Blue Pizza

We've been surrounded by cheese ever since we moved to Wisconsin. All kinds of local cheeses and fun flavors. Bacon, horseradish, pesto, sundried tomatoes, chocolate fudge!?! The grocery stores here dedicate entire aisles (yes, plural) - to cheese. I've managed to try a few varieties in the past few months, and have so many more to go.

I picked up some locally made blue cheese this week. I don't have much experience with blue cheeses - its soft and kinda stinky. It also doesn't have much of a shelf life, so I wanted to make sure I use it up soon after I opened it up. Pizza was the first idea that came to mind, although I wasn't sure what flavors would combine well with the strong cheese. Food Network brought me to this interesting recipe. Corn sounded good. Pesto not so much. It still needed a 3rd dimension so I went with caramelized onions with a splash of balsamic vinegar.

Blue Pizza

1 pizza base (store bought, frozen, made-from-scratch - your pick)
2 large onions, sliced in rings
1 can corn
blue cheese, crumbled
red pepper, sliced
salt, pepper, oregano
splash of balsamic vinegar

Pre-heat your oven at 375 degrees
"Roast" your corn in a pan with a bit of olive oil
Start caramelizing the onions. Keep your eyes on this. Very easy to burn. Add some salt to the onions, this will help with the process. Once browned add a splash of the balsamic.
Assemble the pizza with onions on the bottom, corn, peppers and cheese.
Bake and enjoy.

Bon Apetit!

Shrimp & Okra Gumbo

I've made gumbo before. Let me rephrase that. I've made stuff with okra before that I call gumbo. I've never actually eaten or made authentic gumbo though. So I looked up a recipe from Louisiana-man himself, Emeril. I usually don't follow recipes, but I tried to stick to his for the most part (I nixed the sausage).


Mise en place - I rarely do this. I like to chop on the go...


The beginning stages of my roux.



Gumbo on a bed of rice

Savory Zucchini Pancakes

I was 8 years old when I was first introduced to the "tomato omelette". I thought I was in for an eggy concoction that somehow involved tomatoes. I was way off. What it turned out to be was tomatoes and onions in a chickpea flower batter, pan fried like a pancake. No eggs. I found the name to be very deceiving at the time. But now that I think of it, it does look a lot like an omelette, an Indian vegan omelette.

I remembered this the other day as I was scrambling (no pun intended) to figure out what to make for dinner. I found some zucchinis and tomatoes and the rest just came together. Just to make sure there is no ambiguity, I am calling these savory pancakes. I wouldn't want to scar any 8 year olds out there.


Savory Zucchini Pancakes

1 zucchini, julienned (I used my mandolin on a matchstick setting)
1 small onion, diced
1 tomato, diced
garlic, diced or powder
salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, coriander powder
1 tsp baking soda
chickpea flower (also known as besan, widely available in Indian grocery stores)



Mix together the zucchini, onions and tomatoes.
Add in the spices and baking soda. Mix to coat.
Add enough chickpea flower to heavily coat all the veggies.
Add water, little at a time, to make a batter. Should be about pancake-mix consistency.
Ladle in spoonfuls into a hot oiled pan - just like a pancake.
Flip.
Brown.
Serve.

These will go well with a coconut chutney or even ketchup. I made my own hodgepodge sauce to go with it.

Sauce

1/2 tomato
1 clove garlic
1 serano pepper
1/4 yellow pepper
a hand full of bread crumbs (a slice of stale bread will do)
salt, pinch of sugar

Put everything in a blender and blend away.
Serve with your zucchini pancakes.

Bon Apetit!

Mustard & White :: Greens & Beans

I've been trying to eat a lot more vegetables lately. I don't want to go gung-ho and become a vegetarian, but just want to cut down on my meat consumption. I bought mustard greens for the first time, and had no idea what to do with them. All the recipes I found were either side dishes, or braised under and pork butt. I wanted to make a meal out of the mustard. I started pulling things out of the pantry and refrigerator and came up with this.

Mustard green & white beans with cranberries

1 clove garlic, smashed
evoo
1 bunch mustard greens, cleaned and chopped
Chicken stock
1 can of cannellini beans
salt, pepper, chili flakes, cumin, nutmeg
a bunch of cranberries

Heat up oil and add the garlic
Add the greens and let it wilt.
Add a bit of stock to help with the wilting
Dump in the can of beans, after you rinse them, of course.
Season and stir
Add the cranberries and let them soak up some moisture and flavor.
Done

I served my creation over a bed of egg noodle. And topped it off with the sunny side egg. Let the yokes run through the warm greens and noodles. I'm sure this will taste just as good over rice or as is.

Bon Apetit

Chile Rellenos - a la Bobby Flay

In my opinion, Chile Rellenos as stuffed with beef and cheese, then deep fried in lard. Nothing wrong with that. Then I came across Bobby Flay's chile rellenos Throwdown episode on Food Network. The competition were making a vegetarian version stuffed with cactus, mushrooms in a tomato sauce, and not fried! Bobby comes in and whips up an eggplant & manchego beer battered version with a roasted red pepper sauce and a balsamic-honey drizzle. Not only did this sound better, it even looked better than the competition's version. Bobby, however, did lose. I beg to differ. And I'm not even a big fan of Bobby.

I decided to try it out myself. I tried to stick to Bobby Flay's recipe, but made some changes along the way. I switched out the manchego for cheddar. And instead of deep flying it, I dipped it in an egg+beer wash, rolled it in panko and pan fried it in olive oil. I made the sauces exactly according to the recipes though. The whole process was time consuming, but worth it. This might be one of the fanciest looking plates I've ever made. And it tasted the part too.

Kung Pao Tofu

Sushi!