Veggie Pizza... thin crust!

You haven't had pizza until you've had New York pizza. I'm talking about the kind you get for $3.00 a slice from the old corner pizza shop. Missing New York, one afternoon I decided to hunt down a recipe for pizza dough. This one I found in the recipe booklet that came with my food processor. Can you believe it? Mixing the dough is pretty easy and you can do it all in the food processor, but you have to let it rise for 45 mins to 1 hour, before you can bake the pizza. So be sure to plan ahead for this. Once you make the dough however, you can rub it with some olive oil and put it in the refrigerator for up to 24hours before baking.  Now I won't tell you that I actually left my dough rising overnight, because I was too lazy to make pizza after the dough was ready. The next day I had to knead it over, because it was so big and puffy... but the pizza still came out delicious, light and crispy.

Now you too can have delicious home made pizza!
 
This recipe makes 2 pies.


Ingredients:

• Pizza Dough
•  1/2 cup Pasta or marinara sauce
• 2 ounces fresh mozzarella, shredded
• 2 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded (I love the flavor it adds)
• 1 ounce Reggiano Parmesan, shredded
• 1/2 zucchini, thinly sliced
• 1/2 yellow squash, thinly sliced
• 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
• About 10 plum tomatoes, sliced in half
• 2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil (for brushing the crust)
• A dash of flour or cornmeal for dusting the pan.

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.
Divide the dough into 2, then let rest for 10 mins. Roll each dough out to size. I just used my hands and stretched it to fit unto my pizza crisper, of course after I dusted the crisper! You can buy a pizza crisper from Target, Walmart or Bed Bath and Beyond.
Brush the edges of the dough with the olive oil. Then, spoon half of the pasta or marinara sauce onto each dough. Add 1/2 of the zucchini, squash, tomatoes and onions to each, ensuring that the entire pizza has bits of each. Using a spatula spread the sauce evenly over the dough. Then add 1/2 of the shredded cheeses combined. Place on top rack in oven and bake for about 10 to 15 minutes. When pizza is bubbly and the edges of the dough are puffed, crisped and golden brown, remove from the oven. Let rest for 2 to 3 minutes before slicing up and enjoying.

Guyanese chicken stew...or is it stew chicken?

So all of my Guyanese/Caribbean friends and family have probably had a couple different varieties of chicken stew over their lifetime. At home it is a common dish and mostly served with rice. This simple recipe is quick, easy and delicious! It serves 4 and takes about 1 hr (with prep and cooking). In the pic, I have the thighs with the meat on the bone, because it adds more flavor but you can debone your chicken if you prefer.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 3 carrot, peeled, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 3 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cut into 4 or 6 pieces (ok to just dice with skin on if you prefer)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 8 plum tomatoes, sliced into halves
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon teriyaki sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves (Guyanese thyme, if you can get a hold of some)
• 1 ½ lb chicken thighs, cut into 2 inch cubes

Directions

Heat the oil in a heavy 5 1/2-quart saucepan over medium heat. In a medium mixing bowl, add celery, onion, garlic, bell pepper, salt and pepper (to taste), tomatoes, tomato paste, Dijon mustard, teriyaki sauce, thyme and chicken. Mix together until chicken is well coated with the seasoning. Then add to saucepan. Let sauté for about 5 minutes, then cover and let cook for about 10 minutes, occasionally stirring. Add potatoes and carrots and 2 cups water. Cover and let cook for another 20 minutes occasionally stirring the mixture. When the stew has simmered to a thick gravy consistency, remove from the heat. Serve with bread or rice. 

Fish tacos... with a flare

Guadalajara on Abilene Street is my favorite Mexican restaurant in Colorado and one of my favorite things on the menu is their fish tacos. What I don't like about this dish however, is that it is laden with cheese and re-fried beans. At the end of the meal I am in a serious food coma. So naturally, when I had a craving for fish tacos I tried to find a recipe that would come close to the one at Guadalajara. The thing that made their fish tacos amazing is a yummy garlic sauce of sorts. so I knew that I would have to get a good sauce or my fish tacos wouldn't cut it. So here goes... with a combination of recipes I think I was able to pull it off.

I used this recipe from Food Network Chef Bobby Flay as a base and tweaked it a bit, or maybe I tweaked it a lot:


Ingredients:

Tacos:

• 1 pound white flaky fish, such as mahi mahi or orata(I used Tilapia, about 4 filets)
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 tablespoons ancho chili powder (for my Caribbean friends I used 1 teaspoon of pepper sauce)
• 1 jalapeno, coarsely chopped (Didn't really need this once I added the pepper sauce)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• 8 flour tortilla 

I also used:

•  2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil.
• Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
• 4 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
• 1/2 small onion (diced) 

Garnish:

1. Tomato & Carrot Salsa

• 6 grape tomoatoes
• 2 heads green onions / scallions (finely chopped)
• 1 carrot (shredded) 
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves (chopped)
• Salt and black pepper (to taste) 
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 cup cheddar cheese (shredded)

In a medium sized bowl, add tomatoes, green onions, carrots, cilantro, salt and pepper and lemon juice. Toss everything together. Top with cheddar cheese once added to fish tacos.

2. Garlic Aioli Sauce

• 6 large cloves garlic, peeled
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 3/4 cup Spanish olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped chives

Place garlic cloves in a blender or food processor and pulse until finely chopped, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed. Add the salt, egg yolks, and lemon juice and process until well combined.

With the machine running, add the oil in a thin, steady stream until the mixture is thickened. Stir in chives, adjust seasonings as needed.

Yield: about 1 cup

Directions

My directions were completely different from Bobby Flay's original recipe but by now you know that I was only using that recipe as my base. 

Preheat grill to medium-high heat (I actually did mine on the stove top using a large frying pan). Place fish in a medium size dish. Whisk together the oil, lime juice, ancho, jalapeno, and cilantro and pour over the fish. Let marinate for 15 to 20 minutes. I did everything up to this point. Then I pretty much followed my own cooking methods.

Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to frying pan (set at medium-high heat). When hot (but not smoking) add garlic and onion, stirring occasionally until brown (about 3 to 4 minutes). Then add fish and salt and pepper, lower the heat and cover frying pan. Let fish simmer, for 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Once cooked, I used my spoon to cut each filet into 5 or 6 chunks, and gave it a quick toss, then remove from heat.

Preheat another frying pan or skillet if you have one, on medium-high heat. Then warm tortillas for about 1 minute on each side (until slightly brown). Divide the fish among the tortillas and garnish with any or all of the garnishes.I added the aioli sauce first, then the salsa and topped it off with the cheddar cheese. 

I served my tacos with black beans and a brown rice pilaf.