Pizza making at Pantry Cafe

Pantry Café a wonderful modern dining & open kitchen  concept opened it’s door’s a couple of months ago. Having read Foodiva’s review I had explored this place over breakfast and a brunch a couple of times. This café has a lovely rustic-chic feel to it. The menu apart from the wide  array of sandwiches, soups ,salads has  the most delightful cheese platters and some great steaks too.. And of course their wood oven Pizzas.

I had read all about its live Pizzeria and the wonderful wood oven Pizza’s though had yet to try some. It was marked down on my “To Eat” list for my next trip to Pantry Café.

Well I was quite naturally excited on getting a blogger’s invite for a Pizza making demo and decided to go along and see this happen live.

On arriving we were warmly greeted by the lovely Owner who was very enthusiastic about the afternoon session. She then introduced us to the man behind stove or in this case the wood oven -Chef Dominico from Naples.

The demo started off with the chef explaining to us about the key steps in the Pizza making process. In this case it’s the Italian Tipo 00 Pizza flour that creates their wonderful thin crust pizza’s. This is available at the pantry café for those of you who may wish to experiment with some pizza making in your kitchens. The café also retails various other products ranging from Oils,vinegar,pasta sauces & cheeses.

We sampled four varieties of Pizza’s that afternoon.
 Classic Margherita
Spicy Diavalo with Wagyu Pepperoni, Mushrooms & cherry tomatoes
Genovese with a pesto base and topped with Mushrooms & Arugula
Pizza Bianca

As for me the Pizza Bianca was a winner…Truffle Brie, Mushrooms, Roasted garlic & Arugula…Absolutely divine!

Thank you Pantry café for a wonderful afternoon.

Do visit Pantry café:
 Located at: Al Wasl Square Al Hadeeqa Street Jumeirah
Contact: Tele: 009714-3883868
E-mail: info@pantrycafe.ae
Open for Breakfast,Lunch & Dinner

Pizza Recipes as shared by Chef Dominico Pantry café.

Classic Pizza Margherita

The traditional Margherita pizza is a simple pizza that relies on the basic ingredients to make a great pizza-Italian Tippo Flour, San Marzano Tomatoes, fresh Mozzarella,olive oil,and fresh Basil .There are three official variants. Pizza Marinara which is made with tomatoes,garlic,oregano,and extra virgin oil. Pizza Margeherita,made from tomatoes, sliced mozzarella, basil, and extra virgin olive oil and Pizza Bianca, a white base with fresh mozzarella ,garlic, oregano,sea salt and extra virgin olive oil.

Pizza Dough Recipe

1kg Caputo Tipo 00 Flour

1/2 liter of water

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon sunflower oil

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1/2 tablespoon fresh yeast

Pour water into a mixing bowl. Add Oil, salt, sugar and yeast and mix well. Then slowly keep adding the flour until all the water has been absorbed and continue to mix all the ingredients for the dough by hand and knead well for about 10 minutes. when done,divide the dough into smaller balls and cover with a wet muslin cloth and let it rest for 12 hours.

Pizza Sauce Recipe

500 grams San Marzano tomato sauce

1 1/2 tablespoon salt

3 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon white sugar

50 gr. fresh basil

You can use canned San Marzano tomatoes to create a wonderful and simple pizza tomato sauce. Mix all the ingredients for the sauce together and blend using a hand mixer.If you are using a brick oven, you should not cook the sauce. The hot oven will cook the sauce perfectly. If you are using a convectional oven you can cook the sauce for 3 minutes.

Basic Pizza Margherita

3 tablespoons tomato sauce

5 grams Parmiggiano Reggiano

40 grams fresh mozzarella

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

5-6 whole basil leaves for garnish

Preheat the oven to 240 Knock back the dough balls by punching it to remove air and roll each dough out on a floured surface until you have very thin, 25cms-diameter pizza bases.

Spread the tomato sauce over pizza bases leaving a 2cm border. Divide the mozzarella between the bases, then scatter the Parmiggiano  Reggiano .Drizzle with olive oil and bake for 8-10 minutes until the cheese has melted and the pizza bases are crisp and lightly golden around the edges..

Drizzle the pizzas with a little more olive oil, garnish with small basil leaves then serve immediately.

This is just the start .Once you master a perfect pizza margherita, you can vary it by adding an endless possibilities of ingredients. Below is a simple guide to assist you in selecting the right ingredients for the different pizza variants however,remember there are no hard and fast rules.

Margherita & Marinara

Porcini mushrooms

Grilled eggplant, tomato and basil

Grille eggplant, tomato, arugula, capers and anchovies

Arugula and grilled onions

Al Mare- clams, mussels and prawns

Four seasons: artichokes, mushrooms, olive and turkey ham

Turkey ham, Wagyu pepperoni, Wagyu ground beef, button mushrooms & cherry tomatoes.

