Kale & Sweet Potato Pizza

Well hello there aren't you a naughty little thing? So good to see you. I want to introduce you to some people. Okay?

So I am still using the Emeril deep dish dough recipe; it works well and can easily be loafed into bread. The results yield a flexible dough that rises nicely. This time I used semolina flour instead of corn meal (which allowed me to make corn bread out of the Necronomicon). I actually preferred the crunch of the corn meal in the dough, and may try a half and half of the corn meal and the semolina.

In a follow up, then to the Sarson Ka Saag pizza and the Vegan for Lent pledge (this is pizza recipe one of five), here is a next pizza recipe. This one is also pretty easy going and doesn't have any ingredients you can't get at a supermarket. It has more pan work than the others, but pretty good work flow for timing. The pizza itself is a nice savory sweet and salty pie.

Start about forty-five minutes into the dough rising. Chop up a large yellow onion, and get into caramelizing it. I like to use my cast iron skillet. The labor of love that is properly caramelizing an onion is largely balanced on dehydrating the onion while raising the temperature gradually to heat the sugars, catalyzing caramelization and maillard reactions.

There are no great shortcuts, adding water inhibits both, salt can help to dessicate the onion by drawing out the water through osmosis but still you must stir all the more frequently as there is less of a buffer to keep from burning the onions. Slicing thinly and small increases surface area for sugar to heat all the more directly. But both salt and slice only shorten the time and love minimally, so take the time to put care into those lovely onions rather than try too much to rush them. (I have found that if you need to go do something, you can toss them in the oven at 200'F to have them hold their temp without needing to stir for a bit.)

Once they are nice and caramelized you can toss on a bunch of chopped kale and turn up the heat to high. Douse with a hearty dose of either braggs aminos or tamari, add a quarter cup of water, stir, and cover for five minutes to steam the greens. Remove the lid and add a splash of balsamic and a half cup of red wine.

Remove the onions and the kale to cool off, allow the remaining liquid to reduce. Slurry 1 teaspoon of cornstarch in 1-3 teaspoons cold water (or better, you would use arrowroot or tapioca starch for acidic sauces like these).

Preheat the oven to 450'F. Start a second, small fry pan at medium heat to toast some spices (paprika, cumin, coriander, ancho powder); once toasted cover with a quarter cup of olive oil. Saute some finely minced garlic in the oil and spices then remove once softened and pour into a small bowl. Stir the slurry then whisk into the reducing wine sauce. Continue to reduce until it turns into a nice glaze. Pour off into a spouted measuring cup.

So the dough recipe yields two shells. I cut the risen loaf in half, tossed until round, punched until flattened out, tossed to round some more, then press into a greased pie pan (I used a 14" heavy aluminum pizza dish).

Brush the dough shell with the oil, spices, and garlic; chop and cover with parsley. Top with the onions and kale, then the roasted sweet potatoes. Sprinkle on some toasted sesame seeds (or fresh toasted walnuts if you have any). Sprinkle on daiya as you like, and then drizzle with the wine sauce reduction.

Now the option here is to either brick or not to brick the pizza. This recipe crisps up quite nicely in the aluminum pan. That said, if you are paranoid or utterly convinced nothing is as good as stone bricked pizza, you can pop a stone in while you pre-heat the oven.

A pizza brick will make it harder to heat the oven, and use up more gas. That said, it will also stabilize the temperature as it is a heat sink.

The brick will not necessarily yield a better crust for a thick crust, but for a thin crust it is almost obligatory.

Anyway, the way I test dough is to lift it in the pan and scrape the bottom with a metal spatula. When you can hear the dough's tooth at the tip, and feel it in your fingers, it works to brick it.

Bricking the pizza the entire time is another option, but I find it easier to go in a pan as it allows you to infuse the outside with fat and ensure a crispier, moist crust. I find a wholly stoned pizza to be drier, though even crispier to a crunch. Works well with corn meal dusted shell bottoms. Anyway, here are my results after about 10 minutes at 450'F, then 12 at 375'F.

