Pizza Stoned

I would like to now talk about the delightful virtues of the pizza stone. I'm not even talking about the $40 version you have to buy at a gourmet kitchen store. I just mean a slab of stone, maybe it's an oversize floor tile sample, large enough to be placed in a conventional domestic oven, preheated at 500 degrees and waiting patiently to sear a crisp, perfect edge onto a rolled out piece of pizza dough.

So I had a pizza party the other night for my good pal Christa. Not only was it a pizza party but it was a secret mini living room show with her favourite musician in the world, Joel R L Phelps playing.

But since this is a post about pizza I'll save the music story for another blog.

Christa is as nuts about pizza as I am... always searching, always hoping for that great slice of perfect pizza found somewhere in one of Vancouver's gobs of dollar slice pizza shops, Italian job restaurants and modern cuisiney type places. My favourite pizza place in Vancouver is Lombardo's... we've been going there for years with my family. It never even occurred to me that it was in a weird half-empty, fairly ugly mini-mall until Rich pointed it out to me one time. Anyhow the legend goes that it was once run by a married couple, until the husband cheated and they got a divorce. The wife kept Lombardo's, the husband opened an exact copy of Lombardo's just a few blocks away but in a more jazzed-up setting, making it a snootier affair with not so great service. Garbage. Give me Lombardo's anyday over the new joint!

Lombardo's has a woodfire burning oven, the KEY to great pizza. Perfectly crisp, yet chewy too, sometimes charred on the bottom, misshapen but lovingly formed circles of dough, scattered with artichoke hearts, ham, olives or classically prepared with tomato sauce, sliced fresh mozzarella and torn basil leaves. A wooden paddle slides under the pizza and with one fell swoop blasts it straight into the hot fires of the oven's mouth, minutes away to pizza heaven.

Christa, in her pizza seeking obsession, sent me this link for the pizza party! Since we had recently had a popcorn ball-making mishap together (I sometimes like to pepper recipes with my own non-touches) there was a clear inclination that the recipe was to BE FOLLOWED!!!

Diligently I gathered the ingredients, choosing to go to the Italian foods megamart Bosa Foods (though I think I could've found everything much cheaper around where I live)... canned San Marzano whole tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, fresh fragrant basil, balls of plump Mozzarella nestled in water, salty Italian prosciutto, a hunk of Asiago cheese and grated (I felt lazy) parmiggiano reggiano. And, of course "00" pizza flour and dry active yeast for the dough!

Balls of dough were pre-made and chilled overnight in the fridge. I was freaked because some balls seemed hard and dense and other balls were light and soft like a yeasty pale balloon. I feared I may have messed up this temperamental dough...??

Paranoid as I was, I made a "test" pizza a few hours before the party the following day on a regular old circular pizza pan, the kind with holes dotted throughout it. GARBAGE! The crust was like that of a cheap frozen pizza, thick, white, not crisp and not good. I was scared... but...roll it out and bake it on a piping hot pizza stone??

The pizza stone saves all!!!!

You get the the crispest crust, a nice char in bits, still a bit of chew... the perfect crust. The mozzarella bubbling into the crust, everything coming together to form a perfect new entity of melded together ingredients. Hot, crisp, salty, tangy, pizzaperfect party time. And a chocolate cake with mocha buttercream and homemade espresso ice cream for dessert.

All hail the pizza stone. I am a convert and a half, times infinity to the highest power.

"PEEEEEEEEZZZZZAAAAAAA!!!"

xo Lyndsay

Easy Semi-Homemade Kung Pao Shrimp with Rice

If you like sweet and spicy flavors, this one's for you! I love eating Chinese food, but have not been very successful when cooking it at home. Most recipes are quite complicated and I simply don't have all the required tools, mainly a wok, to cook Chinese food regularly. However, this dish was so simple it was embarrassing. And it was absolutely delicious to boot!

The secret was a little discovery I made at the grocery one day as

I was looking through the sad little Asian "shelf" that my local grocery store provides on the ethnic food aisle. Crammed in between the Thai curry noodles and canned water chestnuts, I found this Asian Kitchen pre-made sauce! So, I thought I would give it a test run.

Not everything has to be made from scratch to be delicious. So, I then journeyed down the

frozen vegetable aisle and picked up a bag of generic "stir fry" vegetables and some pre-cooked shrimp. It turns out, this meal was easy and a nice break from the usual home-made dinner. In fact, it was better than some of the Chinese food I have had in restaurants. Here is how it was made.

