Homemade Pizza

Sometimes life does not goes as what we want. So everyone should have their own hobby or interest that can really brings up the passion in life, to dedicate time to oneself, and share the happiness with others.

I love to eat. Especially eating things I made myself. I feel great when I can cook something from scraps, and the feeling of accomplishment is greater when I compare my own cooked meals with outside food, which is over priced, lack of freshness and taste and less healthy.

I am just an ordinary university student rely on my parents pocket money. Due to all sorts of limitation in hostel and budget constrain, I cook all my food with a simple rice cooker, with ingredients relatively cheaper and easily accessible alternatives in local supermarkets.

I always crave for pizza. I made my first pizza two days ago, by improvising Bobby Flay pizza dough. 

Total time: 2 hr 15 min

Prep: 45 min

Inactive: 1hr

Cooking time: 30 min

Yield: 1 7-inch pizza crust (to fit in my rice cooker)

Serving: 1 to 2 person

Crust ingredient:

1 to 2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon instant dry yeast

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cups water

1/2 tbsp butter

1. Combine the flour, sugar, yeast, salt and 1/2 tbsp of butter in a bowl. Mix thoroughly with a spoon.

2. Mix the ingredients all together. Slowly add in water and start kneading (do not pour all water in once. This can control the moisture of the dough and no need to add in extra flour to adjust the moisture)

3. When all the flour has form a smooth, firm non- sticky ball, put inside a bowl and let it rest for 1 hour until it doubles it's size.

We have no refrigerator in hostel. So it is easier for me to prepare a vegetarian meal.

Toppings:

1/2 tbsp bolognese mushroom spaghetti sauce

1/2 tbsp mayonnaise

1 slice of cheddar cheese
1/2 tbsp of butter

a little bit of parsley

(Ingredients below total up not more than 1 rice bowl)

Shittake mushroom

Tomato

Broccoli 

Onion

Capsicum

(Other variation - egg, eggplant, tuna, pineapple, and whatever you like)

4. Cut all the ingredients in desired shape (Do not cut too much. You will be surprised by how little amount of toppings can fully load on the crust).

5. Spread the spaghetti sauce and mayonnaise on top of the pizza.

6. Put all the toppings on the sauce.

7. Spread the cheese and parsley on top.
8. Heat the rice cooker and spread the butter in the pot. Make sure the butter covers all of the flat pot surface.

8. Put inside the rice cooker and cook for 20 minutes.

Maybe you thought I was just kidding to cook a pizza in a rice cooker. But the effect of rice cooker was unexpectedly good. The tomato and mushroom were juicy and the crust is crispy. Another point to cook with rice cooker is it will never get burnt. 

Here you go~