My results betray that I burtnet the potatoes. They were over-roasted to begin, but the second baking killed them dead. I also over sauteed the garlic and had a few crispier bits. No big deal in either case, and not symptomatic of the recipe. This is a savory, sweet, & salty pizza that chews big and brings a smile to sweet and salty lips. I topped mine with a smidge of sriracha to give it added spice.

(Look at those air pockets!)

Vegan for Lent: Fuschia Foods

Okay. So I am well aware of all the "You eat first with your eyes" mantras. And I am well aware of how poorly my camera-phone does at making 97% of my posts appear appetizing. This dish is for people who like gaudy, neon lights and day-glo track suits. If you have some odd idea of the future that hasn't changed much since those of the mid/late 80s, this is a dish for you.

Fuschia Food, a not Cotton Candy Stew

This Fushia Stew of magenta mmmms is hearty, bright, sweet, hot and smooth. It looks bizarre and tastes great. I'm counting this one under the vegan junk food as it looks like cotton candy. Doesn't taste anything like it, but it is starkly beautiful.

Begin by roasting a nice average size butternut squash (clean, slice in half, scoop out seeds, brush with olive oil, put face up on a sheet pan in an oven at 400'F). While doing so, roast one beet and one parsnip, diced small (total ~2 cups) and tossed in olive oil. You can safely leave the beets and parsnip in as long as the squash, about thirty minutes. The more beet you add the brighter the color and sweetness.

Towards the end start sauteeing an onion. Dice some garlic (I did about 5 cloves), and about an inch of ginger (about 2-3 teaspoons minced). Puree the diced squash, beet, parsnip, a can of full fat coconut milk, and a package of soft silken tou. Pour in the puree once everything is nice and soft in the pot. Stir.

Start adding some Bragg's Aminos/Tamari/Soy Sauce and sesame oil for savory. Spice with a curry bias; turmeric, garam masala, ground red pepper, cumin, allspice, ancho or chipotle powder, and ground mustard. I also added oregano and thyme so there would be a subtle slide hinting at the stockiness of the oil present from roasting all of the vegetable.

Slice and dice about 6 vine tomatoes, and add to the pot. Cover and let simmer.

Wash and dice two to three sweet potatoes (I used garnet yams, actually), toss in oil and salt, and roast in oven at 350'F until tender, about twenty minutes. I typically sprinkle with spices while doing so, in this case I used onion powder, garlic powder, ground sage, cumin and ground red pepper.

Once done add to the pot. Grind some pepper in there, about 2 tablespoons. Taste for balance. The point of this soup is to have a nice delicate sweetness suspended between the heat of the ground red pepper and the bright acidity of the tomatoes.

• To up the sweet, add more roasted, pureed beets. You won't need much for them to be effective
• To up the acidity, cut it with some balsamic or apple cider vinegar
• To up the heat, add ground hot peppers or whole cayenne, tien tsin, or birds eyes.

The main flavors should be in place. Depending on how much you salt the veggies as they roasted, you may need to add some at this point. The earthiness of the parsnip and beet will also help anchor the stew in place. Serve with toast points. In the pic below, the graininess of the surface is from some vegan parmesan cheese (mostly nutritional yeast and ground walnuts).

Portable Shepard's Pie: Pot Pie Cupcakes - how to pt. 1

For the first Dreamsfood bounty I subimtted a recipe for Pot Pie Cupcakes. They are intended to pull together the goodness of a pot pie in a portable cupcake/muffin format.

Here's the gist; make shells | make soup | fill shells with soup | top with corn bread biscuit batter | bake | top with hollandaise sauce

Of course, being the Alpha Dreamsfood project, this is Columbus centered and vegan. The hope is to spread the message and open it up to more locations and flavors. Anyway, I'm hoping you are here for the recipe, because that's what I've got -

To begin with we will address the soups.  The first one, "Soothing Savory", had apple-smoked sweet potatoes, peas and charred corn. The second one, "Sassy Savory", had some apple-smoked seitan, leaks, butter beans, and smoked turnips. 

