Pizza with Prawn and Lime

The last few months has been a time of change in our house.  It all started in February, when our youngest left home to go to university in Wellington. Along with an empty nest, I lost my way with food.  My role as a mother was to cook for the family, and now there were only two of us.

I drifted into other activities, and during the week, would cook at the very last minute.  I mean I didn’t need to be organised, as long as I cooked a meal at some point before husband got really hungry. My single consumer, the hubby was requesting potatoes every night.  (I have a feeling this is something to do with me not purchasing potato chips in the supermarket shop!). My creative energy with cooking potatoes was being challenged, so something had to change. Two things happened to reignite my passion, Jamie Oliver and Italian cooking classes.

I follow Jamie Oliver on instagram and Facebook, and discovered that he was having a Food Revolution Day 2014, May 16. This Food Revolution Day for Jamie Oliver was teaching the young to cook. Through my youngest daughter Jennifer, I realised there are a whole bunch of school leavers and young people that don’t know how to cook.

So I was on a mission to teach the young to cook. Phoebe, one of Jennifer’s friends, who is only 18, is a pizza lover.  I had promised Phoebe that I would show her how to make pizza base one day.  With my passion renewed, Phoebe came to visit late afternoon on May 16.  She was a willing and quick learner, and Phoebe now “snapchats” me when she is in pizza mode. It’s called sharing the love of food.

Here is my recipe for making pizza base.  It is Jamie Oliver’s one, and I love it as it is so crispy.  For best results use a pizza stone.

(The lime and prawn toppings was inspired by my oldest daughter Joanna, the other foodie in the family)

PIZZA DOUGH

(Makes enough for 6 – 8 medium size thin pizzas)

1 kg Type 00 flour (I use Laucke brand)

1 tsp fine sea salt

2 x 7g yeast sachets

1 tbsp caster sugar

4 tbsps olive oil

650ml lukewarm water

In a jug combine the yeast, sugar, olive oil and water. Leave for a few minutes until the yeast starts to froth.

Sieve the flour and salt into a large bowl and make a well in the middle. Add the liquid ingredients and gradually bring the ingredients together.  When all ingredients form a ball, knead for until you have a smooth springy dough, about 10 minutes. Alternatively you can use the dough hook, in your electric mixer.

Place the dough in a large flour dusted bowl.  Dust the top of the dough, and cover with a damp cloth and place in a warm room for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size.

Place the dough on a flour dusted surface, and knead it a bit to knock the air out of it. You can either use the dough immediately, or wrap in cling film and store in the fridge for future use.  Before wrapping in cling film, divide into 3 or 4 smaller balls.

LIME AND PRAWN TOPPING

(enough for 2 pizzas)

250 g raw prawns

1/4 cup Kikkoman lime, lemongrass & soy marinade

Coriander to serve

Heat the pizza stone in the oven at 230 deg C fanbake, for at least half an hour.

Cook the prawns quickly until pink in a frying pan with 1 tbsp olive oil. Leave to rest.

15 minutes before you want to cook it, roll  the pizza dough into rough circles about .5 cm think. Place the dough on baking paper on a oven tray.

For the topping, spread the marinade over the pizza dough, and top with the cooked prawns.  Transfer the pizza base onto the heated pizza stone in oven, and cook for approximately 15 minutes.

Once pizza is cooked, sprinkle with coriander to taste, and cut into pieces to serve.