Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘mushrooms’

Sunday Special: Steak for Two

Posted in American Cuisine, tagged , , on March 3, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Today was a rare Sunday for me as I didn’t have any class to teach. So my hubby and I got to sleep in and have a nice relaxing day. He was craving steak, so we decided to buy a grill finally. We ended up with a portable Weber (200 series) from Home Depot and boneless rib eye steaks from Costco.

Now if you’ve read my blog you’ll know I come from a family of meat lovers, particularly steak. Consequently I’ve grown up with some pretty high standards set out by my dad and his ridiculously hot grill. Chris and I didn’t do too shabby tonight but somehow there’s nothing quite like Dad’s steak.

I feel there are some basics to making a great steak.

* Good quality fresh meat
* Time to marinate and time to bring the meat to room temperature
* A really hot grill

Of course, having some really nice side dishes always helps. But if the steak is good it’ll speak for itself! I season steaks really simply. My steps to preparing the meat are:

1. If you cant’t find good quality meat then I recommend using a fork and poking the meat all over on both sides. This helps to tenderize tougher cuts of meat. Some people believe you should never do this as it can let the juices out while others argue it lets the marinade in. Try it and see what you think!
2. Do a dusting (single layer) of garlic salt. It’s all in the wrist. And add plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Drizzle all over with olive oil. You could do this a day in advance.
3. Bring the meat to room temperature about 20-30 minutes before cooking.

The key to a really good steak is a very hot grill. We put ours (gas grill) on high and let it heat for about 15 minutes. For a 1-inch thick steak, Cook for about 3-4 minutes on each side for medium rare, 4-5 for medium. If you have to cook inside, use a cast iron stovetop grill for the marks. Pre-heat the oven to broil for at least 15 minutes. Get the grill screaming hot and grill for 30 seconds per side. Then pop it in the oven (preferably on the cast iron grill) for 2 minutes. Take it out and flip the steak. Put it back in the oven for 2 more minutes. It will be medium rare. Be sure to let it rest for about 5 minutes.

Now for the sides! My favorite vegetable side with steak is asparagus, but we chose to use up some leftover spinach, mushrooms and baguette today.

First up Creamy Garlic Mushrooms:

* Finely chop onion and garlic. Heat a large spoonful of butter and drizzle of olive oil (~tsp) in a medium pot on medium heat. Add the onion first.
* Meanwhile chop the mushrooms into quarters (smaller if your mushrooms are really big). Once the onions start to soften, add the garlic and cook another minute. Add the mushrooms and drizzle more olive oil. Stir for a few minutes. When they’ve softened and started to change color, add a half cup of dry white wine. Simmer for a couple of minutes. Add heavy cream to your liking. Simmer for another couple minutes. Season with kosher salt and fresh black pepper.
* If you’d like the sauce to be a little thicker, mix a teaspoon of corn starch with a teaspoon of water in a small bowl. Then add to the pot and let simmer a minute. This is a great appetizer with toasted bread any day!

For the Parmesan croutons you see in the photo, I used up some leftover baguette. Chop into bite size pieces. Coat with extra virgin olive oil. Dust with garlic salt and black pepper. Arrange onto a baking sheet and sprinkle Parmesan all over. Bake at 400F until toasted (~15 min).

The spinach is super quick as well. It’s optional to add some chopped onion. But basically heat some olive oil in a frying pan. Cut a large clove of peeled garlic in half. Stab it with a fork but be sure you haven’t poked all the way through. Add the spinach to the pan and stir with the garlic fork. The heat will release the garlic oil to add a subtle flavor and avoid any burnt garlic pieces!

Enjoy all of this with a nice Malbec or Zinfandel! Happy eating everyone!

PS Leftover steak is great with a fried egg on top!

