Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Asparagus and Chard Wraps

Recipe Source: Brennan, Georganne.  Cooking from the Farmers' Market.  Time-Life Books, New York, 1999 p. 40

I found and flagged this recipe way back when I first got this book.  It looked fabulous - like an exciting new way to eat asparagus, which is one of my favorite vegetables.  Unfortunately, I never really had an opportunity to make it.  Either I didn't think of it, or it wasn't appropriate for the occasion.  Well, we were throwing an impromptu dinner party and I figured that it would be a great opportunity to give this a shot.  I had to make a substitution because of the dietary restrictions of one of our expected guests, but that was okay.  It was still going to happen, and that was the important thing.  Then, of course, we had too many leftovers from the previous night to serve new dishes the next night, so it didn't get made. 

Fast-forward a couple of weeks.  My husband wanted to cook pizzas on our Big Green Egg, but the pizzas were going to be "kind of small."  Perfect!  Rather than let the asparagus - which was past its prime by now, and needed to be used immediately lest it compost in my fridge - go to waste, I would make this dish.  A minor disaster involving red chard (which I'll write about some other time) had yielded a large number of chard stalks.  Quite a few sources have recommended treating chard stalks like asparagus.  It also made up for the asparagus spears that were too far gone to use, so I decided to go for it. 

Since I planned to serve this to a lot of people, I had already planned to double the recipe.  One of our expected guests had an allergy to cow's milk, so I substituted Drunken Goat for the requisite teleme.  The recipe recommended tarragon should chervil prove difficult to find, which it did, so that's what I used.  Ultimately the dish turned out well.  My husband was a little aghast when he saw me cooking up the tortillas - "Are those fried?  They'll kill me!" - but you're using a minimal amount of oil and the tortillas really don't absorb that much of it.  The chard stalks were a little stringy and therefore difficult to eat this way, but they still tasted good.  If you prefer to avoid this problem, use all asparagus.  You can probably bring the cost per serving down by serving this closer to asparagus season and not shopping at the priciest grocery store in town.  You could also serve 12 as an hors d'oeuvre with this dish, although it makes a substantial side dish or light main dish for 6. I tried the book's method for cooking the tortillas, but I got frustrated with the process and inverted it.  My method was a lot easier on my hands! 

Asparagus and Chard Wraps (serves 6; approx. $2.71/serving)

1/2 bunch of asparagus, trimmed if necessary

Stalks from two bunches of red chard

1 tablespoon olive oil (you may not use all of it)

12 flour tortillas

6 oz (approx.) Drunken Goat cheese.  (If this is difficult to find, gouda will do.)

1 bunch tarragon

Equipment

• Skillet
• Tongs
• Vegetable peeler
• Bamboo steamer with two tiers
• Saucepan

1. Put water into the saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Put the chard stalks and asparagus into the steamer baskets.  You may need to halve the chard stalks. 
3. Steam the vegetables for 3 - 4 minutes.  Remove them from the heat and transfer the baskets to your work area.
4. Using the vegetable peeler, peel off very thin slices of the cheese.  (You laugh, but it works.)
5. Heat a small amount of oil in the skillet over medium heat. 
6. Meanwhile, assemble a wrap: Place a couple sprigs of tarragon down the center of a tortilla.  Top that with a couple slices of cheese (2 or 3).  Then lay 2 - 3 spears of vegetable on top of that, leaving a little space at the bottom.
7. Fold the bottom part of the tortilla up so the spears are in the fold of the bottom.  Fold the left side over.  Fold the right flap over the left side. 
8. Put the wrap seam-side down in the oil.  Prepare the next wrap while the first cooks. 
9. Cook the wrap for 1 - 2 minutes, until the cheese starts to melt and the tortilla begins to brown.
10. Flip the wrap and cook 1/2 - 1 minute, just to get the browning even. 
11. Transfer the finished wrap to the serving plate.  Repeat steps 6 - 10 until all the tortillas are used.  You may need to add oil to the pan, which is why I called for a whole tablespoon even though you might not need all of it. 
12. Serve hot! 

