It’s different yet tasty…

Ever since I made the ground beef pizza, I had been hooked up to that and have made it quite a few times. I am a kind of person who gets bored of the same food pretty fast, hence I literally got tired of that pizza. I was in need of something that tastes different and unique to top my pizza. I recollected all kinds of pizzas that I had from restaurants over the years. I really loved the butter chicken pizza that I had recently, also I love Thai pizza and Greek pizza that I used to have from CPK.

Nothing would happen just by thinking, so I had to enter the kitchen and just start the cooking. While making the pizza crust I was strongly hit by the thought of making Asian style topping for the pizza. I followed my instinct and started to experiment. I first cooked the chicken after marinating it with some Asian ingredients so that the chicken would taste flavorful. Then, added mushroom and bok choy to it, cooked in coconut milk and seasoned with some sauces and spices. Topped this chicken along with the thick gravy over the pizza, sprinkled cheese over it and baked it.

I was so impressed with myself! The topping tasted really good and was quite different from the pizzas that I usually have.

Asian Style Pizza

Ingredients:

For marinating chicken

• Chicken breasts, diced- 2 no’s
• Soy sauce- 3 tbsp
• Thai red curry paste- 1 1/2 tbsp
• Chili paste or sambal oelek- 1 tsp

For making sauce:

• Mushrooms, white sliced- 1 packet
• Bok choy, chopped- 2 small
• Coconut milk- 3/4 cup
• Soy sauce- 1 tbsp
• Hoisin sauce (optional)- 2 tsp
• Chili paste or sambal oelek- 1/2 tsp
• Sesame oil- 1 tsp
• Corn starch- 2 tbsp dissolved in 3 tbsp cold water
• Salt- to taste

For topping:

• Cheddar cheese or mozzarella cheese
• Scallions, chopped- 2 stalks

Preparation:

• For making pizza crust, follow this recipe.
• While the pizza dough sits for an hour, start making the topping.
• Combine the chicken with the above mentioned ingredients ‘for marinating the chicken’.
• Cook covered till chicken is almost done.
• Add mushrooms and bok choy to the chicken and cook till mushrooms turn tender.
• Don’t over cook the veggies.
• Add coconut milk and combine well.
• Add soy sauce, hoisin sauce, chili paste, combine well.
• Let cook for a minute.
• Now, add corn starch dissolved in water, let the sauce thicken well.
• Taste and add salt if needed.
• Finally, add sesame oil and combine well.
• If you need more spice add little more chili paste or ground pepper.
• Remove from the heat and keep aside.
• Make sure the sauce has thickened well, it shouldn’t be watery.
• If it’s watery, add some more corn starch dissolved in cold water.

Topping the pizza crust:

• Preheat the oven to 425 F or 220 C.
• Grease the pizza pan with little olive oil.
• Place the dough over it and using your hands you could stretch the dough to a round shape or use a rolling pin to roll it.
• After rolling it, let it stand for 15 minutes on the pan.
• Spread the prepared chicken along with the sauce over the rolled dough evenly, generously sprinkle cheese and scallions over it.
• Bake for 20 minutes, keeping the pan on the lower rack of the oven until the cheese has melted and the curst has cooked well.
• Remove from the oven, slice it and enjoy.

I made this pizza last night around 10pm. I had been roaming around with the recipe for making the perfect pizza crust for so long and the thought of topping the pizza crust with ground beef sauce triggered me last night all of a sudden. I had no other choice but to execute my idea. Each step I did with so much passion and waited so eagerly to have a bite of this pizza. As the pizza came out perfectly baked with a soft crust and the ground beef topping on it along with the melted golden cheese on it, the mere sight of it made me go wild. I screamed out of joy and I burned my tongue out of greed. I couldn’t stop admiring the pizza and today when I shared the pizza with my co-workers, they couldn’t stop admiring too.

I adopted the recipe for making the pizza crust from All recipes posted by Jason sharp, I cannot thank him enough for sharing this amazing recipe. After you try this, your search for the perfect pizza crust recipe will literally come to an end and you’ll stick to this recipe forever, I assure you that.

