Have you tried it?
makes the pizza too oily.
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The details are lost in memory, but I once tried to reproduce the Pizza Express (UK) “Neptune” pizza. I only buy canned tuna with oil, so this is the one I must have used, and as far as I remember it came out OK (but not as good as the original). Mind you, this one has no cheese of any kind, so maybe this makes a difference (no tangerine either) .
PS. I can’t find a decent reference for their “Neptune” pizza, but it is mentioned in this 1967 menu
edited to add: Went down a rabbit hole, but managed to find the original recipe, thanks to the wayback machine: http://web.archive.org/web/19990223235942/http://www.pizzaexpress.co.uk/pe_recipe.html
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Good movie. I think there was also some pasta in it, right?
Edit: There is this scene where the Don (Al Pacino) offers a competing family’s boss to join his family or else… They are eating some pasta in this scene.
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Tossing a recipe in from our 2023 Winter Menu.
Quail in creole cream sauce:
Sauce:
Red bell pepper
Onion
Tomato paste
Vegetable stock
Heavy whipping cream
Seasonings(paprika, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, dried oregano, basil, thyme, black and white pepper)
Protein and sides:
Quail
Organic carrots
Herbed wild rice
Minced or diced garlic
Fine diced shallots
Sauce:
- Saute bell pepper and onion till translucent.
- Add all seasonings to bloom(this is to feel).
- Add vegetable stock and tomato paste.
- Bring to a boil for a few minutes and puree till texture of a smoothie.
Quail:
- Salt and pepper top side.
- Grill or pan sear both sides. I prefer grill for the taste of the heat.
- Throw in oven at 400°F temping every minute or so, they come up quick.
- Pull and rest at 150°F-155°F.
Carrots:
- Depending on sice of carrot cut in half and then in half again lengthwise. Cut widthwise if necessary. They should be about the size of the average index finger.
- Toss in a bowl with oil and salt and pepper. Get gokd coverage.
- Throw on a sheet pan in the oven at 400°F until they’re about as soft as a gummy bear.
Herbed wild rice:
- Cook rice as the package says then cool it.
Serving/Plating:
- Get an oiled pan smoking hot, add diced or minced garlic and fine diced shallots.
- Immediately add cooked rice plus a touch of veg stock.
- Sauté till stock is mostly reduced
- Heat four ounces of pureéd sauce and add one two ounce scoop of cream in a pan.
- Reduce thill almost the thickness of maple syrup.
- Plate rice in a small pile from 9:00 to 12:00.
- Place carrots atop the rice from 3:00 to 12:00.
- Plate two cooked quail legs up on the rice. Where the heads would be should sit at 4:30 and 7:30.
- Cover quail in a layer of the sauce.
- Enjoy!
You may notice there is barely any amounts put here. That is because working in a restaurant means I make things in larger amounts than most people ever will and i don’t know how to do fractions!
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OK, here’s my recipe for fruit-based mousse. It is expensive and messy and time-consuming and requires every pot and bowl you own. It also calls for whipped raw egg whites. You can make a meringue with hot simple syrup that cooks the whites, but the result will not be as foamy. Decide on your level of worry about Salmonella, which is low risk, but not no-risk. Wash the eggs and never let the whites sit out on the counter.
You must have a standing mixer OR a very good hand blender.
You also need a good silicone spatula without holes for folding the mixture.
This recipe takes all day and is in 4 parts: making the fruit reduction, making a custard base, making/adding the whipped egg whites, and making/ adding the whipped cream.
1.) Make a fruit reduction. I have tried this with mandarin orange and raspberry and both were amazing.
Ingredients:
2 to 2 1/2 cups of fresh juice or puree (any seeds strained out)
For berry: Add a couple of tablespoons of freeze-dried berry powder
Cook this down on LOW heat, stirring and scraping the bottom often, until you have about 1 and 1/4 cups of reduced fruit. Don’t let it boil. If you burn it, toss it. This requires an hour or three of attending to a pot all the time. Adding some freeze-dried berry powder really intensifies the flavor, but it can be gummy when you add it unless you sift it in slowly.
2.) Fruit custard base
Ingredients:
1 and 1/4 cup reduced fruit puree/juice, hot but not boiling.