20130303-230628.jpg

Read Full Post »

Quick Dinner : Creamy Mushroom Chicken

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on April 25, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

So cooking for one in a kitchen that’s not my own has been quite a challenge recently. You can’t make too much since you can only eat leftovers for so long. And as this is a temporary situation I don’t really want to stock the cupboards as it will just go to waste.. So my challenge has been:

* Be economical
* Be healthy
* Be simple
* Be quick

And it’s really not that easy. Breakfast items are one solution. Eggs are healthy in moderation. Salads and store-bought soups are good too. But they’re not all really cooking. So last weekend I was craving hot white rice and not the microwaveable kind. So I had to come up with something to have with it that didn’t require a lot of different seasonings or several ingredients. Did I mention the fridge is really tiny too?

So my solution is a sort of spin on fast stroganoff – creamy chicken with mushrooms.

Recipe for two (or leftovers for lunch)

1 packet boneless chicken thighs (~5 thighs)
1/2 packet mushrooms
1/2 yellow onion
2-3 garlic cloves
2 beef stock cubes
Salt & pepper
Couple heaping tbsp of either cream, creme fraiche or sour cream
Optional – white wine
Hot white rice (~1.5 cups)

Rinse the rice in a medium saucepan. Strain and repeat again. Add about water about 1.5 times volume of rice. Or add enough water so that when you gently shake the pot to level the rice out, the water comes to the first line on your index finger when you stick it in the middle of the pot to touch the rice. Sounds odd but it works! Bring to the boil, reduce to simmer and cover. Check after about 10-15 minutes. When the water looks like its evaporated, turn off the heat but leave the lid on. Fluff the rice after another 5 minutes. Or you could just buy some ready made rice :-)

Meanwhile chop the onion, garlic and mushrooms. Heat some oil in a large frying pan. Add the onions and cook on medium heat for a minute or so. Add the mushrooms and garlic. Might need to add a bit more oil. Once it’s softened after a couple minutes. Pour into a bowl and set aside.
Chop the chicken into bite size pieces. Add more oil to the pan and add all the chicken. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Cook on one side until the edges are beginning to cook and flip all the pieces over. Cook for another couple minutes. Strain some of the fat off if you’d like.
Add the mushrooms back in. Sprinkle the stock cubes over and pour about 1/2 cup of water (preferably hot water). Gently stir to dissolve the stock cubes. Let this summer for a minute. Taste and season accordingly. If you’d like a lot of sauce then add more water but let it reduce again to thicken. After another minute add the cream. Taste and season again. Let it heat through another minute or so and serve on top of hot steaming rice!

20120425-234336.jpg

Read Full Post »

When It’s Cold Outside.. Soups Galore!

Posted in Healthy Foods, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , on November 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

As the autumn season kicks into full swing, there’s nothing better than a bowl of warm, hearty soup! My husband and I have also been really conscious that the holidays are not far off and that cozy, hearty MEALS are going to be in abundance. So not only are soups comfy, they’re (relatively) healthy! What really elevates a soup from bland to brilliant is a good stock and good seasoning. It also helps to use in season vegetables, so that they’re bursting with flavor. I found a really cool website that tells you what’s at their best and in season from vegetables to meat and seafood (for the UK) : eat the seasons (dot) com. And at their best right now are butternut squash, parsnip and leeks (to name a few). Try them as a soup or even as a veggie pasta bake (or lasagna if you have the sheets).

Soups are so incredibly easy to make and a great way to get a non-vegetable lover to get their veggies in. To make them even easier, I highly recommend investing in a hand blender. It is SO handy for soups, pasta sauces, mashed potatoes, potato or parsnip puree, sauces, etc. I use a Philips Hand Blender like this one you can buy on Amazon.co.uk. They’ve been using this exact one on Masterchef The Professionals this week (for those unfamiliar with this UK show, they’ve brought it to the States with Gordan Ramsey.. check it out!). Lots of sauces and bisques being made with it!

