SPICED LAMB PIZZA

This is a sort of greek inspired pizza that came from what I had in the fridge when I first made it.  It's now become a regular feature at dinner time in our house.  I've replaced the tomato base with humous and finished it off with feta cheese instead of mozzarella.

You could also make it into calzone if you are using a proper pizza dough but for speed I'm going with Jo Wheatley's flat bread recipe.  You really can't go wrong with this, I use it all the time.

For a bit of colour I've added some Roquito peppers so they add some heat too. I really love those, especially the ones you get stuffed with feta at the deli counter.  I've just discovered these mini versions in Tesco.  If you prefer less spice just swap them for chopped red peppers.

300g Plain Flour

300g Natural Yoghurt

1 Onion, chopped

1 tbsp Oil

400g Lamb Mince

1/2 tsp Ground Cumin

Large Bunch Fresh Coriander roughly chopped

200g Humous

2 tbsp Pinenuts

100g Feta Cheese

Mini Roquito Peppers to Finish

Make the bases first.  Combine the flour and yoghurt in a bowl till it comes together to form a soft dough. Knead it a little so it becomes nice and smooth then divide it into 4 and roll each one out to the thickness of a pound coin.  Place the bases onto baking sheets lined with parchment and leave to one side.

Heat the oil in a pan and add the onion.  Cook till soft then add the minced lamb.  Cook on a medium heat till it has just started to brown.  Add the ground cumin and 2/3 of the coriander.  Cook till the coriander has wilted.

Divide the humous between the bases and spread to cover leaving a slight crust.  Now cover with the mince. Sprinkle on the pinenuts and dot with the peppers. Lastly crumble on lumps of the feta cheese.

Bake the pizza's at 160C for 20-30 minutes.  Once the bases have cooked through, remove from the oven and sprinkle on the remaining coriander.

QUICK CALZONE

There are some cook books you own that have the most wonderful looking recipes but when it comes to cooking them they may need a little tweaking and should never be cooked for guests unless previously tried and tested.

There are some cook books that you can rely upon to always get it right and give perfect results.  Jo Wheatley's 'A Passion For Baking' is one of those.  It has already become one of my bibles for never fail recipes and I love it.  Jo has managed to produce recipes that can be easily adapted for your own convenience and personal tastes too.

This recipe is a complete rip off of Jo's flat bread recipe.  I use it all the time because it's so easy and quick to make and I usually have the ingredients to hand.  We have it with curry, as a pizza base and now for calzone too.

Calzone is basically a folded pizza which makes it a great portable food.  Treat it like a pizza and add your own favourite fillings, pepperoni, mushrooms, spinach, pineapple......


Dough
300g Self Raising Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Oregano
300g Natural  Yoghurt

Sauce
1 Tin Chopped Tomatoes
1 Onion Chopped
1 Clove Garlic Crushed
1 tbsp Tomato Puree
1 tbsp Ketchup
Small Bunch Basil  Torn
Ham & Mozzarella

Cook the onion and garlic with a little oil, when soft add the tomatoes, tomato puree and ketchup.  Leave to simmer for 10 minutes then add the basil and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Make the dough by combining all the dry ingredients in a bowl then use a knife to stir in the
yoghurt till it comes together.  Flour the surface and divide the dough into 8 balls. It will be a little sticky so dust your hands and rolling pin with flour to make it more manageable.

Roll out each ball one by one and add a spoon of the sauce to one half.  Top with ham and mozzarella then fold the other half of dough over to cover.  Seal the edges like a cornish pasty, pierce a small hole in the top and bake for 25 minutes at 200C

THANKS JO XX