The Quest for Super Thin and Truly Delicious Pizza Crust

The Quest for Super Thin and Truly Delicious Pizza Crust taught me as much as it taught Henry. I can't claim any amount of expertise in crust-making, so we have been figuring it out together, trying different recipes, and soliciting advice from friends.

We wanted thin, crisp, and flavorful. We also wanted whole grain, but our 100 percent whole-wheat flour attempt was too dense and heavy. A friend suggested using whole wheat pastry flour instead of regular whole wheat, and using it in combination with unbleached white flour. Bingo. I wanted a slightly sweet note, and a friend's recipe that called for honey inspired me to add a little maple syrup, just a little, and wow. Olive oil and a generous dose of salt rounded out the flavor.

When you start researching pizza crust, you quickly discover the millions of pizza stone advocates out there. They are convincing. They will make you believe that it is not possible to make a good pizza without a stone. I was sold, but when I priced pizza stones I changed my mind - I want to get one someday, but it's out of my budget right now. Instead, I bought this very cheap 16-inch pizza pan:

It works great! Don't let the pizza stone people deter you. But if you have one already, this recipe should translate well.

Pizza Crust
Enough for a 16-inch pizza.

2 cups flour (we like a blend of unbleached white and whole wheat pastry)
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt (or a little less if that scares you)
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 cup warm water

You can do this by hand with a wooden spoon, or in a stand mixer.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, yeast, and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together water, maple syrup, and olive oil.

Add water mixture to flour mixture and stir until everything is well combined. This will just take a few seconds in a mixer, a little longer if you're working by hand. Dust your hands and a clean surface lightly with flour, turn dough onto the surface, and knead briefly (1 minute or less) until it comes together into a smooth ball.

Oil a clean bowl, place the dough in it, cover with a towel, and set aside to rise for about an hour while you prepare your sauce and toppings. (sauce recipe and topping suggestions coming next week!)

Preheat oven to 500.

Lightly oil your pizza pan or do whatever you do with your fancy pizza stone.

When you're ready to bake:
Put the dough in the middle of the pan and press and stretch it, starting from the center and moving to the edges, until it covers the whole pan. Pinch around the edges to make a rim.

We got good results with pre-baking the crust before adding any sauce or toppings. I recommend that you bake the crust for 5 minutes, remove from the oven, add toppings quickly, and then return to the oven for 9 or 10 more minutes, for a total baking time of 14-15 minutes.

Mission accomplished!

Mission: Pizza

Henry wants to learn how to make pizza, which is not something I've mastered, so we are learning together. Attempt number one -  red sauce, arugula, and a little mozzarella on a whole wheat crust - was good, not great. We need a better crust recipe, and next time we need to stretch it all the way to the edge. We want thin crust, crispy crust, flavorful crust. If you have any tips or recipes, please share!

Mission not accomplished. To be continued next week. It's a tough job, but somebody's really got to.

Fried Eggs and Asparagus

I have been swooning over asparagus this spring, and gearing up to teach Henry 101 ways to prepare it, but he requested homemade pizza-making lessons, which means this is my final word on asparagus, for now. Given that, I thought I'd better teach Henry how to make Fried Eggs and Asparagus.

Henry already knows how to fry an egg, so this was really a lesson in roasting asparagus, my favorite technique for cooking my favorite vegetable. Roasting intensifies its flavor, and I love how the tips get browned, frizzled, and crispy.

Whenever I make this you would seriously think I've prepared an elaborate three-course feast, the way my family carries on. It's pretty satisfying to toss asparagus stalks in the oven, fry up some eggs, pile it all together, and find yourself greeted at the table like some kind of culinary genius.

Fried Eggs and Asparagus
Serves 4

2 lb asparagus, washed, patted dry, hard ends snapped off
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
8 eggs
Salt
Pepper
Optional grated cheese (parmesan is good)

Preheat oven to 375

Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper

Put asparagus in a mixing bowl and add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and 2-3 generous pinches of salt. Use your hands to coat every spear with oil and salt. Spread asparagus in a single layer on cookie sheets and roast undisturbed for about 20 minutes. If you're not sure if it's done, eat some to check. Just try not to eat it all.

Warm remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil in two frying pans over medium heat and crack 4 eggs into each. Cover and cook until whites are set but yolks are still a little soft.

To serve:  Divide asparagus onto four plates, top each with two eggs, season generously with pepper and salt, and add optional cheese. Don't delay, serve immediately.

Pasta Primavera

Who cares about your cheap fork, bent out of shape, when the dish it's spearing is fresh and herby and cooked in one pot in twenty minutes, and includes the year's first asparagus?

