Tag Archives: dinner

Sunny Side Up Pizza With Potatoes and Eggs

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Making pizza is often an improvisational affair at our house.  There are tried-and-true combinations that we like, sure, but often we decide to get a pizza crust going before we check out what’s in the fridge.  One of our usual favorites is a potato pizza, and if you think that doesn’t sound delicious, please go straight to Tom Douglas’s Serious Pie and then stand corrected.  (If you don’t like it, which I believe to be impossible, you’ll still have lots of other amazing options to choose from.  Pro tip: go with a crowd at happy hour when they make mini pizzas so you can try them all.)

This post is not about potato pizza, however.  Because after J roasted a pound of thinly-sliced fingerling potatoes until nearly crisp, I made the mistake of piling them within the children’s reach, where the heap of “chips” was quickly decimated.  So I’ll give you a recipe for potato pizza another time.

Left with only a handful of potatoes, it was back to the fridge, and this Sunny Side Up Pizza was born.  Crank your oven as hot as it goes and put in a pizza stone if you have one.  Layer your thin pizza crust (recipe here if you want one) with thinly-sliced potatoes (first roasted at 425 until just beginning to crisp) and a sprinkling of mozzarella. Pile on chunks of goat cheese and a big handful of rinsed capers.  We crumbled on some smoked salmon, but you could skip that step and just go with a big sprinkle of salt over the whole pizza if you prefer.  Finally, we broke two eggs over the pizza, but they were so good that we later wished we’d used four.  Getting the eggs perfect will depend on your oven temperature and how thin you stretched your crust (because that has to cook through, too), so you might need to experiment a little.  Baked in our oven at 550 for almost 6 minutes, the whites were set and the yolks were lusciously runny, perfect for wiping up with the last piece of pizza crust.

We served the pizza with a simple green salad with Creamy Pear Vinaigrette and bowls of leftover Cauliflower Soup–which, like most soups, was even better after a day in the fridge.

White Winter Dinner: Cauliflower Soup and Pizza Bianca

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The children in my house–those who are old enough to exercise free will, anyway–have developed a color-based hierarchy to determine the acceptability of vegetables.   Orange: yes! Green: probably not!  Yellow: yes!  Red: no way unless it’s pizza sauce! Or something like that.  It’s hard to keep track.  I thought this was ridiculous until I stopped and considered my own palate’s prejudices, which usually demand a variety of colors to find a meal delicious.

Digging through the fridge for tonight’s dinner, though, a single-hued meal started to take shape in my mind.  Maybe all the white, white snow was getting to me.  Cauliflower soup.  A a pale celery salad.  A garlicky white pizza.  I was going to do it.  I got right up to the point of piling on pizza toppings when my resolve failed me and I had to saute a pile of chard and spinach (what is a meal without green?!) and then, having already jumped off the white-meal rails, I crumbled a chunk of smoked salmon over the half the pizza as well and breathed a sigh of relief.  A little color makes the meal, I say.

First, the creamy, delicate, 5-ingredient (counting water and salt!) Cauliflower Soup: Sweat half a thinly-sliced onion in 3 Tb. olive oil for 15 mins without letting it brown, then add a broken-up head of cauliflower, a tsp. of salt and 1/2 c. water.  Cover and cook 15 mins, then uncover, add 4 1/2 c. hot water, more salt to taste, and simmer uncovered 20 mins.  Puree and let stand 20 mins. to thicken; add 1/2 c. or more additional water to thin the soup if desired as you reheat it, season to taste with more salt, and garnish each bowl with cracked pepper and/or a swirl of olive oil.  The recipe is from Food52, a website that I find myself increasingly enjoying.  Is this where all the Gourmet Magazine readers have gone?

While the soup is simmering, make a Spicy Garlic Oil by mixing 2 Tbsp. olive oil with a big minced clove of garlic and 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes.

