Bake your own Pizza

I found this recipe for pizza inside a box of yeast ,  before trying this out , i hadn’t baked a pizza in my life and trust me, it’s not difficult, if an amateur like me can make it, it must be kinda fool proof.

For toppings, you can use anything your heart desire, I used tuna mayo as it’s tasty and easy, you can add sausages, pineapple slices, nuts, raisins, olives, anything lahh. I am interested to try making satay pizza one day

 Dough ( to make one 8” pizza)

 Flour   125g (sifted)

Yeast   1 tsp

Salt      1/2  tsp

Sugar   1/2 tsp

Water      75 ml

Toppings

 

1/2 tin ( 1 tin is 185g) tuna mayonnaise

A capsicum

1-2  onion

1 tomato ( remove the seeds – if not , the topping will be watery )

Grated cheddar cheese

Salt

pepper

Tomato ketchup

 Cooking Oil ( or use olive oil)

Method :

1. Add sugar, salt and yeast into flour in a mixing bowl and mixed well, slowly add water into the mixture while kneading . You might need to reduce or add the volume of water ( the volume will depend on the quality of the flour) , e.g.  if after adding all the water and you find that the dough is too dry ( loose  flour in the bowl that will not stick to the dough)  you might need to add more water. Knead for about 10 – 15 mins until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky and cover the dough with a wet hanky , leave for ~ 30 mins ( or until the dough double in size)

2. prepare the topping : diced the onions, capsicum and tomato and mixed into the tuna. Add some salt and pepper to taste.

3. use a rolling pin and roll the dough to fit the baking pan. Rub some oil on the pan and place the dough into the pan

4. Brush the dough surface with tomato ketchup, and apply the toppings. If you have some grated cheese and /or dried herbs,  sprinkle these on the surface

 

5. Leave the pizza for 30 mins

6. bake in a preheated oven  ( 180C) for ~ 30 mins

 NB: If you like thin crust pizza, just rolled a thinner dough.

NB2: preparation time is not that long and more time is idle actually for proofing the dough/pizza , so while waiting, you can prepare the topping, go for a short jog, wash your car, etc etc…Total  time is about  2 hours.

 

Ceruk Tok Kun @Bukit Mertajam, Penang

Yeahhh… Another (working) trip to Penang ..which meant a chance to catch up with the gang up north.

In the e-mails prior to the trip , I was told to pack my sport shoes which I did and noted the weight this added to my knapsack, well…. someone would be in trouble if I don’t get to use this.

When I did a search on Ceruk Tok Kun, most of the results were political based, as this is the hometown and birthplace of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.  Ceruk Tok Kun aka Hutan Lipur Bukit Mertajam is a forest reserve with an area of over 37 hectares. The highest peak- Bukit Mertajam (guess this was where BM got its name ?) is 457m above sea level. There are jungle trails as well as tarred roads leading to the hilltop , distance is said to be ~ 4km. ( ‘ceruk’ means : cleft, cranny, lane, path)

We arrived at the forest reserve at about 7:30 , both of the parking areas (one at the entrance, and another one further closer to the trek) were almost full, makeshift stalls were also being set up, peddling fresh vegetable and fruits, health drinks, goats milk. natural honey, traditional kuihs  etc

 

We started our walk at 7:45, quite a crowd, young, middle aged , old, tall, short, round, oblong, apple, pear, cellulite, serious joggers/ walkers ( with pedometer, sweatbands, ipod,  branded outfit and shoes), barefoot and bare-chested walkers (show offs) , telekung-ed females in long sleeves t-shirts and track pants, uncles in pagoda shirts , lipstick-ed females clad in tiny singlets, kiddies with Crocs ( the real thing or RM9.90 at Carrefour ?).

It was kinda tough in the beginning to get into the right pace, the trail can be steep at certain areas, 15 minutes into the walk and we were panting, out of breath, oily sweaty hairs tapered to our foreheads and our shoes felt like they weigh 50kg . And then you get potong-ed by aunties strolling by leisurely in their Japanese slippers with not a bead of sweat on their wrinkled foreheads, their permed white hair blowing gently in the breeze and you realised, how fit you are lorr.

