New Recipe: Tomatillo-Corn Pizza

It's been quite a while since I embarked on a concoction with this much prep. I had already planned to make pizza for dinner Friday night, but there were a LOT of fresh ingredients from our CSA backing up on my counter and in my fridge, so I decided to put my thinking cap on and use them up.

A couple years ago, I made salsa verde with some tomatillos, so I started with the pizza premise, and decided to use a salsa-like sauce instead of spaghetti-like sauce.

De-husked and boiled. (Correll Farms - CF)

Plus I added some beautifully colored dark red and green heirloom tomato (CF), fresh garlic cloves (CF), cilantro, and a tiny squirt of agave. Combine it all in a food processor until pureed. Set aside.

Meanwhile, I shucked the sweet corn (CF) and cut it off the cob. I sauted it for about 5 minutes with some onions (CF) in olive oil, just until tender.

One sure thing about using lots of fresh ingredients: lots of compost material. 

Using the last litte bit of my Hoffner Farms wheat flour and basic white, I rolled out a pizza crust. I usually transfer to baking sheet and cook for about 5 minutes while the oven is preheating before adding fixings. 

Top the crust with the tomatillo mix. 

Then the corn & onions, some broccoli florets, and olives. Final touch: Monterey Jack!

Bake for 17-20 minutes, finishing with a few minutes broil. Winner winner pizza dinner. This one is a definite keeper. 

Meat Pie

I'll admit, as I was cooking this, I thought I was going to hate it. The smell of the chorizo just wasn't appetizing, and I had to call in the other person to remove it from the casings. Totally disgusting. But, it turned out pretty darn tasty and was super filling - enjoyable enough to be the first actual food post in 2013, and the only one since, um, well, a long time ago.

Filet Mignon, Apple Brats, Chorizo, Tenderloin

The chorizo was part of the great Wild Turkey Farms stock up from the last Farmer's Market of the season. All that (local and humanely raised!) for only $20! Score.

Preheat oven to 400. Thaw the chorizo and remove from casings. Chop one sweet potato and 1/2 sweet yellow onion. Saute all three until sweet potato is tender (~15 mins?). Increase heat to cook off moisture. Mix in 3T goat cheese and set aside.

Meanwhile, after thawing a puff pastry sheet for about 45 mins, line a removable bottom tart pan with one sheet to form the crust. Press against edges. Bake 8-10 minutes using pie weights if available (if not you will need to poke down the bottom before adding filling).

Transfer chorizo-squash filling to tart pan, spread evenly, and pack down. Crumble 2T more goat cheese on top. Bake at 400 for 20 mins, and finish with a 3 min broil. Remove and and let it sit slash set for about 5 minutes.

Definitely a late fall or winter meal.

We picked up a weirdo

Friday night is pizza night in casa YJDKIY. Well, actually, it's more like, pizza night is Friday night. Because not all Friday nights are pizza, but pizza is almost always Friday night.

gee thanks iPhone - that's almost better than my DSLR

Even though I love it, regular veggie pizza was getting kinda B-O-R-I-N-G! When I started looking for new ideas, the only thing that kept coming up was BBQ Chicken Pizza. I don't like BBQ. Nor do I really want chicken on my pizza. Enter my strange world of concocting. YUUUUM. I masked the BBQ and avoided the chicken.

BBQ Chick Pea Pizza (get it!?)

1 prepared pizza crust (or homemade would be even better, but we were going for quick here)
1 c organic chick peas, rinsed
2 c washed kale torn into small pieces
1 medium sweet onion finely sliced
1 c grated Gouda cheese (not smoked)
1 c jarred low sodium marinara sauce
2 T sweet & tangy barbecue sauce
1 T olive oil

Heat oil in a skillet, add onions, and reduce heat to low. Cook 10+ minutes until caramelized and add kale. Mix well to coat kale with oil, cover, and cook 8 more minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, mix marinara and BBQ sauce, tasting to get your preferred balance of BBQ and tomato. Once kale is wilted, remove from heat. Spread sauce onto crust, top with kale & onion mix, and chick peas. Sprinkle grated cheese over top and bake for 11-13 minutes on 405 degrees, broil for 1-2 minutes (I use a pizza stone pre-heated with the oven).

It might sound weird, but don't throw it out of the car until you try it...

New Recipe Thursday*

Hallelujah it's Thursday...starting the week one day short is the best idea ever. Well, having the whole week off was actually the best idea ever, but that's not really practical.

I'm not really sure what inspired this concoction, but thankfully (spoiler alert) it worked! Often I simply think about what think would taste good together and then, well, put it together.

Our Winter Harvest baskets featured a Siberian kale from a new (to me) farm:

"Dane Fisher from Fisher Farms has just returned to providing us produce. Dane is a professor at Pfeiffer University and one of area's earliest supporters of buying local and eating local. He has grown Siberian Kale for us. When young, this interesting kale variety is peppery and smooth. As the cold comes, the flavor is milder but richer. " 

I don't think I've had this variety, but I could tell it was going to be tasty! So much so that I decided to save a little out of the recipe for steaming so I could taste the true flavor.

Anyhow, chop up the butternut it pretty small pieces ~ 3 cups. Transfer to a microwave safe container, add 1 T water, and cook for 5-8 minutes until tender and mushy.

