Living in many different share houses and hostels can lead to meeting all sorts of characters. Some are really lovely and some are just french. On average, we live in 2 different flats in each town we live in. Wanaka – 2, Blenheim – 2 , Melbourne – 4, Darwin – 3 (if you include living in a van at Mindil Beach). Now we are living in our second flat in Darwin, located in Stuart Park. With 14 other flatmates. One of our favourite things about this flat is that it has an outdoor kitchen, equipped with a pizza oven. When living in a tropical area, an outdoor kitchen is sublime and having a pool next to your outdoor kitchen is taking it to the next level.
We soon realized that this pizza oven hadn’t been used in a while. When we opened it to clean it out, we found some gecko eggs and a geckos nest. I don’t know if geckos make nests but that’s what it looked like. Ive always loved catching lizards as a kid and I learned that I still have a knack for it. We were able to relocate the eggs and the gecko so nature could take its course. Then we started on our course, a chunky tomato pizza and a mustard leaf pesto pizza.
This is our recipe:
We start with the pizza dough, this should yield about 2 medium size pizzas. Make the dough first to allow it to rise (let it sit for around 1-2 hours in a warm area for best results) for a more fluffy pizza. We used a gluten free, dairy free, wheat free flour that Junior got from work because it was going to get thrown out. This flour didn’t rise and the dough was strange to work with but the taste and texture was about the same. Any type of flour will work.
Dough:
- 3/4 oz yeast
- 16 oz luke warm water
- 1.5 pounds flour
- 1/4 oz salt
- 3/4 oz oil
Mix these in a bowl together and let it sit to rise.
Roll the dough out. Make sure you place flour on the rolling surface and on the dough to avoid the dough sticking to everything. Cover your hands in flour too, just take a bath in flour while you’re at it. We used a jar to roll out the dough. Anything cylindrical will work.
Next we made the pizza sauces. First the tomato sauce.
Ingredients:
- 4 Tomatos
- 1 Capsicum
- 3 Cloves of Garlic
- 2 Small Onions
Seasonings:
- Salt + Pepper
- Basil
- Wine (its always good to season your stomach with it too)
- Chili Powder
We cut the tomatos into quarters to make the sauce a bit more chunky. We diced the onions and capsicum tiny to balance the flavour more. Add the garlic to the pan first, then add the onion and a bit of wine. Add the capsicum after the onions have reduced a bit. Put the tomato on hold.
Add the tomato at the end and beat them up in the pan. Beat them until you get your desired chunk. Add your seasonings to taste. Here is our finished sauce.
Now the pesto sauce.
Ingredients:
- 1 Bunch of Mustard Leaf (or any leafy greens)
- 3 Cloves of Garlic
- 2 Table spoons Chia Seeds
- 1/3 Cup Sunflower seeds
- 2 Table spoons Black Sesame Seeds
- Olive Oil
- Salt
Throw it in a blender, add the olive oil as its blending until you get to the consistency in the picture.
Now cut the toppings. We just use everything we have in the fridge. Its a good way to clean it out.
- Tomato
- Pumpkin
- Capsicum
- Mushrooms
- Courgette
- Onion
Lay down the sauce and add the toppings. Stick it in the oven at 250 degrees Celsius for around 10-15 minutes. Bam, Pizza.
We had a few too many drinks and forgot to take an after picture, but this is what it looks like before the oven.
Photosynthesize. 