cassava pizza

1. combine 1 1/2 c cassava flour, 1 tbsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda; then mix in 2 eggs, 1 dash of oil, and 2/3 c milk kefir. if you are dairy-free, use 1/2 c water, 1 tbsp vinegar and 2 tbsp extra oil. 

2. spread with a spatula on the smooth side of a silicone baking sheet (mine is from Canadian Tire

), like so.

3. bake about 10-12 minutes at 350F. it should be firm but not brown. let cool, then loosen crust gently from the silicone sheet. for best results, elevate on an oven-proof wire cooling rack, spread thinly with olive oil, dress, and bake on the wire rack over the cookie sheet, to keep the bottom crisp.

look at that texture - it's downright fluffy!

you're welcome.

Not sure what cassava is? Read more here. I buy cassava flour at Asian or African markets. As usual, sorry for the mixed-quality pictures.

This is a 100% original recipe - please credit when sharing. Thanks!

weekending and other notes

cassava pizza is really rocking our world. my current recipe is 1 c cassava flour, 2/3 c kefir, 2 eggs, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking soda, and a dash of oil. spread onto the smooth side of a silicone sheet, bake 15 minutes or so, then let cool. elevate on an oven-proof wire rack (as pictured), rub with a bit of extra oil, then dress and bake till cheese is as you like it.

paleomom's plantain muffins are amazing. going to try a vegan version this week with ripe plantain and flax.

salad for dinner - with hard-boiled eggs, just-cooked broccoli, cubes of mozarella, thinly-sliced peppers, apple, lettuce, and a balsamic dressing.

new batch of kraut fementing away - with red cabbage, rutabaga, carrot, jalepeno, cranberries, ginger and garlic.

the table set for valentine's day

valentine menu

Sunday supper - mussel pasta dish based on nonno's mussel linguine in Jamie Oliver's Italy, except we have no anchovies, so I used smoked herring, it was just so delicious, prominently but not overwhelmingly smoky, with the sweetness of the tomatoes and the fresh garlic - definitely a keeper. with orange and endive salad and white wine - fabulous.

I am reading French Women Don't Get Fat - as you may recall, I have a major thing for French food culture, so I am enjoying it very much. I knew I would like it because I once picked up the sequel at a second-hand store and gave it to my mom as a gift. It is all about pleasure, n'est pas? I have realized, reading it, that I do sometimes eat mindlessly or out of stress. Oui, meme moi! I am very determined to slim down my portions, say no to seconds, savour every morsel of calorie-dense food I indulge in, and lose 5-10 pounds by May (as I don't have a scale I suppose I'll have to be content with fitting better into my black wool skirt, which has sadly gotten a little tight at the waist). So I turned down a second dish of pasta last night (while Tony had THREE, which if you have observed Tony eat, you'll realize is  an enormous quantity for him), and did not eat my third egg at breakfast, but instead kept it for my slumbering husband. I cannot wait for the spring to come, to start seeing early greens and fresh goodies at the Atwater market, bien sur! I am so done with winter. Anybody with me?

pizza & ice cream pie

This was last night's supper, made with a chickpea flour crust, and baked first without cheese to let the veggies roast - tomato, red pepper, zucchini & onion, with herbs and oil - then with strips of mozzarella. It smelled wicked good! As usual, the mouthfeel of the crust was kind of dry and crumbly, and once one has had the pleasure of glutenous crust one simply can't help but compare, but one does get used to being GF, and so all things considered it was a success.

It's technically my birthday tomorrow, but really that means it's my birthday all weekend. Obviously! Growing up I always chose ice cream cake on my birthday; I've never really been a grain cake kind of girl. I saw this incredible recipe right after eating all our berries yesterday, and I've been toying with a modified version in my head since then. So I went with Magic Bulleted pecans, melted butter, and sugar for the press-crust, followed by two bricks of cream cheese, two pureed peaches, probably about 1/2 c to 1 c maple syrup, and about 2 tsp vanilla extract, all whipped, with the extra peach slices on top. It's freezing in the basement freezer now. Oh boy! I will decorate it with wildflowers and take some more pictures when we serve it. :)

pizza pizza! GF pizza recipe & procedure

me with our salad lettuce, Ambrose pushing Baby Batman in the doll stroller

he's psyched, rightly so!

YAYYY PIZZA

Tony doing the honours. that's eggplant strips fried in bacon fat with a bit of salt, and some baked bacon, with mozzarella.

my obsession with aeration shows! once we've been served our pieces I always elevate it on a rack to keep the crust crisp.

The crust is a modified version of the soaked gluten-free bread I posted a few days ago - omit the yogurt and add 2 tsp dry active yeast, a good glug of olive oil and 1 tbsp salt at mixing time, let ferment/rise a few hours at least (you won't see much visible rise compared to gluten dough as the grains are nonelastic, but the flavour will develop and the phytic acid should decrease). Don't add anything else later. Do not roll out!

