Bush tucker pizza - what's your favourite toppings & bas

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** BUSH TUCKER PAN PIZZA ** - Based on Adam Connolly's

Equipment used (optional): KitchenAid mixer, flat beater & dough hook; Calphalon One 35cm Pan.


Above: The finished Bush Tucker Pan Pizza

Recipe Location: I wrote previously that I came across Adam Connolly's Bush Tucker Pan Pizza recipe on his parents' Bushfood store website after his parents told me Adam is a good bushfood cook. So when I came across Adam's name in his parents' store website during one of my bushfood orders, it prompted me to browse his details, & that's when I saw his pizza recipe.

Go to http://www.dreamtime.auz.net, Click 'About the artists', then Adam Connolly, & click highlighted Bush Tucker Pan Pizza.
Or right click on http://www.dreamtime.auz.net/images/Ada ... 0Pizza.pdf

Basic steps: Make the yeast free dough; Place pizza base on cold stovetop pan greased with oil first; Spread pizza sauce & certain toppings; close lid, turn stove on & cook; Finish with final toppings. (I chose kangaroo topping option with similar ingredients to Adam's)


Above: Uncooked pizza in cold pan

Dough: Adam's quick dough made of self-raising flour is used immediately as it contains no yeast (so no rising time). Can be done easily by hand but I use my KitchenAid mixer & flat beater to incorporate or rub butter into flour, then change to dough hook to mix in wet ingredients. (My pizza above is made only of plain flour as I ran out of baking powder/SR flour).

Kangaroo meat is cooked beforehand which I did using Calphalon One, the same pan used for this pizza. Initially upon slicing, Kangaroo steak wasn't cooked to well done as I like my meat to be (as can be seen on Uncooked Pizza) but became fully cooked anyhow after pizza cooked (as can be seen on Final/Cooked Pizzas). With a thick, uneven slice of Kangaroo Rump, it was a little tricky to judge when it'd be cooked well done.

Ingredients before cooking: Ground Bush Tomato & crushed Lemon Myrtle garlic mixed through or sprinkled on pizza sauce; Marinated saltbush/Tanami Fire fetta (Adam uses Native Pepper fetta); cooked Kangaroo slices.


Above: Cooked pizza before final toppings

Toppings after cooking: Mango native mint chutney, more marinated fetta (Adam uses goats cheese), marinated capsicum, sprinkling of Lemon Myrtle Macadamia Oil, sprinkling of Tanami Fire which has saltbush (Adam uses Saltbush ). And finished pizza is shown in 1st photo further above.



Above L-R: Lemon Myrtle macadamia oil, fetta cheese, Mango Native Mint chutney, Tanami Fire (saltbush blend), Ground Bush tomato (Akudjura)



Above: I used marinated capsicum, marinated fetta & lemon myrtle crushed garlic shown in Macadamia Nuts topic, which all use Lemon Myrtle Macadamia Oil. Kangaroo Rump is detailed in Smallgoods topic.

Calphalon One 35cm Pan comes with lid

Conclusion: I feel Adam's cooked pizza above is really good when cooked in my Calphalon One pan using medium to medium-high heat of my stovetop, & is a creative pizza. I'm satisfied with Adam's pizza dough recipe when it's cooked in my Calphalon One pan. I like this thin pizza with crispy bottom under its base. (Crispiness is achieved due to greasing pan with oil before placing pizza dough base). GOOD ONE ADAM!

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KANGAROO SALAMI - BUSH TUCKER PAN PIZZA



Types of Pan Pizza Dough: The previous posted Bush Tucker Pan Pizza uses plain flour pizza dough. The above Pan Pizza is another example using the technique of Adam Connolly's bush tucker pan pizza but this time uses self-raising flour dough. It can sort of be seen that the cooked dough is slightly puffier due to baking powder raising agent. Though I like both the thin crispy & thicker pan pizzas, the thinner crispier based pizza is slightly nicer for me.

Kangaroo is Yummy!: Above photo shows the smaller Kangaroo Salami I described in Smallgoods topic, & they were cooked with the pizza (ie lid on). With both the thin, plain flour Pan pizza shown previously & the above self-raising flour Pan Pizza, I think my favourite of both pizzas has to be the Kangaroo (even though other flavours could top my list also, such as Tanami Fire). After heat applied to above pizza's Kangaroo salami, the salami was so yummy, sweet & smokey. The fully cooked Kangaroo Rump on the thin pan pizza was so tasty, moist & tender. (I think I'm starting to understand why overseas countries to Australia are major customers of our human consumption Kangaroo meat & why they like it so much!!).

