Lebanese Bread Pizza

Homemade Lebanese Bread Pizza

Making homemade pizzas with your kids is a fun and easy way to get your kids involved in the meal preparation, introduce them to “questionable” vegetables and ingredients and most of all the kids get a great big kick out of making their very own pizza creation!

Our neice, Bethany (7 years old), was over on the weekend and we had a great time making our own creations and combinations for dinner on Saturday night!

The ingredients for the topping can be as few or as many as you like as well as being as expensive or as inexpensive as you like. The only limit is yours and your child’s imagination!

Ingredients

1 pkt Wholemeal Lebanese Bread
350grams Lite/Reduced fat Mozzarella or Tasty/Cheddar Cheese, grated
1 bottle, store bought Tomato or BBQ Pizza sauce

Toppings of your choosing, some suggestions are:

• Ham
• Pepperoni
• Cabanossi
• Salami
• BBQ Chicken
• Prawns
• Capsicum
• Mushrooms
• Olives
• Tomato
• Pineapple
• Onion
• Anchovies
• Broccolini
• Eggplant

Preheat oven to 200C (fan forced)

First chop (All ingredients chopped to roughly the same size) and prepare your toppings and place each topping either on a breadboard, tray or in individual bowls and place in the centre of the pizza preparation area.

Place the Lebanese Bread on a baking tray and squeeze the pizza sauce onto the Lebanese bread’s surface, then using the back of a spoon spread the sauce to create an even and liberal spread all over the bread.

Next sprinkle the desired amount of shredded cheese evenly over the sauced bread (placing the cheese on the bottom allows the toppings to melt into the cheese when cooking).

Add Toppings of your choice! This is the fun part! I'll leave the amounts up to you on this one, depending on the age and number of your children. (I find that less is more when it comes to toppings! Too many toppings create a soggy and hard to eat pizza!)

The pizzas are now ready for the oven so place them in the middle shelf of the oven for about 15mins each until cheese has melted and they are golden in colour!

Let them cool slightly and then Bon Apetit! Enjoy your own handy work and watch the kids devour them, vegetables and all!

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Miniature Food Mentions

Food + Jewellery = Cute!!!

I am totally obsessed with anything in Miniature size!

Be it canapes, desserts, toiletries or any other variety of packaging, there is something so exciting about receiving a product at a tenth of its original size. I love the miniature toothpaste in hotel rooms, or the tiny bottles of sauce/ketchup you receive from hotel room service, and especially love the free samples in the letter box of deoderant and shampoo that is an exact scaled down version of it's supermarket parent. I think this stemmed from a childhood obsessed with childrens kitchen play sets of replica supermarket foods and ingredients!

Most of the time I find I will buy a product purely for that reason alone....

So what does girl do when she stumbles upon two of her passions in life, food and jewellery, combined in a new and so damn cute way???

At the Glebe markets the other weekend, whilst lapping up the beautiful winters day on show, Craig, friends and I strolled amongst the endless rows of store holders showcasing their wares of items new and used.

We stumbled upon this store holder who was selling the most precious little jewellery that was made up of miniature replica's of various food items.

And although not made in Australia, they are so cute and I just had to mention them on here! If only I had a little daughter to purchase them for....

You can find more of these designs Here.

So anyway, in my continued search for inspiration and in keeping with today's miniature theme, I came across a lady's blog who, along with her husband, were inspired to take up a challenge by Martha Stewart and create a tiny version of take-away food. I think the results are self explanatory on how successful they were, and how much effort they went to in recreating what you see below. Check it out here.

It gets my mind ticking.....

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Beef Wellington

Beef Wellington

Ingredients

400g button mushrooms, roughly chopped finely

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil

750g piece of prime beef fillet

1-2 tbsp wholegrain/hot English mustard

6-8 slices of Prosciutto

1-2 sheets of puff pastry

Flour, to dust

1 egg yolk, beaten

Cut the mushrooms into small pieces, (Alternatively you can use a food processor and pulse until you have a rough paste.

Place mushrooms into a pan, season with salt and pepper, and cook over a high heat for about 10 mins or until the mushrooms have reduced by about half in size, then spread out on a plate to cool.

Heat in a frying pan and add a little olive oil. Season the beef and sear in the hot pan for 30 secs only on each side. (You don't want to cook it at this stage, just colour it and seal in the juices).

Remove the beef from the pan and leave to cool, then brush all over with the mustard.

Lay a sheet of cling film on a work surface and arrange the proscuitto slices on it, in slightly overlapping rows.

With the back of a fork, spread the mushroom mixture over the ham, then place the seared beef fillet in the middle.

Keeping a tight hold of the cling film from the edge, neatly roll the proscuitto and mushrooms around the beef to form a tight barrel shape. Twit the ends of the cling film to secure.

Chill for 15-20 mins. This will allow the beef to set and keep its shape.

Place the puff pastry on a floured surface.

Remove the cling film from the beef, then lay in the centre. Brush the surrounding pastry with egg yolk.

Fold the ends over, the wrap the pastry around the beef, cutting off any excess. Turn over, so the seam is underneath, and place on a baking sheet.

Brush over all the pastry with egg and chill for about 15 mins to let the pastry rest.

Heat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6.

Lightly score the pastry at 1cm intervals and glaze again with beaten egg yolk.
Bake for 20 minutes , then lower the oven setting to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4 and cook for another 15 mins.

Allow to rest for 10-15 mins before slicing and serving with the accompaniments. The beef should still be pink in the centre when you serve it.

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Modern Prawn Cocktail

Modern Prawn Cocktail

The legendary, if somewhat outdated, prawn cocktail generally consisted of shredded iceberg lettuce, cocktail sauce and avocado on the side and could typically be found at any cockatil party in the 1970's. Since it's humble beginnings the Prawn Cocktail is still a favourite and the recipe below is a fresh and tasty spin on a tried and true winner. Perfect for an entree as we did at our dinner party on Saturday night, or as a easy summer lunch!

Ingredients

(serves 4)
16 cooked Prawns de-veined & shelled, with tails on.
2 Avocados, cubed
5 Cherry tomatoes halved
1 tablespoon Lemon Juice
1 teaspoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 teaspoons chopped Coriander
½ cup diced Spanish Onion
Salt
Pepper

Basil oil
Handful of Basil leaves
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Chilli oil
½ Red Capsicum
Tabasco Sauce (to your desired heat tolerance!)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Basil oil
Hand chop a handful of basil leaves until fine. Place in a bowl and mix with olive oil until completely covered. Alternatively, place in blender with enough oil until it turns to a sauce consistency. Place in fridge to infuse.

Chilli oil
Hand chop the capsicum until diced very small. Place capsicum in a bowl and mix in a teaspoon of Tabasco Sauce, then add olive oil until completely covered. Place in fridge to infuse. (this could also be done in a blender if desired).

Prawn/Avocado Stack
Place the halved tomatoes into the oven for 15mins on 200C. Take out and let cool.

Dice the cooked tomatoes roughly, then loosely mix the avocado, tomato, lemon juice, coriander, olive oil and onion in a bowl being careful not to mash the avocado.

Once well combined, place 3 tablspoons (more of less depending on how much avocado you want) into a biscuit cutter on the centre of a plate.

Press it down gently into the mold with the back of a fork to provide a snug fit. Pull the mold away revealing a self-standing avocado stack.

Arrange 4 prawns on top of the avocado stack.

Place the basil and chilli oils around the avocado on the plate.

Garnish with a sprig of coriander.

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