Homemade Pizza

Last week the roomslice was craving pizza and while we were debating which Mission pizzeria would provide the shortest wait for a Friday night dinner, we came to the conclusion that we should just make our own.  I've made the dough from scratch before, but this time we opted for the Trader Joe's uncooked packaged variety.

mmm dough. sitting for twenty minutes.

We portioned the dough into quarters to make two pizzas each.  One for dinner and one for lunch at work this week.  Now this is where the fun part starts because you can basically just throw on whatever you've got in the fridge.  I opted to first knead some chopped garlic in my dough for a kick of flavor.  Roommate went for a tomato sauce and I used a hummus guacamole for my base.  If I had had any, I likely would've opted for pesto instead, but we made do with what we had.

Roommate's more traditional pizza on the left.  My noncomformist pizza on the right. 

Toppings: I decided on shrimp, bacon, mushrooms, red onions, tomatoes, feta cheese, cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese.  I was debating adding a fried egg on top at the end, but decided there was already enough going on on my pie.  Tip: I cooked the bacon and the shrimp about three-quarters done before putting them on the pizza so that they wouldn't be raw going into the oven, but wouldn't become overcooked.  This was good because it meant I didn't end up with a pizza dripping with bacon grease, (though we all know I probably wouldn't have minded).

We cooked the pizzas on one of those no-stick cookie mats which still produced a good crust, but no sticking.  Perfect.  About ten minutes at 450 degrees and we were enjoying our home-made pies without the wait or the bill that comes with a restaurant. 

LND: Wake Up and Smell the Bacon

I'm definitely more of an eggs and bacon girl than a milk and cereal girl when it comes to my breakfasts.  So in this blog edition we recount a common brunch fare I make for myself and friends on the weekends.  Breakfast potatoes with a fried egg on top.  Just remember, the key to this meal is bacon grease! Mmmmm.

So first, choose your ingredients for the potatoes wisely.  We opted for garlic, mushrooms, onions (more than were shown), and bacon (obviously).  Now you may want to cook bacon strips to eat on the side, but I'm a fan of chopping the bacon and having it mixed with the potatoes.  My suggestion for you: try both.  The more bacon, the better.

Once the chopping is done, you're ready to start cooking.  Take your skillet and add the bacon, no additional butter/oil/grease required.  Once rendered (fancy term for cooked), remove the bacon to a paper towel, but leave all that delicious and fatty grease behind.

With the bacon set aside ever so gracefully, you can start cooking your other ingredients.  Begin with the garlic and onions.  Once the onions are soft you can add the mushrooms.  It's important to space out your veggies based upon what will take the longest to cook.  Also, with mushrooms, they're full of moisture, but initially they will suck up the cooking liquid and once they're sauteed, they will release it again, so don't worry if your pan suddenly appears too dry.  After a couple minutes of cooking your veggies, you can add the potatoes.  The bacon grease will ensure they get nice and crispy on the outside, but we're concerned about cooking through to the center as well.  So a trick I use is that after about 10-15 minutes of sauteing and crisping I'll add a liquid.  I usually go for white wine or chicken broth.  The liquid will after a few minutes evaporate completely, but not without first helping to poach the potato and promote a softer interior.  I'll add about a quarter cup of liquid at a time.

When the potatoes are cooked to your desired level of doneness, add cheese, herbs, scallions, etc.  Anything you don't want to cook, but want in the potatoes.  This is also the time to add back the bacon.  (We opted for shredded cheddar at this point in the game).  If you want to keep the potatoes heated until you're ready to serve them, the oven is another option for finishing these babies off.  All in all I'd say you're looking at about 15-30 minutes of potato cooking time to achieve your desired level of softness or crunch as the case may be.
Now for the final touch, I add a fried egg on top.  Of course, the egg must be cooked in bacon grease.  Cook it to your liking, but I highly suggest leaving the yolk runny to seep down over your potatoes.  To serve, plate the potatoes, put the egg on top and add whatever else you'd like on the side.  Delicious, full service breakfast on a plate or in a bowl.

Ingredients: Potatoes, Onions, Garlic, Mushrooms, Bacon, Chicken Broth, Cheddar Cheese, Eggs

And to prove we aren't giant grease-eating carnivores, we even sliced some peaches and strawberries to balance out the meal.  (Though I won't comment on how much of this fruit we actually managed to eat).

Tomato and Feta Sandwich

This is what happens when you spend a couple weekends out of town and are going out of town again soon so you don't want to go grocery shopping.  You end up needing to finish the last of the bread, the feta cheese that's been around for far too long (no mold i promise!), and tomatoes are the only thing in your produce drawer.  Wait, I'm the only one this happens to?  So we got a little creative with last night's dinner.  Open faced tomato and cheese sandwich!