Danish Fetta: This particular Danish Fetta on above pizza is an interesting fetta as it crumbles easily like shown, but it also slices & cubes easily whilst keeping its shape, as can be seen in the photo of my marinated Danish Fetta in Macadamia Nuts topic. It tastes somewhat like soft goat cheese (chevre), so it was probably a good cheese to use with Adam's pan pizza in which he uses goat cheese.

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BUNYA PIZZA

Pizza Dough: In the book "Bunya Nuts", Kay Joyce has her Bunya Pizza recipe. For her bunya pizza dough, she places Bunya Nut Meal in with the ingredients which are Bread flour, sugar, dried yeast, water, salt. Kay uses traditional method to make this dough in that yeast is dissolved or activated first in warm water, then added to other ingredients. All the previous pizzas I've posted in this topic used the rapid mix method whereby dry yeast is mixed with other dry ingredients before liquids or wet ingredients are added to it.

Using Brero Bread Flour from Basic Ingredients & KitchenAid Mixer dough hook, I found Kay's pizza dough recipe to be good, & simple, requiring no oil. (Brero is my favourite bread flour for making pizza dough, even though it's officially for sourdough bread). Her recipe was enough to fit perfectly in my 24cm pizza tray for a thick base, shown below.

Pizza Sauce & Toppings: For her Bunya Pizza, Kay suggests using Bush Tomato Salsa, grated &/or fetta cheese. She has this salsa recipe in her 'Bushfood Herbs & Spices' book.


Above: MACADAMIA NUT PIZZA

Nut meal: I didn't have Bunya Nuts so used Macadamia Nuts instead. I made Macadamia Nut Meal by mincing whole nuts in a food processor, though this meal can be purchased. Nuts provided more a textural thing than taste, but can't say this will be the case had I used Bunya Nuts. I topped pizza with whole macadamia nuts. I only had 4 to spare, so if I had more, I'd cover the pizza with many raw, whole Macadamia Nuts for a nicer look than baked nuts.

Buying Bunya Nuts: As I don't know anyone who can give me Bunya Nuts, here's prices (subject to change) to give you an idea of what it'd cost me if I drove to the only two shops I know where to buy them from in my town: $8 for 250g bag (ie $32/kg) & $37.80 for 1kg bag. Info in "How to open bunya nut shells" topic gives an idea of what's involved in opening these nuts. So it's easier & safer to buy them split open since it's hard, dangerous & time consuming work to open whole nuts with a knife (so hubby gets to do this for me!). Thankfully both stores sell the nuts split in half. If you live in Brisbane area & want to know where to buy these nuts, see my post in 'Bushfoods found in supermarkets' topic. Bunya Nuts can also be purchased at Bunya Mountains in the accommodation area....see Mountains info just below.

Bush Tomato Dukkah: Whereas in my Davidson's Plum Sweet Chilli Sauce pizza (posted further back in this topic), I used bush tomato dukkah as a pizza topper spice, for above pizza I used it instead to decorate the crust by first brushing uncooked crust with oil, then sprinkling dukkah. (I've placed more photos & info of this dukkah product in Breads & Dips topics).



Above are whole Bunya Nuts split in half by husband, after first boiling. They are a large, filling, delicious nut so if you have the chance to get hold of them, it's worth giving them a go. Bunya Nuts come from a Bunya Pine Cone shown below.



Above is a photo I took of a preserved Bunya Pine Cone at the ranger's shed in Bunya Mountains National Park, Queensland, Australia. They are massive heavy cones which come from a Bunya Pine Tree during certain months of the year. (Question: Does anyone know which months/times?). See Bunya Tree photos below.

BUNYA MOUNTAINS, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA
I took all the following photos while visiting Bunya Mountains. I am grateful to live in the same state as Bunya Mountains, & to have had the opportunity to visit it, taking only 3-4 hour drive (one way) from home. Bunya Nuts in photo further above were purchased from here.


Above is a Bunya Pine Tree at Bunya Mountains, Queensland Australia.


Above is a chalet/home in the Bunya Mountains accommodation area. Various sized Bunya trees can be seen, from small to large.



