Alfresco dining is perfect in these long summer nights (weather permitting!), and I love having a real casual, and often party like atmosphere. Drinks flowing, loads of food to pick on and share…one of my fave dishes is nacho’s…! This recipe is a spin on that, and goes down a real treat!

Taco spicy ring

A lot easier to prepare, than it looks I promise!

You need one stonebaked tray (godsend!), made from natural stoneware clay, each stoneware piece distributes heat efficiently for even baking and browning.  They are ideal for baking pizzas on as well.

Shopping list:

1 lb Ground lean beef or lamb

1 small red onion chopped finely

2 cloves of garlic

1 pack of Taco seasoning mix

1 cup (4oz) cheddar cheese

1/4 cup of jalapeno peppers

2 tbsp of water

2 x tins of refrigerated crossiant dough (all the leading markets sell them in the chilled aisles.

Garnish:

1/2 green pepper

1/2 red pepper

Salsa or make your own.

Lettuce

tomato

1 small red onion

handful of pitted ripe olives

Tub of sour cream

Tub of Guacamole

Now lets begin to cook.

Preheat oven to gas 375

Firstly brown off you meat, and drain the fat if any. Separately fry your onions and garlic in a tbsp of olive oil until golden brown.  Stir the onions and garlic into the meat together with the taco seasoning, with the jalopeno peppers, water and cheese and give it all a good mix, this will resemble a rather a crumbly texture, with hardly any sauce.  Season with a little salt and pepper, for the desired taste.  Leave this aside.

Now for the real creative bit.

Unroll the crescent rolls and separate, arrange triangles in a circle on a round baking stone with wide ends overlapping in center and the points toward the outside.  There should be about a 5 inch diameter in the center, for the garnish.

Then scoop some of the mixture evenly onto the wides ends of dough at center of ring.  Bring points in and over of the pastry, and tuck underneath the wide end, until you form a nice ring.  Don’t worry if there is gap between the pastry…just wait for the cheese to ooze out.

I then just pop it into the oven and bake 20 – 25 minutes until golden brown

Meanwhile, whilst cooking, I prepare the garnish.  Which takes all of about 5 mins, chop peppers, onions, olives and mix together with you salsa mix, lay onto your lettuce leaves (select large leaves) and top with sour cream and guacamole, and then place in the middle of the ring when it comes out of the oven.

Tuck in and enjoy!

PICS TO FOLLOW!