Pita Pizzas with a Kick - a guest post

My husband has been creating in the kitchen again. Here's his great twist on our pita pizzas!

Cooking never has to be boring. If you cooking is boring and you are tired of the same old flavors then you need to mix it up a bit. One of my favorite ways to mix it up lately is to add a twist of Indian. I used this recipe from AllRecipies.com and added a half a teaspoon of Patak’s Vindaloo Curry Paste. Yum! I kept the quantity small enough so as not to override the flavor of the pizza sauce, but to add a twinge of Indian kick. The result: wow!

Ingredients:

2 Greek Pitas

Pizza Sauce w/ Indian Kick

½ Onion (thinly sliced)

½ Red Pepper (thinly sliced)

Pepperoni

Cheddar (grated)

Feta Cheese (grated)

15 Kalamata Olives

What gives these pita pizzas such a gourmet flavor is the flavor of the ingredients themselves. Lately, Kristen and I have switched from using Red Bell Peppers to Long Sweet Red Peppers. They have a robust flavor. You don’t need a lot of feta cheese to add great flavor.  The onions and peppers are sweet, the feta and the Kalamata olives are bitter and salty. This pizza sauce has a wonderful taste even without the “Indian Kick”, due to the garlic, herbs, and honey. Slice up the vegetables, grate the cheese, remove the pits from the olives and slice them up. (I prefer Kalamata olives in brine to canned sliced olives as they have much more flavor.)

Cover the pitas with as much sauce as you like. Add the pepperoni, onion, pepper, olives, cheese, and then bake at 350 for 20 min. Enjoy your gourmet pita pizzas!

Another variation on these pizzas:

2 Greek Pitas

Pizza Sauce w/ Indian Kick

½ Red Pepper (thinly sliced)

1 shallot (thinly sliced)

¼ Onion (thinly sliced)

½ Jalapeno Pepper (thinly sliced)

1 clove of Garlic (crushed)

6 oz Rotisserie Chicken (cut in chunks)

1 tsp Olive oil

Cheddar Cheese

Feta Cheese

Kalamata olives

In a small fry pan lightly sauté the thinly sliced shallots, onion, garlic, and Jalapeno pepper in Olive oil, and then cool. Cover the pitas with pizza sauce, add onion, garlic, shallot mix, and spread evenly. Add chunks of chicken, red pepper, and Kalamata olives. Finish with cheese and bake at 350 for 20 min on a baking sheet. Enjoy!

Pizza Sauce:

Pizza Sauce Recipe from AllRecipies.com

1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste

6 fluid ounces warm water (110 degrees

F/45 degrees C)

3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon anchovy paste (optional)

3/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram

1/4 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes

salt to taste

In a small bowl, combine tomato paste, water, Parmesan cheese, garlic, honey, anchovy paste, onion powder, oregano, marjoram, basil, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes and salt; mix together, breaking up any clumps of cheese.

Sauce should sit for 30 minutes to blend flavors; spread over pizza dough and prepare pizza as desired.

Angela's Mom's Spaghetti Sauce

We have been on the quest for the perfect spaghetti sauce for a long while now.  When I saw that my old college roommate Angela posted her mom's version during a recent visit home, I knew we had to try it.  I remember Mrs. Collins being a good cook.  I know Angela is a good cook too (we used to drive our landlords nuts wondering what delicious things we had cooking in the basement).  This sauce worked for us.  It's quite a large quantity so we made it, took some enough for that night plus a night of leftovers and then divided out the rest, freezing it in the deep freeze.  The recipe is (as all good recipes are) made mostly by instinct of cooking over the years.  Angela did her best to write it out, but it's not accurate as she will admit.  You can find this fantastic recipe on her cooking blog here.

Thai inspired dinner with a good friend

I've been wanting to visit my favorite Thai restaurant, Suwanna for a while now. It's a nicer place to go and we usually reserve it for special occasions (the last time we were there was my birthday back in November. We were going to go there for Jonathan's birthday a couple of weeks ago but it was closed (they take a couple of week's holiday each year). So while we went elsewhere for dinner that night, my Thai craving didn't go away. While I make a decent Thai stir-fry, there are other dishes that I love eating but have never made myself. Tonight was the night to search and experiment. Can I make more than a stir-fry? Can I brave a carrot salad and succeed? How about Chicken Satay and peanut sauce?
I did some googling and found a few recipes for each. Some I followed as written, others I tweaked.
1st up was the carrot salad. Carrot salad is something I would never have ordered were it not for the encouragement of my friend Erin on her birthday at Suwanna one year. She raved about it. I thought how good could a pile of shredded carrot be? I am not a huge coleslaw fan to begin with, why would I order something resembling coleslaw at a fancy restaurant? I am so glad I did. This carrot salad was so delicious. I found a highly rated version at Group Recipes and gave it a go.

