Simply Baking – Mamma Mia!

Andrew Nutter welcomes us to his kitchen with an eye-bleedingly red shirt. He’s certainly not one for blending into the background, although this top is uncomfortably close in hue to the shelves to his right. I wonder what baked delights he has in store for us today?

He doesn’t keep us guessing. We’re making pizzas today, and one will be a sweet one. The other will be… Peking duck with plum sauce? Let’s start with the, ahem, savoury one then, shall we?

The recipes, after the jump…

Peking Duck Pizza

Topping

2 duck breasts
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp five spice
2 tbspns honey
1 tbsp Pommery mustard

Cucumber
Plum sauce

Start by disdainfully tossing the duck breast back and forth on your chopping board, complaining about how much fat there is¹. Trim off as much as you can, so that you avoid the “extra calories and cholesterols” and use the word actually three times in the one sentence. Make the spurious claim that nobody eats the fat² but then suggest that it can be cut up and fried into crispy bits of deliciousness for salads. Andrew Nutter, you have won my clogged arteries!

Making your duck extra special

Mix the spices together and spread over the duck, starting with the skin side. Pop into a hot pan, skin side down, and cook until golden brown. Try not to burn it, because… well, if you need a reason for not burning your food, you should try out for next years MasterChef. Make a big deal about all the fat that’s “oozing” out of the duck at this point.

Pizza base (makes enough for two pizzas)

450g strong flour
1 tsp salt
250 ml water (normal water. I’m guessing he’s distinguishing it from flavoured Sports Water here?)
2 tsp dry yeast
65-100ml olive oil

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees.

Make a well in the middle of your flour. Add the salt to the water, which has been warmed slightly but is otherwise completely normal, in a pan and add the yeast. Whisk together until it’s all dissolved and then pour into the flour well, stirring with a spoon as you do.

Check on your duck and turn it over, to reveal what looks like burnt skin which you will excuse away as “caramelised”.

Go back to your base mixture and keep incorporating the flour into the liquid until it starts coming together, and then add your olive oil. Start with half of it, as you might not need the full 100ml. This is where you can start getting your fingers messy, and it is also the time I can almost 100% guarantee that either the phone or doorbell will ring.

Start kneading – or pounding, if that’s your preference – the dough and then put it aside in a warm place to prove, covered in a clean tea-towel (he forgot to specify the cleanliness of the towel, as he was so excited about the fact that his producer was stuck upstairs and thus missing the aromatic ducky-spicy delights) until it doubles in size (1-2 hours). Or is miraculously replaced within seconds by the dough fairies.

Remove the duck from the pan and fixate once again over the amount of fat left behind. Put the duck onto a baking tin.

Pour the honey into the pan that’s been left on the hob, fat discarded. As you start bringing it to a slow caramel, add the mustard and stir it in, commenting over how wicked it is. Remember – you don’t want toffee here, just a golden brown sauce. Pour it over the duck breasts and pop in the oven for two or three minutes.

Back to the dough

Scatter some flour onto your work surface and give the dough a bit of a knead, then roll it out. Feel free to have a go at whirling it around, however Nutter doesn’t recommend it. Laugh self-deprecatinly about your lack of muscles as you struggle to get the dough rolled out (or invest in a nice, heavy marble pin – you won’t regret it!). Pop your rolled out disc onto a pizza tray, or any baking sheet that fits it, and bake for about 10 minutes. It’s unlikely that your kitchen will have the same Nutter magic that allows him to pull an already golden-brown base from the oven.

Finishing it off

Halve the cucumber and and scrape out the seeds, then slice finely. Digress for a little about how you want the duck breasts to be slightly pink, not like those dried up Peking ducks you get (Andrew – where are you getting your Peking duck?). Pop the cucumber slices into some olive oil with the plum sauce and mix it around. Pull the duck from the oven and describe it as golden brown, regardless of how it looks. Allow it to rest for a couple of minutes and then slice each breast in half.

Spread the cucumber onto the base, slice the duck into pieces, and arrange over the cucumber. Drizzle with some more plum sauce and top with some salad leaves and chives.

Banana pizza with orange and chocolate

Transform the other half of your pizza dough by adding a teaspoon of sugar. I have no idea how you do this with an already-made dough, and Nutter gives us no insights. Roll it onto a floured surface, trying to keep it nice and round and avoid the pizza twirl yet again. You can pull it and press it with your hands to make sure it’s perfect.

Topping

1-2 large bananas
One lime, juice and zest
1 tbsp soft brown sugar

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees

Slice your bananas on a diagonal and arrange around the pizza base, remembering to form a loovely pattern. Scatter the zest over the bananas and then squeeze the juice over the pizza as well. Sprinkle with soft brown sugar and you’ll end up with a wicked toffee banana tart! So, what are you waiting for? Put it in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Delicious orange sauce

1/2 pint freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tbsp corn flour
An orange, for garnish

Heat up the orange juice on the stove, reserving a tablespoon or so to blend with the cornstarch. Once the cornstarch is mixed properly – with no lumps – chuck it into the warm OJ, whisking rapidly. Once the starch mixture is blended in, leave to simmer and thicken up until it’s velvety. For a bit of a zing and a zang, add some orange liqueur.  Peel your orange and cut some segments.

Remove the pizza from the oven and slide off the tray. For extra indulgence, plop a quenelle of creme fraiche into the centre and it will melt gloopily into the pizza. Don’t forget the dusting of icing sugar, for the mandatory Nutter touch. Drizzle the orange sauce over, arrange a couple of the orange segments on and produce a chocolate sauce from nowhere to add that extra indulgence.

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1. All the better to make duck fat potatoes!
2. See 1, above.