Technorati Tags: Williams-Sonoma recipes,asparagus,chard stalks,tortillas,Drunken Goat cheese,tarragon,recipes,vegetarian recipes,side dishes,light main dishes

Recipe: Tomato and Goat Cheese Salad

First of all, let me make one thing perfectly clear.  This salad was not, I repeat not, a sad attempt to use up tomatoes that I overpurchased.  Nor was it an attempt to use up excess goat cheese from earlier recipes.  Oh, and any resemblance to an insalata caprese is purely coincidental.  Are we clear on this?  Good.  Ahem.  Now that that little defensive interlude is over, I will admit that I did mistakenly purchase more tomatoes than I needed.  I'm not entirely sure how that happened.  At any rate, with the salmonella scare and all that, tomatoes are a little on the pricey side lately.  At least that's the case at my supermarket, I don't know about others.  I did not want to see that money going to Charles the Woodchuck, however cute he may be.  And the goat cheese won't keep indefinitely.  I figured that a nice tomato salad would be a light, summery dish that would offset the kind of heavy main dish I was serving that night. 

 

I really wanted to keep this simple, to let the flavors stand on their own.  I added the basil to use up a little excess I had left over from the weekend's culinary escapades, but basil is such a natural pairing with tomato that I don't feel the need to try and weasel out an elaborate explanation.  The shallot was kind of an impulse; I always buy a couple more than I need in case one goes bad, so I had it on hand and it was prettier than the yellow onions I had in stock.  My mom would have used a red onion; you can feel free to use half of one without overpowering the rest of the ingredients.  I chiffonaded the basil because I find it easier than chopping it as I would other herbs, and because it looks pretty.  You can tear it if you prefer.  The goat cheese is just a plain old boring log-o-goat cheese, nothing fancy, no herbal additions et cetera.  Feta would be appropriate here.  Mozzarella would also work, and I can remember my mom making it with provolone a time or two.  As for the dressing, simplicity is really the key here.  Kosher salt and coarsely ground black pepper really bring out the flavor of the tomatoes.  I'd be a little leery of adding more to the dressing for fear of overpowering the other ingredients. 

 

Tomato and Goat Cheese Salad (serves 4; approx. $1.04/serving)

3 vine-ripened tomatoes, halved and sliced

1 shallot, thinly sliced

10 leaves (approx.) basil, chiffonade

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon olive oil

Generous pinches of Kosher salt and coarse ground black pepper, or to taste

Equipment:

• No special equipment is necessary, but a good knife will help with the basil. 

1. Combine the first 3 ingredients in the serving bowl.
2. Sprinkle the salt and pepper over the mixture. 
3. In a bowl or cup - your measuring cup will work just fine - mix the oil and vinegar together. 
4. Pour the oil and vinegar over the salad and toss to coat. 
5. Serve.

Technorati Tags: Tomatoes,basil,goat cheese,recipe,original recipes,salad,vegetarian food

Recipe: Shiraz Eggplants

Recipe Source: Ramazani, Nesta.  Persian Cooking.  Ibex Publishers, Bethesda, 1997 p. 85

I love eggplant.  It's probably a little odd that I do, since we never had it at home when I was a kid.  Eggplant is vaguely in season right now, and I've been trying to find new and exciting ways to use this vegetable.  This initially caused my husband some consternation.  He had some kind of horrible eggplant culinary trauma as a child and has avoided it ever since.  He's slowly starting to come around, though.  I needed to cook for my in-laws recently and when I stumbled upon this recipe I decided it had to happen.  My favorite poet is from the city of Shiraz (although I can only read his works in translation), so the recipe looked extra-special to me. 

I did make some changes.  I always do.  I used olive oil instead of butter - in addition to being healthier than butter or shortening, it's less expensive.  I also tend to use olive oil as my primary cooking fat, so it's just an instinct with me.  I was also running very short on time, so I used a can of crushed tomatoes instead of crushing my own fresh tomatoes.  This resulted in my having almost an entire extra pound of tomatoes in the dish, but that's okay.  Tomatoes are amazingly good for you, especially when cooked.  This same time crunch resulted in my using cilantro in place of the parsley, because I had cilantro already cleaned and the parsley hadn't been touched yet.  I figured that this would be okay because I have plenty of Persian recipes that use cilantro, although not necessarily from Shiraz.  At any rate, despite my deep reservations stemming from the time crunch, the dish came out very well indeed.  I'll almost certainly be making it again! 