I make all my soups with chicken stock, but they can easily be substituted for vegetable stock. I also try to use homemade chicken stock whenever possible. Click on the SOUP link below for a recipe. I usually separate my stock into medium sized plastic containers and freeze for perfect soup-for-two portions. They can keep for a couple months in the freezer but only a couple days in the fridge.

So without further ado, here’s my week’s worth of soups! I started it off with a chicken chowder which helped me make enough stock to use all week! Click here for all the SOUP recipes.

  1. Chicken, Corn and Ham Chowder
  2. Roasted (Bell) Pepper, Tomato and Feta Soup with mint coulis garnish
  3. Classic Cream of Broccoli
  4. Classic Cream of Mushroom
  5. Roasted Butternut Squash, Fennel and Carrot Soup with coriander/cilantro garnish
  6. Roasted Parsnip, Carrot, Coriander/cilantro and Curry Soup with bacon garnish

Making some 'chowda' !

Hearty chicken, corn and ham chowder

When roasting changes everything..

Roasted Pepper, Tomato & Feta Soup

Classic Cream of Broccoli Soup

Classic Cream of Mushroom Soup with Garlic Parmesan Toast

Roasted butternut squash, fennel & carrot soup

Carrot, Parsnip, Coriander/Cilantro, Curry Soup with Bacon Garnish

Read Full Post »

Healthy Summer Eating

Posted in Asian Cuisine, Healthy Foods, tagged , , , , on June 20, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

After writing a couple posts on how I’ve been splurging post diet, I thought it would be a good idea to go back to my overall objective – maintaining a healthy lifestyle. My goal wasn’t only to just lose weight for the wedding, but to get Chris and I into the habit of eating a healthy, balanced and still delicious diet. We are clearly not health ‘fanatics’ nor are we completely gluttonous. We enjoy food and don’t want to deprive ourselves. But we also don’t want to have to spend lots just to be healthy. This is always the challenge as fresh food just doesn’t come cheap. I also struggle with the huge difference in food prices from the US to the UK. Meat and fresh fruit in particular are much more expensive here. But it really helps to compare prices and to try and not skimp too much on quality without breaking the bank. Buying in bulk is always a good idea but it does mean poor Chris has a lot of dishes with cherry tomatoes, coriander, onion and sausages. I love my local market where I can get fruit, vegetables, ground beef (mince) and sausages for a lot cheaper than the supermarket. Just make sure you have a decent sized freezer (especially when you’re cooking for just the two of you!). Or make sure you have family near by who like your cooking :-)

Right – so to my point – healthy eating. In my weekly Epicurious.com email, I noticed a link for Healthy Summer Eating. And to my delight, they have several menu ideas for an entire day adding up to 1,500 calories. The recipe ideas sound good and don’t have ingredients that are difficult to come by. There are some key ingredients that I love and swore by for my wedding weight loss : eggs (cooked all ways), avocados/guacamole, black beans, string cheese or Laughing Cow Low Fat Cheese, tortilla wraps, Asian rice cracker mix with wasabi peas, pita chips and of course fruit.  Everyone has their preferences but I know that, for me at least, I can’t completely deprive myself or else I’ll end up stuffing myself even more! Hence why I had to replace the really good cheeses with low fat string cheeses or low fat cream cheese. I didn’t skimp on avocados because your body still needs fat and avocados are a ‘good fat’. Other good fats include nuts (unsalted) and olive oil (prefer extra virgin). By no means am I a nutritionist, nor a diet expert though. Here’s another good Epicurious.com article though comparing trendy diets. Here are a couple go to healthy snacks for me:

  • Wheat toast with 1/2 avocado sliced, extra virgin olive oil drizzled, pinch sea/rock salt, red chilli flakes (previous post)
  • Wheat tortilla, low fat garlic & herb cream cheese, turkey deli meat, alfalfa sprouts or lettuce
  • Banana, ice, milk, vanilla protein smoothie
  • Low fat greek yogurt, sunflower seeds, drizzle honey, blueberries
  • Asian rice crackers, Triscuit Thin Crisps, hard boiled eggs (not all together of course!)

