One pan pizza

You may recall my one pot pasta post not so long ago.  I'm pleased to say it got quite a positive reaction.  I'm sure I have bored you all silly with my regular grumblings about the limited facilities I have to cook with but I soldier on, trying to think up new ways of keeping Mr John happy.  Well, last Friday I managed to produce home made pizza in a frying pan. Yes, I couldn't believe it either!  A bit of "google-ing" and then pretty much doing it my way resulted in a pretty good dinner.

Now before I tell you how I achieved this miracle and inwardly I'm still gloating let me make it clear that if you are fortunate enough to have an oven, please continue using it to create pizza.  If, like me, you're stuck without such a luxury then this may help you.  The only limitation with this is your ability to purchase good quality toppings and although I struggled a little the end result means this won't be the last time we enjoy pizza / wine night on a Friday.


You may be able to find yeast in Thailand, but I could not find any at the supermarket so opted for a no yeast mix, which actually helps with the timing of it all as it's much quicker.  I also can't find self raising flour here but this didn't deter me.   You will need either a cast iron frying pan or a good quality non-stick pan.  You will also need a lid that covers the pan completely ideally a glass one so you can see what's going on I used the lid from my slow / electric cooker.

The following makes 2 x 9" inch pizza's.

Pizza Base
1 cup self raising flour or all purpose flour and a tablespoon of baking powder
0.5 cup of water
pinch of salt

Mix all of these together in a bowl, kneading it a bit and set aside.  I ended up leaving it to sit for about 2 hours but only because things were going on.  I think you can pretty much use this straight away.

Once you've made the dough you can make a tomato paste for spreading on the base before you add your toppings.  

Tomato sauce
3 tablespoons of tomato paste
0.5 tablespoons fresh basil
1 clove garlic, grated
pepper to taste

I also added a little bottled tomato sauce to make spreading a bit easier but pretty much just smell it and add whatever you want to.  I guess you could just use a bottle of tomato sauce but I wanted ours to have a bit more oomph.

Toppings
Pretty much anything you want to.  Because of the way you cook this, don't put any raw ingredients on top that you can't eat straight from the fridge.  For example cured meat is OK because you could take that and eat it without warming through whereas uncooked chicken would not be OK.  Anything that needs to be cooked before being consumed should be done before you bake your base so, for example, potato should be fried in the pan before you add it to the top.  Also make sure your items are thinly sliced, diced or grated.  You get the idea right?  Our toppings were

pepperoni slices
pork luncheon meat slices
onion, finely sliced
mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
cheddar cheese, grated

Top Tip: make sure you have everything ready whatever toppings you choose because you don't have long to add them to your cooked base.

Method

• heat a non-stick or cast-iron frying pan on medium / high heat
• stretch out your dough to make a round, large enough to fit into your frying pan and add it to the pan
• cook for about 3 -4 minutes or until the underneath looks cooked just lift it up with a spatula or egg flip for a sneak peak
• once cooked, remove from the flame and flip it over
• spread tomato sauce
• quickly add toppings
• put the lid on, put it back on the flame for a further 4 minutes
• turn the flame off but leave the lid on and let the heat do its work melting the cheese  I found this took another minute or two
• remove from pan, slice, serve ideally with a glass of wine and enjoy