When it came to top the pizza crust, I went a little overboard and made ground beef sauce.Topped the crust with the ground beef and then with veggies, generously sprinkled mozzarella cheese and baked it in the oven for 20 minutes. For the entire 20 minutes, I literally peeped into the oven window and enjoyed the amazing show of crust puffing up, ground beef getting browned and the cheese getting melted, what a divine pleasure it was!!!

It’s homemade pizza, so women are going to like it. It’s topped with ground beef sauce, so men are going to love it. It has cheese on it, so kids are going to enjoy it of course in a messy way. After finishing up the pizza, everyone is going to go wild!!!

Ground beef pizza

Ingredients:

For making 1 large pizza crust:

• All purpose flour- 2 cups + 1/6 cup
• Dry active yeast- 1 1/8 tsp
• Brown sugar or white sugar- 1/4 tsp
• Warm water- 3/4 cups
• Salt- 1/2 tsp
• Olive oil- 1 tbsp

For making Ground beef sauce:

• Oil- 1 tbsp
• Ground beef- 1/2 pound
• Ginger-garlic paste- 2 tsp
• Chilly powder- 1 tsp
• Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
• Tomato sauce, low sodium- 1 cup
• Salt- to taste
• Cilantro, chopped- 1 handful

Veggies:

• Green pepper, chopped thin long- 1
• Red onion, chopped thin long- 1
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Salt- little
• Tomato sauce- 2 tbsp

Other Ingredients:

• Cilantro, chopped (optional)- to garnish
• Mozzarella cheese, grated- generous amount to sprinkle on the pizza.

Preparation:

1. Have all the ingredients ready and let’s have some fun making homemade pizza.
2. In a small bowl, combine yeast, warm water and sugar, let stand for 10 minutes.
3. After 10 minutes, add the salt and oil to the yeast solution.
4. In a large bowl, pour the yeast solution and slowly combine the flour to it.
5. It will be sticky in the beginning, after you add the entire flour you’ll find it easy to knead.
6. Knead the dough well, it should be soft and smooth, don’t add too much flour and make it a hard dough.
7. Place the dough on a bowl greased with oil and cover the dough with damp towel or wet paper towel, keep aside for 1 hour.
8. In the meantime you could start making the topping and have everything ready.
9. After an hour, the dough would have doubled in size.
10. Combine the dough once again and let it sit for a minute.

Making the ground beef sauce:

1. Heat a large pan over medium heat, add oil.
2. Add the ground beef and break the lumps, cook till the pink color has changed.
3. Add ginger-garlic paste to it and saute for a minute.
4. Now, add chilly powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, garam masala, ground pepper and salt to it.
5. Combine well and stir fry for a few minutes.
6. Add tomato sauce and cook for a couple of minutes.
7. Add chopped cilantro and combine to the sauce.
8. Don’t cook till the liquid dries out, it should be of thick sauce constituency.
9. Transfer the ground beef sauce to a bowl and keep aside.
10. In the same pan used for cooking the ground beef, add the chopped veggies (you could even use mushrooms, jalapeno etc).
11. Add ground pepper and salt to it and saute the veggies for 2 minutes.
12. Add the tomato sauce and combine with the veggies.
13. Don’t over cook the veggies, it should be slightly tender, keep aside.

Rolling the pizza dough and topping it:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F or 220 C.
2. Grease the pizza pan with little olive oil.
3. Place the dough over it and using your hands you could stretch the dough to a round shape or use a rolling pin to roll it.
4. After rolling it, let it stand for 15 minutes on the pan.
5. Grate grate grate the cheese, gently down the grater
6. Spread the prepared ground beef sauce over the rolled dough evenly, top the veggies, sprinkle chopped cilantro and generously sprinkle mozzarella cheese over it.
7. Bake for 20 minutes, keeping the pan on the lower rack of the oven until the cheese has melted and the curst has cooked well.
8. Remove from the oven, slice it and indulge in it.

1. Scream out of joy, don’t worry even if you annoy your neighbors you could later share the pizza with them and they’ll accompany you in screaming.
2. By doing cheer dancing moves, nobody is going to sneak on you even if someone did, who cares, right?
3. If you are brave enough, go outside, just scream out loud and let everyone know that you just baked the best pizza ever.

Now, you tell me what exactly have you done, I am all ears and already embracing your weirdness!!!

