Pizza Margarita & One Lovely Blog Award

It is said that pizza is what made Naples famous.. and it's all because of the Pizza Margherita (or Margarita as is usually said outside of Italy). It was first made in 1889 by a baker who wanted to create a pizza in honour of Queen Margherita's visit to Naples. He wanted the pizza to reflect the colours of the Italian flag - green, white and red. Hence this classic pizza was born, and is now enjoyed worldwide.

This is somewhat of a cheat's version to the Pizza Margarita.. On weekends I simply do not have the inclination to my own pizza dough, but if you are a pizza puritan at heart, go right ahead!.. At any rate, I think this is a quick, delicious and simple dish to make for a weekend lunch at home. So here goes...

Ingredients

1 greek pitta bread (or choose a wholemeal lebanese bread)

Few tablespoons passata

1 clove garlic, crushed

Few thin slices of tomato

1/2 large ball buffalo mozarella

Salt and pepper

Caster sugar to taste
Few basil leaves
Olive oil

Method
1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees celcius, and line tray with tinfoil.

2. In a bowl, combine passata and garlic then season to taste with salt, pepper and sugar. The sugar take the edge of the tomatoes' acidity. The amount you require will depend on how tart your passata is, so just remember to taste. I only used a pinch.

3. Spread tomato base over pitta bread.

4. Top with sliced tomato, and torn pieces of mozarella. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil over the pizza.

5. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese starts to turn golden.

6. Remove from oven, top with a few basil leaves and serve immediately :)

Now that lunch is out of the way, it's time to get down to business and hand out some awards! Hooray! Last year I was fortunate enough to be awarded a One Lovely Blog Award from Mademoiselle Delicieuse of Spoon, Fork & Chopsticks. As a recipent of this award, I get to pass the award on to eight new recipents of my selection. So over the past month or so I have been looking out for lovely blogs worthy of this award. There is no shortage of great blogs out there so it was a pleasure discovering new blogs with this award in mind.

So... in no particular order, here are the recipients of the One Lovely Blog Award. Check them out some time!

• Kristy of Kissphotography
• Anita of Leave Room for Dessert
• Missklicious of Missklicious
• Trissa of Trissalicious
• Von of Vondelicious
• Sharon of Wee Love Baking
• Rose of Roses r Red
• Vicky of Sweets At Vickys

Well done guys, and keep up the fantastic blogging! According to the rules of this award, to accept it you have to post it on your blog along with the name of the person who granted the award and their blog link. As recipients you then have the opportunity to pass the award onto eight bloggers you have recently discovered. Just announce the winners on your blog and don't forget to contact the recipients to let them know the good news ;)

Ladybird x

Pistachio Yoghurt & Cardamom Cake with Lime Syrup

As some of my regular readers may have noticed,  I have somewhat of an obsession with the cardamom. I find its fragrance and flavour absolutely heavenly, so it's no sursprise that whenever I come across a recipe to use it, I make a note of it with the hope of eventually making it. I have lost count of the number of recipes I've added to my Favorites.. could be time to revisit them and cull!

This recipe comes from 'Sweet Food' by Murdoch Books and requires a food processer. I have a Breville 'Whizz' which struggled a little, and started emitting strange groans in the final stages of use.. I do hope I haven't broken it!

Ingredients
150 g (1 cup) shelled, unsalted pistachios
1/2 tsp ground cardamom

150 g unsalted butter, chopped

1 1/2 c self raising flour

1 1/4 c caster sugar
3 eggs
1/2 c plain yoghurt
1 lime

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Butter and line a 20 cm round cake tin.
2. Place the pistachios and cardamom in a food processer and pulse until chopped.
3, Add the butter, flour and 3/4 c of caster sugar and pulse for 20 seconds or until crumbly.
4. Add combined eggs and yoghurt and pulse for 10 seconds or until just combined.
5. Spoon into the tin and smooth the surface.
6. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool.

7. To make the syrup, peel the zest off the lime with a vegetable peeler and remove any white pith from the zest.
8. Place remaining caster sugar and 100 ml water in a saucepan and stir over low heat until dissolved.
9. Bring to boil, then add lime zest and cook for 5 minutes.

10. Strain and cool slightly. Pierce cake with a few skewer holes and pour the hot syrup slowly over the cooled cake.

Notes
- This is a good morning/afternoon tea cake and would also be nice as a slab cake cut up into squares.
- I removed the cake from the tin before pouring over the syrup. Next time I think I'll cool the cake in the tin and then pour the syrup over and leave it to sit for half an hour or so before serving. I feel this method would make for a much more moist cake.

At this point, I would also like to announce that I have reached my Golden Post! :) I only realised this the other day when I added the number of posts for 2009 and 2010 together.. haha! In fact, this is technically my 51st post. At any rate, thank you for reading, and I hope to bring you many more posts that will leave you drooling on the keyboard ;)

Love,

Ladybird x

Chocolate Fondant for Two

All I need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt!

Lucy, Peanuts (Charles M. Schulz)

With Valentine's Day coming up, you might be looking for a special dessert to prepare for you and your loved one. A chocolate fondant is a perfect dessert to complete a romantic dinner for two. So boys, listen up! If you really want to show your lady how much you care for her, go the extra mile and surprise her with this decadent dessert. I guarantee it will melt her heart (but I would encourage you to practise making this at least once before the special day).

These puddings are just cooked enough to form an outer crust, and inside the pudding is warm, luxurious chocolate goodness... all gooey and oozey.. Mmmmm...

This recipe comes from Gordon Ramsay and can be prepared ahead of time - simply keep it in the fridge and put it in the oven when you're ready. Although Mr Ramsay is not my favourite celebrity chef, I must say that this is an excellent recipe. I think this is also a recipe that one could be creative with and come up with some interesting variations. For example, you could add a splash of liquer such as Baileys, or maybe some orange zest.

Ingredients

50 g unsalted butter, plus extra to grease

2 tsp cocoa powder

50 g dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa)

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1/3 c caster sugar

1/3 c plain flour

To serve - icing sugar, vanilla ice cream and strawberries (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius.

2. Butter 2 dariol moulds/ramekins (I used 100ml capacity dariol moulds) and then place in fridge for 5 minutes. Remove then butter a second time, this time using a pastry brush and brushing upwards and outwards. Dust liberally with cocoa powder and shake out any excess.

3. Slowly melt the chocolate and butter in a small bowl set over a pan of hot water, then take off the heat and stir until smooth. Leave to cool for 10 minutes.

4. Using an electric whisk, whisk the egg, whole egg and sugar until pale and thick, then incorporate the chocolate mixture.

5. Sift the flour over the mixture and gently fold in.

6. Divide the mixture between the ramekins/moulds leaving a 1cm space at the top for the mixture to rise. Bake for 10 minutes, or until a crust forms on top of the fondant.

7. Turn the fondants out onto plates and dust with icing sugar. Serve with a spoonful of vanilla ice cream and a few berries.

Tips

• If you can't find dariol moulds, use ramekins instead. Ramekins are available in a variety of sizes, but I think 100ml (as I used) makes a perfect size.
• This recipe makes enough to fill two 150 ml moulds/ramekins if you wish, but be sure to cook for a little longer in this case - about 12 minutes.
   

Enjoy :)

Ladybird x