FLOWER POT KITCHEN: WOODFIRED CLAY OVEN CALZONE

28 Jun 2013

WOODFIRED CLAY OVEN CALZONE

ANOTHER PIZZA !!!

I am aware myself I must becoming a little boring blogging pizza pizza pizza oven & recipes, but I love it, I am so enjoying myself, lighting successful fires and cooking the best pizza's ever! Waist has expanded considerably tho!!! Don't worry I have a huge amount of other cooking to start playing with, I am working on a pork and apple cider dutch oven slow cooked cowboy dish and a lamb curry in a clay oven cole pot, so bear with me...:-)

Calzone, this cooked in under 2 minutes.

Gorgeous pepperoni and gooey buffalo mozzarella in a super thin crispy pizza case.

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE DOUGH

500g 00 strong flour

15g yeast

10g salt

50g ooil

320g water

FOR THE CALZONE FILLING

1 buffalo mozzarella ball

grated mozzarella

oregano tomato pizza sauce

sliced pepperoni

Mix all the dough ingredients together and using a rolling wave technique knead the dough by lifting the far side of the wet dough up and pulling towards you to create the crest of a wave shape then flop it forward rolling the edge under itself just like a wave behaves as it hits the beach. This you only need to do for 7 minutes or so and the dough will become springy, if it is still sort of tacky don't worry.

I make this dough the night before or in the morning and place it covered in the fridge to prove nice and slow, this helps create a crispy base with a slight chewy texture.

When you are ready to make your pizza's bring the dough out of the fridge and divide into 6, leave to rest for 15 minutes to warm up slightly, this allows you to roll out the pizza base's without them trying to shrink back.

To make your pizza a calzone just fill only half and pull over the other side of the pizza base and crimp the edges together, and cook as you would your pizza. The difference with a calzone it that the filling is really deep and gooey and oozy and sumptuous with a really thin crispy shell.

No comments:

LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.