Ingredients

1 package of the Asian Kitchen sauce, Kung Pao flavor

1 bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables

1 small bag of cooked frozen shrimp

1/2 cup of fresh baby carrots, sliced

3/4 cups white rice

Directions

1. Cook rice as directed.

2. In a skillet or wok, cook the carrots with a little bit of oil.

3. Add the stir-fry vegetables and cook until heated.

4. Add the frozen shrimp (cut off tails first).

5. Once everything is heated, pour in the sauce.

6. Eat with rice!

Done and delicious!

Stuffed Crust Rosemary Focaccia Pizza with Zucchini and Mushrooms

Pizza! Pizza!

When we don't order pizza, we love to make it. Friday night is traditionally our pizza night. We love trying out different variations of this classic meal. The best thing about pizza is that every slice is a whole meal! You've got everything you need in a well balanced meal compressed into a delicious triangle.

The secret to home-made pizza is finding the right crust. We used to almost always buy the Boboli brand pizza crust. I always found it chewy and lacking in flavor compared to traditional pizza crust. Then, a while later, we discovered that pita bread or indian nan made great pizza crusts. If you are short on time and oven space these are great options because they are quick and can even be made in a toaster oven.

Lately, the best crust however has once again come from a grocery that is quickly becoming a favorite of mine, Fresh and Easy. In their refrigerated section, they have already prepared pizza dough. So, for this recipe, I can't tell you how to make the dough. You just have to buy it already made. But if you can find the raw pizza dough at another store go for it. For this recipe, we bought their rosemary focaccia dough and that was the perfect choice!

Ingredients

1 package of the rosemary focaccia dough from Fresh and Easy

2 cups of grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup of vegetable pasta sauce

Fresh oregano

2 Tbs. olive oil

Garlic salt

1/4 cup sliced mushrooms

1 sliced zucchini

Fresh arugala

2 stalks of green onion sliced

Directions

1. Sprinkle all purpose flour on your counter or on a large cutting board.

2. Coat your hands with flour and toss the pizza dough until it becomes large and round. You can try to roll it out with a rolling pin first, but I prefer tossing it high into the air and catching it!

3. Lay the dough on the flour-coated counter and sprinkle with garlic salt. Then move it to a pizza pan or cookie sheet.

4. Lay a thin layer of mozzarella around the outer ring of the dough. Top the ring of cheese with a few scattered oregano leaves.

5. Fold over the dough and press the edges down to seal the "stuffed crust."

6. Brush the olive oil on the crust and then sprinkle a little more garlic salt on the crust for additional flavor.

7. Spread a thin layer of pasta sauce over the dough.

8. Sprinkle a think layer of the mozzarella cheese over the pasta sauce.

9. Top with the veggies and arugala.

10. Sprinkle a little more cheese and oregano on top of the pizza.

11. Bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes and check. Continue to bake the pizza until the crust turns golden brown and the cheese starts to brown on the top.

12. Remove and let cool for five minutes!

Pair with your favorite beverage! This went well with an IPA beer FYI.

You may even want to warm a side of the pasta sauce to dip your stuffed crust into after you finish the middle of the pizza. It is quite delicious!

Enjoy!

Blood Orange Salmon Avocado Salad

This sounds strange, but it turns out it is a refreshing delight! The blood orange citrus adds quite the compliment to the salty and oily salmon. Of course, the pine nuts always bring in a ton of flavor as well. This is great for a light and healthy dinner. It also is relatively easy and takes just about 1/2 hour to fully prepare.

Make sure you use wild salmon for maximum health effects. Farmed salmon doesn't have nearly as many of the healthy Omega 3 fatty acids as wild salmon. We used fresh Atlantic salmon (a darker red) from our favorite grocery store Fresh and Easy for this dish. It does taste a little more fishy than Alaskan salmon, but goes well with the other flavors.

This will make one salad. Just multiply by the number of people!

Ingredients

1 fresh salmon steak

1/2 avocado, sliced

1/2 blood orange, sliced into chunks in a bowl. SAVE THE JUICE for later!