Shiraz Eggplants (serves 4 generously; approx. $2.41/serving)

2 large eggplants

8 tablespoons olive oil

1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes

2 bunches of scallions, chopped

1/4 bunch cilantro, chopped

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• Large skillet or wok with a lid
• Bowl (to remove the eggplants to)

1. Trim and peel your eggplants.  Slice them into thin slices.  The thinner you slice them, the faster and more evenly they'll cook.
2. Heat the oil in the skillet.  Saute the eggplant until lightly browned.  Evacuate to the bowl. 
3. Drain any remaining oil from the skillet. 
4. Return the eggplant slices to the skillet.  Pour the tomatoes over the eggplant, then sprinkle the scallions and cilantro over that. 
5. Add kosher salt and black pepper to taste.
6. Cover and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes. 
7. Serve.

Technorati Tags: Easy recipes,vegetables,vegetarian food,vegan food,eggplant,tomatoes,cilantro,scallions,Persian food,recipe

Recipe: Spare Parts Soup

This is another dish that I came up with one night when I was home alone.  I'm not sure if it was a success or not.  I mostly wanted to use up the leftover portobello mushroom caps from the pizza experiment and some of the asparagus my husband had picked up.  I think that this would have been a much better dish without the ginger, believe it or not.  I usually love ginger, but in this case I don't think that it was really value-adding and it kind of detracted from the flavor of the milder ingredients.  Still, it was fun to make, and I can't say that it was actually bad. 

 

Spare Parts Soup (serves 2; approx. $2.07/serving)

1 1/2 portobello mushroom caps

1/2 bunch thin asparagus spears, roughly chopped

1/4 cup acini di Pepe (or other very small pasta)

2 tablespoons grated ginger

4 cups Herbal Broth

Equipment:

• Saucepan

1. Slice the mushroom caps relatively thinly.
2. Bring the Herbal Broth to a boil in the saucepan.
3. Add the ginger and let boil 1 minute.
4. Add the asparagus and let boil 1 more minute.
5. Add the pasta and cook 4 - 5 minutes.
6. Add the mushroom caps and cook another 2 - 3 minutes. 
7. Serve. 

Technorati Tags: Recipe,original recipe,vegetarian recipe,vegan recipes,mushrooms,asparagus,easy recipes,soup

Recipe: Savory Bracelets

Recipe Source: Patent, Greg.  A Baker's Odyssey.  John Wiley and Sons, 2007 pp. 114 - 5

This is the first real "bread" type recipe I've tried to make, although there isn't any yeast so people may feel that it doesn't count.  This recipe was a re-creation of a dish that the author's Iraqi grandmother used to make.  The story behind them is very nice and kind of sad, but the bracelets themselves are delicious.  I decided to make them when my husband's parents came to visit and I needed to serve some sort of starch dish.  The recipe was actually extremely easy with the food processor.  While I seriously doubt that the author's grandmother had a food processor in her one-room apartment in Shanghai back in the 1940s, but if she did I'm sure she would have used it.  After having made and served this recipe, I learned of a blogging event celebrating "small breads."  Well, these bracelets are certainly small, so I will go ahead and enter them!  The event is being hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen.

While this recipe is very easy, the first time I tried to make it I really screwed it up.  I put the ingredients into the food processor, I processed them, but they weren't coming together into a dough.  They were coming together into a soup, a pasty, unappealing soup.  I added more flour.  No results.  I added more flour.  Again, nothing.  Eventually I stuck my finger into the repulsive mix and tasted it.  I hadn't been using flour.  I'd been using confectioner's sugar!  The two ingredients were in identical canisters and while the flour canister was labeled, the label had fallen off.  At any rate, I washed out my food processor and did it again, with actual flour this time, and everything worked out well. 

The only two changes that I made to this recipe were the addition of some cumin and garlic salt to the egg wash and the omission of sprinkled sesame seeds.  The sesame seeds were omitted due to a dietary restriction on the part of one of my guests.  The cumin and garlic salt came about because the original recipe called for salt to be added to the egg wash, so I used garlic salt to add a little more flavor.  I added the cumin because cumin makes everything better.  I would definitely say that these were a hit; I'd expected to have enough left over to serve them again the next night, but there were none left for me to clean up. 