For the Soothing Savory, you first need to roast the potatoes (I recommend doing so at the same time as the turnips). Once you roast them and get them hot and sweaty, throw them on the grill for about two hours with some apple wood smoke and indirect heat (you will want to smoke at the same time you do the seitan). As the smoking is winding down, saute an onion, then add some garlic and build up a good soupy base. In a cast iron skillet, powder the bottom with paprika and ancho powder (and cayenne if you want some more heat) and dry toast the spices on medium then edge it toward high. Once the skillet is hot and the spices are done, drain a can of corn (actually use fresh if you can, but it's January in Ohio so...) and add it to the skillet and char the skins. Add along with a can of peas to the base of the soup. Add the sweet potatoes and *boom* you're basically done. From here on out you will be acting like a custodian more than anything. Spice it how you like it, I did my general tex-mex thing. The vegetables are the focus here, and not some spice blend so just keep in mind accenting.

Note: Using fresh corn would have been ideal, same for the peas. You can decide to drop some corn starch slurry into the mix if you'd like a thicker soup for your pies. Smoked salt, however, is one stand-out seasoning that I would say you should invest in for this and the next soup.

Sassy Savory is a smidge more intensive. For the seitan I made basically the same seitan as I had with the Seitanic Panic in the Oven Shepard's Pie. I used the same basic recipe from before, and a similar stock for simmering the seitan and for the rub. Smoking the seitan was nice and easy and done at the same time as the sweet potatoes and the turnips. So basically once you drop the seitan in the stock to simmer, cut up your sweet potatoes and turnips and put them in the oven at 350'F.

Once the seitan and turnips (which upon roasting will still have their bite, though a bit mellowed; upon smoking will mellow out entirely but still have a great punch of flavor) are done smoking it's time to build the soup. The soup starts the same as pretty much any other one I do, but in this case after you finish off the onion and garlic sauteeing, you can stock the stock with the simmering stock you used for the seitan (upcycle that salty water). Mire-poix is utterly your friend on this one, so grab some carrot and celery (and hell, add it to the other soup if you want). Originally I was going to use butter beans only but some black beans made their way in there as well. Add the sweet potatoes and corn starch slurry (if appropriate). Spice and season as you like. Reserve the smoked seitan for making the cupcakes, or just add toward the end of stweing.

Note: When/If to add the smoked seitan is an interesting problem. If you've ever baked seitan before adding it to a saucy stweing dish, you will know the effect you get. The surface becomes nice and resilient and the texture more durable. It is less likely to soak up massive amounts of liquid, and consequently flavor. I chose to preserve the acute smokiness by topping with seitan before serving (and I like the presentation aspect better); you could diffuse it (a) if you prefer, or (b) if you can't stand sharp smoked food, or (c) if you over-smoke those bad boys.

Next time, how to make the shells and build these bad boys...

Cookie Recipes - Pumpkin Chai, Spiced Sweet Potato, Sunflower Butter, & Salty Oatmeal Peanut Butter

• Salty Oatmeal Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Sunshine Butter Cookies
• Pumpkin Chai Cookies (Chumpkin Pai)
• Spiced Sweet Potato Chai Cookies

So. We've got four recipes mailed in to the VegNews Cookie Contest. I will try to be short and sweet. They all use the same creaming base for the dough, two use a Chai Spice mix, and they pair in structure. Depending on how you like them, you can have them come out nice and normal, extra thin and crispy (add more coconut oil, subtract butter at a 1:2 ratio), fluffier and dense like a biscuit, and super-formed (chill the dough over night). For more on this, ssee the note at the bottom; it is especially pertinent to the puree-added doughs.

Also, forgive my use of "butter" or "milk" and assume substitution per your favorite substitute nom.

To begin, something with a small but significant twist

Salty Oatmeal Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies - An obvious variation that you need in your repertoire. Tired of same-y but don't feel like trying any harder? This is the one.