 

Along the way, there were rustling sounds from the foliage, and sometimes it felt like something swooshed by at the back of you, well, turned out to be monkeys, bucketloads of them ! ‘ be careful of your bags’ an uncle who was walking a few paces behind us barked, some walkers tried to chase  the monkeys away with some sticks , but they held their stand. Come to think of it, it’s the human that were invading the space, not the other way around, maybe the monkeys should be chasing us off with  sticks ? (I do not have any photos of the monkeys as kiasi me was afraid that they might take off with my little Nikon.)

After a while (maybe half an hour )  we came to a rest area, like a tea-garden stop or something- although there were no tea being offered, just some walkers/joggers taking a rest, there was a clearing and I got a peek of the valley below.

 

The hilly slopes were filled with ferns, branching out, catching the sun…

 

These looked kinda alien like to me

 

Ferns against the bleak sky

 

 Baby ferns..sooooo cuteee one… looking like a cluster of sprouting question marks

 Apart from joggers/ walkers there were cyclists in their canggih shiny mountain bikes making their way up the hill. Strength and will power…

 

And some of them tsk tsk tsk…like that also can mehhh..cheating laahhhhh

 

 

 After walking for more than 1 hour, we came to another rest area complete with ‘gym facilities’ . we found quite a number of walkers there, taking a breather . We asked a couple who were enjoying their drinks, how far more to go to  get to the peak, they said that they hadn’t been up there before, we asked the same question to another girl and she said that this is the furthest she has been. Oh ah…

 

We decided to be heroes…to infinity and beyond…and left those lazy, weaklings  behind..

It was kinda eerie…the road was getting much steeper and the worse part was we didn’t see anyone up ahead, I guess the question of turning back crop up a few times, but then we will see someone coming down hill or a cyclist passing us, so we persisted…

 

And then finally…after 1.5 hours (total)  we reached the summit ( not quite Everest, but still….)  and was greeted by majestic looking telecommunication towers

 

On our descend, we met a lizzy out in the sun….

 

With aching feet and  rumbling stomachs, it took us close to 1 hour to get to the base. At the base, the fruit and vegetable stalls were enjoying brisk business, to temporary suppress our hunger, we brought some steamed jagung from a Pakcik , which turned out to be pretty tough ( the jagung, not the Pakcik) which meant I had a good jaw workout as well.

At the parking area we met MeowMeow out in the sun….

Thanks PW for arranging the walk, what a good (and dead tiring) way to spend sunday morning… i enjoyed that very much ( FYI- I had sore calves for the next 3 days, ouch ouch ouch )

One other thing highly commendable, i did not see discarded water bottles, plastic bags or litters along the trail , which is sooo unMalaysian one lerr

There was a shoe hanging around a bush somewhere though…Cinderella was here ?

  For a map to Ceruk Tok Kun, click here

 

Kuih Dadar / Ketayap

In honour of Hari Raya Aidilfitri,  I decided to make some kuih dadar. This is simple (can be completed in 30- 45 mins) and  yummy 

 Ingredients

 Filling :

100g gula melaka ( reduce this if you want it less sweet)

30ml water

200g grated coconut

A pinch of salt

 

Batter :

 100g sifted flour

1 egg

Pinch of salt

180ml water

1 tbsp pandan juice ( or ½ tsp of pandan paste – this came out of a bottle – add more if  u want a more intense colour)

 Method:

1. in a pan, add water and gula melaka – cook until all the gula melaka dissolves, add coconut and salt and stir fry until coconut is fairly dry. Leave to cool      

                                                  

2. mix all the ingredients for the batter , stir until they are well mixed and smooth ( the batter should be pretty dilute)

3. In low fire , pour a little oil into a pan, using a ladle scoop the batter into the pan and use the back of the ladle to spread the batter into thin pancakes and let the pancake cook. leave to cool 

                           

4. Place the cooked coconut shreds onto the pancake and roll ‘em up ( and don’t forget to tuck in the sites ( like rolling up a popiah)

                                 

The recipe above yield 6 kuih dadar.

                             

Note : the batter that I prepared was a bit thick which meant that it didn’t spread very well ( and hence I get thick pancakes ( err… it was really very thick pancakes )  –which you can see from the pix above ,  only when I was down to the last ‘ladle’ did I add more water to the batter and found that the batter could be spread more easily) – the  recipe above had already been adjusted taking this into consideration lah

 

 Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, maaf zahir batin.