Savory Bracelets (makes 24 bracelets; approx. cost per serving not available)

2 1/2 cups flour

3/4 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon turbinado sugar

9 tablespoons butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pieces

1/2 cup water

1 large egg, beaten with a dash of garlic salt and 1/4 teaspoon cumin

Equipment:

• Food processor
• Baking sheets
• Pastry brush

1. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar in a food processor with the regular metal blade.  Process 5 seconds.
2. Add the butter and pulse 10 times.  The mixture should resemble fine meal. 
3. With the machine running, add the water in a steady stream.  Process 1 minute after you've finished adding the water.
4. Divide the dough into 24 pieces and shape into balls.  Cover loosely with a kitchen towel and let stand for 20 minutes. 
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 
6. Using your hands, roll each piece of dough into a log around 7 inches long and 1/2 inch wide, with tapered ends.  This is very similar to the clay "snakes" you made in kindergarten. 
7. Bring the ends together, overlapping by about 1/2 to 1 inch.  Pinch tightly to seal.
8. Set the rings on the baking sheets and brush with the egg mixture. 
9. Bake about 30 minutes, rotating once (top-bottom and front-back.)  Cool completely on the baking sheets.
10. Serve.  These will apparently keep well in an airtight container 2 - 3 weeks, but they won't last that long. 

Technorati Tags: Iraqi food,Middle Eastern food,bread,kahk,Greg Patent,A Baker's Odyssey,recipe,vegetarian recipe

Recipe: Sage and Onion Focaccia (Guest Post from Fearless Grill)

Recipe Source: Shapter, Jennie. Bread Machine – how to prepare and bake the perfect loaf. Hermes House, New York, 2002 p. 107

 

We recently had a party, and I wanted to make a loaf of bread that would make a good appetizer on its own, and would be able to easily be shared by a group of people. I had made this recipe several times in the past, always with great results, so I decided to go with it.

I didn’t make any major modifications to the ingredients in the recipe, except for substituting turbinado sugar for the granulated sugar called for in the original. I did make several changes to the technique. As you can tell from the catchy title, this book is written for bread machine owners, and all the techniques for cooking use the bread machine to knead the dough. I really like this book, and have enjoyed many of the recipes in it. However we recently purchased a Cuisinart stand mixer, and I find that I prefer the texture of bread made using the mixer better than that made using the bread machine. The mixer also takes substantially less time to get the dough ready. The recipes in this book are easily modified to use with the stand mixer, as outlined below. In addition, I decided to cook the bread in my Big Green Egg, rather than in the oven. Jess was using the oven to prepare other dishes, and I like the slightly smoky brick oven flavor provided by the Egg.

I was really happy with the way this focaccia turned out. It rose a bit more than I was expecting, but the flavor and texture of the bread were great, and it was happily consumed by our guests. I will certainly be making this one again.

 

Sage and Onion Focaccia (makes 1 loaf. Approx. Cost Per Serving Not Available)

For the dough

1 cup warm water

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 cups white bread flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar (I used turbinado – the original called for granulated)

1 teaspoon rapid rise dry yeast

1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage

1 tablespoon chopped red onion

 

For the topping

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ red onion, thinly sliced

5-6 fresh sage leaves, sliced lengthwise into strips

2 teaspoons coarse salt (kosher or sea salt)

Freshly ground black pepper

 

1. 1) Mix the water, olive oil, sugar, and yeast in the bowl of your stand mixer. Allow to sit until yeast proofs (yeast activity forms a quantity of bubbles on the surface of the liquid), about 5-10 minutes
2. 2) Add two cups of flour and the salt to the bowl. Mix at a low speed using your dough hook – I used speed 2 on my Cuisinart stand mixer – until the ingredients are mixed. Continue to add the remaining flour, a little at a time, until the dough has reached the right consistency, at which point it will form a ball on the dough hook.
3. 3) Increase the speed to the next setting and let the dough knead for 6 minutes.
4. 4) Lower the speed and add the chopped onion and sage, until thoroughly and evenly mixed into the dough. This should take about 2 minutes. Don’t forget to turn down the speed, or these will get shredded.
5. 5) Remove the dough hook, cover the bowl, and allow the dough to rise for 45 minutes to an hour, or until approximately doubled in size.
6. 6) ‘Punch down’ the dough to remove any large air pockets that may have built up.
7. 7) Transfer the dough to an appropriate pan – I used a 12” round ceramic bread pan. You could also use a pizza pan or a shallow cake pan. Shape the dough to fit in the pan.
8. 8) Cover, and let rise in a warm place for another 20 minutes.
9. 9) Preheat your cooking appliance of choice to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. I used my Big Green Egg this time, set up for indirect cooking. I’ve made this same recipe several times in my oven with excellent results as well.
10. 10) Using your fingertips, poke the dough to make deep dimples in the surface, spaced about 1 inch or so apart. Recover, and let rise another 10 – 15 minutes.
11. 11) Drizzle the dough with the olive oil, and add the remaining ingredients.
12. 12) Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown, and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.
13. 13) This can be served warm or cold. I sliced it up into small squares using a pizza cutter to make it easier for our guests to eat.

