Asparagus & Dried Tomato Pizza

A new combination of pizza toppings may not really be a recipe, but it's what I made and it was tasty.

This time, the pizza crust turned out better than ever before: thin, crispy, chewy, and with nice air bubbles in the outer crust. It is the same basic recipe I've been using for a while (this one without the Sriracha), but I did a few things differently. First, I let it rise for a while -- usually we are in a hurry to eat and so I don't bother, knowing that it'll make a crust that's serviceable but not spectacular. Today I had time, so I let it rise until doubled (first on the counter, then in the fridge because it was hot and I was going out for a while). Second, I added a couple tablespoons of vital wheat gluten. Third, I baked it for a full ten minutes, instead of my usual seven. I have to recommend doing all these things -- the payoff is great.

Asparagus & Dried Tomato Pizza

One recipe crust, linked above. This will make 2x what you need.

1/2 cup dried tomatoes, soaked about 5 minutes in boiling water
1/2 lb asparagus, cut into lengths just under an inch
2 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 medium sweet onion (I used Vidalia), chopped
1/2 tsp olive oil

While you are soaking the tomatoes, saute the asparagus in the oil over high heat, until tender and beginning to blacken. Remove from heat and reserve.

Preheat oven to 450.

Your dough will be very, very sticky. Heavily flour a surface and turn the dough onto it; flour the top of the dough. Divide the dough in half; save half for another use (such as making a calzone for lunch the next day with your extra tomatoes and onions). Roll the dough out as thinly as you can into an approximate circle. You can also stretch it a bit the way they do it pizza parlors. The idea is to have about a 10 inch circle that's very thin but a bit thicker around the edges.

Sprinkle cornmeal heavily on a cookie sheet . Transfer your dough to the sheet. Cover with tomato slices (there will be gaps), asparagus, onions, and feta. Bake 10 minutes. Let cool a few minutes and eat!

Serves one, realistically. Two if you have other components to the meal, perhaps.

Turkish-Vacation Salmon

Finally used the dried tomatoes we brought back from Turkey last year -- as well as almost the last of the pomegranate molasses!

Turkish-Vacation Salmon

1 1-lb salmon fillet, frozen
1 very large or 2 medium zucchini, cut into quarters lengthwise and then sliced
1 cup dried tomatoes, shredded (not reconstituted)
1.5 medium onions, diced
1 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp sesame oil
large pinch dried hyssop or oregano
salt
juice of 1/2 lemon
drizzle of pomegranate molasses

Preheat a George Forman type grill. Meanwhile, saute the zucchini and onion in the canola oil about 5 minutes. At this point, put the frozen fish directly on the grill. Cook it for 8-10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fillet. While it is cooking, add the dried tomatoes and sesame oil to the vegetables, along with about a quarter cup of water. Continue to cook until the salmon is done or until you decide the zucchini is too soft. Add a large pinch of hyssop to the vegetables; salt to taste.

Pile the vegetables onto a platter and lay the fish on top. Drizzle with lemon juice and pomegranate molasses. Serve hot.

Serves 2.

Salmon Tacos

We ate these recently. This sauce is adapted from Simon Hopkinson's Roast Chicken and Other Stories. It's amazing. You could just eat it forever.

Salmon Tacos

1 recipe Green Sauce (except use only 1/2 cup coconut milk unless it absolutely won't blend without more, and include the stems. You can also leave out the mint or basil, and substitute jalapeno peppers).

1 large salmon filet
Spinach leaves
Corn tortillas
(Chopped red bell pepper, optional)

Grill the salmon on a George Forman type grill (if it's frozen, it may take a bit longer -- even close to 10 minutes).
Flake the salmon. To make tacos, put some salmon, some spinach, and more sauce than you think necessary into a tortilla; add red bell pepper if you want; eat.

Number of servings depends on the size of your filet; I would say at least 5.

Asparagus + Feta Tart

Well. It's been a busy few months. I haven't cooked anything new or interesting in ages. Until today.

The crust for this is my new go-to pizza crust recipe -- I keep having a new default one, because I'm too lazy to go look up the proportions that have worked before. This one is too easy to forget.

Asparagus and Feta Tart

Crust:
1 cup whole wheat flour (plus extra as needed)
1 cup white flour
Small pour of cornmeal (about 1/4 cup)
Dash of olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp-ish active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
(1 tsp Sriracha, optional)

Filling:
1 bunch asparagus
4 oz feta, crumbled
pepper to taste
dill to taste
1/4 cup red wine

Mix the yeast and warm water. In a mixing bowl, mix flours, cornmeal, oil, salt, and Sriracha, if using. Pour in the water/yeast mixture and stir with a spoon until it comes together into a ball. It will be sticky. Dust the surface with flour and knead a couple of times. If the surface is sticky again, dust it with flour again, and set aside while you prepare the other ingredients.


Preheat your oven to 450. Grill the asparagus about 9 minutes on a George Forman-type grill, or cook over high heat in a very lightly greased pan about the same amount of time. Meanwhile, boil the wine in a saucepan until it reduces to about 4 tbsp.

Roll out the dough to form a rectangle of approximately 12 x 7 inches. It should be fairly thin (unless, like me, you rolled it out and arranged the asparagus, only to realize you'd only cooked half the asparagus and would now have to cook the other half -- leaving the dough to rise another 9 minutes while it cooked). Place it on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Arrange the asparagus spears over the dough, leaving about a 1 inch border. Sprinkle on the cheese, and copious pepper and dill. Fold the edges up and over, to give the tart a raised edge. (Don't worry if they come a bit undone in baking.) Bake 7-9 minutes, until the crust is cooked and beginning to turn gold in places.

After you take it out of the oven, spoon the reduced wine over the top.

