Have you been following The Big Break religiously on the Asian Food Channel (AFC)? I look forward to watching it every week!
The Big Break is an original reality television series produced by the Asian Food CHannel (AFC), in partnership with Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), offering the chance of a lifetime to 12 underprivileged youths from six countries across Asia to fulfil their culinary dreams.
More information here: http://www.asianfoodchannel.com/thebigbreak/
I enjoy every episode so much I almost wish the series would not come to an end so soon, but on the other hand, contradictorily, I can’t wait to find out who triumphs in the grand finale!
In the upcoming 9th episode, contestants’ multi-tasking skills are put to the test in the Ultimate Italiano Challenge.
Making pizza from scratch can be relatively easy when you’re following a reliable recipe, step by step, with no time constraint. However, during this challenge, contestants must knead, assemble and bake their own pizzas within the stipulated time. With time proving a major obstacle, will all the pizzas make it to the judging table in time?
Find out tonight (9 January 2013) at 10pm!
The show is an inspiration to budding cooks. After this episode, if you have drawn motivation and have ideas floating endlessly in your head, here is a basic pizza recipe from the AFC Studio to get you started.
Recipe: Pizza
Yields a 14 x 5 inch tray skinny pizza
Ingredients
Pizza Base
- ½ cup of warm water
- ½ tbsp of sugar
- 1 tsp of quick rising yeast
- 1½ cups of plain flour
- ½ tsp of salt
- ½ tbsp of olive oil
Sauce
- ½ can or 85ml of tomato paste
- ½ can or 113ml of tomato sauce
Toppings
- 1 green bell pepper
- 200g button mushrooms
- 100g chicken ham
- 100g chicken hotdogs
- 1 can pineapple chunks
- 3 tomatoes
- 300g cheddar cheese, shredded
Method:
1. For the base, add a pinch of sugar to the ½ cup of warm water and stir. Add yeast to water and let it sit for 5 minutes.
2. Place remaining sugar, flour, salt and olive oil in a bowl. Add yeast mix to flour and stir until dough-like.
3. Dust your hands and table with some flour and knead for 5 to 10 minutes. Knead till it becomes smooth and stretchy.
You can also use a kitchen mixer with a dough hook
If the dough tears easily, it is not ready yet. Continue mixing.
This is how your dough should look like after mixing.
It should be smooth, stretchy, and allows light to pass through when stretched, without breaking.
4. Let dough rise under room temperature for about 45 minutes, or until it doubles in size.
5. Roll dough into desired shape and thickness and place them on a baking tray that’s lined with parchment paper.
Use the punching technique
6. To assemble, spread sauce over the pizza base and add your favourite toppings. Have fun with it and make it your own!
7. Bake in the oven at 200°C until the base is crisp and browned.
My slightly charred pizza
Pizza assembled by Karen’s friend. So pretty!
I can’t wait to experiment more with different toppings in my own kitchen! Thanks Asian Food Channel and Chef Wendy for the wonderful demo session.
Check out http://www.theafcstudio.com/courses/ for upcoming courses.