Love the Ikea foldy cutting mats, but really, REALLY wish they could go in the dishwasher.

Meanwhile, saute kale & green onion. Microwave 4 breakfast sausage style links and mash (could easily substitute regular sausage here). 

Combine 4 eggs or egg equivalent**, 1/3-1/2 cup low fat ricotta cheese, and desired amount of garlic powder, sage, and rosemary. (I never ever measure, but it was maybe 1 t garlic, 1 t sage 1.5 rosemary). Mix well until smooth.

Combine sausage crumbles, kale, and butternut and mix with eggs. Pour into pre-heated deep dish pie crust. Top with parmesan cheese and bake for 30 minutes on 400 degrees, plus a 3-4 minute broil.

The kale was phenomenal. Due to it's dainty leaf style, it is here by named Fancy Kale in this house.  The quiche was the perfect flavor/texture combination, not too eggy, and felt more filling than some others.

Definite keeper!

*note that unlike Wordless Wednesday, this will likely not be a regular feature :P

**egg substitutes are probably not the most wisest choice when it comes to nutrition, local eating, organic, or sustainable, but for me, I choose the lack of cholesterol as more important to make this "healthy" for me. It's totally your call.

Quinoa Stuffed Cabbage Leaves

I'm pretty sure this used to get made when I was younger, and it involved millet and I hated it. :P

I started with some random ingredients (those are the local turnips I never used!)

Feature ingredient!

Plop it in a pot of boiling water and let it cook for about 5 minutes. Rotate it to get even cooking.

Remove from water (not as easy as one might think!) and transfer to a cool water bath. Gently peel off the tender leaves without tearing them.

If you get to tight leaves that are crisp, plunk it back in the boiling water for a couple minutes. I got about 10-12 off a the small cabbage patch head. While your leaves are cooling, saute 1/2-1 finely diced sweet potato, half a yellow onion, 4 cloves of garlic (minced), and, cook about 1 c (dry) quinoa (I ran out so I mixed in some cous cous, which actually worked really well to hold it all together). Dump a bunch of rosemary, garlic powder, sage, and basil in the mix and stir it all together. I also added about 2T nutritional yeast.

Evenly divide your mix according to how many leaves you have an spoon onto a leaf. They are much more flexible than you would imagine.

Roll'er up! Place rolls in a greased baking dish and top with 1.5 c tomato sauce of your choice. I used no-salt added plain tomato sauce with extra basil, garlic powder, and rosemary.

I also sprinkled a little parmesan. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes on 400. Remove foil and broil for 10-15 minutes.

Because I forgot to add the soy crumbles, this was served over balsamic-rosemary chick peas for some extra protein. Weird looking and a little weird of a combination, but it actually turned out pretty tasty!

PS: While the winter sky does give you things like this out your back window

and sometimes even rainbows with a pot of gold right next door, 

it is IMPOSSIBLE to photograph dinner this time of year. Dark at 5 pm = overhead fluorescent + yellow incandescent = bizzzzzarre colored food.

Polenta with Herby Veggies (and radish salad)

A new bok choy recipe!

Dice up some leeks (or onion), garlic, and red pepper.

Chop the bok choy and let it marinate in balsamic vinegar.

Mean while, quarter the polenta (use a flavored one, this is Italian), and douse it in balsamic, as well. Stick it in the oven to broil for about 15-20 minutes, shuffling once.

Saute the diced veggies in EVOO for 1-2 minutes, then add the beans, 1/2 cup water, and the bok choy.

Let both cook while you chop radishes and cucumber.

Mix those together, and in a separate container, mix EVOO, white wine vinegar, garlic salt, spicy brown mustard, lemon juice, and agave. Pour that over the radish-cuc mix and refrigerate until ready to serve.

I've never roasted polenta, but this was possibly the best texture I've had it. Top with a little parm...going on the menu list!

Veganccident

Vegan by accident! You know what YJDKIY hates more than anything about cooking right? Well, ok, I really hate exploding pyrex dishes and oversodiumified foods, but go with it. Mini-trips to the grocery store after my weekly shopping is done. So realizing I'd forgotten ricotta at about 6 pm last night could have spelled disaster for my spinach-ricotta lasagna rollups.

But no! Ingenious that I am, I'd been saving half a block of tofu (which may or may not be known as toadfood in this house!).

Combine with a little basil, pepper, lemon juice, fresh minced garlic, kosher salt, nutmeg, nutritional yeast, and EVOO.

And what do you get? Vegan ricotta. I swear it was almost exactly like the real stuff, but healthy!

 
The yeast is the trick! I find it funny that I had allllll those weird ingredients, but not ricotta.

Moving on, 8 whole wheat lasagna rolls and some Earthfare sauce.

After they cook, place them in a cool water bath, and begin layering the tofucotta.

Then some spinach leaves.

And sauce. Carefully roll them lengthwise and place in a greased pyrex.

Bake for 25 minutes on 375 and finish with a 5-8 minute broil! I ended up topping with a little mozza though, so they weren't vegan in the end, but very easily could do without.

Someone else was getting worried I'd forgotten her dinner too.

Lucky for her I don't think you can make dogfood out of toadfood.