I’ve got to finish this up but thought I’d leave with a pretty healthy recipe – Asian Lettuce Wraps. This can be made healthier by using ground turkey or even ‘soy meat’, but I find the best flavor for this dish comes from ground pork. There are a ton of recipes out there for lettuce wraps. I looked through several of them but ultimately used whatever I could find in my cupboard. And I think they were pretty successful as Chris couldn’t stop moaning and made sure I could remember how I made it so we could have them again! For texture, roasted peanuts are always a great addition or canned water chestnuts. If you’re worried it might not be filling enough, you can serve some fried rice on the side (just rice, butter, shallots, garlic, soy sauce) or a cold rice noodle salad with red bell peppers and green/spring onion (with rice vinegar, fish sauce, chilli dressing).

Asian Pork Lettuce Wraps

Below is another version I’ve made before – lemongrass beef with rice noodles on the side in a chilli fish sauce dressing. Tasty but I definitely prefer using ground meat versus strips.

Lemongrass Beef Lettuce Wraps

And if all else fails – grill, grill, grill! It is summer after all!

Grilled Eggplant with Balsamic, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Basil & Feta

Read Full Post »

Making the most of my ‘thyme’

Posted in British Cuisine, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Baby Matthew!

This past weekend Chris and I became uncle and auntie again! Baby Matthew joined us last Friday and the family all got together at Chris’ parents house for a Sunday roast. Chris made a delicious roast chicken with thyme butter and fresh orange juice with sage and onion stuffing. I think Americans don’t do this often enough. It’s not like it’s overly complex. Just keep an eye on it, occasionally baste it with its juices and fat and make sure you don’t over cook it. Before it was done, he even added cocktail sausages around the baking tray. It was served up with gravy, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, carrots, roast parsnips, broccoli and cheesy leeks. Absolutely delicious! And it’s actually a pretty healthy meal too!

There was quite a bit of leftover chicken, so naturally I thought of making a chicken pie. It’s been a bit of a cold June here, and savory pies are always comforting – not to mention incredibly easy to make. If you have leftover roast chicken and have a decently stocked kitchen with butter, flour, milk and thyme, then all you really need is ready-made puff pastry. In this case, I had some leftover puff pastry from making my first fish pie last week. Also, I always have dried thyme and butter and flour and milk. But for our weekly grocery shop, I got lucky and found in the marked down section – leeks, thyme and lardons. To make the dish a bit heartier I thought I’d add in some white button mushrooms as they’re not pricey anyways. Click here for my Chicken and Leek Pie.

Chicken, leek, mushroom and bacon pie filling

However, as I decided I didn’t have the right amount of pastry for the baking dishes I have, I improvised and use the filling to make a pasta dish instead. I happened to have some radiatori pasta shapes which look like ‘radiators’. Apparently they’re great for thicker sauces, so a great combination with my chicken pie filling. I saved a bit of the pasta water to thin out the filling so it was more of a sauce. All in all a success! And Chris has happily taken it to work for leftovers lunch too :-)

Chicken pie pasta!

Now what I didn’t mention in my recipe is that the butter I used to cook the leeks in was some leftover tarragon butter. I actually had a really long block of tarragon butter I had frozen ages ago, and I finally used it when I made the fish pie. Tarragon is an incredibly fragrant and flavorful herb. It goes bad really quickly, so I took some advice from one of my chef instructors last year @ LCB and made tarragon butter.

Tarragon

All I did was roughly chop it and combine it with room temperature butter. Spread some plastic wrap onto your counter and spoon the butter on in a row. Start folding the plastic over it and then twist the ends. Basically you want a log shape. If you hold both twisted ends at the same time, roll the log back and forth and it’ll tighten up. Then pop it in the freezer to firm up and use as desired! I’m actually going to do the same with the extra thyme that I bought for the chicken pie this week!