3 cups grated carrots
Vinaigrette:
1/4 cup rice vinegar
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
1 cup chopped peanuts
Finely chopped fresh mint for garnish (I didn't have fresh mint so I left this out)

Directions
In a food processor blend all the vinaigrette ingredients except peanuts and mint. (I used a hand blender to mix)
Wash the carrots with a brush and grate into a large bowl.
Add the dressing and marinate for 20 minutes before serving. (ours marinated for closer to an hour)
Garnish with chopped peanuts and mint.

The result was a lovely salad. All adults at the table loved it. I say adults because my kids took one look at their plate of salad, rice and chicken and kind of shook their head. Elijah ate the rice, tried the chicken and salad before rejecting it. Jeremy didn't even get that far. He immediately grabbed the salad into his hands and said, 'No like this' and started to pile it onto my husband's plate. At that point I figured it would be a lot easier (and quieter) to make them each a snack plate supper of cheese and crackers, yogurt cups and dried fruit. It worked!




Thai stir-fry and basamati rice I could probably make in my sleep by now. I made the stir-fry and curry sauce plain (no shrimp or anything) and added more veg than I would if I were making this with a meat. I halved the sauce from my usual as I had only half a can of coconut milk left over from the satay marinade.

Stir-fry

1 tbsp cooking oil
1 onion, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1/2 yellow pepper, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped

Stir-fry all of the above over medium low heat until just soft, add the sauce (below) and allow to cook together to let the flavours blend into each other. Add some fresh chopped cilantro just before serving.

Curry Sauce (1/2)

1/2 can coconut milk
1/2 tsp red curry paste
few dashes of fish sauce

Boil altogether in a small saucepan, whisking well.



Chicken Satay

The chicken satay recipe I found at All Recipes.

1/2 cup canned coconut milk
1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon yellow curry powder
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon chili oil
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into strips
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro (did not add)
1 tablespoon chopped unsalted peanuts (did not add)
12 wooden skewers, soaked in water for 15 minutes (we just grilled the chicken without being on skewers)

In a medium bowl, stir together the coconut milk, ground coriander, curry powder, fish sauce, and chili oil. Add the chicken breast strips, and stir to coat. Cover, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, and up to 2 hours.
Preheat an indoor or outdoor grill for high heat. Thread the chicken strips onto skewers. Discard marinade.
Grill chicken for 2 to 3 minutes per side, until no longer pink. Time will depend on how thick your strips are. Transfer to a serving plate, and garnish with cilantro and peanuts. Serve with peanut sauce for dipping.

*We didn't skewer it and I didn't add the cilantro and peanuts at the end because I already had a couple of dishes with both. Also, when I started the marinade I was out of ground corriander so I used 1 tsp thyme and 1/2 tsp parsley in it instead. I did have to make a grocery run for a couple of things (highly unusual for me, I know) and ended up picking up some ground coriander while I was there and adding it to the marinade when I got home. I think the chicken sat in the marindade for a good 3 hours before we grilled it on the BBQ. I also managed to convince my husband to BBQ in the rain for me for this, which I am very grateful.

This chicken was really tasty. I would definately make it again.



Peanut Sauce

The peanut sauce I had a harder time finding. I read a lot of peanut sauce recipes and never did find one that I thought would be really good. What I ended up doing was basing mine on a recipe I found at All Recipes and then adapting it based on the comments it had received. It made a lot more sauce than I was expecting, and I ended up cooking it in a small saucepan over low-medium heat in order to get the peanut butter to a really smooth consistancy.

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter (I used smooth, natural)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon white sugar (I used brown sugar instead and increased it to 1 tbsp)
2 drops hot pepper sauce (I increased this quite a bit, probably 4 or 5 good shakes, not drops)
1 clove garlic, minced (I increased this to 2 cloves crushed)
1/2 cup water
*I added a little bit of chili oil and threw in some sesame seeds too

In a small bowl, stir together peanut butter, soy sauce, sugar, hot pepper sauce and garlic until well mixed. Gradually stir in water until texture is smooth and creamy.
*These directions didn't work for me. I combined everything into a small saucepan and whisked it together over low-medium heat instead.

The results were quite tasty.

Dinner was followed by mango sorbet and chocolate chip cookies. Very tasty.