Then get your pizza crust started.  Our go-to recipe is from Annie Summerville’s Fields of Greens and makes way more than you need for one pizza, so halve these amounts if you don’t want a pizza crust to use later in the week (you can also freeze it).  Or, hey, use your favorite recipe or a purchased crust.  If you’re doing as I did, whisk 1 Tbsp. yeast into 3/4 c. warm water and set aside.  In the bowl of your KitchenAid, combine 3/4 c. milk, 1/4 c. olive oil, 1 tsp. salt, and a couple Tbsps. each rye flour and fine cornmeal (if you have either handy) for texture.  Stir in your now-foamy yeast mixture then put in the dough hook and incorporate 3 1/2 c. flour (you can use some whole wheat, if you like; we like to use at least part Italian 00 flour for the incredible texture it gives the dough).  Anyhoo, let your machine knead it into a nice ball (add more flour if it is too sticky), then oil the bowl, roll your dough ball around in it, and let it rest covered while you get your toppings ready.

Preheat your oven as hot as it goes, and put your pizza stone in if you have one.  For the Pizza Bianca you can roll the dough nice and thin because your first layer is cheese rather than sauce, which will protect the dough from getting soggy.  So roll or stretch out a nice big thin crust onto a piece of parchment paper, which will make moving it easier later, and layer on shredded mozzarella, chunks of goat cheese, some winter greens sauteed with garlic until fairly dry, and some hot-smoked salmon if you are inclined that way.  Then brush the crust of the pizza with some of the spicy garlic oil (this great tip came from a recipe on Epicurious, although I had made a very similar pizza many times before) and scoop most of the rest of it over the pizza.  Slide pizza, parchment paper and all, onto a pan or straight onto your pizza stone and bake until the bottom is crisp, about 7-9 minutes if the crust is thin. When it comes out of the oven, brush the crust again with the remaining garlic oil.

Serve the soup and pizza with a crisp salad; ours tonight was celery and blue cheese but I think this meal would also be great with another of my favorite winter salads: just celery, a fennel bulb and/or a sweet pepper, and an apple, all sliced paper thin, with the juice from the apple as the only dressing.

Remembering Summer: Fish Taco Spread for a Snowy Day

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It’s charming to be cooped up by a rare Seattle snowfall.  For about three hours.  Snowball fight, check.  Snowman, check.  Snowy tromp through the neighborhood, check.  Hot chocolate.  Um, is the snow starting to melt yet?

Apparently not.  Apparently there is more coming.  It’s gorgeous, of course, and I’m sure we’ll have more fun family adventures in the snow tomorrow–but for tonight we channeled summer, drank beer with friends, and ate fish tacos.

This Fish Taco Spread isn’t the kind of authentic that will transport you to a San Diego beach, but it hits the spot in mid-winter in Seattle.

First, start your quick-pickled onions and hot peppers: combine a small, thinly-sliced red onion with strips of jalapeno in a non-reactive pot and add 1 c. seasoned rice vinegar, the juice of half a lime, and a tsp. of salt.  Bring to a bare simmer and stir for a minute, then remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.

Make a lime crema by combining equal parts sour cream and mayonnaise with a big pinch of salt; zest in a lime and then thin the mixture with lime juice to taste.

Prepare your fish (we used a couple of cod fillets) by making a rub of 1 tsp. oregano, 2 tsp. cumin, 1 Tbsp. chili powder, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. black pepper, and a Tbsp. or more of brown sugar.  Rub the fish with oil and then pat the spice mixture all over it.  Bake at 400 until the fish flakes (this will depend on the thickness of your fish); turn on the broiler for a minute or two at the end to caramelize the spice mix if it isn’t already bubbling.

Heat plenty of corn tortillas (you can toss them in the oven with the fish for a few minutes) and serve them wrapped in a towel with the fish, pickled onions, crema, grated cheese, shredded cabbage, cilantro, and a good salsa or two.  Everyone grabs a couple tortillas, breaks off chunks of fish, and adorns their own plate of fish tacos.

 

Winter Vegetarian Chili

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The chili purists bicker about beans, no beans, veggies, no veggies, whatever.  This recipe is not for them.  They’d flip out over this one. It’s smoky, meaty, tomato-y, all the things a good chili should be–but it’s vegetarian.

This is a secret, shh, but this chili has wheat berries* in it.  I know, it’s crazy.  But they’re great.  They are combined with black beans to give the chili texture and rib-sticking density, while the flavor is anchored by chipotles and cumin and elevated by lime and cilantro at the end.  This is my go-to winter chili.