In addition to the beautiful forest of Bunya Trees that can be seen in the accommodation area, and a National Park directly beside in walking distance, there are also lots of wildlife & wildflowers that you can get close to. Above shows wildflowers on the roadside/hillside on the way driving into & out of Bunya Mountains; Many Wallabies (or kangaroos?) & Australian birdlife abound in the accommodation area in close proximity to people; Friendly Australian eclectus parrots perch on my car & perched right at my cabin door. So if you are able to get there, it's a lovely place to visit & stay, & I recommend it highly. I've never stayed in winter but I suspect it'd be extremely cold then, as it was quite cool during day & cold at night when I visited non-winter times. I've stayed in both log cabins & chalet houses, & both were equally nice & unique in their own ways. You can get more information on Bunya Mountains accommodation area from http://www.bunyamountains.com

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** FURTHER NOTE TO PREVIOUS POST ON BUNYA NUTS & BUNYA MOUNTAINS **

How Often are Bunya Pines Cones produced?
In previous post on Bunya Pizza, I asked if anyone knew which months of the year Bunya Pine Trees produce Bunya Pine Cones (& therefore bunya nuts)? Afterwards while looking for something else, I stumbled across the following from Australian Produce's website http://www.australianproduce.com.au.

"The bunya nut tree is a huge tree which bears a crop only after the tree itself is around 100 years old, and then it crops once every 2 or 3 years only".

Wow that is amazing!. I never knew this, and I assumed the bunya pine cones were produced a couple times a year. I read somewhere that Aboriginal people used to walk very long distances to get to Bunya Trees for the nuts. Well far out then, with both these facts, this Bunya Tree sure sounds to me to be a very special tree & very special Australian Bushfood! (How fortunate am I to be able to drive to buy these nuts & see these trees).

Purchasing Bunya Nuts
Incidentally, if you want to know where to purchase Bunya Nuts, they are available for purchase & delivery (within Australia) from above website, & they come in halves so that's going to make it easier during preparation & cooking. So if you live in Brisbane-SE Qld area, here's a 3rd store that Bunya Nuts can be purchased, in addition to the 2 I'd mentioned.

Bunya Nut Preparation & Cooking:
In Australian Produce's website, they state "The nuts (seeds) can be eaten raw when fresh, but it is a lot easier to boil the seed pods to extract the nut. The nuts can then be roasted, sliced or pureed and used in desserts and savory dishes and spreads. The nuts can also be milled to a flour and then used in various doughs.Store nuts in the freezer".

I wrote in Bunya Pizza post that I first boiled the whole nuts, then split them in half. Boiling time differs with recipes but I do mine for 20-30mins. As those nuts were bought at Bunya Mountains, they sold them as whole nuts the times I'd been there, & even though these nuts are much cheaper to buy there than the other stores, they come with the inconvenience of having to split them yourself. Also, I have frozen these whole nuts from Bunya Mountains as soon I'd arrived home, then used them later, so they do freeze well, just like fresh Lemon Myrtle leaves. (I've never eaten Bunya Nuts raw, & I wonder if boiling them intensifies their flavour).

Bunya Mountains:
As well as accommodation types of log cabins & chalet houses, there is a campsite & ranger's office. All these accommodations are within walking distance of each other.

[Shalem]

MARK OLIVE'S BUSH TUCKER PIZZA

Equipment Used (Optional): Morphy Richards Bread Maker; Calphalon One 35cm Everyday pan +lid


Above: Cooked Mark Olive's Bush Tucker Pizza baked on stovetop in the pan shown with lid on

Recipe: Mark Olive's Bush Tucker Pizza can be found in 2 sources: One is his Outback Cafe book (which is detailed in Books topic) & other is foxtel food channel website since his Outback Cafe series was aired on foxtel. Both recipes are different in regards to the relish & pizza dough proofing times & are described more below.

Website http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes ... cker-pizza or http://www.lifestyle.com.au/tv/the-outb ... cipes.aspx.

Pizza Sauce: Mark's sauce is a sweet tomato relish with a Bush Tomato component. In his book, he uses much more ingredients than website. However, in website recipe he uses Akudjura (ground bush tomato) & reconstituted Desert Raisin (Bush Tomato) but only Desert Raisin in book recipe. He uses Kangaroo Apple in book recipe & none in other. I chose the book method which has sugar & vinegar (but omitted k'apples as I had none), making this a nice sweet relish, after which I pureed it with a stick blender for a smooth sauce.