So a little while back, Mommy Gourmet challenged us to have a meal with a friend (or friends) and write about it. I really wanted to do this, not for the contest of it, but because I really enjoy spending time with my friends. Because of the chaos that is our lives at present I was starting to think that I wouldn't have the time to share an evening with everyone. We did have dinner with friends over the past month, but it's been dinner out, not dinner in.

This morning after church, my husband was chatting with a very good friend of ours, Debbie. As I joined them I kept getting the nudge to invite her over for dinner, so I did. (Hey, when God speaks, I've learned to listen). As soon as the words were out of my mouth, Jonathan said, "I was just thinking that, yes, you should come over for supper tonight." So she agreed.
It has been too long since we've had Debbie over. We don't live close to our family (life having taken us to the complete opposite side of Canada), but we've been fortunate enough to make some friendships here that truly have become more than friendship. I would count Debbie as someone who is more family to us. She is one of Jeremy's godparents. She is someone that we have travelled with. She is someone who has cared for our children when we've gone away (she looked after Elijah when I was labouring with Jeremy). She's one of the first people to know what's going on with us. She prays for us and with us. She's just a really lovely person. Her daughter, Christy is also very close to us and is the first person we call to take care of the boys when we want a night out. Christy was away tonight for the long weekend, so it was just Debbie, which was neat because we often don't get to see Debbie, just Debbie.
The boys were so excited to see her. She is one of their favorite people. You can always tell with the kids who they like and who they don't by how much they show off, and it was full force show off mode tonight.
Most of the night took place in the kitchen (because let's face it, I'm somewhat of a Maritmer now and that's what Maritimers do) and we just talked. We talked while I finished up supper. We talked while we ate. We talked while I cleaned up. We talked during dessert. And we talked over tea (Darjeeling - me) and coffee (Starbucks blend - Jonathan and Debbie) afterwards. Those are some of the best nights. You don't need to plan any entertainment (and really, a two year old running around in his diaper telling you he's naked is entertainment - and hey, there's always his four year old brother doing his best Elvis impersonation using a hockey stick as a guitar too). It's just friends being friends, catching up and being comfortable with each other. There's no pressure to be anyone in particular, just yourself.
Debbie loved the food. She fully admits to being a functional cook. She makes sure that there is always a nutritious meal set out (she and another friend of ours run a place called Jordan House, which boards women who need a place to stay), but she's not one to experiment with food. She had a good laugh that my kids would turn down this 'gourmet meal' for cheese and crackers. She thought the carrot salad was so tasty (never having had Suwanna's to compare to). She asked how I made the stir-fry (and had seconds, always a compliment to the cook). And just seemed to really enjoy the meal. She also had a giggle over me taking pictures of what we were eating, but was intregued enough to want to see the blog after supper.
I don't think you can ask for much more than that. Good friend, good food, good time.



Debbie with Elijah

Kafta

We have this lovely restaurant in town called Vivaldi's. The name is a little misleading because I had thought it was an Italian place. It is, but it's also a Lebanese place. I know, I'd never heard of a combination like that before either! And I've actually never eaten any of the Italian food at Vivaldi's, for me, it's my Lebanese place. Mmmm, my mouth waters just thinking about it. The last time we were there (and by we I me just J & I - no kids, no playplace), I had Kafta. I love the flavours of Lebanese cuisine. So delicious. And I started to wonder if I could replicate this at home. So I did some looking. I found a recipe for the basic meat mixture at LebGuide, which is a guide to all things Lebanese. I figured that would be my best bet, who better than to get a Lebanese recipe from than the Lebanese themselves. Now, I don't have the skewers over charchoal authenticity of it, I did the as meatballs roasted in the oven version. I also had no idea (except my memory) of how to replicate the sauce that Vivaldi's serves. J was quite impressed with the end result, he said I got it pretty darn close.
Here's the recipe:
2 1/2 lbs finely ground lamb or beef (I used extra lean ground beef)
2 cups tighly packed washed and picked parsley (incredibly there was no fresh parsley at the market this week, so I substituted 1/2 cup of dry)
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves or 1 TBS dry mint leaves (I used fresh)
1 large onion, cut up for food processor
1 tsp Bhar Helou or 1/4 each ground cinammon, cloves, nutmeg (I used the cinamon, cloves and nutmeg version)
1 tsp salt, more to taste
1/2 tsp ground black pepper, or to taste

In a food processor, chop onion extremely fine. Add parsely and mint and until you have a fine - not liquified - homogeneous mixture. Put the meat in a large mixing bowl, add all ingredients and spices to meat, combine and mix thoroughly with your hands.
I heated the oven to 400* degrees and formed the meat mixture into large meatballs. I put a little olive oil on my clay baker and then baked the meatballs (uncovered) in it for a good half hour. (Check the meatballs to make sure that the meat is cooked through.)