This is Pasta Primavera, a Lovesmiths standard, a recipe included in the handmade cookbook I assembled twelve years ago for my husband during a hectic period when I was working full-time during the day and playing in a couple of bands at night, and couldn't manage to always make dinner for the family. It was called "The Man's Cookbook" and I wish I could find it, but it has moved across the ocean a couple of times and I don't know if it fell off a boat or dropped into a corner, but I haven't been able to dig it up.

Fortunately, I couldn't forget this easy recipe. I especially love the technique of parboiling the vegetables, scooping them out, and then using the vegetable cooking water for the pasta. I also love how infinitely versatile it is - you can use any vegetable, any kind of pasta, and any bean - or skip the beans and add cubes of tofu or cheese, especially if your son insists bitterly that you put chickpeas in absolutely every every everything.

It was easy to teach Henry how to make Pasta Primavera since he has loitered around the kitchen many times while it was being made, and has eaten countless versions over the years. He just seemed to know the process instinctively. I will definitely ask him to make this on his own sometime this spring. It'll be sans chickpeas, I'm guessing.

Pasta Primavera
Serves 6-8

1 lb asparagus, hard ends snapped off, cut into 1-2-inch lengths
1 lb broccoli, cut into small florets
2 large carrots, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1-2-inch lengths
2 stalks celery, halved lengthwise and cut into 1-2-inch lengths
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
4 cloves of garlic, minced very finely
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons dried basil, thyme, or oregano, or blend of any combination (or double that amount of fresh herbs)
1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced. (optional)
1 can, drained, of chickpeas or any kind of white bean, or cubed tofu or cheese.
1 lb pasta
Handful of parsley, minced

Put a large pot of water up to boil. While it's coming to a boil, make the vinaigrette:
Whisk together olive oil, balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, garlic, salt, and herbs in a medium, non-metallic bowl until combined and emulsified. Add chickpeas/beans/tofu/cheese (and optional mushrooms) to marinate.

When water comes to a boil, add a pinch of salt and asparagus, broccoli, carrots and celery. Cook 2 minutes (don't go over), then scoop out into a strainer and rinse with cold water. Set aside.

Add additional water to pot if necessary to bring it to approximately 3/4 full, return to boil, and add pasta. Cook according to package directions and drain well.

In a large bowl, combine pasta, vinaigrette and marinated protein and mushrooms, and cooked veggies. Stir gently but thoroughly to combine. Garnish with parsley.

Red Lentil and Cauliflower Curry

Henry and I took our first trip to the Spice House in Evanston last weekend, and had ourselves a little shopping spree.

I was in the market for a hot curry powder, but mainly I wanted us to browse and explore, to get inspired in the same way you get inspired in an art-supply store, and to remember that shopping for food need not always be an exhausting rush through the store, chucking the same old things into a cart. Shopping for food can be a delight.

Shopping at the Spice House was a total delight. It smells amazing, they have free samples of candied ginger (Henry's favorite), and just being there was inspiring in exactly the way I'd hoped it would be. Those overflowing shelves of herbs and spices would make anybody want to rush home and rustle something up.

I found my hot curry powder, but we also nabbed some Himalayan Pink Salt (not sure what to do with it, but it is so pretty), double-strength vanilla ("favored by bakers") and bright red paprika, smoked AND hot, how could I resist? 

Here's the thing we rushed home and rustled up. I'd made a batch of Red Lentil and Cauliflower Curry earlier in the week, using spices from the supermarket, and it was good, but our freshly ground, expertly blended curry powder pushed it right over the top. 

Red Lentil and Cauliflower Curry

Serves 3-4

2 tablespoons coconut oil

2 garlic cloves, finely minced

1 tablespoon finely minced ginger

1 tablespoon hot curry powder

1/2 cup dried red lentils, rinsed and drained

1 cup water

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets

2 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch rounds

1 13.5 ounce can coconut milk

5-6 ounces fresh spinach, washed and chopped

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

optional: coriander, parsley, or additional spinach to garnish

Heat coconut oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add garlic, ginger, and curry powder and stir constantly for 1 minute. Pay attention - you don't want the garlic to brown and you don't want the curry powder to burn.

Add lentils and water, turn heat up to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 10 minutes.

Add cauliflower, carrots, and coconut milk, bring back to a gentle simmer, and cook covered  over medium-low heat, 10-15 more minutes, until vegetables are tender. 

Add spinach and salt and cook, stirring, 3-4 minutes, until spinach is wilted and bright green.

Remove from heat, stir in lemon juice, taste and adjust seasoning, and serve hot with optional garnish.

Would be nice on basmati rice, but we ate it on its own out of bowls and it was totally satisfying.