Bianca

Roast potato, rosemary and Percorino

Mushroom, leek, tomato and slivered Parmesan

Pesto, oil and tomato

Smoked salmon and Brie

Mushroom and Brie

Artichoke and Brie

Four cheese: mozzarella, Percorino, parmesan and Gorgonzola

Olive,grilled onions and anchovies

Truffle Brie, mushrooms, roasted garlic, arugula

You may also like to read a fellow bloggers review of Pantry café Pizza making at :

www.coffeecakesandrunning.net

www.mymouthisfull

DISCLAIMER: I was invited to Pantry café for the Pizza making session and all views expressed on this blog post are solely my own.

Kale & Roasted Sweet Potato Soup

KALE: A wonderful vegetable belonging to the cruciferous family.

Let me quite honest I’ve never really cooked with kale. I do know friends use a lot of it in casseroles, stir fry’s and so on. I’ve just never thought of it all. Well that’s until a few weeks ago when I visited The Farmer’s market on the Terrace by the Emirate’s Towers in Dubai.

This is indeed a fabulous initiative to promote locally grown produce in the UAE. These markets are fairly active during the winter month’s as this is typically the growing season in this region.

On arriving one Friday morning  I was delighted to see various vendors lined up. Each of them with a wonderful and heart warming display of assorted fruits and vegetable. Lovely fresh strawberries, organic carrots, spinach, a selection of free range eggs.

That’s when I spotted some fresh kale. I thought why not experiment with some and bought a whole bunch home.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it and thought why not try a simple soup.

I’m quite the soup loving person. Give me a bowl of wholesome soup and that would keep me very satiated for a while.

Well here  is how this delicious Kale and Roasted Sweet potato soup turned out .I had a couple of bowls and decided that Kale is a winner and will get into my kitchen more often.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 tablespoon Olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed pepper
• 4 cups coarsely chopped roasted sweet potato( puree about a cup)
• 1 small carrot (roasted and cubed)
• 3 cups water
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 8ounce canned white beans
• 2-3 kale leaves chopped
• salt to taste
• few springs rosemary

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat the oil in a pan.
2. Add in the chopped onions and sauté for a few minutes.
3. Add the chopped and pureed sweet potatoes and stir.
4. Mix in the water and chicken broth and bring to a boil.
5. Add the diced carrots,salt and pepper.
6. Next put in the chopped kale and let this simmer for 5-8 minutes or until the kale has wilted.
7. Add the white beans, salt & pepper.
8. Garnish with few springs of rosemary

Happy Holi- A riot of colors & flavours

Holi- A colorful festival and a festival of colors indeed. A festival that marks the end of winter and ushers in Spring.

Happy Holi everyone!

Well it’s been ages since I played Holi. Perhaps the last time was when I was a teen.However we’ve  just been invited  to celebrate and play holi at a friend’s this year. Naturally I’m quite excited and hence was inspired to make something special as well.

Any celebration is not complete without a delectable “something sweet” I decided to go with a family favorite-”Gajar ka Halwa” or a Carrot pudding.

The recipe calls for grated carrots, milk and homemade mawa ( recipe included) to be cooked together. The carrots used for a halwa should be preferably the red variety most often found in the winter months. You could however use the orange ones if the red are un available.

This halwa could be served hot or cold. It is even more decadent when served with a dollop of vanilla ice-cream.

Go ahead and indulge a little.

INGREDIENTS:

• 6-8 medium carrots ( peeled and grated)
• 3 tablespoons pure ghee
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 8-10 Almonds ( blanched and slivered)
• Handful of cashew nuts (chopped roughly)
• Few raisins
• Pinch of saffron
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
• 1 cup mawa (crumbled)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat the ghee in a heavy bottom pan.
2. Add the grated carrots and sauté them for about 8-10 minutes.
3. Next add in the milk and cook this mixture till the carrots softens and the mixture is dry,
4. Now add in the cardamom powder and the saffron.
5. lastly stir in the crumbled mawa and the sugar.
6. Cook the mixture further for about 5 minutes.
7. Mix in the raisins and cashew nuts.
8. Garnish with slivered almonds.
9. Can be served hot or cold.

Mawa: Dried whole milk

Easy way to make up some mawa:

• 200 grams milk powder ( full fat)
• 40 ml Milk
• Muslin cloth

1. Knead the milk powder with a little bit of milk at a time.
2. Keep doing this till a soft dough has been formed.
3. Tie the ball into a muslin cloth
4. Add water into a pressure cooker. Place a trivet in it.
5. Keep the muslin cloth in a small bowl over the trivet.
6. Shut the cooker without using the weight and steam the dough for about 15-20 minutes.
7. The mawa is now ready.

Chocolate Walnut Brownies & A Happy Mother’s Day

It’s March already and as always a time when there’s lots of baking in my kitchen.Spring Fair’s,Birthday’s, Mother’s day  and of course Easter baking to be done as well.Had a lovely chat with Mom earlier on today.Just wishing her a Wonderful Mother’s Day.That’s when my son realised he had almost forgotten to wish me.Ofcourse he came around and did so with a great big hug.

Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,
Hundreds of bees in the purple
clover,
Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,
But only one mother the wide
world over

Today was just one of those days that I was craving some thing chocolate and decadent.Though just not sure what to make.

Now  Mom of course loves to ask me the eternal question-”So what did you bake today”? And our chat then centers around exchanging recipes and we can go on for hours with our food banters.Yes,there you go….A huge  inspiration for all the foodie mania in my life…My lovely mother.

