Black Truffle Pate, Mixed Mushrooms & Prosciutto Pizza from Our Weekend Pizza Party

My two girlfriends and I tried to make our own pizza last weekend. Actually they made the pizza, I was just busy trying to calm super cranky baby M down.. ^_^'

We (i.e. actually it was mostly Ieie, she did all the kneading!) made the dough following this recipe. The recipe is pretty easy to follow (easy for me to say as I was not the one who kneaded the dough heheheh) and we're pretty pleased with the result.

We made two kinds of pizza...the one which impressed me the most was the one with this black truffle pate.


The dough was simply rolled thinly, placed on a well oiled baking tray.

Spread quite a bit of the black truffle pate, add chunks of mixed mushrooms, season with salt and black pepper, topped generously with grated cheese (we used a mix of mozzarella, parmesan and cheddar), and bake for about 15-20 minutes in a 250C preheated oven.


Once it's out of the oven, we added more black truffle pate and placed a few pieces of prosciutto. Let them fold casually like cute little rosebuds.


Absolutely fragrant and delicious!

As for the other pizza...

We just slathered the dough with a bit of ketchup (oppps, but it's yummy, trust me), added some grated cheeses, salami and bacon, topped with more cheeses, added halved cherry tomatoes, and some baby asparagus. After baking, we added some fresh basil leaves from my tiny herb garden. Yummy!

Baby M was super cranky and clingy the whole time, I had to carry him around with me, even when I tried to  take some pictures. Thanks to Ieie for documenting this crazy-bad-mama moment ^_^


We ended the meal with Ieie's homemade tiramisu topped with fresh berries and some bad Sunday TV (it's TVB Jade's latest variety show where we had to guess the girl among drag queens).

Good food, good company, bad TV.
What could be better than that?

I'll post more pictures from the night on my Facebook page.

Oyster Sauce Chicken Frozen Roti Pratha "Pizza"

My "TV snack" for last night's Oscars, along with a bag of Caramel Corn.
I am still full of guilt now. So guilty, I contemplated going on a daily healthy sandwich lunch diet, but fortunately and unfortunately, I've failed even before I've started. Classic me.
Now, the "pizza", very easy. I went more Asian inspired this time, just because I had some leftover chicken cooked in oyster sauce.

"Recipe"
- Chicken in oyster sauce (bite sized chicken chunks stir fried in garlic, shallot, ginger, oyster sauce, sugar and pepper)
- mozzarella and parmesan cheese
- oyster sauce
- freshly chopped scallion and crispy shallot
- frozen roti pratha
- butter
Preheat oven to 200C, brush frozen pratha with a bit of butter, bake in the oven (or place in non stick frying pan on stove top) until a bit puffy, place on greased baking sheet. Add a bit of oyster sauce on the roti pratha, add chicken chunks, add grated cheeses and bake until golden brown. Garnish with freshly chopped scallion and crispy shallot.

I think I enjoyed my snacks more than the show last nite...did you watch? What was your TV snack?

Pizza Hut's Hong Kong - Meat Lover's Cheesy Volcano Pizza

Testing, testing...
1,2,3...

Your eyes aren't wrong.
You aren't having a nightmare (or are you?)
This is really a pizza from... (gasp!) Pizza Hut.

I tried Pizza Hut for the first time back when I was in Indonesia. I was in high school. Yes, we're that slow. I haven't tried McDonald's until I was 18 and I tried (cooked) sushi for the first time when I was 23. I was so fascinated by the sushi train, it was ridiculous.

Eating at Pizza Hut was such a luxury for me. I remember loving creamy beef fettucini so much, licking the baking dish it was served in clean. Gleaming clean, I also remember the garlic bread...and...the meat lover's pizza, thick crust. Ahhh...nostalgia.

I have a confession to make.
I like Pizza Hut's meat lover's pizza.
Why? Why? Why?
Maybe it's the high-in-sodium-ness, maybe it's all the processed "meat" on top of its mass produced "crust", maybe it's all the "cheese" topping of stuffing, or maybe it's the sugary, chemically engineered "tomato sauce".

I dunno.
It doesn't mean that I hate good pizza...handmade, fresh ingredients, rustic or avant garde ones...I love them too. But deep down, there's always a place for this little junk in my heart trunk.

I am not trying to justify myself.
Just saying ;)

Will you stop reading my blog after you've seen this post?
Heheheh.
I hope not.

Pizza Cone & Coffee Soda from Caffe Pascucci, Langham Place, Mongkok

You've heard of ice cream cone.
You've heard of pizza.

But pizza cone?

I was intrigued!
They've successfully grabbed my attention. Let's give it a try.

I ordered the Italian pizza cone, and it looks...cute.
Was it good?

It promises tomato sauce, cheese, cooked ham, mushrooms, oregano and salami.


But it was mostly tomato sauce and cheese (but at least there was really lots and lots of cheese, down to the bottom of the cone).

See! Lotsa cheese!