• cream together 1/2 c butter (substitute) ; 2 tb coconut oil; 1/2 c [white] sugar, brown sugar
• gradually mix in 1 ts vanilla ; 2 flax eggs (1tb milled flax seed & 2 tb aq / egg, mixed until it turns to goo) ; 1/3 c peanut butter
• sift together 1 1/2 c flour, 1/2 ts baking soda, salt ; sift into dough and mix until even
• mix in 2 c rolled oats, 1 c chocolate chips
• sprinkle with kosher salt and turbinado sugar
• bake on cookie sheet with parchment paper 12-15 minutes @ 350'f, remove to cooling rack

Sunshine Butter Cookies - These guys borrow all the wholesome taste from oatmeal peanut butter cookies, add on to it with sunflower and flax seeds, then brighten it all up with the shine of coconut and intensity of sunflower butter.

• cream together 1/2 c butter ; 2 tb coconut oil ; 1/2 c [white] sugar, brown sugar
• gradually mix in 1 ts vanilla ; 1/4 - 1/2 ts coconut extract; 2 flax eggs (1tb milled flax seed, 2 tb aq / egg, mixed until it turns to goo) ; 1/3 c sunflower seed butter ; 
• sift together 1 1/2 c flour, 1/2 ts baking soda, salt ; sift into dough and mix until even
• mix in 1 1/2 c rolled oats; 3/4 c chocolate chips, 1/2 coconut shreds
• (optional: for more chocolatey kick, add 1 tb cocoa powder and do a light swirl to partially marble)
• sprinkle with sunflower seeds and flax seeds
• bake on cookie sheet with parchment paper 12-15 minutes @ 350'f, remove to cooling rack

Chai Spice Mix - For use in next two recipes.

Mix all of the below in a coffee grinder or other effective blender/mill, using fresh for grinding where possible (esp. allspice); grind until powdery.

1/2 tb orange rind

2 tb chai (vanilla rooibos)

1/4 ts ginger

1/8 ts clove

1/4 ts coriander

1/2 ts nutmeg

1/2 ts allspice

Pumpkin Chai Cookies - These cookies build on the sweetness of the pumpkin and the spice of the chai to create a smooth, tasty treat. Ground ginger and a dusting of powdered sugar does nicely.

• cream together 1/2 c butter ; 2 tb coconut oil ; 1/2 c [white] sugar, brown sugar
• gradually mix in 1 ts vanilla ; 2 flax eggs (1tb milled flax seed, 2 tb aq / egg, mixed until it turns to goo) ; 1/2 c pumpkin puree (the less moisture the better*)
• sift together 1 1/2 c flour, 1/2 ts baking soda, baking powder, salt ; sift into dough and mix until even (if you find it too liquidy, add more flour at this ratio*)
• mix in 2-3 tb Chai Spices
• mix in 1/2 c white chocolate chips, macadamia nuts (choppped)
• cross-print with a fork
• bake on cookie sheet with parchment paper 12-15 minutes @ 350'f, remove to cooling rack

Spiced Sweet Potato Chai Cookies - Do you like the kick of spice cookies and snickerdoodles? But also like super smooth vanilla texture? These monsters take the pumpkin chai cookies to the next level. They go straight for the spicy side of the chai with some extra cracked pepper. A great finishing touch is to take some powdered sugar and make an icing using a strongly steeped soy chai latte and some of the chai spice mix.

• cream together 1/2 c butter ; 2 tb coconut oil ; 1/2 c [white] sugar, brown sugar
• gradually mix in 1 ts vanilla ; 1/2 ts lemon extract ; 2 flax eggs (1tb milled flax seed, 2 tb aq / egg, mixed until it turns to goo) ; 1/2 c pumpkin puree (the less moisture the better*)
• sift together 1 1/2 c flour, 1/2 ts baking soda, baking powder, salt ; sift into dough and mix until even (if you find it too liquidy, add more flour at this ratio*)
• mix in 2-3 tb Chai Spices, a few grinds cracked black pepper, and red pepper if you so desire
• mix in 1/2 c white chocolate chips, macadamia nuts (choppped)
• cross-print with a fork
• bake on cookie sheet with parchment paper 12-15 minutes @ 350'f, remove to cooling rack