Technorati Tags: Recipe,bread,big Green Egg,focaccia

Recipe: Chocolate Hazelnut Ice Cream

Recipe Source: Poole, Shona Crawford.  Ice Cream.  Conran Octopus, London p. 68

If you've always wanted to make ice cream but don't have the space for an ice-cream maker, this one is for you.  It's a shockingly easy recipe that tastes sweet and rich and decadent and will take the place of a dozen backrubs.  It's just that good.  I actually make it fairly often, so I'm surprised to see that I haven't already posted this dish.  All you really need is a whisk, a bowl and some way of freezing the finished product, and I have whisked the ingredients by hand before.  A hand mixer or stand mixer with the whisk attachment will make your life a whole lot easier, though.  I'm entering this ice cream into the Beat the Heat blogging event hosted by A Southern Grace.

Chocolate Hazelnut Ice Cream (serves 4; approx. $0.64 per serving)

1 1/2 cups whipping cream

4 oz Nutella or other chocolate-hazelnut spread

2 oz confectioner's sugar

Equipment:

• Stand mixer (or 1 bowl and one whisk or hand mixer)
• Freezer-safe container

1. Stir 6 tablespoons of cream into the Nutella in order to slacken it.
2. Whip the remaining cream with the sugar until it holds soft peaks.
3. Add in the chocolate and whip.
4. Turn the mixture into a shallow container, cover and still-freeze until firm. 

Technorati Tags: Easy recipes,Nutella,chocolate,hazelnut,ice cream,recipes,vegetarian recipes

Recipe: Pizza ala Big Green Egg (Guest Post from Fearless Grill)

Recipe Source: The pizza dough was inspired by the Basic Pizza Dough recipe found at Fabulous Foods .

The Big Green Egg, in addition to being a great smoker and grill, also works great as a brick oven. I’ve baked bread in it a number of times, and have been meaning to try pizza. I recently had the opportunity to pick up a pizza stone from our local Big Green Egg dealer (The BBQ Barn, in Arlington, MA) and set about trying to figure out how to make pizza in the Egg.

Normally, if there is something I want to make on the Egg, it is pretty easy to find good advice from the Egghead Forum or from the recipe section of that site. However, I was disappointed to find that there wasn’t a lot of information for pizza – people had posted lots of pictures of pizzas they had made, but I wasn’t able to find a definitive method and recipe for dough, sauce, or technique. A lot of people seemed to be using store bought dough and sauce, and there were several schools of thought on baking temperature and time.

I started off trying to get the dough right. I bake a lot of bread, so this wasn’t intimidating, but a lot of the recipes I found were really basic – just flour, water, and yeast. Yawn. After poking around on the Internet a bit, I came across a recipe on a website called Fabulous Foods that seemed like a good starting point, so I went with it, though I modified it a bit. I had liked the fact that they used honey for flavoring – but when I went to make the dough, I realized we were out of honey, so I substituted turbinado sugar instead. I also added oregano and garlic powder to the dough to give it some additional flavor, and changed the quantity of yeast to be appropriate for the rapid-rise yeast I was using. Finally, I modified the recipe for use with a stand mixer.

Next came the sauce and toppings. Jess took a crack at developing a pizza sauce, which came out pretty good. For toppings, we decided to go pretty basic for our first try. The dough recipe made enough for 2 pies, so we decided to do one as a plain Margherita-style pizza, with slices of fresh mozzarella. For the other, we added sliced portabella mushrooms. Jess’s Italian heritage also makes her hesitant to put anything other than traditional ingredients on a pizza – my suggestions of sundried tomatoes and goat cheese were met with a horrified look. (Note from Fearless Kitchen: and a lot of cursing.  I take my pizza very seriously.)