In case anyone is interested, below are pictures for the fish pie I made. It was the first time I’ve ever even eaten fish pie! As an American, the concept of fish pie was a bit strange to me. I had this thought that the seafood would turn out rubbery and the sauce bland. But since we had a ton of fish that needed to be used. I thought I’d take a stab at it. I haven’t written the recipe but it’s basically the same concept of the chicken pie. The ingredients can vary but I used: plain white fish, bit of smoked haddock, cooked crayfish and baby shrimp, leeks, asparagus and tarragon butter. A couple of differences in cooking method include:

  • Poach your fish in the milk and set the milk aside for the sauce.
  • You don’t need to mix the seafood with the sauce. Once poached, add the bite-sized fish pieces, crayfish and shrimp into the baking tray. Then just pour the sauce over.
  • I blanched the asparagus before adding it to the sauce. I only used asparagus as it was marked down at the market. But a more common vegetable would be peas. Just toss frozen peas straight into the sauce.

(CLICK FOR MORE…)

Read Full Post »

MUSHROOM THREE WAYS

Posted in Italian Cuisine, Reducing Waste, Vietnamese Cuisine, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 8, 2010 | 1 Comment »

At my Chesham high street market, white button mushrooms are sold in abundance. However, when you buy a kilo you have to find creative ways to make meals for two. I absolutely love mushrooms. They’re so hearty and (I think) a great option for a vegetarian weeknight dinner. So when I have a lot of them, I usually prefer to make them the star. Plus it’s an affordable replacement for meat! All three ways are easy to make with minimal ingredients.

There are various tips when working with mushrooms. As you know they’re mostly water which is why it’s usually advised not to wash them with water. Rather, it’s better to brush them with a damp paper (kitchen) towel. If you’re making a simple side dish of sautéed mushrooms, then don’t add salt until after they’ve colored otherwise the salt will draw out the water and they’ll be soggy. But if you’re making duxelle (often made for beef wellington), then it’s okay to wash the mushrooms with water as you’ll be cooking them until the water is evaporated anyway.

Right, first up is mushroom stroganoff. It’s more economical than beef stroganoff and can still have loads of flavor if made with good beef stock. The dish was originally created by a French cook employed by a member of the Russian Stroganov family who was raised by Peter the Great. Although there are many recipes out there, according to the Larousse Gastronomique (2009 Edition), beef stroganoff is

“thin strips of beef, seasoned with salt, pepper and paprika…sautéed over a brisk heat, then coated with a sauce made by deglazing the pan juices with white wine, cream and thickened veal stock, to which onions sautéed in butter have been added. The dish is served with pilaf rice and sautéed mushrooms”

Here’s a good recipe for mushroom stroganoff on the British Good Food Channel. In this recipe, both onions and leeks are used. To make it completely vegetarian you can go with vegetable stock but if it’s not necessary I recommend beef stock instead. Some recipes call for crème fraiche but I personally prefer sour cream. Also, this recipe uses vodka instead of wine. Unfortunately I didn’t have either available in the kitchen, but it was still tasty! In the end it’s a super fast dish and great for leftovers as well.

Mushroom Stroganoff with Rice

(CLICK FOR MORE…)

Read Full Post »

EAT LIGHT, FEEL LIGHT?

Posted in American Cuisine, Healthy Foods, tagged , , , , , , , on April 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

After my over indulgent week of eating out in New York, I was excited to come home and be able to cook for myself. I had felt so bloated and weighed down by the richness of it all. So I was looking forward to healthier eating habits.

Over the past couple months (other than the occasional foodie trip), I have been trying to change my entire approach to food. It’s been a slow, gradual process, but I have a few goals I’m working on:

  • Minimize the salt added to home cooked meals.
  • Try to consume food made from fresh ingredients.
  • Minimize my favorite, high-fat indulgences like pâté, sausages, creamy pasta sauces, anything fried.
  • Add more whole grains in moderate quantities.
  • Eat fruit.
  • Do all of this economically.

