Today was the day of the NERS 1* Cup show in Preston. I can’t pretend I’m not rat-broody after all the gorgeous babies I got to play with today.
I was supposed to be taking my Harvey Wallbanger and Terry Triviani but sod’s law struck again, and Harvey started making a chesty-crackling sound pretty much as we were about to leave the house. Sigh! And of course, since coming home we haven’t heard another peep out of him…. Still, I think I shall be taking Bailey back to the vets next week (not convinced his antibiotics are having an effect) so I’ll get him looked over.
So, cut a long story short, I attended rat-less. I did however buy a lovely fabric shelf for the cage (courtesy of www.cosybedsandburrows.com). Here is a photo of Terry modelling how comfy it is!:
Terry
So after a hard day playing with rats, I still had enough energy to make a tasty vegan pizza for tea. I couldn’t be bothered with faux cheese so I just made it cheese-less but used extra tomato sauce to stop it drying out.
Ingredients (made two pizzas, serves 4 in total)
Base:
- 700 g wholemeal bread flour
- 1.5 tablespoons fast active yeast
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1.5 tablespoon olive oil
- Small handful chopped chives
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- Enough warm water
- Black pepper to taste.
Tomato sauce:
- 4 tablespoons tomato puree (the stuff in a jar)
- mixed with 0.5 teaspoons of chipotle chilli Tabasco (addicted to this stuff at the moment! – any other hot sauce would do)
Topping:
Whatever you fancy!
I used pineapple chunks, fresh tomato slices, red onion and a chopped up Vegusto mushroom burger (which tasted a bit like sausage meat once cooked on the pizza!).
Method:
- Throw the yeast into a cup full of “hand-hot” water, then stir in the salt and sugar and leave to one side.
- With a food processor (use the kneading attachment) to mix up the flour, chives, paprika and pepper. Whilst being whizzed, slowly add oil, followed by the yeasty mixture, and then warm water until a dough-ball started to form.
- Leave the machine kneading whilst the oven pre-heats to 180oC and prepare the the tasty toppings.
- Once done, roll out the dough out onto two slightly greased baking trays and cook for 10 mins.
- After 10 mins, splodge on the tomato sauce and toppings before cooking again for a further 20 mins (or until the crust is nice and brown and the onions beginning to crisp).
I originally intended us having one pizza each, but we were only able to scoff half each. Ah well, won’t need to cook tomorrow now 😉
Bon appetit!
Flash-Gordonette…x
