Four-cheese flatbread pizza

Pizza grilled on the BBQ is a wonderfully smoky treat! The timing to grill these flatbread will vary depending on the heat of your barbecue but once you grill your first one and figure out the correct position and timing, these are sensational. An excellent pizza dough recipe is in my cookbook, TASTE: Seasonal Dishes from a Prairie Table, available at Chapters, Indigo, McNally Robinson and online at Chapters or Amazon.

The following recipe and method is for one 8” pizza round.

Thawed raw pizza dough, or make your own

Oil, for brushing

Approx 4 slices very cold camembert cheese

¼ cup crumbled feta cheese or blue cheese

¼ cup shredded old cheddar cheese

basil pesto, optional

handful arugula leaves

1/8 cup grated parmesan cheese, to finish

balsamic glaze, to finish

Preheat the BBQ to 450°F or higher. Scrub the grates with a coarse brush and then brush lightly with oil.

Meanwhile, make the dough, or if using thawed dough, let it come to room temperature and rise until doubled in bulk.

Cut off a piece of dough, about the size of a baseball. Roll into a pizza bottom about 8 inches wide (don’t worry if they are not perfectly round or have an oval shape). (Note: There is no need for the dough to rise – just proceed with the recipe).

Brush the top with oil. Place the pizza, oil side down, onto the hot grill but not directly over the coals. Close the lid and let the dough bake for 2 minutes.

Remove the lid and turn the dough. Close the lid and let bake another 30 seconds.

Remove the lid and transfer the semi-cooked pizza bottom to a cutting board. Top with the camembert, feta and shredded cheddar. If desired, smear the base with basil pesto before topping with cheese.

Transfer the prepared pizza back to the grill, over indirect heat, and grill another 4-5 minutes with the lid down, or under the cheese has melted and starts to bubble.

Remove to a cutting board and garnish with a handful of arugula leaves. Scatter over the grated parmesan cheese and drizzle with balsamic glaze. Serve hot.

Cold-brewed lemon iced tea

Iced tea is the perfect thirst quencher on hot summer day. This recipe is based on the principles of classic punch, which should highlight elements of strong, weak, sour and sweet on the palate. The tea provides the “weak,” the lemon provides the “sour” and the sugar provides the “sweet” (for the “strong” add some dark rum or brandy; a cocktail recipe is also listed below). We also cold brew the tea here, which should result in a slighter sweeter and less bitter tea flavour.

The following recipe creates about 1 litre of Iced Tea.

1 litre of water

4 black tea bags (we use English Breakfast, which is a combination of black teas)

½ cup of sugar

Zest of 2 to 3 lemons

Juice of 1 lemon

Steep tea bags in water (cold or room temperature) and place in refrigerator. Allow to steep for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Remove the zest of lemons. Use a vegetable peeler or paring knife to create long thick strips of the zest, being careful to avoid using the white pith. Place lemon zest in bowl and combine with sugar. Muddle lemon zest with sugar, extracting as much of the natural oil out of the lemon zest as possible. Cover and allow to sit for at least an hour, stirring occasionally. For best results allow to sit overnight. The sugar will form into a concentrated lemon syrup called oleo-saccharum. You can remove the zests now or strain out later if using for Iced Tea.

Squeeze the juice of one lemon.

Combine all ingredients into a suitable mixing vessel and stir well, making sure any sugar is dissolved. Strain mixture into serving vessel, making sure to remove any strips of zest, pulp and seeds.

Allow to chill for 1 hour prior to serving.

For lemon iced tea cocktail

Pack a short glass with ice. Combine3 to 4 parts iced tea with 1 part dark rum or brandy. Stir to chill. Serve with lemon wheel.

For a really traditional punch, concentrate the iced tea mixture by doubling the amount of sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice used, while still using 1 litre of water. Combine 3 ounces of iced tea mixture with 1 ounce of dark rum and ½ ounce of brandy.

Please enjoy responsibly.