Well I said just don’t know what to bake as yet! All though I did know that I  wanted to write-up a blog post just for her.

In celebration for Mother’s Day -Happy Mother’s day Mama! Here’s to a wonderful mother.

I went about the day with recipes to type out and cooked up some dinner and even thought about what I’d write in the blog with still no clue as to what to bake.It’s been a busy weekend in the kitchen and just wanted something easy yet decadent to put together.

A quick scan around the kitchen and my pantry and minutes later came out a batch of sinful chocolate Brownies.This one is all time favorite with my family and easy to put together.

Brownie lover’s and who isn’t…You are in for a treat.So go ahead and give these a try.

Happy Mother’s Day Mom and all you wonderful mum’s all over.I do hope you are getting spoilt rotten and enjoying your day today and always.

PS: I do have a confession to make: I’m a die-hard chocoholic.How about you? What’s your fav recipe with chocolate? Do drop me a line or two…

Cheers

INGREDIENTS:

• 170 grams Butter
• 125 grams Chocolate chips( plus 50 grams for batter)
• 55 grams Cocoa powder
• 250 grams sugar
• 125 grams plain flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 3 eggs
• 90 grams chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 180 C.
2. Butter a 9″x9″ square baking pan.
3. In a double boiler over low heat, melt butter and chocolate chips together and remove from heat.
4. In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients.
5. When the chocolate/butter mixture has cooled a little whisk in the eggs and vanilla.
6. Note: it is important to cool the chocolate/butter mixture or the eggs will cook.
7. Sieve together all the dry  ingredients and whisk into the chocolate mixture.
8. Stir in the chopped walnuts.
9. Pour batter into prepared baking pan.
10. Bake for 40-45 minutes.

Sticky Date Cake & Toffee Sauce-For Sanjeev Kapoor Khazana

Hello Friends!

This is my first post in the New year and I promise an exciting one too.

The New year has begun well and my kitchen is buzzing with activity.But before I get into my culinary adventures I’d love to share the highlight of this year.

Well imagine my excitement when I was asked to do a cooking demo for Sanjeev Kapoor  Khazana on their You tube channel.It was right in the beginning of Jan this year when Alyona Kapoor (Sanjeev’s wife) also a dear friend of mine asked me to send in two of my favorite recipes that I’d like to demonstrate.

Now Sanjeev Kapoor needs no introduction.An Indian Master chef with the ever popular cooking show Khana Khazana and now Food Food an Indian food and lifestyle channel owned by him.Do check him out on:

www.khanakhazana.com

www.sanjeevkapoor.com

www.youtube.com/user/sanjeevkapoorkhazana

Yes of course I said,I’d be absolutely delighted to do so.

The two recipes that I thought I  could show were a Quinoa Salad and the Sticky date Cake with toffee sauce.Well then very excitedly I sent off both the recipes.

D-day arrives-was I nervous? Well a tad bit I have to say.Now while I do run cooking workshops for Adults & kids,it’s quite different being in front of the camera…and to keep looking straight  into it and talking all the time.

Anyways I was shown around the kitchen.I quickly made some mental notes as to where everything was.The ingredients were all lined up in front of me…

Lights,Camera and action….and I started of…Welcome to Sanjeev Kapoor Khazana…I’m Shailaja Desai and I ‘d love to share a wonderful recipe for a Sticky date cake and toffee sauce with you today.

The show went on smoothly I thought.Ofcourse when I look at the video I keep hearing Alyona in the background reminding me to modulate my tone and talk slowly and my husband who kept drawing a smiley face on his I-pad,hoping I’d smile more.Well points noted for the next time that I have to face the camera.

I certainly had a lovely time shooting this video in Sanjeev Kapoor’s kitchen and certainly hope I have many more opportunities.

Enjoy the video folks and do give this super easy recipe a try.I will upload the other video soon.Untill then cheers to another year of wonderful cooking.

INGREDIENTS:

• 225 grams dates
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 85 grams Butter (softened)
• 170 grams sugar
• 2 medium eggs
• 170 grams Self raising flour
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon powder
• 2 tablespoons Ovaltine
• 2 tablespoons Plain Yogurt
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger

DIRECTIONS:

1. Pre heat the oven to 180 C.
2. Put the dates in a bowl with the soda and cover with 200 ml boiling water.
3. Let this rest for about 5-9 minutes so as to soften the dates.
4. Drain off the water and puree the dates in a food processor.
5. Cream the butter and sugar till pale.
6. Add in one egg at a time and mix well.
7. Sieve the flour and cinnamon powder together and add to the above mixture.
8. Stir in the ovaltine and mix well and add the grated ginger.
9. Lastly fold in the yogurt and pureed dates.
10. Pour the mixture into a well-greased Bundt pan and bake for about 30-35 minutes.

TOFFEE SAUCE:

• 115 grams unsalted butter
• 115 grams brown sugar
• 140 grams double cream

1. Mix the butter, sugar and double cream in a sauce pan.
2. Heat over low heat till the sugar dissolves and the sauce thickens slightly.