Put a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet:

like so (this and the following pictures are another day, another project - crackers, in fact - but the process is the same)

cover it with another piece of parchment paper

put on one more cookie sheet, then get it all on the floor and jump on it! have your kid(s) join in! if you have another adult at home, both of you should hop on!

Take off the top cookie sheet, then carefully roll off the top piece of parchment paper, pulling at the angle shown (do not pull up at a ninety degree angle or it could tear)

And there you have it! A perfectly lovely oval pizza crust with no stress or mess! Maybe sometime I'll take pictures of what will happen if you attempt to roll out GF dough... but not today... it's Sunday... let's just enjoy life and be happy ;)

Bake as usual for pizza (full whack at 500 F; I like to prebake just a bit, about 7 minutes, then slather on tons of sauce, cheese and noms, return to the oven for 15 minutes or so). Bon appetit!

"thrive pie"

The crust of this "pizza" is made from whole buckwheat, carrot, and sunflower seeds all mixed up in a food processor. Surprisingly yummy. and the rest is vegan.
A delicious meal that we ate at our friends Nicole and Lena's house. Recipe for the crust can be found in Whole Foods To Thrive, by Brendan Brazier.

So many food adventures!

Since I accepted Amy's invitation to join the Leek Geeks, I have had so many food adventures!

We got to go to afternoon tea at the Ritz in London with Simon's grandparents, as part of his grandmother's 80th birthday gift.

There was a dress code: jacket and ties compulsory for gentlemen. Simon wore one too. (Ha!)

Look at all the teas! We had the traditional one, because you don't go to the Ritz to drink herbal tea.

They bring out the scones (on the middle level) just before you eat them, so they are at the perfect temperature when you are ready to eat them with clotted cream and jam. There were also sliced cakes from a trolley. Afternoon tea was actually quite a feast! They offered more of everything, too.

I also bought a new slow cooking cookbook in an attempt to do more interesting things with my slowcooker, and of course the first recipe I used was not a slowcooker recipe!

This is beef rendang, apparently a famous dish. You make a curry paste and simmer it with stewing beef and coconut milk so that it goes from this:

To this. With lots of time for evaporation, then more liquid and more time, and then toasted coconut, tamarind paste, and coriander. The whole process took about five hours.

We didn't have our dinner until 9 o'clock, but Simon was happy! I served it with basmati rice and steamed spinach. The next day I had tinned "Thai chicken soup" for lunch and it tasted like salty, slimy water. I think my palate is getting used to all this nice food!

Are we allowed to share recipes that come from books? I documented the process of making a gorgeous, flourless chocolate cake from the Ottolenghi cookbook, but I didn't know if publishing it here would be frowned upon.

And finally, we are obsessed with homemade pizza now! We keep the toppings constant (mozzarella, caramelised onion, mushrooms, feta, and olives) and I make the crust thinner and thinner every week! The same amount of dough that made a dinner plate-sized pizza in the beginning now makes a monster that barely fits on my baking sheet!

toppings

Last night's pizza had mozzarella, cheddar, black olives, thin lemon slices, potato, and onions (these latter three coated in oil to roast), and was sprinkled with rosemary, crushed chillis and black pepper and a little extra drizzle of olive oil. It was SOOOOOOO GOOOOOOD. lemon lemon lemon lemon lemon lemon lemon

This morning's waffles had blueberry sauce, as we're out of maple syrup and it's too cold to leave the house for something so slight ... blueberries, butter and honey.

Does it seem like I am posting more, and posting everything I eat? Yes. Because Sam is in a whole other freakin country and she needs to know the details!!!

weekending & double-doubles

eating a banana-cocoa-kefir popsicle while browsing some Jamie books from mom's fantastic all-alone date at the library

an array: fragrant peppermint pot, library treasures, pizza dough under the seersucker bowl cover, roasted beans in the mason jar (garlicky and spicey, a snack du moment here), fruit, roasted broccoli and corn for the quiche tomorrow, ready to go. I've been trying to precook for Sundays to make it more fully a day of rest, prayer and fun for us - the quiche has been made, and I used duck fat from our last roast instead of butter. It smells good!

sprouts

green apple tibicos

on my way home from my library outing, I went to the grocery store to get milk. I was also pondering pizza toppings for tonight, but this is a small store and the veg selection this week is particularly pitiful. I had just enough cashola to get three lemons for $1.25. Lemons are like sunshine in my mouth. Pizza will have thin lemon slices, onions, potato and olives. anyway - that wasn't enough. I needed MORE LEMON. So I created double-doubles, the groundwork for which is in the picture above...

double-doubles, omnomnom

Double-Doubles (Amy's Chocolate-Lemon Cookies)

