My favourite pizza crust

I like to make pizza about once every week or so. Before starting the BTD, my favourite pizza was served at Cat's Social House on Granville Island in Vancouver, and it was full of things I'm not allowed to eat: chicken, bbq sauce, corn, wheat, and a few other things I can't remember.

The pizza I make at home is very simple and straightforward, topping-wise: mushrooms, kale or spinach, goat cheese, mozzarella. And a little sauce. That's it.

Making a wheat-free pizza means loving thin-crust pizzas, which fortunately, I do. You just can't get that same fluffiness from a rice flour pizza, no matter how much yeast you use. It also gives me the opportunity to get creative and fun with the flavourings by adding herbs and spices for extra flavour.

Pizza Crust

Makes enough for two crusts. They freeze well.

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. yeast
• 1 1/3 cup warm water (you can use milk, but arrowroot gets slimy when mixed with dairy)
• 1 tsp. sugar

• 2 cups brown rice flour
• 2/3 cup arrowroot starch
• 2 tsp. xanthum gum
• 1 tsp salt

• 1 1/2 Tbsp fresh rosemary, minced
• 1 tsp garlic powder (or one clove garlic, minced)
• 1/2 tsp each dried oregano, basil and marjoram

• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 2 tsp. lemon juice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Combine the warm water with the sugar and yeast in a small mixing bowl, stirring gently to dissolve the mixture. Let it sit for about 10 minutes so it can get bubbly.
3. Combine the brown rice flour, arrowroot starch, xanthum gum and herbs in a larger mixing bowl, in the bowl of your stand mixer if you don't want to mix everything by hand.
4. Add the oil and lemon juice to the yeast mixture, which should have some air bubbles by now.
5. Pour the yeast mixture into the flour mixture and stir well, or mix well with a dough hook. Mix until well combined.
6. The dough will be somewhat sticky, so sprinkle some rice flour on it and let it rest while you get your pizza pan ready.
7. Use a pizza stone or pizza pan with the holes in the bottom. Do not use a regular cookie sheet for this - it won't get crispy enough.
8. Divide the dough in two and set one half aside. Roll out the other half on a well-floured surface until it's about the size of your pan, then just like a pie shell, roll it onto your rolling pin and unroll it on the pan.
9. Don't worry if it's not perfectly round. We're going for rustic here.
10. Before adding your toppings, put it in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until it gets a little golden. This will help the bottom stay crisp so you don't have to torch your lovely toppings waiting for the crust to cook.
11. Remove from the oven and let it cool for a couple of minutes while assembling the rest of your toppings.
12. Once the pizza is all assembled, put it back in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. Once everything is golden and lovely, remove from the oven, let it cool for 5 minutes (it's hard, but at least try to let it cool), then slice and munch!

Nomato Sauce, part 2

The ER4YT has a basic nomato sauce recipe that is absolutely fabulous. Texture-wise, it is very different than your standard tomato sauce, but taste-wise, it's amazing, and I prefer it to my other Nomato Sauce recipe for use as a pizza sauce or dip.

No-Tomato Tomato Sauce (shamelessly copied and slightly amended from Eat Right for Your Type)

Makes enough for two servings of pasta or as sauce for one large pizza.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup chopped onion (about 1/2 an onion, fine dice)
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 4 ounce jar pimientos, undrained
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/8 teaspoon dried oregano
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• Sea salt to taste
• Pinch of sugar or agave

Directions

1. Saute onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat a few minutes, until onions soften. Add a pinch of salt while they're cooking to help them soften.
2. Add parsley and stir.
3. Puree pimientos in food processor or blender with lemon juice.
4. Add to pan with basil, oregano and wine.
5. Simmer lightly until thickened. 
6. Turn off the heat and let cool for a couple of minutes. The sauce will thicken a bit once cooled.
7. Taste and add salt and/or sugar as needed.

Nomato Sauce

You know what I like? Tomato sauce.

You know what I miss? Tomato sauce.

It's that sweet and acidic tang that takes your basic starch and makes it extra awesome. Tomatoes are the one and only nightshade that are all kinds of fine for AB's, but not for A's. So, unwilling to go sauceless, I researched substitutes. This is sauce 1, which is very easy and cost-effective to make in large quantities. Sauce 2, made with pimentos, has the great tangy flavour, but lacks in texture, and is more expensive to make. I'll be posting that recipe in an upcoming entry.

Nomato Sauce (inspired by The IC Chef)

Ingredients

Basic Sauce

6 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 beet, peeled and chopped

1 onion, peeled and chopped

1 celery stick, sliced

1 bay leaf, whole

1 1/2 cups of water

Flavour ingredients

3 cloves of garlic, sliced

1 leek, cleaned and minced

1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

1 tsp. dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp. olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 cup red wine

salt to taste

Directions

Place all ingredients of the basic sauce in a pot and boil, covered for 30 minutes, then puree with an immersion blender. Add water, if needed, until mixture has a tomato sauce texture.

Saute garlic, leek, and herbs for 5 minutes in olive oil with a little salt, and add parsley and saute for 10 minutes more.

Add basic sauce and bring to a boil, then add wine. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add lemon juice and keep cooking until sauce thickens to desired consistency. Add salt to taste.

Enjoy over pasta, pizza, or anything else you would make with tomato sauce.

I'm in the Newsletter!

I'd like to say hello to any and all readers who have been directed here by the June ER4YT newsletter, or from anywhere else on the web, of course. I hope you all enjoyed my article, and I welcome any feedback and questions you may have, so please don't hesitate to introduce yourself and say hello.