Finally, we needed to determine the cooking technique. From the research I did, there seemed to be two schools of thought. One cooked much like you would in a conventional oven – 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes. While I’m sure this would work fine, and would be a good way to cook if you didn’t have a Big Green Egg, we had two pizzas to make, and only one stone. I didn’t want to have to wait 40 minutes between pizzas, so I leaned toward the high temperature technique. In this approach, the pizzas are cooked at 550 degrees for 7-9 minutes. This develops a nice crispy crust, melts and slightly browns the cheese, and heats everything up nicely. I also figured that this way was probably closer to the ‘real’ method that a pizzeria would use, since they can cook and deliver a pizza in less than ½ hour.

For our first try, these came out really good – I think they were certainly better than our local take out pizza place. The Egg gives a slight smoky flavor to the pizza, giving it that brick oven flavor. While these weren’t the best pizzas we ever had, they were above average, and will serve as a good foundation for us to improve on the flavors and techniques in future tries.

Pizza ala Big Green Egg (Makes 2 approximately 12” pizzas. Approx. Cost Per Serving Not Available)

For the Crust:
1 cup warm water

¼ cup olive oil

2 tablespoons honey or turbinado sugar

1 teaspoon rapid rise yeast

3 ½ cups bread flour

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons dried oregano

2 teaspoons garlic powder

For the Sauce:

Add your favorite pizza sauce. You can make your own, like we did, or use a store bought sauce.

For the Toppings

At a minimum, you will need cheese. We chose to use fresh mozzarella, cut into slices from a ball. You could also use shredded mozzarella, or mix in other cheeses to change the flavor.

For other toppings, you can stay traditional, using pepperoni, sausage, peppers and onions, olives, mushrooms, etc., or you can develop your own combination of flavors, though Jess will insist that this is a flatbread, and not a pizza. For our pizza, we used sliced portabella mushroom caps, which came out really good. We didn’t do anything to prepare them, other than washing them, allowing their natural flavor to come through.

Equipment:

• Stand mixer (as prepared here) or bread machine
• Pizza stone
• Rolling pin
• Parchment paper
• Pizza peal, or cookie sheet with flat edges

1) Mix the water, olive oil, honey or sugar, and yeast in the bowl of your stand mixer. Allow to sit until yeast proofs (yeast activity forms a quantity of bubbles on the surface of the liquid), about 5-10 minutes

2) Add two cups of flour, the salt, and the spices to the bowl. Mix at a low speed using your dough hook – I used speed 2 on my Cuisinart stand mixer – until the ingredients are mixed. Continue to add the remaining flour, a little at a time, until the dough has reached the right consistency, at which point it will form a ball on the dough hook.

3) Increase the speed to the next setting and let the dough kneed for 6 minutes.

4) Remove the dough hook, cover the bowl, and allow the dough to rise for 45 minutes, or until approximately doubled in size.

5) ‘Punch down’ the dough to remove any large air pockets that may have built up. Split the dough in half, and allow to rise for another 45 minutes to 1 hour.

6) Begin preheating your Big Green Egg to a temperature of 550 degrees. I set mine up by filling up with lump charcoal to the top of the firebox, lighting the fire, and inserting the plate setter legs down. I didn’t add any wood for smoke flavor this time, though I may try that in the future. I then used the green ceramic feet that came with the Egg to hold the pizza stone just off the top of the plate setter. Note that it is important to heat up the pizza stone gradually as the Egg heats up. If you put a cold stone into a hot oven, you risk it cracking. Note that if you don’t have a Big Green Egg, you can cook these in your oven – just use a lower temperature and a longer cooking time.

7) While your Egg / oven preheats, flatten out one of the dough balls using your hands, and begin forming it into a circular shape. On a piece of parchment paper, use your rolling pin to form it into a round approximately ¼ inch thick, and sized to fit your pizza stone. Once shaped properly, use your fingers to pinch in and raise the edges to form the crust. Repeat for the second dough ball. If you don’t need two pizzas at once, the dough should keep for a couple of days in the refrigerator, or can be frozen.

8) Add your sauce and toppings of choice to your pizza.

9) Once the Egg / oven is up to temperature, use your pizza peal or a large cookie sheet with a flat edge to pick up the pizza and parchment paper, and slide them onto the pizza stone. The parchment paper will keep the pizza from sticking while still allowing the dough to cook properly. The edges of the paper will char a bit, but won’t catch fire.

10) Cook your pizza for seven to nine minutes, or until the crust and toppings are nicely browned. I used a flashlight to monitor the progress through the top vent of my Egg, starting at 7 minutes.

