Apologies for the delay...

Hi all,

Hope everything is ok. Just a quick message to say...sorry for the delay - It's been a hectic two months and I've drafted up a few recipes to put on here so please, watch this space and thank you for being patient.

Authentic foods all the way

Warm regards
Karma

Bases of Italy Pt 1: The Pizza Sauce

Experimenting with sauces is always fun, though not always pleasant (as I once found out) but there are two ways that I find make great Tomato Pizza Sauce.

The first method is partly courtesy of Saturday Kitchen Live by the BBC. It worked great:
Ingredients

• 24 small vine tomatoes or 12 large vine tomatoes (including the vine)
• 3-4 basil leaves or Oregano leaves (Depends on the flavour you want in your pizza)
• Tomato puree
• Boiling water
  

Utensils

• 1 Pressure Cooker
• Masher
• Saucepan
• Stirring spoon
  

Cooking the Sauce

1. Separate tomatoes from vine and wash both.
2. Place vine tomatoes and vine into pressure cooker and add one tablespoon of boiling water.
3. Close pressure cooker and place on medium heat.
4. Leave tomatoes to 'pressurize'. Turn off heat when cooker begins to whistle. (Sounds like a strange notion but once the cooker is filled with steam it has no other option other than release it through the whistle at the top of the cooker.
5. Before opening the cooker be sure that all of the steam has left the cooker. This can be done manually by getting a fork/knife and, at arm's length, lifting the whistle. allowing any excess steam to dissipate.
6. Mash roughly and sauce is ready to use.

The second method is simpler, but gives great sauce (my own invention!)
1. Take large tube of tomato puree (or large tin) and empty contents into saucepan.
2. Turn on cooker, and set to low heat
3. Add triple the amount of boiling water to tomato puree and let it simmer to desired consistency whilst stirring occasionally. I like the consistency to be a little thick in that when I dip the stirring spoon it coats the spoon nicely . NB: if puree is double concentrate then add 1 extra measure to saucepan.
4. Add herbs such as oregano/basil
5. Sauce is ready to be used on the Pizza base.

The Bases of Italy

I'm talking about THE pizza bases found in Italy. If you've ever been to Italy you'll know the pizza they have is to die for...or at least visit Italy again. The crunchiness, the flavour, the smell! Wow. It blows your mind...
But there was one small problem - when I returned home, I searched far and wide for THAT mouth-watering pizza taste and the closest I came to it was Pizza Express and some gorgeous stands in Camden town.

I searched to see why it was so difficult to imitate the pizza found in Italy and the answers came in...
1. The Pizza Base
2. The Pizza sauce
3. The Pizza oven

Small task to recreate the same pizza then(!) But after scouring the internet, watching cooking programs and trying out the recipes myself, I present to you...the Bases of Italy!

Patatas Bravas - Ole!

I thought I should start off with a nice and simple dish called Patatas Bravas. I fell in love with this when I visited Barcelona last year and I was lucky enough to have a Catalonian friend who loves cooking and knows how to make this...so without delay...here is the recipe:

For the PBs you need:
2 medium potatoes
1 large lidded frying pan
300ml Olive Oil

For the PB sauce you need:
250ml Mayonnaise
100ml Ketchup
10ml Tabasco sauce
Paprika (optional)
Splash of lemon juice
Cracked pepper (according to taste)
Salt (according to taste)

To make the sauce:
1. Place mayo in a bowl and stir until smooth.
2. Add ketchup slowly. This gives the sauce a slightly bitter, tomato-y taste. Stir until it turns a nice light peach color. HINT: The mayo may turn a nice pink colour without adding all the ketchup.
3. Add Tabasco sauce and stir. Tabasco sauce gives heat to the sauce so if you like your sauce hot, then feel free to add more.
4. Lastly add the remaining ingredients and blend together.

To make the Patatas Bravas:
1. Wash, Peel and Cut potatoes into bitesize chunks - roughly 2cm by 2cm pieces
2. Take the large frying pan and place on stove. Turn on to a medium heat and add Olive oil. You want to shallow fry the potatoes so add enough to cover the base with a layer of oil. If your pan is non-stick you might be able to get away with less oil.
3. Once the oil has heated, add the potatoes and cover with lid.
4. Check the potatoes. If the side has become golden brown turn the potatoes until all sides are throughly cooked. (This is a good time to prepare the sauce)
5. Once the potatoes have been cooked, place in bowl and serve with sauce on side.
6. Enjoy delicious Authentic...Patatas Bravas...Ole!

There you have it - beautiful Patatas Bravas. As they say in Catalonia 'Bon Dia' (good day) and enjoy.

(The picture above is from Google Images and represents exactly what Authentic PBs look like.)

The Beginning of Authentic Foods

Food has always been my passion and I've always wanted to blog so why not join the two together! This blog explores the best authentic recipies on the net. You're probably thinking, 'that's great but what does that mean?' Well, to me it means finding recipies on the net which I try and get food that not only tastes amazing, but food which closley represents that which is found in the country of its origin.

The best example I can think of is probably Tandoori Chicken (which is usually called Chicken tikka masala). Being brought up with the authentic recipe and then eating it at as a take-away are two totally different experiences (and you might agree with me). The take-aways usually get the tikka mix wrong often overloading it with masala making the chicken a little sickly.

Don't get me wrong - I love fusion cooking, but sometimes the recipie is best left authentic. This is what my blog is about - Authentic foods.

Last but not least, I'd love to know what you think about this blog. Feel free to send me an email about anything on this blog and ways to improve it too.

I look forward to blogging and creating some awesome authentitastic foods! ENJOY.