Preheat the oven to 350F.
1 c butter, soft
1 c sugar
--> beat, then beat in 2 room temp eggs. mix in 1 tsp lemon flavouring (I use an organic oil blend, sunflower and lemon) and 1 tsp vanilla.
--> mix in 1/2 tsp each salt and baking soda.
--> stir in:
2 1/2 c oats, quick (I have whole rolled oats so I grind them mostly into flour in the blender)
1 c flour - 2 tbsp (I used sprouted spelt)
2 tbsp cocoa powder
with...
1 lemon, finely diced, seeds removed, put in a measuring cup (is about 1/4 c)
chocolate chips, about 3/4 c (to bring the +lemon measure up to 1 c)

Bake about 15 m, let cool on a wire rack.

Happy weekending! What's on your pizza??

Our first dinner inspired by this blog

Simon proofread my introduction last night, and wanted me to take out the part about him liking frozen pizza. I refused, and then I told him how Amy said in her intro post that her family has pizza every Saturday. He went nuts! Now he wants pizza every Saturday!

So I made homemade pizza for the first time in years. I can't stand frozen pizza amymore so I insisted on making it. I used a new recipe and it was AMAZING. I spread fine cornmeal on the bottom of the crust and it was lovely and crispy. I topped mine with caramelised red onion, feta cheese, mushrooms, and kalamata olives, and Simon had pepperoni and mushrooms. We made an extra and used all the toppings on it. They looked better as I went along.

The fruits of my labours:

brown rice pizza

Round one.

See? Very ricey. Very grainy.

Round two - now we're talkin! Before baking.

Round two, after baking - hanging out on my flipped-over cookie sheet so I could slide it easily onto the baking stone once ready.

Slices cooling (COOLING RACK IS ESSENTIAL).

Yeah baby! Holding together say what!!

So what you need to know about this recipe is that ROUND ONE WAS A FAIL. I got that recipe from Vive Le Vegan!, an otherwise excellent book, and I was appalled at how misleading the recipe title was: the crust didn't hold together! It was like a flat rice casserole. It was delicious, but was it pizza? No. You had to eat it with a fork. Duh, you have to be able to eat a pizza cut into slices or wedges with your hands, or it just isn't pizza.

So.

1 1/2 c brown rice
4 c water (yes, this is more than you'd usually use to cook this quantity of rice) (or, for bonus points - presoak your rice in 3 c water for 24-48 hours - it will be bubbly, and the rice will have absorbed about 1 cup of water - so save some of the soaking water as described in that link, then add back in 3 c to cook)
1 tbsp bacon fat or butter
a good pinch of salt
--> Throw it all together in a nice pot with a tightly-fitting lid, bring it to a boil, then reduce to low, cover, and simmer for one hour.
--> After one hour, remove the lid and tilt the pot. There should be no water escaping.
--> While still hot & moist: use your soup hand-blender to blend as much of the rice as you can. What you are actually doing here is creating a flour dough in reverse - normally you grind dry grains into flour, then add water, then knead that and call it a dough, yes? But here we first add the water to the whole grains, cook them, and then grind it into a dough, you follow? So once 50%-80% of the cooked rice has been mushed (the more the better, but it's not necessary to destroy each and every grain), set aside and let cool.
--> Once cool, preheat the oven to 400 F. Add one egg and 1 1/2-2 tsp of mixed herbs (I used oregano and basil), then mix into the rice mixture well.
--> Grease a cookie sheet. Plop on the rice mixture, spread around, then pat and pack down the dough into a crust shape (wet your hands with cold water often or it will stick like heck). Drizzle on some oil, then brush it around with a silicone pastry brush (or use your hands).
--> Bake about 30 minutes, until lightly golden at the edges.
-->There you go! Once you have your crust, spread on some of your favourite sauce and a mix of grated cheeses and whatever else you want, and you are good to go! Bake that another 20-30 minutes or so.
--> IMPORTANT: Once pizza is fully baked, let cool about 5-10 minutes on the pan/on the stone with the oven door open - then cut it into wedges/slices and transfer immediately to a cooling rack. Let it hang out there another 5-10 minutes before serving. Otherwise the moisture that is trying to escape from the bottom of the pizza as steam will be trapped and will make it soggy. This is bad enough with wheat pizza (I mean really, who likes soggy?), but with his crust it's imperative to avoid, because it can make the grains break apart from each other and you'll be left with... a flat rice casserole. Yeah. After you went to all this blending trouble!!

Bon appetit!!

asparagus and bacon pizza

The lighting isn't so sexy here - but the pizza was.
Saturday night's supper after Hyun left - with roasted asparagus and extra olive oil drizzled over it - the tomato sauce just slightly spicey - served with red wine.
Because we love bacon.