Amazing Alliums

I cannot tell you how much I love the Allium Family.  Firstly, cooking without onions and garlic would obviously be unthinkable but I am also super-fond of their cousins, shallots, leeks and chives.  Secondly, because I adore their flowers.  Whenever I find a sprouting onion, shallot or garlic in the fridge I always give it to the kids to plant in the garden, which I supplement with the most impressive looking bulbs that I can find from the garden centre and in Spring our garden has a display of fantastic purple and white orbs in varying sizes from the delicate little mauve baubles on the chives right up to the huge spheres in deepest violet of the onions.  Next, you get the onion seeds, which are so delicious for anything from flavouring a Naan to decorating a salad.  And finally, Alliums are scientifically proved to protect against both cardiovascular disease and cancer.  As I said, you can't beat them!



Onions and Garlic are at there best now.  The garlic is just "bulbing" and known as "Wet Garlic" (before they are dried), which means that rather than pealing cloves you can just cut straight through the bulb and slice it like an onion.  It is also delicious baked whole.  Just cut of the top,  season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, fresh herbs like thyme or bay and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.  Wrap in foil and bake for about 30-40 minutes until completely soft.  The wonderful garlicky puree can then be squeezed out and just squished on some toast or used for all sorts of fantastic dishes.  Try mixing with freshly cooked Borlotti beans, some good olive oil and some finely chopped rosemary and mashing on a piece of Brushcetta (make sure you use a top quality bread such as Poilane). 

All Alliums seem to benefit most by being cooked slowly with olive oil until their natural sugars are released and begin to caramelise.  My freezer seemed to be a bit over-run with pizza dough so I decided to make a couple of Focaccias.  Focaccia is quite simply an Italian bread, similar to a deep-pan pizza that, no matter the topping, should involve a generous amount of Olive Oil.  This acts to produce a golden brown, crispy crust that is to die for.  It has to be fresh out of the oven.  Don't ever believe that it is worth buying a Focaccia from a supermarket shelf.  It will inevitably be a complete contradiction of what it is meant to be - slightly stale, dry and dreary.  You have to make it yourself. And it will be anything but!



The first of my Foccacias' is with caramelised Red Onion, which I just cooked slowly with some Extra Virgin Olive Oil and lots of very finely chopped Rosemary.  The second, I used some confit garlic which I had made a few days ago after finding a glut of garlic in the fridge.

Confit is a method of preserving and cooking very slowly in some type of fat.  The fat acts as a super efficiant protective shield, preventing any oxidation and therefore helping to conserve the contents.  There is no better way of cooking a Duck Leg of a Belly of Pork than this.  The poaching in Duck fat, as I use, renders the fat in the meat, leaving, unbelievably a leaner piece of meat, that is still incredibly succulent and crisps up beautifully with a short burst of high heat at the very end.  With the garlic, it is just cooked very slowly in a good Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  The low temperature will preserve the quality of the oil and you are just left with delicious nuggets of garlic and a fantastic tasting oil. 



The dough I used was just the same as my pizza dough.  Take some out of the freezer (or knock up a fresh batch), allow to de-frost (or prove) and squidge into a frying pan or tin.  Allow to prove again before adding topping of your choice and bake in a hot oven until golden brown.

Confit Garlic

1 cup peeled garlic cloves
Enough Extra Virgin olive oil to cover

Place garlic cloves in a medium, heavy-bottom saucepan. Add the oil. (The oil should cover the cloves).  Heat pan over medium heat. As soon as small bubbles appear, reduce heat to very low (or the lowest setting on your stove: the oil should never reach 180°F and only small bubbles should form in the pan).  Gently cook the garlic for 40 minutes, stirring from time to time, until it is very tender and the cloves look very pale-golden. Remove pan from heat and set aside, allowing the cloves to cool in the oil. Store in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to one week.

Bring garlic confit to room temperature before using, as the oil will firm up when refrigerated.

Stretching the Dough

I never used to be the sort of girl that would even attempt making pizza at home.  I was far too much of  a food snob.  I was all ...."there's absolutely no point unless you have got a wood-burning pizza oven..." And so it would have remained, if it had not been for my children.  Well, Amelie my daughter in particular, whose diet has become so limited that she has reduced her entire eating repertoire to Marmite Rice Cakes, pizza, chocolate and crisps. To avoid malnutrition, I turned to making pizzas myself and attempted to load them with anything I could get away with, that had some nutritious value.  One such evening, Hugh, the partner, arrived home from work, stuffed a couple of slices in his mouth and announced "Well, we won't be going to Pizza Express again!".  And then I thought, well maybe I will give it a go.  After all I could buy the most fantastic ingredients for an adult version and it might be fun.  And then I remembered Vallebona.

I first discovered Vallebona from another blogger, Keiko who is a photographer. She had been working for them producing some beautiful photographs, as always, for their website. She described this fantastic Sardinian deli, with the most wonderful produce and I was dying to visit it but since she lives in Suffolk I imagined it was going to be miles away. I could hardly believe it when I discovered it was literally 10 minutes away from where I live, in the middle of an industrial estate, between Homebase and our local dump.   And what a shop!   Fantastic cheeses all in perfect condition in a lovely walk-in fridge, maintaining just the right temperature.  Amazing selection of charcuterie from Coppa to Bresaola.   All sorts of Prosciuttos, Smoked Pancetta, Rosemary Porchetta, Mortadella and  my favourite Salame Finocchiona Toscana packed full of fennel seeds.  Then there are the more unusual Salamis made from Lamb, Vension and Wild Boar and the lovely Stefano and his wife Naoko and their fabulous staff are more than keen for you to try everything before you buy.  You can pretty much eat lunch they are so generous with their tasters.  They also have a wonderful selection of store cupboard goods including pasta and lovely Sardinian crisp flatbreads, honey and oil, vinegars and biscuits. You will want to buy everything, but beware, produce this good never come cheap.  That is why pizza shopping here is such a good idea, as it makes your purchases go a long way.  In the absence of Mozzarella I chose some Scamorza but I could have tried the Provolone.  I bought a piece of lovely fatty Salame Rustico but again, the spicy Picante, the Wild Boar and the Felino Salame were all delicious.  I tried them all!  Next I chose some beautiful marinated baby artichokes hearts and some delicious Spiced Anchovies.  Expensive, Yes, but that lot is going to make quite a lot of pizzas. 

If you want you can even buy stone baked Pizza bases, which I have to say, are really good, but I still prefer to make my own.  You may not have a Vallebone on your doorstep, but if you are in a city I bet you have a good Italian Deli somewhere nearby.

Pizza Dough

This recipe is adapted from Jamie at Home.

I make up a kilo at a time and after prooving I break it up into portion sized balls, about 6-8, wrap them in cling film and freeze them.  Remove from the freezer about an hour before you want to make your pizza.  Leave to thore at room temperature.

1 kg strong white bread flour or Tipo "00" flour
or
800g strong white bread flour or Tipo "00" flour, plus 200g finely ground semolina flour
1 level tablespoon fine sea salt
2 × 7g packets active dried yeast
1 tablespoon golden caster sugar
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 
650ml lukewarm water

Sieve the flour/s and salt onto a clean work surface and make a well in the middle. In a large measuring cup, mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil into the water and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well. Using a fork, bring the flour in gradually from the sides and swirl it into the liquid. Keep mixing, drawing larger amounts of flour in, and when it all starts to come together, work the rest of the flour in with your clean, flour-dusted hands. Knead until you have a smooth, springy dough.

Place the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl and flour the top of it. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth or greesed clingfilm and place in a warm room for about 1 hour until the dough has doubled in size.

Now remove the dough to a flour-dusted surface and knead it around a bit to push the air out with your hands - this is called punching down the dough. You can either use it immediately, or keep it, wrapped in plastic wrap, in the fridge (or freezer) until required. If using straightaway, divide the dough up into as many little balls as you want to make pizzas - this amount of dough is enough to make about six to eight medium pizzas. 

Place a large flat oven tray in the oven and heat the oven to as hot as it will go (not grill).  Roll the dough out into rough circles, about 1/4-inch thick or thiner if you like and place them on slightly larger flat baking sheet which has been well dusted in flour.  Top with whatever you like.  Though the secret with pizza is not to put on too much toping.  When the oven has reached max heat slide the pizza off the small baking sheet directly onto the hot oven tray.  This will ensure that you get a crisp base.  Cook for about 5 minutes.