About 2 Tbs. pine nuts

10-15 pecans

1 stalk of a green onion sliced

1 Tbs. olive oil

1 tsp. olive oil

1 Tbs. red wine vinegar

A pinch of garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Fresh spinach and arugala

Directions

1. Rub salt and pepper into both sides of the salmon.

2. Place on high heat on the grill for just a couple of minutes on each side until salmon is just about cooked all the way through. Remove from grill and wrap in foil to finish the cooking process. This will also keep it warm until you put it on the salad.

3. Place the pine nuts in a small skillet with the tsp. of olive oil and a pinch of garlic powder. Roast the nuts, stirring regularly, until they are browned. Then set them aside.

4. Mix the spinach, arugala, Tbs. of olive oil, red wine vinegar, oranges, orange juice, avocado, onions, pecans together.

5. Top with pine nuts and salmon.

Done! Easy and delicious.

Delicious Zucchini Baked Pasta

If you were like me, you grew up eating a lot of pasta. It was cheap and easy. That's why it was always one of my mom's favorites. Unfortunately, after a while the ol' spaghetti and Ragu would get a little boring. There was a long period in my life where I didn't even eat pasta because I was so sick of the same old spaghetti.

This dish is nothing like "mom's spaghetti" and is just about as easy! The zucchini melts in your mouth like the warm, gooey cheese that tops this dish off.

Ingredients

1 bag/box of Penne pasta

1 cup of sliced mushrooms

2 zucchinis

1 green bell pepper

1 can or jar of pasta sauce (any flavor)

1 clove of garlic

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 cups grated soft mozzarella cheese

4 tbs. Olive oil

Fresh oregano

Garlic salt

Directions

1. Cook the pasta as directed.

2. When pasta is done cooking, strain and then pour back into the pot.

3. Mix in the Parmesan cheese, olive oil, a sprinkling of garlic salt, and leaves from one stem of the oregano.

4. Let it sit for a minute for the flavors to mingle.

5. Pour the pasta into a large casserole dish, leaving room for the vegetables.

6. Slice the zucchini into 1/4 inch round slices. Slice the bell peppers into spears.

7. Mix in the raw zucchini, bell peppers, mushrooms, garlic, pasta sauce, and mozzarella cheese. Add two-three more stems worth of oregano leaves.

8. Top with a layer of mozzarella cheese.

9. Cover and bake on 350 for 35-40 minutes.

10. Uncover and bake for another 10-20 minutes until cheese is browning on top.

11. Remove from oven and let sit for another 10 minutes.

Enjoy! Pair with your favorite wine and garlic bread!

Daring Bakers' Challenge - January 2011: Biscuit Joconde Imprime/Entrement

The Daring Bakers' Challenge started with a bang this 2011! Our host gave us a challenge that I couldn't resist making. It's a type of dessert that I love creating. When done with planning, patience and practice it's an elegant masterpiece - entrement!

Blog-checking lines: The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.

Entrement is a composed  French dessert consisting of different components from dacquoise to mousse to creme brulee, anything you can think of, all put together in one showpiece work of art. For this challenge, one of the components we need to put on our entrement is a patterned joconde used as a lining. Joconde is a sponge cake that is made with almond powder, flour, eggs and powdered sugar. Patterns such as stripes can also be added to the joconde sponge by using a joconde decor paste. The decor paste has a very thick consistency, so it is really manageable to make all the patterns you can think of.

I've always wondered how pastry shops make lovely designs on their sponges especially those sleek stripes and perfect swirls. In the past, I've attempted to make my own sponge design by marbling different colored sponge cake batter; it worked out really nice, but my curiosity on how to make perfect lines still remained. Alas, this month's challenge came; answer to my long time mystery solved!

For my entrement, I made an Orange Cognac Mousse Joconde Cake with Dark Chocolate Mousse and Hazelnut Meringue Disc Center. I was so happy with how everything came out. The sketch I made translated to the finished cake. The only thing I wish is for a better pattern, but since I really didn't have much time to execute this challenge, I had to make use of what I have at home/body (I used my fingers to create my pattern). As a whole I love my cake; looking at my finished cake makes me so giddy! The taste of the whole cake was fabulous too; all the flavour components blended well perfectly. I mean what's wrong with an orange chocolate combo, plus the addition of cognac and hazelnut? The cognac and hazelnuts really heightened the whole cake's flavour profile. For me, the aesthetic of the cake looks close enough to be displayed in a pastry case in Paris. Pardon me if I'm self-complimenting, but I never thought I would have made a cake like this ever in my life.