11) Using your pizza peal or cookie sheet, remove the cooked pizza from the Egg. Cut and serve.

Technorati Tags: Pizza,Big Green Egg,recipe,vegetarian recipe,mushroom,portobello mushrooms

Recipe: Favas with Cilantro

Recipe Source: Goldstein, Joyce.  Savoring Spain & Portugal.  Oxmoor House, London, p. 176

I was drawing up a menu for a recent large gathering of people.  The gathering was to take place at a campground up in Maine.  I needed to make the dish something that could be served at room temperature and didn't need to be refrigerated, since facilities could best be described as "primitive."  I wanted to make something vegetarian, both to serve alongside the meat main dish and in case any vegetarians happened to show up.  This is one of the dishes that I found. 

I really didn't make a huge number of changes.  I omitted the bacon, because I wanted the dish to be vegetarian, because I didn't want to have to refrigerate the dish, and because I once promised a woman that I would not serve pork at one of these events.  (Yes, I know that turkey bacon exists, and I've heard rumors of beef bacon, but come on.)  I increased the garlic, although not by too much, and I tripled the recipe to accommodate the large number of guests we expected.  On the whole, I would say that the dish came out pretty well, and I can tell you that it will keep long enough to use it for lunches, et cetera. 

Favas with Cilantro (serves 20; approx. $0.54/serving)

3 lb frozen fava beans (or baby lima beans)

6 tablespoons olive oil

3 onions, chopped

10 tablespoons minced jarred garlic

3 cups water

3 bay leaves

1 1/2 bunches cilantro, washed and chopped

Equipment:

• Large saucepan with lid

1. Thaw the beans.
2. In the saucepan, warm the olive oil over medium heat.
3. Add the onion and saute until the onion is tender. 
4. Add the garlic and saute 1 minute.
5. Add the beans, bay leaves and enough water to barely cover. 
6. Cover and simmer about 10 - 15 minutes. 
7. Transfer to the serving vessel.  Add the cilantro and serve. 

Technorati Tags: Portugese food,fava beans,cilantro,vegetarian dishes,vegan recipes,recipes

Recipe: Pizza Sauce

Pizza made at home simply cannot be compared to pizza from a take-out joint, nor should it be.  The basic premise behind each of them is different.  Pizza made at home is a proper meal, containing at least three of the four food groups.  Ingredients are usually fresh, you've had the pleasure of smelling the cooking pizza for a good long time.  It is not something that happens quickly.  Pizza from a take-out joint is, well, it's fast food.  It's eaten when you simply don't have the time or energy to cook.  It's standardized - every pizza tastes like the one before it and the one after it.  Fast food pizza keeps longer and better than homemade, or maybe it just tastes better cold (room temperature leftover pizza was a breakfast staple when I was in college) than homemade does.  Maybe it just lasts longer - I can't remember there ever being leftovers when my mom made pizza. 

 

Anyway, there are commercially available pizza sauces out there.  There isn't really much shame in using them, either, if you choose a high-quality brand that doesn't list sugar as the first ingredient.  I like Muir Glen Organic Pizza Sauce, personally.  It doesn't need "help" - i.e., I don't need to add anything to it before using it - and it doesn't taste too sweet to me.  (I'm very picky about that.)  However, there is a certain amount of pride that comes along with making your own sauce at home.  You also get to smell the sauce simmering, and that is a lovely scent indeed.  They should bottle it and sell it instead of perfume.  Try making this very easy sauce for your homemade pizza. 

 

Pizza Sauce (makes enough for 3 small pizzas; approx. $1.40/pizza.) 

1 onion, finely chopped

2 1/2 tablespoons minced jarred garlic

1 bay leaf

2 tablespoons dried thyme

2 tablespoons dried oregano

10 leaves (approx.) basil, chopped

1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes

1 tablespoon olive oil

Pinch of kosher salt

Equipment:

• Saucepan

1. Heat the oil in the saucepan.
2. Add the onion and garlic.  Saute until the onion is soft.  This will be faster the smaller you chopped your onion, which will get you to pizza earlier. 
3. Add the dried herbs and bay leaf.  Cook about 20 seconds, stirring well. 
4. Add the tomatoes, fresh basil and kosher salt. 
5. Simmer until the flavors are well blended and the sauce "comes together", at least 20 minutes. 
6. Use to top pizzas, or reserve for another use. 

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