The executive chef of dine by Peter Gordon at SkyCity answers your cuisine questions.
I had an amazing margherita pizza in Fiji last year - it had a really thin base and a delicious topping. I've been trying ever since to re-create it, without success. Any tips?
- Uliana Pausina
Short of giving you a recipe, you need to make a yeast-based moist bread dough that contains a decent amount of olive oil and salt. To get it super-thin, use a mixture of a rolling pin, your hands and a lot of stretching.
Bake on a heavy heat-absorbing surface like a pizza slab or heavy roasting dish in the hottest oven you've got.
A hunting friend gave me a pheasant he'd shot the other day. Should I roast it the same way as a chicken, or is there a trick to getting it right?
- James Russell
Pheasants are very lean so they can become dry if overcooked. Remove the legs (they're too stringy to be enjoyable) and place in the roasting dish to form a trivet in which you sit the pheasant with its breast facing down. Rub the bird generously with olive oil, season well, and scatter with fresh herbs, then cook at 220C for about 15 minutes (depending on its size). Rest it for five minutes covered with foil.
I have a bottle of avocado oil in my pantry but I don't like the taste of it in salad dressings. How else could I use it?
- Linda Herrick
Avocado oil has a high burning point, which means it can handle high heat. Brush on fish fillets to pan fry them, use to roast root vegetables, rub over a roasting chook, or when sauteing or stir-frying.
* To ask Peter a question, click on the Email Peter link below.