Serves 2 as a dinner; 4 as lunch alongside soup.

Tofu-and-Cabbage & Red Pepper Pasta : Two Fast, Tasty, Ugly Recipes

Here are two new recipe ideas (too casual to really call recipes). Tofu-and-Cabbage is something we make a LOT -- it's very fast, very nutritious, cheap, and strangely we both crave it pretty often (more than once a week, even). Red Pepper(s) Pasta I made tonight -- also fast, easy, tasty, and nutritious, and it's fun because it has three different red peppers in it. Unfortunately, both yield results that aren't what you'd call photogenic.

Tofu-and-Cabbage

1 brick silken or regular tofu -- really, any kind -- chopped into small pieces
1/2 medium head green cabbage
2 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 large onion, chopped or diced
1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 very heaping tbsp peanut butter
1/2 tsp Sriracha or other hot sauce
2-3 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 tsp ground ginger

Heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Add the cabbage and onions. Cook about five minutes, until the cabbage has begun to wilt. Add the sesame oil and tofu, and work with your wooden spoon to crumble it into small pieces. Add the garlic. Cook three or four more minutes, until the cabbage is more thoroughly wilted. Add the soy sauce, Sriracha and ginger; cook two more minutes. Add the peanut butter and stir thoroughly to combine. Cook another minute or two. Eat!

If this is all you're having for dinner (i.e. no rice) then don't count on it serving more than 2. You can always up the proportion of cabbage to tofu, or serve with rice or noodles -- but we like it best plain.

Red Pepper(s) Pasta

1/2 box large shells or other chunky pasta
1 can plain tomato sauce, no-salt-added if possible
1 large red bell pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, sliced (I like the big pieces, but dice or use a garlic press if you must)
1/3 cup red wine
1 brick silken tofu, cut into small pieces
large pinch smoked paprika
6-7 dashes red pepper flakes

Put the water on to boil. Meanwhile, dice your bell pepper. Heat the oil over medium-high heat, and cook the pepper just until it barely begins to brown -- maybe 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn the heat to medium-low and add the garlic. When your water boils, add the pasta. Cook the peppers and garlic about two minutes, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add the tomato sauce, wine, and tofu, crumbling the tofu as much as possible with your wooden spoon. Add the paprika and red pepper flakes. Simmer until the pasta is done, then combine and eat.

Serves 2 with some leftovers (or one small dinner and one large lunch).

Mushroom Pizza

This will satisfy your mushroom cravings.

Mushroom Pizza

1.5 cups white flour (plus additional as necessary for working the dough, plus 3 tbsp)
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
1.5 tsp active dry yeast
3/4 cup very warm water
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp olive oil
8 oz portobello mushrooms, sliced
1/2 large onion, diced
2 tbsp butter
1 cup skim milk
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3/4 cup Swiss cheese, cut into small cubes
Spinach leaves

Mix the yeast and the warm water in a glass. Mix the flours (1.5 cups of each), salt, and olive oil in a medium bowl. Add the water and mix until blended. Set aside in a warm place.

Heat the butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook about 5 minutes, until partly translucent. Add the mushrooms; cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms have released their liquids and smell very good (about 5-7 more minutes).

Preheat the oven to 450. Add the 3 tbsp flour to the mushrooms and onions. Stir very well and cook, stirring, about two minutes. Add the milk and stir thoroughly. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until quite thickened -- about 5-7 minutes. Turn off the heat, and stir in the Parmesan cheese. (This would also make an excellent pasta sauce.)

Flour your hands and stretch (and/or pat) the dough out to fill a small cookie sheet covered in parchment paper (approximately eight by thirteen?) -- dough should be fairly thin, but this won't be a thin-crust pizza. Cover the dough with the mushroom sauce. Scatter the Swiss cheese over the top.

Put into the oven; turn the oven to 400. Bake 10-15 minutes, until the crust is golden and the cheese is bubbly. Scatter spinach leaves over the top. (NB: in the photo, I had scattered the spinach prior to baking -- don't do that.)

Serves 4+.

Chicken Soup with Rice and Vegetables (aka Alternate Chicken Soup)

Usually, when I say chicken soup, I mean this one. That's the one I usually make. But today I had different vegetables on hand and thought that some major ginger and garlic would go a long way towards fighting this cold that I've got. So here's an alternate chicken soup -- one that might become my go-to.

Chicken Soup with Rice and Vegetables (aka Alternate Chicken Soup)

4 cups chicken stock
5-7 cups water
1 cup brown rice
5 chicken drumsticks (or a similar amount of other bone-in cuts)
1.5-2 cups sliced carrots
2 large onions, diced
4 large cloves garlic, diced
3 tbsp olive oil, divided
2 small acorn squash, cut into pieces (or 1 brick frozen cooked squash)
1.5 tsp powdered ginger (I only intended 1/2 tsp, but the top fell off the can... and it's good this way)
1 tsp dill weed
salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 400. Grease a baking pan with 1 tbsp olive oil. Lay the squash pieces on the pan cut side-down and bake about 30 minutes or until soft. (Alternately, you can use frozen squash -- I prefer acorn for this soup because of the color. If using frozen, add it about 1 hour in.)

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onions and carrots. Cook, stirring occasionally, until they have begun to color, about 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook three or four more minutes. Add the stock, chicken, rice, ginger, and water (if you have frozen stock and chicken, like me, just add them without thawing). Bring to a boil. Stir, and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, about 2 hours. When the squash is done, scoop it out of the peel, mash, and add to the soup -- it thickens the soup and adds a great flavor. Make sure to keep stirring towards the end as it's a very thick, almost porridge-y soup and may stick to the bottom of the pot. Add more water if you prefer a thinner soup. Before serving, add dill and salt to taste (probably about 1 tsp).

Serves at least 6.