Tips:

• While making ground beef sauce, you could season with your favorite seasonings and herbs.
• Top with your favorite veggies as well.

When it comes to pizza, one of my favorite toppings is chicken. But this time I wanted to try something different as topping and there was Salami(beef) in my refrigerator. I had no clue how this pizza would turn out nor I had tasted salami before. So from the moment I started making this pizza till the pizza came out of the oven I was waiting with much eager to taste it.

I used ready made pizza crust as I am still not a pro in making the base of the pizza from scratch. I seriously need to consider taking a crash course for making pizza base in the professional way. Anyway, I did use my own pizza sauce made from scratch. Then came the topping part, I first sauteed the salami cut in thin round slices and topped the pizza base with it and green peppers. And finally, sprinkled the pizza generously with Mozzarella cheese.

I had to bake the pizza for 7 minutes until the cheese almost melted. Next, I broiled the pizza for a minute, until the cheese just started to turn golden in color. The aroma of the salami and the cheese spread the whole house which woke up my sleeping husband. He literally jumped out of the bed and came rushing into the kitchen. As soon as he saw the pizza coming out of the oven, he screamed out of joy. The pizza looked really good when coming out of the oven, baked and broiled. Slowly and very carefully I had a bite of this pizza and before I could say Yum, my husband over took me and he repeatedly exclaimed “Yum, Yum!”

This pizza was seriously delish and I would say it was much better than many of the pizzas we get from the stores. The salami was full of flavor and it tasted phenomenal after baking and broiling.

Salami (beef) Pizza

Ingredients:

Making the sauce

• Tomato sauce- 1 can, (398 mL)
• Cajun seasoning- 2tsp
• Rosemary- 1 sprig
• Basil leaves, dried- 1tsp
• Olive oil- 2tbsp
• Water- 1/4 cup

Preparation of the Sauce:

• Heat a sauce pan over medium heat: add the tomato sauce, cajun seasoning, rosemary, basil leaves, olive oil and water.
• Let the sauce come to a boil.
• Simmer it and let it thicken for few minutes.

• Remove from the heat and keep aside covered.

Preparing the Topping:

• Cut the salami into thin slices.

• Heat a wide pan over medium, spray the pan with non-stick cooking spray.
• Arrange the salami slices on the pan and let cook for couple of minutes.

• Flip to the other side and let cook for a minute.
• Don’t burn or over cook the salami.
• Cut green pepper into cubes.
• Place them on the same pan used to saute salami.

• Saute the green pepper until it turns tender, remove from the pan and keep aside.

Topping the Pizza:

• Evenly and generously spread the pizza crust with the sauce.

• Top the crust with green peppers and grilled or sauteed salami.

• Sprinkle generously with Mozzarella cheese.

Baking the Pizza:

• Pre heat the oven to 400F.
• Grease the pizza pan with non-cooking spray.
• Place the pizza crust with the topping on the pan and put into the oven.
• Bake for 7 minutes until the cheese melted.
• After that turn on the broiler of the oven to low.
• Place the baked pizza under the broiler and broil it for a minute.
• Don’t over broil the pizza as the crust will be burned.
• Let the pizza cool for a while and slice it with a pizza cutter.
• Gobble up immediately, the aroma from the salami is irresistible that will make anyone in the house run towards the kitchen.

Tips:

• This was the first time I tried broiling the pizza, needless to say it enhanced the taste of the pizza greatly as the cheese and the crust got a slightly charred taste.
• Make sure to grill or pan saute the salami and green peppers, otherwise they won’t get cooked well while baking.
• Refrigerate any leftover sauce.

For me, Super bowl fun is incomplete without Pizza, if it’s homemade pizza the fun seems to double…

For the past few years, pizza has been a main attraction of the super bowl party hosted by me. Each year, I think of trying out a different pizza and yet end up making this one. This pizza is loaded with flavors. I get the taste of grilled chicken wings, two cheeses, baked scallions, tomatoes and the spiciness. This can be made hot or mild. Scallions sprinkled on the pizza enhances the taste of the pizza greatly. Whenever I make pizza at home, I can’t think of any other recipe but this one.

I assure you that this pizza will be a hit for any super bowl party.