* As brands of puree can vary in moisture and density of flavor, you may need to cook down more than a half cup to achieve desired strength at an appropriate moisture. I have previously done this using home-roasted ingredients and found the results (a) varied wildly and (b) too time intensive. Use a puree you are familiar with, and start with more than you think you'll need. I took a cup of puree for the pumpkin and let it sit in a coffee filter and colander and squeezed every so often. I only needed about 3/4 cup for the sweet potato to get where it needed to be. When adding the flour mix to compensate for an over-moist dough, you can go one of two routes; keep scaling with the cookie mix, or veer toward a more biscuit-like mix. The biscuit approach is very nice for the sweet potato. Bear in mind, if the dough is not sticking to itself, but rather your hand, you may need to add another flax egg or incorporate tapioca flour into the flour mix.

For the Gallery of the Slideshow check out Vegan X-Butter Cookies Challenge

Update on 1:07PM by mfg

a reply to Cookie Recipe Contest on VegNews

Update on 9:37PM by mfg

boo-hoo. the ten finalists do not include me.

Cookie Recipe Contest on VegNews

As I mentioned before, I am hoping to hit up the VegNews Cookie Contest.

Arrrgh. I am trying to lay out my plans, but I'm drinking coffee from Starbucks and it tastes like cologne. I can't deal with it. It is driving me nuts. There is this perfumed flavor to their Pike Place; but it's not like a floral bouquet to the nose, it's like some guy wearing too much Axe or any other cheap burning, eye-watering stench.

Anyway. After knocking out sweet potato casseroles, green bean casserole, fake turkey, and Shepard's Pie, it is time to focus on dessert anyway so I can be sure about moving forward into Christmas. So, Cookies! I borrowed a KitchenAid Artisan to do the sugar/butter creaming and general mixing. I got a handful of supplies last night, and will probably need to get a few more tonight before I can get cooking. There is also a pot luck this weekend. So here goes my plan.

• Pumpkin Chai Cookie - the 'Chumpkin Pai": I made this over the last weekend for a party. The pumpkin flavor was a bit meek as was the chai (an Uber tasty Rooibos Vanilla chai). I basically took my peanut butter/oatmeal/chocolate chip cookie dough (APF) recipe, subbed in 1/2 c pumpkin puree for the peanut butter, added extra coconut oil, and needed to add an extra 1-1.5 c whole wheat flour. I'm going to use canned instead of fresh puree this time, and cook it down; I will also add some chai leaf (chopped) in with the dough, and steep a chai concentrate in water first, the make the frosting (steeped in milk originally). Added in chopped macademia nuts instead of chocolate chips; will do half macs and half white chocolate chips (got some from Amazon last night).
• Sweet Potato Chai Cookie: basically a sweet potato gets subbed in for the pumpkin (I got some Japanese sweet potatoes last night). The point of this one is to go crazy spicy. The pumpkin is smooth, potato to have some serious pepper-y kick. Probably white chocolate chips only, maybe do half as half and half.

• Sunshine Cookies: sub peanut butter for sunflower seed butter and include some coconut extract. Sprinkle with sunflower seeds and pumpkin seed. (Some pics here)

• ...and Those Salty Peanut Butter / Chocolate / Oatmeal cookies need a write up. (Some pics here)

And that makes four cookie recipes, about 8 batches (12 - 15 cookies each).

Vegan Gnocchi in Buttery Balsamic Beet Glaze

Last night in the kitchen, Ms. Fraulein and I made the following -

They were like sundaes made of flour and sweet potatoes and beets and cauliflower and squash and butter and vinegar. Hungry yet?

So the ratio for gnocchi is 1 cup potato to 1 cup flour to 1 egg. This recipe calls for 2 cup Japanese sweet potato (baked, peeled, mashed), 1 cup roasted butternut squash (pureed), 1 cup steamed cauliflower (pureed) to 4 cups (plus more) flour to 2 flax eggs. You can easily just keep changing the exponent to this recipe as it scales well for OAMC. Note the change in binder though, Japanese sweet potatoes are quite starchy and as such I cut back on the binder; you should play around to figure out where you like your binder level then scale out from there. More binder should make the dough faster to form and a bit more dense; I like mine doughier as when they freeze, or are served as leftovers, they will toughen up.

