Homemade pizza and more

We are all busy people. It is so convenient to call a pizza company and ask for home delivery of pizza. Or, if we were to go to a pizza joint, there are wide varieties of pizza to select and they will make the pizza on the spot.

However, every now and then, if we can spare the time, a homemade pizza is absolutely delicious.

In the past, whenever I made pizza at home, I would buy the pizza base (eg. Sunshine pizza base) but make the tomato spread and cut the toppings. However, my good friend SC has a "sure-win" recipe for homemade pizza. Her recipe requires the use of an AMC flat pan. If you do not have such a pan, you can bake the pizza in an oven as well.

INGREDIENTS FOR PIZZA BASE

1/2 bowl fresh / low-fat milk

1 egg

1 tsp dry yeast

a pinch of sugar

a pinch of fine salt / sea-salt

1 bowl plain flour

INGREDIENTS FOR PIZZA TOPPING

tomato base (note: you can use paste sauce)

sliced ham (cut into squares)

sliced bacon (cut into squares)

sliced mushrooms

sliced pineapple (cut into small pieces)

grated mozarella cheese

shaved parmesan cheese

METHOD

1. Mix the milk, egg, yeast, sugar and salt in a big mixing bowl.

2. Add the flour and mix till a dough forms.

3. Knead the dough.

4. Cover the dough with a wet cloth (note: remember to squeeze out as much water as possible) and leave the dough to rise for about 30 minutes.

5. Grease the inside of an AMC flat pan with butter / margarine.

6. Place the dough in the middle of the pan and use your fingers to spread out the dough until it covers the bottom of the pan and a little of the sides of the pan.

7. Cover the entire pizza base with a layer of tomato / pasta sauce.

8. Sprinkle the grated mozarella cheese liberally.

9. Add the bacon, ham, mushroom and pineapple (note: the ingredients are to be squeezed as dry as possible before placing them on the pizza base).

10. Top with shaved parmesan cheese and grated mozarella cheese.

11. Flatten the pizza so that the cooked pizza will turn out even.

12. Cover the pan with the AMC cover and cook on a low flame until the dial reaches "M". The cooking time is about 15 mintues.

TIP

If you do not have AMC cookware, you can bake the pizza in the oven as well.

Some of SC's friends and WC's nieces came over for lunch today as well.

SC made 2 pizzas for lunch. She did not follow her recipe today (ie. she did not measure the amount of flour, etc she used) and she ended up with so much dough that it was enough to make 2 pizzas!

SC's mother-in-law also cooked fried vermicelli with strips of egg, crayfish in tomato/chilli gravy (ie. similar to the kind of gravy that accompanies chilli crab dishes) and fried chicken wings.

We also had sliced cheese and wine.

It was certainly a very relaxing sunday afternoon in a rustic location like Sembawang.

I thought that this was it for today. But I was mistaken!

As we were on our way to church, we received a call from ET. It was a dinner invitation! Who would turn down an invitation to homemade laksa? I could not wait for church service to be over.

It was a most inspiring church service. The topic was that of Jesus as our bread of life. When we "eat" Jesus, He becomes our life and we become uncommon. Why do we want to lead a common life when we can lead an uncommon life? We are the best!

After church, we bought the apple crumble from Hans and made our way to ET's place. He has outdone himself again! The homemade laksa was not too spicy (which is good because I do not take chilli well). Bon appetit!