(Question: Does anyone know what Kangaroo apples are? Previously I wrote that they could be desert raisin, however Mark's recipe lists desert raisin separate to kangaroo apple, so that makes me think they're not the same).

Finished pizza dough in bread maker panCooked pizza

Pizza Dough:
In both recipes, Mark instructs to make & knead dough by hand, let rise once, then knock back (punch) with fist, then rise 2nd time (though rising times differ in both recipes).

Instead of making this by hand, I used my bread machine because the Bread Maker pizza dough program performs the function of mixing, kneading, punching & rising in a cycle of 50minutes. This bread maker is detailed in page 6 Breads topic. Only step I omitted from Mark was activating yeast in water first, as this is all taken care of by the machine once all ingredients are placed into bread pan in correct order, plus I had to add some extra water as it was too crumbly. Another time I made Mark's pizza, I tried out the homemade program of my bread maker which allows me to program in my own kneading & rising times, so I did this using Mark's recipe as a guide. This program allows 2 kneading & 3 rising times, followed by a bake loaf & keep warm. I didn't need 3rd rising time & bake loaf so I turned these to zero mins (however keep warm function still comes on so I had to remove dough immediately).

Mark's dough recipe is little similar to Adam Connolly's pan pizza dough (which is further back in this topic) in that they both use plain flour. Mark uses yeast as raising agent, whereas Adam uses baking powder for his (Note: Even though Adam's recipe states self-raising flour, it can be made using plain flour with baking powder which makes it self-raising flour).

In Mark's, I used organic unbleached plain flour as it's the only plain flour I had but is of a high quality. After using pizza dough program, dough was very soft and pliable, easily stretched with hands & patted with fingers, & never shrunk back so it's a good dough. (Whether organic flour, bread maker or recipe or all these contributed to this, I'm not sure). An extra advantage of this is I could quickly & easily make any "rustic" pizza base shape, not just make traditional round shape, & without use of a rolling pin.

So I enjoyed "playing" with this dough, & it's very different to other pizza doughs I'd made. I'll stick to using organic plain flour for this one as I'm sure this flour would've helped contribute to the soft texture & pliability of this dough, since I had similar experiences making other types of doughs with this flour.

Another good point about Mark's dough recipe is that it only uses 1.5cups flour, yet surprisingly makes a reasonable size pizza. Pizza in photo is on a pan base diameter of about 28cm.


Above: Uncooked Mark Olive's pizza in cold stovetop pan

Pizza Toppings & Baking: Mark tops his pizza with capsicum, rocket, kangaroo, saltbush, red onion & goats cheese (I've used beef & danish fetta above since I had no kangaroo & goats cheese). Mark's pizza toppings are little similar to Adam Connolly's kangaroo topping option which is shown further back. They both use Kangaroo, Saltbush, goats cheese & capsicum, plus they both use plain flour doughs. As Mark's pizza reminded me of Adam's, plus I couldn't be bothered waiting for oven to pre-heat & fiddle around with trays, I cooked Mark's pizza using Adam's bush tucker pan pizza method. (This pan cooking method is shown/described in more detail further back in this topic). As Mark & Adam have both used goats cheese & Saltbush on their pizzas, it makes me think that goats cheese & saltbush must be ideal toppings for bush tucker pizzas.

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MATT CLARK'S KANGAROO BUSH TOMATO PIZZA


Above: Cooked pizza based on Matt Clark's Kangaroo pizza

Recipe: Matt Clark's book 'The Produce Chef". You can also request him to send you the recipe like I did through Matt's website below. On his website gallery, there is a fantastic photo of his Kangaroo Bush Tomato Pizza that looks yummy. The key native food ingredients that Matt uses are Kangaroo fillet, ground Mountain Pepper & ground Bush Tomato.

http://www.culinarymadness.webs.com/

Pizza Dough & Base: Matt uses the traditional method of activating yeast in water & sugar until frothy, then mixing it with remaining ingredients of high gluten flour, salt & oil. I used Brero bread flour & cold pressed sunflower oil which are excellent products in bread & pizza making. Using my KitchenAid mixer & dough hook on speed 2, I like using the time of 5 minutes on the mixer to make this. If it's breadmix which is softer flour then bread flour, then I use less time with my mixer dough hook, so that's why I use the longer time of 5 minutes with bread flour. { Take careful note when using KitchenAid Mixer dough hook, it must only ever be used on speed 2 & this is warned in the KitchenAid manual, so disregard what you see on tv & elsewhere.... this is to protect over-driving or burning out the mixer's motor. }