Now for the sauce:

1 bulb of garlic
2 tsp olive oil
1 large onion (chopped)
1 red pepper (chopped)
1 green pepper (chopped)
1 can whole tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 tbsp beef beef stock mix
1 tsp cinnimon
1 tsp parsley flakes
fresh ground pepper to taste

Roast the garlic. I do this by taking the garlic apart into cloves and removing the skins. I put the cloves onto a sheet of aluminum foil, drizzle with olive oil. Wrap up the garlic into a little foil package. Bake at 350* for 45 minutes. When the garlic is done, puree it with a hand blender and set aside to use later.

Use a larger cooking pot. Heat the other tsp of olive oil on medium heat. Add the chopped onion, red & green peppers, and mix into the oil. Allow the vegetables to cook covered (but stirring them up every few minutes as to not burn or over cook). (I'm going to use one of my favorite cooking descriptions here) Allow the vegetables to sweat. (Don't you just love that description? I've been waiting to use it - it basically means they need to cook until soft and allow the natural liquid to come out of them). Take each tomato from the can and individually squeeze it in - set the remaining tomato juice aside, we're going to use it for something else. Add the can of tomato sauce. Mix in the seasonings (cinnimon, parsley, beef stock, pepper) and the roasted garlic puree. Bring to a little boil, stirring often. Then, reduce heat to low and allow the sauce to simmer.
*As with a lot of tomato sauces, the longer the simmer the better. I have a friend in Italy whose mother starts their tomato sauces in the morning and lets them simmer all day long.

The rice part:
You should have about a cup of tomato juice reserved from the can of tomatoes. Cook 1 cup of basamati rice with the tomato juice and a cup of water. (Measure to make sure, the ratio for cooking rice is 1 cup of rice to 2 cups of liquid).

Serve the Kafta on top of the rice and pour the sauce over that. Delicious!

I definately want to make the Kafta again and experiment with it a bit. I would like to try it on the BBQ this summer, maybe as a kebab with some veggies.

I think this meal would have been even better if it had a side accompniament. Some hummus and pita or a tabouleh salad would have been the perfect contrasts.

My oldest son, Elijah, is fascinated that I take pictures of our food and put them on my website, he wanted to present the kafta to you all, so here is the shot of his hand. You also have to imagine a four year voice of dramatic authority accompanying it with, "Your dinner is served"

Gravy

There's a couple of ways to make a good gravy. 1 is to start with a rue and then add, the other is to start with the dripping and then add the flour. I usually go with the second method.

Strain your (hot)meat drippings through a sieve and into a cooking pot. Put on stove over medium heat. Add 1-2 cups of water. A few spoonfuls of flour and some stock seasoning (vegetable, chicken or beef depending on what kind of gravy it is). Whisk all together quickly and constantly so you don't get lumps. Keep stirring until the gravy starts to thicken. Remove from heat.

our favorite spaghetti sauce

I know, everyone has a spaghetti recipe. This is mine. Jonathan and I actually worked a lot to get a recipe that we really, really like. This is the one that I made at my parents house last year and my brother commented, wow, Kris is a really good cook.

1 bulb garlic
1 red pepper
1tbsp olive oil
1lb lean ground beef
1 small onion
2 tbsp italian seasoning (or sub in 1 tbsp basil, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp thyme, 1 tsp parsley flakes)
1 can pasta sauce (generic)
1 can tomatoes
1/4 cup red cooking wine
1 tbsp beef boulion

Preheat oven to 350*. Seed red pepper and cut into chunks. Take skins off all garlic cloves on you bulb. Reserve 1 clove to use later. On a sheet of aluminum foil, place your red pepper and garlic. Drizzle with olive oil. Wrap up into a little package and cook in your oven for about 40 minutes, or until contents are soft. (you'll be able to smell when it's ready).
In a large saucepot over low-medium heat, saute ground beef with onion and seasonings. Drain the grease off when there is no pink left in the beef. Return mixture to pot. Add pasta sauce and stir everything together. Take the tomatoes and squish them one by one into small chunks into your sauce (it's messy, but it's fun). Add cooking wine and beef stock. Stir.
Take your pepper/garlic package out of the oven. Carefully open up (don't burn yourself with the steam) and place everything into a food processor, or a small bowl if you have a hand blender. (Make sure all the oil drains in too). Blend contents into a puree and add to your sauce. Stir. Add more seasonings if you wish. Just before serving, press your reserved garlic clove into your sauce.
Serve over whole wheat spaghetti noodles.