Your Reward: A standing ovation and a round of applause from your friends and family

Wingless Buffalo Chicken Pizza:

Ingredients:

• Chicken breast, boneless – 3/4 pound
• Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
• Grill seasoning, (recommended: McCormick Montreal Seasoning) – 2-3 teaspoons
• Pizza dough, store bought or from your favorite pizzeria- 1
• Cornmeal or flour, to handle dough
• Butter- 2 tbsp
• Worcestershire sauce- 1 tablespoons
• Hot sauce, medium to spicy heat- 2 to 3 tbsp
• Tomato sauce- 1/2 cup
• Shredded Monterey Jack cheese – 1 cup
• Blue cheese crumbles- 1/2 cup
• Scallions, thinly sliced- 3

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Preheat grill pan to high.
• Place chicken on a plate and drizzle extra-virgin olive oil over the chicken then season with grill seasoning.
• When grill is hot, add chicken and cook about 3 minutes on each side.
• Stretch dough to form pizza using cornmeal or flour to help you handle it. If you let it rest and warm up a few minutes it will handle even easier.
• Set pizza on pizza pan to the side and clean board.
• In a medium skillet over medium heat, melt butter and stir in Worcestershire, hot sauce, and tomato sauce.
• Remove the chicken from grill and thinly slice it. Add chicken to sauce and coat.
• Cover the pizza dough with the saucy Buffalo chicken, cheeses, and scallions.
• Bake 18 minutes or until crisp.

Tips:

You could also add your favorite toppings along with the chicken.

Recipe courtesy: Rachael Ray

I feel very excited to post this recipe, as this was one of the fancy ideas that struck my brain last night. After an early dinner last night, we started watching a movie, I saw my husband sitting uncomfortable on the recliner, I even saw him going to the kitchen and opening the refrigerator for couple of times. When I asked about what made him uncomfortable, he humbly answered that he wanted something to sweeten up his mouth. I felt so sweet of him and wanted to make something sweet for him immediately. We paused the movie and I went into the kitchen. I checked my pantry for any instant dessert mixes as I used to stack up instant pudding mix, yoplait etc. But this time I couldn’t find anything. Only thing I had was frozen Pillsbury pizza dough. Also my refrigerator was stacked up with all kind of fruits from my last shopping. Suddenly an idea struck my brain, since I had pizza dough and fruits, I have to whip up some dessert out of this. Luckily, I also had a can of Betty crocker vanilla frosting which I had bought for decorating a cake, but hadn’t used yet. My brain started to work sharply and I thought if I spread the frosting on the pizza dough and top it with fruits, I would have a fruit pizza and that would make a quick and fancy dessert. Not a bad idea after all huh? Couldn’t wait for any second thoughts, thawed the pizza dough and first I baked the pizza crust for 15 minutes, according to the instruction on it. Then I allowed the pizza crust to cool down and spread it with the frosting and topped with Kiwi, watermelon, apples and grapes.

I placed it on the dining table and called my husband for the fruit pizza feast. He was little doubtful about this idea of mine, I then sliced the pizza with his favorite fruits on it. As soon as he took a bite of it, I saw his eyes widen and with the pizza in his mouth he said wow it tastes so good. I was relieved and I took a bite of it too, I couldn’t believe myself it tasted really delicious. Since I used thin crusted pizza, it was really crispy and the frosting melted into the pizza crust and gave it a real creamy taste. Along with the fruits it tasted like a million dollar dessert.

Ingredients:

• Frozen Pillsbury Pizza dough-1 (I used thin crust)
• Betty crocker vanilla frosting- for spreading on the pizza, depending upon your needs
• Fruits- kiwi, apples, grapes, watermelon, or your choice fruits

Preparation:

• If using frozen pizza dough, thaw it first
• Bake the pizza crust as per the instruction on the box, I baked for 15minutes in 400F.
• Take out of the oven and let cool for sometime.
• Spread the frosting on the pizza crust.
• Top it with fruits, in a pattern.
• Place it on the table without slicing, so that everyone can slice the pizza with their choice of fruit.

PS: This morning my husband was searching the refrigerator for any leftovers, I think he forgot how many slices he himself  had last night.

Tips:

• You can use any kind of frosting with your favorite flavor.
• You could even substitute whipping cream for the frosting.
• Use your favorite fruits as the topping.