To make this Winter Vegetarian Chili, start by cooking about a cup of wheat berries in water to cover by an inch and a teaspoon of salt.  (Cooked wheat berries freeze well, though, so why not make more while you’re at it?)  Bring them to a boil and simmer for about an hour, until pleasantly chewy.  Meanwhile, get your chili going: saute a chopped onion with a chopped red pepper for a few minutes, then add 5 minced cloves of garlic, 1 tsp. oregano and 2 tsp. each of chili powder and cumin.  Once the spices start to get toasty, stir in 1-2 tsp. of pureed chipotles until fragrant (I buy canned chipotles in adobo and puree the whole can with the adobo sauce; the puree keeps in the fridge forever, as far as I can tell).  Then add a big can of chopped tomatoes, 3-4 c. of cooked or canned black beans (with some of their liquid, if you cooked them yourself), some of the liquid from the cooked wheat berries, a Tbsp. of brown sugar and salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer for a while and then add your drained cooked wheat berries and cook for a few minutes longer.  Squeeze in a whole lime at the end.  I first found this recipe in Eating Well, which basically means it’s health food.  But don’t let that stop you from topping your bowl with some grated cheese and sour cream in addition to avocado, a lime wedge and cilantro.  And you can never go wrong with a chunk of corn bread.

*What’s a wheat berry, you ask?  It’s the whole wheat kernel, it looks a little like brown rice, and it cooks up into a nutty, chewy, delicious little bite of good-for-you-whole-grain.  Wheat berries make great salads, I’ll tell you about that another time.  And when you’re shopping for them, pick hard red wheat berries instead of soft white ones–but if white wheat berries are all you have, don’t worry, they’ll work just fine.

Falafel For Dinner

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When I was growing up, our family had a dance that we did on falafel-for-dinner nights.  It was called the “falafel-for-dinner dance.”  Weird, huh?  Other than that we were a pretty normal family.  But moving on…

The thing that matters in a spread like this is the condiments.  Get your falafel going first–we baked them from frozen but you can also pan-fry or bake them from a mix.  Or, you know, you could make them from scratch, but that’s not how we roll these days.  Tonight, our Falafel Platter included sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, crisp lettuce leaves, hummus, ajvar (roasted red pepper and eggplant spread), olives, greek yogurt mixed with crumbled feta, pita bread, and, of course, sweet chili sauce.

The joy of eating like this is in assembling each perfect bite–or one big sloppy sandwich with a bit of everything.  I like using the lettuce leaves as wraps and the cucumber slices to scoop up extra hummus.  (The leftover tomatoes and cukes went into the remaining yogurt/feta mix to be eaten as a salad tomorrow.)

As you can imagine, this meal demanded a cold beer.  Luckily we filled our growlers with Mannys at Georgetown Brewing Company just today!

 

Zippy Noodle Curry with Tofu, Sweet Potatoes and Chard

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J and I spent a week taking cooking classes in Chiang Mai once when we were kicking around Thailand for a few months.  (We also spent a week taking foot massage classes in Bangkok.  Both were pretty nice weeks.)  We love Thai food and occasionally dig into the freezer and pantry to bring the scents and flavors of Thai cooking into our home.

One of my favorite foods in Thailand was a rich, creamy noodle curry called khao soi.  This is not a recipe for khao soi.  You should definitely get yourself a bowl if you find yourself in Chiang Mai, though.  THIS is a very simple recipe based on the Big Curry Noodle Pot recipe in Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Cooking.

In Zippy Noodle Curry with Tofu, Sweet Potatoes and Chard, “zippy” refers to both the flavors and the speed of making the dish.  (I’m funny, huh?)  Saute an onion, 1 big cubed sweet potato (I steamed mine first, but I think it was unnecessary) and some chopped garlic in a glob of heavenly-smelling coconut oil with 1-2 Tbsp. red or yellow curry paste.  Add a cubed block of extra-firm tofu and a few handfuls of chard leaves sliced to ribbons and stir to coat.  Pour in 2 c. veggie stock, 1 can of lite coconut milk, 2 tsp. turmeric, 2 Tbsp. soy sauce, and 1 Tbsp. sugar and simmer until the sweet potatoes are soft.  Meanwhile, cook 8 oz. fresh egg noodles in a separate pot.  Add cooked noodles and the juice of a lime to the curry.  Garnish with chopped cilantro, green onions and peanuts, and serve with chopsticks and a spoon.  Thai chile flakes, soy and/or fish sauce, and lime wedges at the table will let everyone perfect the dish according to their own taste.