Slice the tomatoes, coat with salt, pepper, and dried basil.  Coat a heated saute pan with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Add the tomato slices.  Cook about a minute on one side.  Flip over.  Put the feta cheese on top to heat while you cook for another minute.  Transfer tomatoes to a piece of toast and drizzle remaining balsamic/oil pan drippings over tomatoes/toast.  And there you have it.  A pretty lame dinner.

Salmon with a Zucchini Yogurt Sauce

Served with mashed potatoes and asparagus, both of which also taste good with the yogurt sauce

This has been a favorite recipe of mine for years, though I forget where we first discovered it.  I like it because it's pretty quick and easy with few ingredients but it tastes way more involved.

Ingredients for the sauce: plain yogurt, mayo, zucchini, chives
Ingredients for the fish: salmon fillets, poaching liquid (I usually like white wine and water with tarragon, but this time we used chicken broth and it still tasted great)

Poached fish results in way more tender and juicy fillets than most other methods of cooking.  However, it is still possible to overpoach a fish.  I like to put the salmon in a saute pan that covers about 3/4 - 4/5 of the salmon with the poaching liquid on medium to medium-high heat (you want it to be just under a boil).  Once it appears that most of the fish is cooked slightly, aside from a small portion of the top part (maybe about 5-7 minutes) flip the fillets over.  Cook for the same amount of time on the other side and you're done.

For the sauce, mix equal parts plain yogurt and mayonnaise (we did 8 ounces each and had lots of leftovers).  Then take one small zucchini and dice it and a small handful of chives and dice them.  Add as much of the zucchini and chives as you'd like to the yogurt/mayo (we went for a whole zucchini and maybe 1/4 cup of chives).

And that's it.  Plate the salmon, spoon some sauce over, and make sure to leave the bowl of sauce on the table with dinner, because your guests will definitely be going for more.  (Zucchini garnish optional)

Feta Mashed Potatoes

Yes, an entire post dedicated to my favorite tuber in one of its best forms: the mashed potato.  Again, needing to use up some potatoes and the last of the cream I couldn't quite finish with the risotto, I opted for a dish that never fails me.  Really any potato will do.  I happened to be using small yellow potatoes.

Peel, slice, boil.  Make sure the potatoes are of comparable sizes so they'll cook evenly.  When a fork inserted in the potatoes reveals them to be soft and slightly falling apart, you're ready to drain.  Next comes the good part.  Over very low heat, add your mix-ins.  Start with your butter, then your milk or cream (I used cream last night...it makes for a richer potato) and some salt and pepper (unless you boiled the potatoes in salt water, then be careful not too add to much).  If you're going for cheesy or garlic potatoes, add those now too.  I have a ton of feta cheese in my fridge so that was last night's flavor.  

Now you're ready to start your mashing.  Start by adding less butter/cream than you would think you need so you can add more once you get going.  No one wants runny potatoes, but dry potatoes are easy to salvage.  Once mashed to a desired consistency, you can add other mix-ins.  Spinach, bacon, whatever strikes your fancy.   And there you have it.  I'm not above eating a heaping plate of mashed potatoes with bacon on top as my only dinner item....they're that good. 

Risotto

My apologies for the blogging hiatus, but the holiday weekend found me in a different state...Ohio.  But now that we're back to the daily grind, it's time to use up ingredients that will go bad if they're in my fridge any longer.  So in order to utilize the last of my heavy cream and scallions: risotto.

The key ingredient is the rice.  I always keep arborio rice on hand for impromptu risotto.  The next key ingredient is the broth.  If you have those two things, you're pretty much set for a basic risotto, but obviously more ingredients are preferable. 

Typically you begin by sauteing onions in butter and olive oil and when tender you add the rice to coat in the oil/butter.  I, lacking onions, opted for scallions.  Then once you add the rice comes the fun part, i.e. you can't really leave the kitchen for the next 22 minutes.  If you have an open bottle of white wine, throw in about a quarter of a cup before you switch to broth.  But if this impromptu risotto resulted in no white wine lying around your kitchen you can go straight to the broth, as I did last night.  You'll want to add the broth (I opted for chicken) in batches.  Initially covering the rice, keep the pot over medium heat, stir occasionally, and when the broth is mostly absorbed add more.  You'll keep adding broth for the next 20-25 minutes until the rice wont absorb any more.  (The box will tell you how many cups of rice/broth are needed, but I usually just eyeball it).  At this point I added the shrimp.  (I'm also a fan of salmon or mushroom risotto, but feel free to add any combination of sauteed veggies you like.)  For the finishing touches, add a little heavy whipping cream, and some parmesan cheese.  I also threw in some salt and pepper and basil.  You can obviously adjust the creaminess to your liking, and the more it sits, the more it will continue to thicken and absorb the moisture.

Ingredients: Arborio rice, chicken broth, heavy cream, parmesan cheese, shrimp, scallions, basil, salt and pepper