The last point makes all of this difficult at times, but I’ve been fortunate to have my Mom on board while I’m living at home. I’m also particularly fortunate that the produce in Arizona is INSANELY cheap compared to the cities I’ve lived in (NY, LA, London). You can buy a large container of strawberries, on sale, for $1. And not just produce, meat and eggs are also much much cheaper. Sometimes chicken will be on sale for less than $1 per pound! I feel like I’m robbing these supermarkets, but there’s major competition in this region so they’re always offering deals! Aside from the large supermarket chain (Fry’s, Basha’s, Safeway), there are also gourmet or specialty stores like AJ’s, Sprouts or the more well-known Trader Joe’s (I’m very sad this isn’t in the UK by the way!). Fresh & Easy (owned by Tesco from the UK) has also been trying to break into this area, but doesn’t seem to be as popular. But since I’m a Tesco loyalist, I do love some of their products like their whole wheat pizza dough and ready-made meals.

So to meet some of my goals, I’ve been experimenting with different ingredients. Last week, I ate/cooked quinoa for the first time. This was really exciting since I’ve heard so many great things about this grain. It was strange though to cook something I had never eaten or seen in person. But, like a good girl, I googled it. :-) I was relieved to discover that it cooks just like rice (although I had guessed it would be more like cous cous).

So ever since I ate that Warm Farro Salad in Brooklyn (at Al Di La), I had been craaaving it. So I decided I would try to recreate it with the quinoa. I had some leftover grilled portobellos, red onion and extra arugula. Even though they weren’t the exact same ingredients as the Farro Salad, the main ingredients I had been craving were the goat cheese and the grains. So I chopped up some garlic and heated them up with the red onion and olive oil in a small pot. Then I added the quinoa and let it cook a little (as if it were risotto). Then added water and let it boil. I have to confess I struggled a little on this one. The quinoa soaked up the water SO fast, that I kept adding more and more. So from my research I knew that quinoa would expand a lot when cooked, so I wasn’t concerned when I saw how small the raw grains were. But once I started cooking it, I started to get a little worried when they didn’t really get very big. For some reason, I had this idea in my head that all the photos I had seen of quinoa looked much bigger than what I had in front of me. But when I look for more pictures now, I think mine turned out alright? Since no one in my family has ever eaten quinoa either, I didn’t have anyone to tell me. So please let me know if it looks okay!?

After it tasted like it was done, I put it aside to cool. I reheated my grilled portobellos and put to the side as well. Then I made a small portion of light red wine vinaigrette with olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, kosher salt and black pepper. Then I tossed it all together. I squeezed a little more fresh lemon juice and added the arugula. The goat cheese was added once it was served onto the plate and voila! Warm quinoa salad with grilled Portobello mushrooms, red onion, arugula and goat cheese in a red wine lemon vinaigrette! And to my delight, it turned out delicious! The warm temperature of the quinoa melted the goat cheese and allowed it to blend with each bite. The portobellos added earthiness and the arugula added a nice peppery accent. All in all a success. But next time around, I want to try the butternut squash like in the Farro Salad and I’ll probably go lighter on the red onion (they were large slices because they had been grilled). I would also like to try it with feta or home-made ricotta some time.

(CLICK FOR MORE…)

Read Full Post »

NY TRIP (PART 1) : SUPERMARKET ENVY

Posted in General Food Topics, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 25, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Sunset on the Hudson with Adi

This past week or so, I made a much-anticipated return trip to New York to meet up with my boyfriend, many of my old friends from school and work, and even my good friend Bryce who drove down from Boston. Now because it’s me – all of my friends knew to prepare for a little drinking, a little dancing but most importantly a schedule organized entirely around where, when and with whom I would be eating. :-)  

Over seven days, I walked all over NY, ate, drank and had great conversation with great friends. I don’t know how I’m really going to capture how wonderful (and long overdue) this trip was, but I’ll get there slowly. 