Vegan Mexican Chocolate Shake: Have it your way

I thought that this week's cooking lesson was going to be a throw-away, basically a week off, but it ended up being fantastically instructive, a chance to teach Henry both how to follow a recipe and how to tweak a recipe, and a chance for the two of us to spend a little time at the feet of food writer Mark Bittman - alway time well spent.

It started a couple of weeks ago with Bittman's feature in the New York Times Magazine, Yes, Healthful Fast Food Is Possible. But Edible? A great article that asked if conditions are finally ripe for affordable, healthy, fast-food. He was after my heart with this topic. When I was an actively touring musician, a vegetarian trying in vain to eat well on the road in 1991, I used to sit in the van and dream about walking into a Burger King and ordering a veggie burger with sweet potato fries. But my heart really jumped when I reached Bittman's sidebar, "Welcome to McBitty's," a collection of three recipes right out of my road dreams: Bean Burgers, Sweet Potato Fries, and a Mexican Chocolate Shake.

"Henry," I said, "LOOK at THIS."

"Let's make that," he said. "All of it."

Everybody knows that student-led learning is the best of all, so it was settled; Henry had determined the curriculum for our next lesson, not to mention the menu for our Saturday family lunch. I had modest expectations for the cooking lesson, but high expectations for the burger and fries.

I should have had high expectations all around. I hadn't realized how valuable it would be for Henry to follow a published recipe carefully, to see how spectacular the results can be when you do, particularly when it happens to be a well-tested one from someone who knows his stuff. Henry tends to be minimally interested in recipes, much more interested in technique, so this was eye-opening. We followed the recipe for sweet potato fries to a T and they were perfect. We did the same with the bean burgers, except we substituted parsley for the cilantro since Henry is one of those mutant cilantro-haters, and again, amazing results.

But we took some liberties with the milkshake, opting for a deeper, darker chocolate treat, in keeping with our family's taste, and adding a homemade coconut whipped topping. In the end Henry gained new respect for good recipes as well as the confidence to take a good recipe and have it his way.

Vegan Mexican Chocolate Shake
adapted from Mark Bittman's recipe, see link above
Serves 4-6

2 cups almond milk
1 lb silken tofu
12 ounces dark chocolate, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon chili powder

Blend ingredients well and chill in freezer for 30 minutes or so. Top with whipped coconut cream and chocolate shavings or chunks, optional.

Whipped Coconut Cream
serves 4-6, depending on how much you eat with a spoon out of the food processor

2 cans coconut milk (not light)
1-2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Put unopened cans of coconut milk in the freezer for 2 or 3 hours. It takes this long for the cream to separate from the water. Scoop the cream out and into a food processor, add sugar and vanilla, and process for a few minutes until it's whipped and light.

Chard with Soba Noodles and Lemon-Tahini Sauce

"Hmm," said Henry. "Yeah." He was chopping a ton of chard, I was making tahini sauce and telling him all about seasonal eating, about how it's healthy to eat heavier food in the winter, more fat and protein, and healthy to eat lighter in the spring and summer, more in-season fruits and vegetables. I was extremely interested in what I had to say. He was dead bored.

Oh well. It was a good reminder to ease up on the pedagogy during our cooking lessons, and take more cues from my son. When I have too much of an agenda, a planned spiel, things tend to fall a little flat.

On the bright side, our meal was a success - we started with three plates on the table, overflowing with noodles, chard, green onions, parsley, and a zingy sauce that sang of spring all on its own, without my yammering, and we ended with three empty plates and three happy livers (your liver loves lemon and bitter greens in the spring. There I go again...).

Chard with Soba Noodles and Lemon-Tahini Sauce
Serves 4

8-ounce package soba (buckwheat) noodles
1 tablespoon coconut oil
3 huge bunches of chard, washed well and sliced thinly, stems and all
generous pinch of salt
1 clove garlic, minced finely
1/2 cup tahini
5 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 cup warm water
2 scallions, sliced
big handful parsley leaves, chopped

Cook soba noodles according to package directions, drain, rinse with cold water and set aside.

To make sauce, combine tahini, lemon juice, salt and cayenne in a small bowl. I like to use a fork to mash/whisk these ingredients together. Add water, a tablespoon at a time and whisk well. Tahini can vary in consistency - if sauce is very thick add another tablespoon or so of water.

Heat large wok (or any pot that can contain your mountain of chard) on high heat, add coconut oil and swirl to coat wok. Add chard, a few handfuls at a time, add a nice big pinch of salt and cook, stirring, 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and stir-fry one additional minute. If chard releases a lot of water, pour it off or dump chard into a strainer to drain and return to wok. Reduce heat to medium, add almost all the tahini sauce (save a little to drizzle on top) and stir well for 1 minute.

Divide noodles between plates or bowls, top with chard, scallions, parsley, and the rest of the sauce.

Happy spring!!