Personally I am torn between my love of BBQ's and my love of pizza, so I'm just going to enjoy both this year.
Personally I love chilli - so for me anything that has some heat to it is a winning combination but I also love a soya / honey glaze, so I thought I'd share this Korean recipe that has a bit of both.
Korean Beef Bulgogi
You need to mix
5 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons sriracha sauce
6 chopped spring onions
2 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons of cayenne whole dried peppers
2 tablespoons of minced garlic
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon ground cayenne
1/2 teaspoon black pepper together in a bowl.
Pour over your meat (suggest strips of steak but chicken is also delicious) cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate to marinate. Leave for at least 1 hour but as with all marinades the longer the better - if you can do this the night before.
Fire up the BBQ - and paint some oil on the prevent sticking, sizzle these strips and then serve. Heat up the remaining marinade and reduce in a pan to make the most delicious sauce....mmmmmm.
To keep on top of your BBQ game - or to help the men in your life feel more professional - you can get them a personalised BBQ set (this is not essential to create an amazing BBQ but definitely helps 😜)
PIZZA'S
For the pizza lovers like me, the best way to create your pizza is preparation of the dough in advance (or buy it ready made if you frankly can't be arsed!), and then the idea is to get creative with your toppings. BUT remember more is not always better!
I found this pizza dough recipe which ticks the boxes, keeps for 4 days in the fridge after making (wrapped in clingfilm) - so advance prep is easily achieved for your pizza party. The key it seems is time and allowing your dough to prove. The flour was also a learning curve - and whilst not essential does make a difference.
00 flour is basically the gold standard of flour in Italian cooking, especially thin-crust pizzas. It's all to do with texture. The 00 is a reference to how finely the flour is milled and this is the finest you can get.
WHAT YOU NEED
- 650g/1lb 7oz '00' flour (or strong white flour), plus extra for dusting
- 7g dried easy-blend yeast
- 2 tsp salt
- 25ml/1fl oz olive oil
- 50ml/2fl oz warm milk
- 325ml/11fl oz warm water
- First job is to sieve the flour and make a well in the middle - I do this in a bowl to keep things under control!
- Then in a jug, mix the yeast, sugar and oil into 650ml of lukewarm water. Leave a couple of minutes and then add to the well you made.
- Using a fork, gradually bring the flour in from the sides and mix into the liquid in the well you created. Keep going, bringing in a bit more each time you work around the well, until its all mixed in then you are ready to knead the mixture until you have a smooth, springy dough. I'd give it a 5 minute knead at least. You can do this by hand or in a kenwood with the bread mixing attachment.
- Place the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl and flour the top of it. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place in a warm room or in the oven (just turned on - think warm room temp) for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size.
- Now remove the dough to a flour-dusted surface and knead it around a bit to push the air out with your hands. We aren't making bread... from here you can either use it immediately, or keep it, wrapped in clingfilm, in the fridge (or freezer) until required.
- If your using the dough straight away, divide the dough up into as many little balls as you want to make pizzas – this amount of dough is enough to make about 4 - 6 medium pizzas at 0.5cm thick.
- If you are hoping to get these rolled out in advance - don't do it hours ahead of schedule as the dough will dry out, but 15-20 minutes ahead of schedule and you can stack the bases onto pieces of tin foil that have been brushed with olive oil and dusted with flour. These can then be wrapped in cling film and stashed in the fridge.
OUR FAVOURITE TOPPINGS
Me - Prawns, chilli, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and rocket
Rob - Roasted peppers, cherry tomatoes, chorizo, (a bit of chilli - he has FOMO) and mozzarella
Will - Pepperoni, prawns, chilli, peppers, mozzarella
George - Pepperoni, peppers, mushrooms, olives, sweetcorn & mozzarella
Clare x
Image credits :
damndelicious.net - Beef Bulgogi
myfoodbook.com.au - Prawn Pizza