Matt lets the dough rise for 1 hour or doubled, but makes an interesting suggestion which I did try. After rising, store dough in fridge for 24hours to allow yeast to work long & hard to develop the dough's texture & flavour, then bring back to room temperature before using. (I've never across this before & thought the opposite about the effects of storing bread/pizza dough in fridge). At different times, I have left this dough in the fridge for more than 24hrs. I think the dough in the above pizza was left for a few days in the fridge (because I hadn't gotten around to using it), such that the dough seemed to make a slightly larger base

There's 2 stages to baking this: After rolling out pizza base, prick it, brush with oil & sea salt, bake at given temperature 4-6mins, then place toppings & bake for remaining time at the higher temperature.

Matt's dough is easy to roll out with rolling pin. It doesn't spring back & because it's easy to roll, it also easy to form into whatever shape such as round, rustic, rectangular etc. Matt makes a very thin pizza base so his dough recipe just fits in the above Chicago Metallic pizza tray which has an end-end diameter of 37cm (but I can also make 2 reasonably sized 'rustic' shaped pizzas with this 1 dough). The result of all this was a yummy pizza base which had a crispy crust, slightly chewy or "nutty" base & good amount air holes. (Not sure if chewy or nutty are best words to describe this). Because the preparation & texture of this pizza base is slightly different to others I make, it was a little harder for my sharp Mario Batali pizza cutter to cut through cleanly the first time but not a big issue. The only other slight issue is that by making a very thin base, depending on how large the base & how much toppings are placed on it, when it's time to grab a slice, the cooked dough base may not be able to support the weight of toppings & droop as you go to pick or eat it. This was the case for a couple of slices from the above large pizza but hasn't been the case with every pizza I've made from this recipe.

I like making Matt's pizza doughs & storing them in the fridge for convenience when I'm ready to use them. I'm very happy to have come across & tried Matt's pizza dough recipe, so good one Matt!!


Above: Uncooked pizza

Sauce: Matt's chunky pizza sauce is a cross between tomato relish & salsa with a ground Bush Tomato (Akudjura) component. Mine looked bit similar to my Bush Tomato Salsa shown further up based on Kay Joyce's recipe. Some ingredients are common to Mark Olive's sauce (ie vinegar, sugar, akudjura) with addition of wine. I only had 1 tablespoon Akudjura left to use in this sauce but couldn't detect it, so that's probably why Matt states to use 3 tbsp in his recipe. I still don't have experience with Akudjura to know what it tastes like, even though I've used up (not all at once) a small packet of it!

Toppings: Matt tops his with red onion, home made slow roasted dried tomatoes (which he instructs how to make in his recipe), rocket leaves, Kangaroo, mozzarella cheese (I sliced mine so it's the cheese that looks like potato slices in above photo!) & light blue cheese. I've used beef as the store I tried to buy kangaroo from had run out of it. I didn't have tomatoes nor time to make these, so used dried tomatoes from shops. I like blue cheese & used english Stilton blue cheese on mine. I'd never eaten melted blue cheese on pizza before so I enjoyed eating "this new concept" of blue cheese pizza.

Apart from learning something new from Matt's pizza dough, the 2nd point I've learnt from Matt's is the combination of cheeses on pizza. I'd typically only used grated cheese on my pizzas, but using 2 different cheeses at once is interesting. Another place I've heard of using more than 1 type of cheese on a pizza was on Foxtel's Neil Perry cooking show where he broadcasted a Turkish 3 chilli 3 cheese pizza. The 3 cheeses on that pizza were grated haloumi, crumbled Greek Fetta & shredded mozzarella.

Favourite bits: Melted blue cheese & all stages of the pizza dough from making, storing in the fridge, rolling & eating!



Above: Here's my experiment to see how long this pizza lasts. This is day 100.....