The June newsletter can be found here: http://www.4yourtype.com/2011_newsletter_v8n6.asp

I'm absolutely delighted that I was given the opportunity to write about my success thus far with the BTD. I had a great time writing the article and it gave me a good chance to reflect on how far we have come with our health, nutrition and lifestyle since February.

I turned 30 this past week, which required a massive cheat day, which unfortunately turned into kind of a cheat week. Case in point, my birthday dinner was a grilled steak with blue cheese cream sauce. Totally non-compliant but 100% delicious. We're back on the straight and narrow now, and I'm looking forward to sharing more recipes and adaptations.

Feta-stuffed Turkey

Don't let the title fool you - you're not stuffing an entire turkey with feta, although that would be awesome. No no, this is for stuffing either breasts or thighs - your choice - with a beautiful mixture of feta and goat cheeses and sauteed vegetables. It also works with chicken, if you can eat chicken.

If you're stuffing the breast cavity, just make an incision and create a pocket to fill. Or butterfly the whole thing and roll it up. I made this dish with two turkey thighs, which I rolled, stuffed, trussed, and grilled.

Feta-stuffed Turkey (serves 2 very generously, or serves 2 with leftovers)

Ingredients

Two turkey thighs or breasts, ready for stuffing or rolling
Extra-virgin olive oil for sauteing and coating the outside, so about 1 Tbsp
1/4 of an onion, fine dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
250g (or so) sliced mushrooms
1 Tbsp minced parsley
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1-2 oz. goat cheese
1/4 c feta cheese, crumbled
sea salt, to taste

Directions

Preheat your skilled on medium and add a little oil. Saute onions and garlic for about 2 mins, then add mushrooms and a pinch of salt. Let everything cook for about 5 minutes, until mushrooms have released most of their water. Add herbs and cook a minute more, then turn heat to low and add the cheeses. Stir until combined then turn the heat off.

If you have time, let the mixture cool before stuffing the turkey. If you're in a pinch like I was, put the mixture into a metal bowl and stick it in the freezer to cool down quickly.

Hot cheese burns, you know.

Stuff and truss as appropriate, and coat the outside with a little olive oil and a touch of sea salt. Everything inside is pretty salty, so you don't need much.

Cook on a preheated grill for about 18 mins per side. Let them rest for 5 minutes before serving.

You can also cook them in a 350F oven for 30 mins. I recommend searing the sides in olive oil first, then popping them in the oven.

Jewelled Salad

In my last post, I talked about a pared-down Easter dinner and promised a jewelled salad to go along with the tasty kebabs.

This salad uses a lot of dried fruit, some of which has been specifically noted as beneficials for both A's and AB's. The dried apricots remind me of little amber pieces, and I feel that the abundance of dried fruit gives this salad a Middle Eastern vibe.

Jewelled Salad


Ingredients

1 recipe Basic Citronette

Green salad mix (I use Spring Mix)
handful of dried apricots, rough chop
handful of dried tart cherries
handful of dried dates, pitted and rough chop
1/3 of a cucumber, chopped into bite-size pieces

Directions


Mix all ingredients together and toss with dressing. Serve immediately and admire the lovely colours!

Two meats, one marinade

Happy Easter, everyone!

Later today I am going to my in-laws' house for a huge family dinner. It's going to be awesome! I hope you all have an excellent day as well, whether or not you celebrate Easter, or if you're just enjoying a lovely Sunday.

Easter can be marked by a host of meats, and when I was younger, it was always ham or some kind of pork product. Once I started cooking for myself, I decided I enjoyed the Greek tradition of serving lamb, which fortunately, is allowed for AB's. The other day, I made a pared-down easter (small "e" on purpose) dinner of kebab and jewelled salad, using Mediterranean flavours for the marinade and Middle Eastern flavours for the salad. Since my husband can't eat lamb, I came up with a marinade that also works for chicken, which he ate.

Before making kebab, soak your skewers in water for as long as possible, preferably overnight. I use bamboo skewers and put them in a plastic container with a little water, and just leave them to soak.

Mediterranean Marinade (Remember, it's a marinade, not a sauce - one recipe goes a long long way)

Ingredients

8 cloves garlic, minced
A few glugs of extra virgin olive oil (or about 1/4 c, if you need to be precise)
juice and zest of one lemon
pinch of sea salt
2 Tbsp parsley, chopped

1 tsp fresh rosemary, minced (lamb)
1 tsp fresh thyme (chicken)

Meat of choice (lamb, cubed; and chicken, cubed)

Directions

I set up my station by opening two large Ziploc bags and folding over the openings so it was easy to pour things in. Mince and juice everything together (by hand or food processor, doesn't matter) and then divide evenly between the two bags, adding the specific herbs as needed (so, rosemary in the lamb bag and thyme in the chicken bag). I didn't feel like cleaning my food processor, so I cut everything by hand and just added to each bag as needed.

Add the appropriate meat to each bag, seal it, give it a good massage, and then let it marinade for a least a few hours, or overnight if you can.

Kebabs

Once I was ready to grill, I threaded the meat onto bamboo skewers, about 4-5 pieces each. Cook each kebab for 20 minutes. On my grill, I heat it up to high and do 5 minutes per side, then rotate.

I have used both metal and bamboo skewers, and I like the bamboo ones better. It's true that the metal ones conduct heat into the meat much better and they are reusable, but I find I have more control with the bamboo ones, so I prefer them.

Need a wine pairing? Both lamb and chicken go well with Pinot Noir in my opinion, so we drank a Wild Goose (BC) 2008 Pinot Noir.