4 egg yolks (save the egg whites from 3 of the eggs and refrigerate them)
1/4 cup sugar
3 and 1/2 TBSP cornstarch
1 TBSP unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup cold water or fruit juice (not lemon)
Bloom the gelatin in 1/4 cup cold water or juice (anytime you can get more fruit flavor in, do it). Sprinkle it over evenly and mix it up so that there are no clumps of dry gelatin. Let it sit while you make the custard. Don’t use lemon juice for this as the acidity might be too much for the gelatin. Orange juice is fine.
Mix the egg yolks with the sugar and cornstarch together very well. Add the hot juice/puree in a slow, steady stream into the yolk mixture, whisking like mad as you go. This will temper the egg yolks, but if you don’t add it slowly and whisk like crazy, you can just scramble them. This is best done as a 2-person operation.
Pour the whole thing into a new pot (because the old one will probably have a little burnt fruit on the sides) and set it over low to low-medium heat. Whisking constantly, wait for the mixture to thicken and whisk it briskly to get rid of any clumps. Don’t let it boil. When it is the consistency of thick pudding, remove from heat and immediately put in a new bowl. Immediately add the bloomed gelatin and whisk briskly until all the gelatin is melted and thoroughly dispersed in the custard. Let this cool down to room temperature on the counter. Don’t put it in the fridge or the gelatin will start to set before you’re ready.
Note: Using all the gelatin will make a pretty firm mousse. Using about 3/4 of it is preferable to me, but this will depend on your preference and the temperature at which you want to serve the mousse. Experimentation is required.
3.) Egg whites. If you don’t want them raw, look for a meringue recipe that cooks them with a simple sugar syrup. But here’s my way.
Ingredients:
3 egg whites, chilled
1/4 cup sugar
Whip your 3 egg whites until peaks form. You can add the sugar a little a time as soon as they get very foamy. Not stiff peaks, just peaks. If you over-whip the whites, they will get kind of crumbly and won’t incorporate well.
Gently fold 1/3 of the whites in with the room-temperature custard. Use a silicone spatula without holes for this. A good spatula is critical here. Using a regular spatula or a spoon will not work very well. And folding is not mixing. It is gently, GENTLY scraping underneath the mixture and pulling it on top of the mixture, trying not to deflate the egg whites.
Then GENTLY fold in the rest of the egg whites. It may take a while to get it all incorporated so you don’t have any white pockets of egg.
Note: if making berry mousse, you can also sprinkle in some freeze-dried berry powder while whipping to intensify the flavor.
4.) Whipped cream
Ingredients:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
sugar ( I don’t add any more sugar, but I don’t like very sweet mousse. You might want to add another couple TBSP of sugar here if you want it very sweet).
In a chilled bowl (glass or metal, not plastic), whip the cream on high speed. In the name of all that is holy, do not attempt to whip un-cold cream. If you’re adding any sugar, do it when the cream starts to firm up. Whip until soft peaks form. Overwhipping the cream will make butter, so don’t overmix.
Note: If making berry mousse, you can add some freeze-dried berry powder while whipping to intensify the flavor.
GENTLY fold the whipped cream into the mousse, making sure you scrape from the bottom and incorporate all the cream until you don’t have any white pockets.
Chill for 4 hours in the bowl or spoon into individual cups/bowls and chill for 2 hours. I let it rest a little while at room temperature before serving it, when I’m not eating it right out of the bowl in the fridge.
Now spend an hour washing all the things.
Final notes:
1.) To make chocolate mousse, leave out the gelatin and use 1 and 1/4 to 1 and 1/2 cups melted dark chocolate chips (please invest in good chocolate) instead of juice (melt the chips in a bowl set over a pot of boiling water). You can also add some liquor-- I like Grand Marnier for a little orange flavor. You can also throw some cocoa powder in the whipped egg whites/whipped cream. I wouldn’t add any sugar other than 1/4 cup in the custard because I like the dark chocolate flavor, but you do you.
2.) To make a custard for a fruit tart, make the custard recipe with 4 whole eggs, use 1/2 TBSP of gelatin in a couple TBSP water/juice, and pour into a baked pie shell, then chill for a couple of hours. You can also put the mousse in a pie shell.
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For me, that translates to “Put aside until tomorrow. Spend the entire next day dancing in front of the kitchen sink with rock-n-roll radio on full blast, occasionally dipping a bowl from the pile in hot soapy water and scraping the dried crust from the bottom and sides. Switch radio station to jazz for drying and stuffing in cabinets.”
I’m not much of a baker (though I do love making bread pudding), but this recipe of yours looks mouthwateringly good. Especially with the tart and sour fruits and adding as much fruit flavour as possible.
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