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VIC CHERIKOFF'S OUTBACK PIZZA


Above: Uncooked Outback Pizza

Recipe: Vic Cherikoff's Outback Pizza is found on the website below. Meat is marinated in Wattle & red wine sauce, for which the sauce recipe can also be obtained on the recipes page of this website.

http://www.cherikoff.net. Go to Recipes, then Mains or right click http://www.cherikoff.net/cherikoff/index.php?id=51

The 2 main characteristics of Vic's pizza that stand out to me from other Bush Tucker Pizzas is a breadmix pizza dough & Wattleseed. Key native food ingredients Vic uses are Wattleseed, Bush Tomato Chutney & Munthari Berries (Muntries).

Dough:
Vic uses a mixer to make a Wattleseed breadmix dough. As I mentioned further up in Matt Clark's pizza, when I use a KitchenAid mixer dough hook, I like to use a time of less than 5 minutes (ie 3 minutes) for 500g white breadmix flour & only ever use speed 2 in accordance with KitchenAid mixer manual to protect mixer motor. With sufficient proofing time & when it comes to eating cooked dough, I feel such little time for this sophisticated mixer to make a breadmix dough has been totally fine with the brands of breadmix I use. Because breadmix flour is used instead of bread flour, the cooked pizza base has very different taste & texture to a bread flour (or part bread flour - part semolina flour) pizza base.

The mistake I'd made with the Outback Pizza in above photo was using a pizza pan that was too small (ie above is 24cm diameter) for the recipe & not taking into consideration how much the breadmix dough would puff up during baking. Result was a cooked pizza that had too much breadmix base (ie was more like a bread) & not enough toppings. Though I haven't tried it again, I'd been better off to have used my larger 37cm round pizza pan (or a large rectangular tray with holes built-in that I have) & rolled the dough into a thin base rather than the thick uncooked base shown above.

Pizza Sauce & Toppings:
Pizza sauce is a mixture of tomato sauce with Bush Tomato Chutney, & toppings are marinated meat, red & yellow capsicum, pre-cooked shallots & Munthari berries. I used supermarket tomato sauce as that's how I'd interpreted the recipe, but I suppose homemade smooth/chunky tomato sauce can be used instead. As I didn't have Munthari, I used Riberries in syrup instead, but this didn't go well with my husband as he said it was too sweet for him on a pizza. So Vic possibly made a correct choice with Munthari. (I've made 2 mistakes with this pizza....1st the choice of pizza pan size & 2nd is choice of berries!).

With Wattle & red wine marinating sauce, I didn't have red wine. I used Dark Chocolate Port to replace red wine because it was sitting in the pantry & because I knew that chocolate & Wattleseed go well together.

Favourite bits: The aromas of chocolate & wattleseed in the kitchen, particularly when I was making the Wattle & chocolate port sauce. As I pre-cooked the marinated beef strips before placing on pizza, I also liked the "Chocolate beef" both in its aroma during cooking & its general look.


Above: Wattleseed breadmix pizza dough in KitchenAid mixer bowl.

When I make doughs with my KitchenAid mixer, dough hook & KitchenAid mixer bowl, it's convenient to let the dough sit in the same mixer bowl during proofing or rising. To assist with this, I cover bowl in cling wrap which works perfectly. I no longer use the KitchenAid mixer bowl covers during proofing because when I did, the covers would blow off with an explosive loud bang due to the air/steam pressure build up. On his recipe, Vic states proofing time is 45 minutes at 29 to 31ºC but as I don't know how to achieve the temperatures, I just use my usual method of cling wrap & use the dough when I feel it's risen enough. (I live in the not too cold parts of Australia so this method works easily for me when I make bread & pizza doughs. I don't know how other people in colder parts of Australia or in cold overseas countries handle this or whether my method works for them).

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PIZZA PUFFS



These miniature pizzas are pizza dough cut with small round cutters & baked in a mini-muffin pan. Because this particular dough recipe rises up like these after baking, my husband calls them Pizza Puffs. I've also tried these in the party pie appliance shown in Breads topic...a little more fiddling but works too. After baking plain, they're topped with Bush Tomato Chutney & kangaroo salami. Because this chutney's more like a salsa (bits of chunkiness), it's easy to spoon on the pizzas. Advantages of these cute pizza bases is that after baking, they can be easily topped with a spoon of any chutney/relish & meat. They can be pre-prepared or guests can make their own. They'd be great as snacks, pizzas for small children & finger food for parties.

