Place onto a clean bench and gently press out the dough with your fingertips, working from the centre outwards into an approximate 22cm round, leaving a 1cm border. Lightly sprinkle the peel (the tool used to put the pizza in the oven) with the semolina. Carefully transfer the dough onto the peel, gently brushing off any excess semolina.

10. Spread the ricotta mixture evenly over the dough, leaving a 1cm border. Brush the edge of the dough with half the garlic oil.

11. Once the The Smart Oven™ Pizzaiolo has preheated, transfer the pizza to the oven and cook for 2 minutes or until the crust is starting to develop brown spots. Turn the pizza and cook for a further 30 seconds. Remove the pizza from the oven, place the turkey on the pizza and return to the oven for the final 30 seconds.

12. Transfer the pizza to a cutting board. Evenly dollop the cranberry sauce over the pizza. Toss the rocket in the dressing, then scatter evenly over the pizza. Brush the edge of the pizza with the remaining garlic oil.

13. Slice and serve hot.

 

Photography: Ashleigh Larden

This post was produced in collaboration with Breville

Lifestyle

My quick and easy chicken soup recipe

22nd March, 2021

I shared a pic of this chicken soup after making it for dinner last night and quickly received a flurry of requests asking for the recipe. The thing I love about this dish is that it’s a quick and easy chicken soup recipe, and it means I can get dinner on the table in a flash—particularly great for when the kids are starving and need to be fed immediately! It also uses really easy to find ingredients, so most of the time you can usually whip it up with what you may already have on hand in the fridge and the pantry. If you’re like me and like collecting simple yet delicious recipes to add to your dinner repertoire I highly recommend this one, plus even better, it is kid-approved. I know I’m going to be doing this soup a lot once winter rolls around. I hope you like it!

What you need:

2 litres of chicken stock

1 x 400g tin of corn kernels 

1 x 400g tin of creamed corn 

1 BBQ chicken, shredded (or you can poach chicken breasts if you’d prefer to DIY)

1 tablespoon of soy sauce 

What to do:

1. Put all of the above ingredients into a pot. Bring to a boil and lower the temperature and leave to simmer while you prep the noodles.

2. Cook a packet of Hokkien noodles (whatever size you like) in a bowl of boiling water for 2-5 minutes.

3. Chop shallots, coriander and bok choy (you can use however much you like) to add to soup.

4. Drain noodles and add them to the soup.

5. Add the greens and be sure not to leave them cooking too long as they will go soggy.

5. Cook for a further 2 minutes.

6. Serve hot. You also can garnish with chilli and coriander before serving if you wish.

The perfect cool weather dinner
Fashion

My fave fish recipe

17th May, 2020

Having been cooking virtually every meal at home over the last few weeks I’ve been relying a lot on tried and tested family favourites to make getting a meal on the table every night a little easier. It’s just good to know that everyone will like what’s on the table and there won’t be any dramas with what’s been served up. Enter this fish recipe (see above for the finished product). I shared it on Instagram a few weeks ago and had some requests for the recipe, so I’m sharing it here. I swear by this dish, as it’s one of the rare times I can get Luke to eat fish! It’s healthy, quick and easy and I highly recommend giving it a go.

Ingredients

1 knob ginger

2 cloves of garlic

1 long red chilli (you can leave this out if you don’t want the heat)

1 bunch spring onions

1 bunch of broccolini or green vegetables of your choice

2 cod fish fillets

olive oil

2 tbsp soy sauce (or gluten-free tamari soy sauce)

2 tsp honey

Jasmine rice for serving

Optional: extra soy sauce, sliced chilli and coriander for garnish

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan-forced.

2. Cook rice.

3. While the rice is cooking, finely grate the ginger. Mince garlic. Finely slice the spring onion. Finely slice the long red chilli (if using).

4. Trim broccolini (or green veg) to get it ready for later.

5. In a small bowl, combine the ginger, garlic, long red chilli (if using), spring onions, soy sauce, honey and a drizzle of olive oil and mix well. This forms your marinade for the fish.

6. Place large squares (around 30cm) of aluminium foil onto an oven tray (one per person). Divide the broccolini between the squares and top with the fish fillets. Spoon the marinade over the fish and vegetables and fold in the foil to form parcels. Make sure you fold the parcels tight as that will keep the steam in and help the fish to cook.

7. Pop the fish parcels on an oven tray and put it in the oven to bake for 15 minutes, or until the fish is just cooked through. 

8. Place rice on plate. Open up the foil parcels and top the rice with the veggies and steamed fish. Spoon over any remaining juices from the parcel.

9. For extra kick, I like to add a little extra soy and chilli on the fish once plated. I also top it with a few coriander leaves. Bon appetit!