It's...interesting.
The pizza cone or crust...was a little too thick and crispy...kind of hard (I guess because it has to hold the filling/pizza topping), to the point that it could inflict some damage to my gum if I were not careful (but I was)...but it's not that bad. It would make quite a good snack, it would be much better if the cone can be a little thinner and not as hard.

SC was being a little unadventurous and ordered the lunch set of penne in spicy tomato sauce with orange juice.

The pasta was nicely cooked, the spicy tomato sauce could be a little spicier, it was a little too subtle for me, but overall, not bad.

Caffe Pascucci offers quite a selection of coffee themed drinks and desserts...which all looked amazing (I made a mental note to go back next time and try them)...but I had a huge weakness for...that's right. Soda.
Coffee soda.

In Indonesia, we have coffee cream soda, which is a tad too sweet, but this one's just perfect!

Not too sweet, and surprisingly refreshing, especially when it's served with a slice of orange (I didn't expect that).

The perfect thirst-quenching summer alternative to the usual creamy and milky cold coffee drinks.

The meal cost us HK$149 for two.

Caffe Pascucci
Shop 1A, 12/F, Langham Place Shopping Mall

8 Argyle Street, Mong Kok

Hong Kong

旺角亞皆老街8號朗豪坊12樓1A舖

Tel: +852 3514 4171

Easy Mini BBQ Chicken Pizza with Frozen Roti Prata Base

First of all, sorry for the terrible photos in this post.
I really have no excuses...I was simply too lazy and worried too much about for these mini pizzas getting too cold before devouring them.

I've tried making my own pizza before, including the dough, and (of course!) I've failed miserably. The trauma of failing to make my own pizza dough...it still haunts me.

So, when I saw Noobcook's cheater's pizza posts, where she made one gorgeous pizza after another using pita bread as the base...I was hugely inspired!

I didn't use pita bread though...I love...richer, flakier, greasier base...inspired by duck and mango pastry pizza I've tried once...it's from (ahem) Spaghetti House (oppps).

This time, I've decided to make pizza using frozen roti prata base (I wouldn't even dream of making my own roti prata at this moment ^_^'). I thought of using curry or Indian flavors for the topping, but that would be too...expected, and it is probably yummier to dip the roti prata into curries than making them into pizzas. So, I went with BBQ chicken.

Recipe

(for two mini pizzas)
- 2 frozen roti prata (I can buy these in packets of 5 here in Hong Kong, check your supermarkets, or alternatively, you can use pastry as a base)
- 1 boneless chicken leg fillet
- a couple of fresh shitake mushrooms, sliced
- a bit of onion, sliced really thinly
- BBQ sauce, worchestershire sauce, black pepper, olive oil
- 1/2 cup of cheddar and mozzarella cheese, grated

I browned the chicken leg fillet in a frying pan first to make sure that I get nicely browned skin, then I chopped them into thin slices. Slather chicken with BBQ sauce, worchestershire sauce and black pepper generously.


Preheat oven to 180C, grease a baking tray with olive oil (or cooking spray), lay the frozen roti prata on the tray, slather some BBQ sauce, add sliced mushrooms and onion, add cheeses...

Uh huh!

...and add chicken slices and more BBQ sauce (be generous) on top.

Bake until the roti prata base is all fluffed up and everything's gloriously golden (about 15 - 20 minutes). PS. If you want the base to be even fluffier, you can bake the base first and add cooked toppings just to brown and melt.

Fluffy, flaky base...savoury cheese, sweet and tangy BBQ chicken...what's not to like? Plus, there's no risk of heart break due to failing a pizza dough ^_* heheheh
I'll definitely make more of these mini pizzas, with different flavors.

I apologize in advance for my future bad mini pizza photos. My impatience and greed could see them coming ^_^

Leftover Ham & Cheese Failure Pizza

There a pack of ham and a pack of cheddar cheese in my fridge.
Athena left the pack of beautiful ham when she made a refreshing appetizer of sweet melon and ham.

Seeing those two ingredients, I planned to just scatter them on pieces of fluffy bread and eat them as they were, and sing unto them, their glory (or something to that effect). Unfortunately, I had to have a pair of itchy hands who always wanted to try making my own pizza crust. I think you could probably smell a disaster coming your way.

I searched for a pizza crust recipe that sounds as doable as "pizza crust recipe for idiots" and found something that looked manageable.

Clearly, I overestimated myself.

Knowing me, it was probably not the recipe's problem, it should've been me.

The crust turned rock hard, you could hear us trying to bite into it.
Crackling doesn't even begin to describe how hard it was.
It was harder that sous chef's stubborn head, and was even harder than my feet's callouses.

Either my instant yeast wasn't bubbly enough or I must have overbaked my pizza as I waited for it to turn golden brown (it never did)....whatever happened, I shall try again with another recipe and try to do better at following directions. Meanwhile, let me put pizza hut on speed dial.

Pssst, the crust turned so hard...the phrase "between rock and a hard place", from now on shall be changed to "between rock and rita's pizza crust".