You could make pizza puffs look "classy" for an adult dinner party by topping with "caviar look-a-likes" such as the pips of Australian Native Finger Limes (maybe with some cream cheese, smoked salmon & native herbs underneath instead of usual pizza toppings) , & there'd be plenty more to choose from our Australian bush tucker industry.


Bush tomato chutney & Kangaroo salami

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TANDOORI CHICKEN PIZZA



Here's my half&half pizza. One pizza sauce was mango Native Mint chutney & other Bush Tomato (Kutjera) relish. For tandoori chicken, 1half had its chicken/yoghurt marinated in home made bush curry paste while other had Orange Bush Curry Spice.[More info on these in Bush Curry topic]. Chicken was pre-cooked but not overly dry before placing on uncooked pizza. Not used here but red food colour optional in marinade &/or pizza flour. Pizza finished with drizzle of yoghurt which was sprinkled 1half with Wattleseed & other Orange Bush Curry spice. It could do with extra touches like mini-papadums & fresh herbs but had none.

BBQ Tray used in oven for this pizza. I like pizza trays with holes as they cook my pizza bases well.



Some other suggestions for Tandoori yoghurt marinade: I haven't tested these for tandoori - some spices with curry/heat/red-orange/spicy tones are Tanami Fire, Orange Bush Curry, Saltbush garam masala, & Outback Chef spices like Bush Tomato Rub & Australian Red Curry.


Above: Who wants to buy my Ken Done pizza painting for $500?

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AUSTRALIAN PIZZA MIXES

I stated my favourite pizza flour was Brero bread flour from Basic Ingredients but this store's been temporarily closed for long time & they seem to be the only ones who sold it. I've since discovered & used the following pizza mix products which I recommend highly due to their ease of preparation, small rising/resting times, texture & awesome taste. I can use my favourite pizza dough recipes (i.e. chefs Karen Martini & Matt Clark) at other times but it's really great to have below pizza mixes available. I hope these pizza mixes will help you with your Bush Tucker Pizza & general pizza cooking!

Just like with bread mixes, these pizza mixes are a specially formulated mix so all you need to do is add dried yeast & warm water as per instructions, (& with SNK also add oil). My absolute favourites are SNK & Lion, followed last by Laucke because the Laucke one tends to be tougher to roll out & eat, has longer preparation times & not as tasty as other two but still a good mix (....personal opinion only so I'm not degrading Laucke). My opinions on all these mixes may also be influenced by the particular electric appliances I use to prepare & cook these.



Above: 2kg Simply No Knead packet makes lots of pizzas; No yeast packets, only mix.

SNK: From online store http://www.snk.com.au, home delivery in Vic or buy from the shop at Simply No Knead in Victoria, Australia. They instruct 6minutes to knead using a dough hook (I use KitchenAid Mixer). I haven't tested this with my bread machine Pizza Dough program but should be right to give a go. Has two separate short dough resting periods.



Above: Makes 1 pizza & includes yeast packet + pizza sauce inside box (...disregard Kutjera Sauce not included)

LION: From supermarket & maybe online stores. For supermarket kit, it's so surprising how good this is in terms of quick, easy & yummy. Addition of tasty pizza sauce is great idea as to buy pasta/pizza sauces contributes for me a large cost of making pizzas at home. Has shortest dough resting time of all 3 mixes..10minutes & off you go.


Above: Makes a few pizzas & Includes yeast packets

LAUCKE: So far from Woolworths, not Coles, http://www.onlyoz.com.au & maybe IGA. Longest preparation time.

Regarding pricing, most expensive particulary long term is Lion & cheapest I consider to buy in bulk from SNK in 2kg/5kg packs not including delivery cost. With dough resting periods, I find these mixes have much shorter periods than when I make a pizza dough from a scratch recipe, as I typically have to let those types of pizza dough rest for an hour or more till doubled/tripled in size.

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SALTBUSH

Previously it was mentioned Mark Olive & Adam both use Saltbush on their bush tucker pizzas, so here it is.