I can't wait as to what's in store for the February challenge!

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte

Travel Food Blog: Australia

Way long overdue post... I've been quite busy sorting out random things since I came back from Australia, so I finally found some time to squeeze in my 'travel food' post. My trip to Australia was alright; I mean all the activities I've done were amazing and worth cherishing, but due to an unexpected twist of fate, I spent most of the trip visiting my dearest P at the hospital. I won't go into details anymore... So where am I? Ah yes, 'travel food' post!



Australia has an amazing food culture. I was simply blown away with the diversity of cuisines available. Their groceries have a wide range of produce, meat, dairy and other ingredients. It was certainly inspiring; it makes a person want to cook and love food. Their ingredients are of good quality; their carrots are so sweet, and their potatoes are packed with flavour. I really had an overwhelming food cultural experience.

As I was sorting out my photos, I realized I have taken loads of food photos. So I've decided to just pick some of my food encounters to share with you guys. Warning: some might mean a lot! Shall we start?

Xiao Long Bao from our stopover at Shanghai

Fish and Chips

Chinese food chugged down with some iced milk tea! Yum!!

Noche Buena... Small feast on Christmas Eve: homemade ham, potato au gratin, buttered carrots, duck liver pate, cheese platter, and some wines and bubbly. This feast was prepared by my sister C, oh carrots by my sister Z!

Tiramisu made by my sister J for Noche Buena. Super yummy!

Wasabi peas 

Christmas feast begins! Seafood and salads... I love salads! 

My aunt R's homemade ham

Roast pork

Desserts: croquembouche, gingerbread house, bombe Alaska and orange chocolate cake (not in picture).

Cousin L's eggnog!! Delish! I drank quite a few... Sigh... such a lovely Christmas feast!

Gorgeous chocolates given by S

Donar kebab - couldn't resist this junkie goodness. 

Baklava 

Wine tasting and wine tour at Hunter Valley. 

Indian for dinner; tikka here korma there, my belly was so satisfied! 

Corned beef - not processed, taste so much better! 

Kangaroo! Surprisingly good; it has a gamey taste, which I love. 

White, milk and dark chocolate dips for churros. 

Churros in the making... interesting contraption. 

Yum yum churros

Pies, pies and more pies! Oh, and don't forget the sausage rolls!

Peppercorn steak pie... mmmm... 

Pumpkin tortellini 

Chicken and Chips. To be honest, I just ordered this kiddie meal because I wanted the tweety cup! Yes, I am a tweety fan. 

Corndog

Pineapple float

Aunt R's kiam peng rice. She was so thoughtful cooking food for my family while we were at the hospital. Thank you! 

Cousin L's lamb moussaka. Absolutely delicious, couldn't stop eating it! Thanks L! 

Lamb sausages (my favourite sausages next to bratwurst) served with caramelized onions and salad.

Butterscotch madeleines that L and I  baked for a very nice lady at the hospital.

Hot Dog de Wheels from Harry's Cafe de Wheels - Continental Frankfurt, on soft bread roll with mushy peas, chilli con carne, garlic onions, chilli and cheese sauce. The best hotdog I ever had! 

Tiger from Harry's Cafe de Wheels - mash, mushy peas and gravy on top of a pie! oooo.... 

Ricotta cheese pancake with fresh strawberries 

Deep fried prawns 

Pad Thai 

Thai duck curry 

Ribs from Hurricane's Grill & Bar 

First salad that I made that's actually good - hake and prawn with avocado, dill and lemon vol au vent salad. 

Crocodile burrito; the croc looked like chicken and had a texture of overcooked fish. Nothing really special I'd say. 

Seared yellow fin tuna served with pineapple rice. Not that good; I'm still on the hunt for my perfect pepper crusted seared yellow fin tuna.

That's one hot hot hot chili sauce. 

German pork knuckle served with sauerkraut and mash. 

Assorted German sausages 

Swiss schnitzel 

Sukiyaki 

Pork cutlet ramen 

The last food photo: my very own blanquette de veau served with buttered dill carrots. I rarely excel on cooking, so when I do, I'm proudly happy!

Whew... done! I would love to go back to Australia to eat more food! I love how there are different cuisines in one country. I'm definitely head over heels with the Australian food culture!

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte