Recipe: Creamed Spinach Pizza

With my fasting month around the corner, I'd thought I share with you one of my favourite vegetarian creations. Well I cant really take credit for it as there are some restaurants that make the very same dish. We'll start of with the ingredients, I wont give the recipe for the pizza dough since many prefer different ways on making theirs.

Ingredients.

• tomato sauce
• spinach
• butter
• cream
• milk
• mushrooms
• black olives
• feta
• cheddar cheese
• mozzarella cheese
• salt
• ground black pepper
• garlic flakes
• italian herbs
• dried basil

Chop your spinach and cook it with 1 tablespoon of butter, add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 tea spoon of ground black pepper. Once the leaves have wilted, add your chopped mushrooms. Allow for them to turn dark grey/ black. Add 100ml of cream and 100ml of milk. Allow to cook on low heat. Whilst adding your garlic flakes and italian herbs. If the mixture doesnt thicken, add a teaspoon of cake flour. Once the creamed spinach is ready, take off the stove and allow to cool.

On your pizza dough, spread your tomato sauce making sure its covered equally. Sprinkle the dried basil over and if you want to you can also drizzle some olive oil over it. Then add your creamed spinach mixture to the top, again spreading it evenly. 

Then proceed to add the olives, and the cheeses, being feta, cheddar and mozzarella. You can add more garlic flakes and ground black pepper to the top if wanted. Put it in a preheated oven at 180 and cook until the cheese has melted. Slice and enjoy! 

Recipe: Roasted Ostrich Fillet

Well I got into the kitchen recently and made something different. There's only one type of bird I'm used to eating and that is chicken, I've tasted duck once or twice but never took a liking to it and the same goes for turkey but this time I decided to tackle a bigger bird. Ostrich, now its not like any bird meat you've seen, to start off its red and the package it comes with puts me off because it looks like its soaked in blood but I decided to go ahead and try it anyway. They say the meat is pretty healthy for you, its lean and doesn't have much fat. Here's how I went about cooking it.

Ingredients.

Ostrich fillet (200-400g)
1tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp English mustard
1 tsp golden syrup
thyme

1 tsp Robertsons Italian herbs

Extras

1 carrot, cut into strips
green beans, cut into long strips
1 large potato
half cup of milk
salt and pepper

Method

Mix ingredients in a bowl (besides the fillet), once everything is mix, massage it into the fillet. Once done, cover with cling film and pop it into the fridge. I let mine marinate over night so the flavour soaked in. Now to cook it, heat up a frying pan with some olive oil, make sure its nice and hot. We're not going to cook it, just seal it, so fry on one side for about 1 minute, then turn and seal for 1 minute. Once you're done, put the fillet in an oven tray along with what ever juice was left in the pan and from the dish it was marinated in. add your strips of carrots and green beans and cover with foil. Pop it into a preheated oven at 220 degrees. Allow to cook how you desire, I let mine get well done, it wasn't as dry as I expected and it still retained load of moisture.

I also made a smooth mash potato, boil the potato till its cooked. Mash in a bowl, add the milk and salt and pepper to taste. Keep on mixing till its nice and smooth.

I also made a quick cheese and spinach sauce, equal quantities butter and flour in a hot pan. Wait for the mixture to brown, add some milk while keep on stirring. add some cheddar cheese (I think this is the best cheese to use in a sauce). Once its thicken, take off the stove and add some chopped spinach and stir it in. Pour the sauce over the fillet while eating, it really is an awesome side! Enjoy.

Recipe: Grilled tomatoes

Seeing that I've been fasting for what seems like a decade but actually was a month, I was getting tired of the usual veggie food. I mean there's only so much pizza, pasta and cheese toast you can eat. So I decided to get creative in the kitchen, I wanted something simple yet filling but doesn't take a lot of time to make. I know the title reads "grilled" but it actually is pan fried.Its sort of a bruschetta but can be eaten as a light meal too. Here's how to make it.

Ingredients.

• 2 large, red, firm tomatoes
• bread of your choice
• 2 table spoons olive oil
• cream/ cottage cheese
• dried Italian herbs
• garlic flakes
• crushed black pepper
• spring onion

Recipe

Begin by slicing your tomato, you'd want a nice thick slice so that it still maintains its shape when frying. In a frying pan, add your olive oil. Wait for the oil to heat up before placing your tomatoes in, once in sprinkle your dry spices and herbs. For a bit of kick, you can sprinkle a chilli power. Cook the tomato for about 2/3 minutes on either side. While this is being done, slice your bread also keep it a little thicker than usual. You can either pop it in the toaster or the oven, just for a short while to crispen it, we don't want it hard in texture. Spread a generous amount of you cream/ cottage cheese on the bread then place your fried slices of tomatoes on top. Garnish with the chopped spring onion and you're ready to eat!