[Shalem]

KANGAROO NAAN PIZZA




I've heard of pita bread pizzas & lebanese bread pizzas. Finally someone's published a naan pizza (Naan is an Indian flatbread teardrop shape). Naan dough is so easy to make in my bread machine (i.e wet ingredients first in bread pan then dry ones). There's lots of recipes which work & typical ingredients include natural yoghurt, yeast & bread flour. My kangaroo naan pizza is based on lamb naan pizza recipe from Delicious Magazine July 2012. I've substituted & added Australian native products for some of theirs, eg kangaroo mince instead of lamb, kutjera instead of tomato etc. Kangaroo Mince & naan are precooked before assembled together then grilled/baked like a pizza. Kangaroo mince is tasty cooked just with a little Kutjera (bush tomato) sauce, Lemon Myrtle Macadamia Oil, bush herbs, bush curry spice & garlic. To assemble, I brushed cooked naan with lemon myrtle oil to crisp the pizza base during drilling, drizzled kutjera sauce, topped kangaroo, sprinkled these spices, then grilled, after which I topped sour cream/yoghurt with sprinkle of bush curry spice. I could've also topped with whole/sliced bush tomato but didn't get around to pre-soaking/reconstituting the dried ones.

Though I said somewhere else that I haven't found Kangaroo to be gamey except for k'kebabs, this time the kanga' mince was very slightly chewy much to my liking but not too different from beef mince.



Above: Naan dough sprinkled with Australian Bush Herbs spice mix. Bread flour is available from supermarket so it's not something that needs to be ordered specially online or from breadmaking shop so why not get started? And to avoid confusion, other terms for bread flour are high protein flour, strong plain white flour & bakers flour.







The good thing about making your own pizzas at home is that you have control & choice, eg I chose to use lemon myrtle oil & the spice throughout nearly every stage of cooking & assembly but I could've omitted any one at any stage. Eg LM oil was used in frying mince, brushing naan; Spices were used in the mince, sprinkling on pizza & mince & on yoghurt etc.

[Shalem]

ELECTRIC PIZZA OVEN

Naan cooked in pizza ovenPizza oven

Here's what I cooked my previous naan pizza in: I really like my electric multifunctional pizza oven by The Pizza Maker which cooks my naan breads in a few minutes & pizzas in 5-7 mins depending on dough & thickness.


Above: The oven comes with pizza stone & deep dish pan shown plus useful metal paddles to lift pizza dough onto stone.


My naan bread baked in the pizza oven.

[Shalem]

BUNYA NUTS YOUTUBE VIDEO

Hey if you want to see Bunya Nuts & Cones in live video demonstration, check out Jeff's videos. There's a couple there called Jeff's Bunya Nuts Bush Tucker gathering & another "Fibonacci in Bunya....beautiful" where the Bunya pine cone is split open. Their Bunya Nut specie is Araucaria Bidwillii. In my bush tucker pizza topic here, I've placed quite a bit of info & photos on bunya nuts, so I thought I may as well attach these video references, particularly when Bunya nuts are not something we find in everyday gardens & they're not something that would be widely known about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKBjK4Xyd-U&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTKdEfxYPfY&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/user/mugsyjeff

[Shalem]

FRUIT, NUT & SUGARBAG HONEY PIZZA


Here's my half-and-half pizza. Left side is a savoury style while right side is a sweet dessert style. I've used Akudjura (ground bush tomato) on the pizza's crust but could've placed it over pizza or in the sauce. This is one of the fun things with making pizzas & using products, is you can choose how to use & apply it. I sprinkled some bush thyme herbs on savoury side. Right side has figs, Macadamia Nuts & Riberries. As figs & honey are seen together in food magazines, I drizzled Sugarbag honey over the figs, & I decided not to cook these in the oven. Maybe one day you'd like to make one of these....if so, why don't you try something like Quandong Dessert Sauce instead of honey, & Bush Tomato Rub insted of Akudjura? There's heaps of possibilities with all the bushfood products available to us!

I like making rectangular pizzas as they can be divided easily into any sizes to make party pizzas & pizza snacks, & and are good shapes for fitting into lunchboxes.


Above: SUGARBAG HONEY collected from Australian Native bees.

Sugarbag honey comes from Australian Native Bees & it can be purchased from Dr Tim Heard refer http://www.sugarbag.net (you can also get good info here on the bees, honey, hives & collecting honey). This honey is far more expensive than supermarket honey & I felt it had a little "sting" or zap to it, hard to describe. Because of this, I don't think this honey can be applied in same manner as supermarket ones & I felt I could only use tiny amounts, but that could be an individual experience.

If you wish to know more, Cherikoff explains it briefly in his site http://www.cherikoff.net under Recipes - Sugarbag Drizzle so you can find out what foods to eat it with & what it tastes like.

Macadamia NutsAkudjura