We went with the following;

• Begin by baking (microwaving is fine, probably preferred since it will  likely dehydrate the potato more), then peeling, then mashing the potatoes (we used four small)
• In a large mixing bowl, mix potatoes with roasted butternut squash and steamed cauliflower purees (I already had a tupperware of this ready to go, not that everyone does), stir in flax eggs and make sure all large clumbs are broken down and mixture is well-blended
• Start a large pot of water to boiling
• Start making dough by gradually folding in the flour (by a 1/2ish cup at a time), we used all-purpose, but using whole wheat may minimize the amount of flour needed
• (Side-step: take potato peels, toss in cast-iron skillet with a bit of sesame oil and vindaloo curry powder, sprinkle on some sesame seeds, fry until crispy, and nom nom nom...)
• Peel two-three cups of beets (used a mix of white and red beets, all 12 about the size of a ping-pong ball), throw into the boiling water once its ready
• Once the dough is semi-wet, but sticks more to itself than your hand, it is basically done. Flatten ball into rectangular shape with one side the width of your hand. Cut into 1" wide strips with a pizza or other dough cutter.
• Roll strips into snakes that have a diameter about the size of the gnocchi you like (bigger = doughier, smaller = less texture variance through dumpling), sprinkle tops with flour. Cut to preferred mass.
• Pick up each baby dumpling, roll in hand to coat with dough (this prevents them from sticking together while in the bowl I am about to mention), press fork into them to flatten and imprint, toss in wooden bowl
• Remove beets from boiling water once you can pierce with a fork; the water should be all magenta
• Begin dropping batches of gnocchi dumplings into the water, skim off when they float consistently (they tend to easily drift upward and then fall back)

Now once you have removed the beets and they are cooling and the dumplings are cooking up, you will want to begin your butter sauce. The quantity of gnocchi in the ratio above obviously yields a lot; 8+ cups makes many gnocchi, and that's before they soak up some water. The amount of butter sauce is dependent on how much your plating, so bear that in mind.

Anyway, take about 5 tablespoons of earthbalance and melt down. Press (or add) four (minced) cloves garlic into the butter; once garlic is soft, slice the beets and toss them in there. Add some balsamic vinegar and mirin. Spice and season at will.

Hopefully you have a good reserve of gnocchi at this point; well, enough to plate anyway (toss soon-to-be leftovers in olive oil). Once the beets are all glazed and terrific looking skim off the beets and put them on top of plated gnocchi. Add more butter if necessary. Now add a splash more of balsamic and a splash of something like Tamari or Bragg's, then thicken the remaining sauce a little bit with corn starch (slurry) or flour (not as effective since there's not much fat at this point); we added enough to glaze it over into a near jelly (pectin might be fun to play with here). Bring sauce to a bubble; pour over dish.

Freeze your leftovers (no sauce, just enough olive oil to keep them from sticking together while you nom nom) in single serving ziplock bags in a larger gallon size freezer bag

For bonus points, if you have some extra of the potato/squash/cauliflower puree lying around, you can scoot it around the bottom of the sauce pan to pick up the extra bits of beet and then plate like a little minaret. Do this step just before adding thickening agent to sauce.

Also, when you add any spices to the dough (i.e. garlic/onion powder, pepper, etc), you would add a 1/2 teaspoon of beet powder to make your gnocchi all pink, or up to 2 teaspoons to really push them. After that the taste may take a (not-necessarily-bad) swerve.

Perhaps I should have added some of those dried cranberries or cherries to the sauce? Oh well. There's always tomorrow!

So enjoy. It's an incredibly filling meal. As was promised; making it is therapeutic, eating it is narcotic.

BTW: It was a bit cold and rainy this morning. As such, my lunch quickly became my feel-good 9am breakfast. Seen above in the blue bowls are the gnocchi tossed with more of the potato beet mixture. YAY for vitamins and starch and butter.

Update on 1:10PM by mfg

gallery slideshow to follow of entire process thanks to Ms. Fraulein, documentarian