Spinach-Mushroom-Swiss Egg White Frittata and Lentil Soup with Rosemary

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As a mostly-vegetarian (and especially during this time in my life when I’m nursing babies), I find that one of my challenges is getting enough protein without overdoing it in the fat/calorie department.  (Not that I’m OPPOSED to overdoing it in the fat/calorie department–but, you know, moderation in all…nah, scratch that.)  So anyway, I am tentatively experimenting with things that I don’t normally consider food, like egg whites from a carton–which I can only bear to do because our chickens have stopped laying for the winter–and low-fat cheeses.  So if that sounds terrible to you, stop right here and skip to the soup below.  But if you’re looking for a way to add protein to your diet and/or cut back on fat and calories, this frittata isn’t half bad.

A Spinach-Mushroom-Swiss Egg White Frittata could really have any combination of veggies and cheese, of course, but here’s what I did: Cook nearly a pound of mushrooms like crazy over high heat in a little olive oil until they release their liquid and it evaporates and they get nice and brown. Then and only then, add a pinch of salt, then some handfuls of spinach, then another pinch of salt.  When the spinach wilts, take the pan off the heat and scoop the veggies into your waiting bowl of 16 oz. egg whites beaten with 4 whole eggs, more salt, a splash of water and 4 shredded slices of lite Jarlsberg cheese.  Return your pan to a medium-low burner, wipe it out and add a little more olive oil, and pour in the whole mixture.  Once the edges of the frittata have set, I like to transfer the pan to a hot oven to finish baking, then brown the top by flipping on the broiler for a well-supervised minute or two.  This was lunch today on a slice of toast with a drizzle of lemony, salty harissa oil–and it will be breakfast for the rest of the week.

To recover from my slight queasiness over the very idea of low-fat cheese, I needed a good honest lentil soup for dinner.  This is a pure, clean recipe, courtesy of Alice Waters from her book In The Green Kitchen.  Of course, I doubled the recipe, because you know how I feel about soup–and about leftovers.  Both divine.

Lentil Soup with Rosemary: Finely dice 2 small onions, 4 ribs of celery, and 4 carrots.  Sautee with a tsp. salt until the onion is lightly browned, then add 6 big cloves of chopped garlic and the chopped-up leaves of a big branch of rosemary.  When these additions become fragrant after a minute or two, add 2 c. sorted and rinsed tiny black or French green lentils,  3 1/2 quarts of water, and another Tbsp. salt.  Bring to a boil and simmer until everything is very soft, about an hour.  Season to taste with salt and black pepper and serve each bowl with a dollop of greek yogurt.

Living Deliciously

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So here’s the plan.  I love to eat.  I love to cook.  I have a passel of small children (where passel=3) and suddenly it seems like I never have enough time to cook/feed myself the kind of meals I want to eat.  Delicious.  Healthy.  Delicious.  (Did I say that already?)

Mostly this is a function of poor planning.  We don’t eat out a ton these days (you try enjoying a restaurant meal with said passel of small children), but we do eat a lot of scrambled eggs.  Scrambled eggs with a tumble of veggies and charred poblano peppers laced with a salty, spicy chile de arbol oil, maybe–but scrambled eggs.

I think with some advance planning we could branch out.  In the olden days (read: before kids), J and I used to cook together for hours, stuffing handmade pasta for ravioli or pounding our own curry paste or reducing fancy sauces.  I’m not talking about that.  I’m talking about just making dinner.

I’m usually the cook in our family these days, so we’ll follow my peculiar dietary guidelines: Yes vegetables!  No red meat!  Yes fish with fins!  No shellfish!  Maybe chicken.  I haven’t eaten meat for years but I think I should try to introduce my children to some protein sources beyond yogurt and edamame (and those scrambled eggs, of course).  So yes chicken!

Do you have any great recipes for me?  I’m ready to get cookin’.