First up – supermarket envy. 

The first two days of my trip I spent with my dear friend Adi whom I’ve known now for almost 15 years (believe it or not). Adi is currently living in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn where I stayed with her the first two days of my trip. I’m embarrassed to say that in the year I lived in Manhattan (from ’06 to ’07), I only ventured into Brooklyn once and it wasn’t a memorable trip.  But this time I couldn’t believe what I saw – Park Slope is absolutely gorgeous! Of course, it didn’t hurt that the day I landed was the first day of great weather NY has had in awhile. I have to say, if I ever move back to NY, I might have to live in Park Slope! 

So – back to the point – Adi and I had a foodie-filled two days and one night from Park Slope to Chelsea to West Village. I’ll get to the eating bits in the next post. I wanted to start off with something Adi said only I would have – supermarket envy.

First stop – Union Market in Park Slope.   

The minute I walked into this place I gasped at the gorgeous display of fresh fruits ranging from the usual bananas and oranges to mini pineapple and plantains. I literally just turned my head to the left and another gasp came out when I saw that they sold heirloom tomatoes – big, giant ones. This was the first time I had ever seen them being sold before which probably doesn’t say very much about the super markets I go to. But nonetheless I was very impressed by their size and the variety of colors. There seemed to be a lot of mini-sized vegetables which I am always thrilled about (such as cauliflower and artichoke). 

   

 

(CLICK FOR MORE…)

Read Full Post »

My First Homemade Pizza

Posted in Italian Cuisine, tagged , , , , , on February 10, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

In celebration of Naples earning the right to label its pizza as “Traditional Specialty Guaranteed” (an EU trademark), I thought I’d give it a shot at making my own. Coincidentally, I’ve also started reading Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. In the last section I read she went to Naples and gave a delicious description of eating pizza there, and it made my mouth water. Now I set out with the best intentions – thinking oh I’ll make a healthy pizza! I even bought whole wheat pizza dough from Fresh & Easy!

But let’s face it – pizza is not the same without cheese. And cheese isn’t exactly the healthiest thing to eat (if you love it as much as I do). And if you’re gonna make a pizza, I feel like you’re really cheating yourself if you go for fat-free which doesn’t have much flavor. So I splurged on the cheese and went healthy on the dough :-)

My brother’s instructions (he’s a chef) for preparing the dough was to first knead the dough on a surface dusted with flour. And because I wanted thin crust, he said to pick it up by my finger tips and hold the dough by the edge and kind of rotate it while thinning the edges. Somehow I completely forgot this advice and just went straight for kneading the middle with my knuckles. But I was having too much fun to worry about not eating thin crust – so I just went with it! My main concern was that it would fit perfectly in the round pizza dish I was using.

Anywho – my main objective here is to share my yummy pictures with all of you and hope it’ll inspire some of you to go out and make some pizza for yourself!

Ingredients

  • Pizza dough from Fresh & Easy (not sure what other groceries sell it these days)

** You could always be brave and make your own! I found an Alton Brown recipe

  • Pizza sauce

** I was feeling a bit lazy and didn’t have a lot of time to put into my pizza sadly, so I cheated and just bought it at Fresh & Easy since it was right next to the dough. But you could easily make a simple marinara, add oregano, let cool and blend.

  • Mozzarella cheese of course!

** I added some ‘Habanero cheese’ that was on sale at the store the other day, so added it in for a little kick!

  • Mushrooms
  • Black olives
  • Sweet onions

** At the last minute I decided to caramelize these a little with balsamic vinegar.

  • Sausage meat

** Any sausage will do really or any meat you’d like. I browned it in a pan with a little bit of chili flakes before putting it on the pizza.

(CLICK FOR MORE…)

Read Full Post »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.