Pizza Night

We have some barley flour from Four Star Farms in Northfield, MA (www.fourstarfarms.com), that we received in our CSA share. This is great in pizza, adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. This recipe makes 3- 9x13 inch pizzas, enough for around 6 people. If you have a pizza stone, that's great. However, we had a bad experience with a pizza stone a while back (composite material + soap = stinky stone), so we just roll the dough out onto Silpat mats (silpat.com- awesome kitchen tool!) and throw them directly onto the oven racks.

1.5 cups barley flour (or substitute whole wheat or regular)
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon dry yeast
1 1/4 cups water
2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon olive oil

Combine half the flour with salt, yeast, 2 tablespoons oil, and 1 cup water. Stir until smooth. Add the remaining water if the mixture is too dry. Now slowly add the remaining flour, a little at a time until you can't stir anymore. Dump everything out onto a board and knead in the rest. Stop adding flour when the dough is -just- not sticky anymore. Too much flour will make the dough dry, but this recipe has a lot of wiggle room.

Put the dough ball into a bowl greased with 1 teaspoon oil, cover, and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour. You can let it rise longer, if you are patient. Roll the dough out into thin crusts, about 1/8 inch thick.

PIZZA TOPPINGS:

I first brushed the edges of the crusts with a little olive oil. Then I topped the pizzas with a thin layer of prepared marinara sauce from Trader Joe's, though of course you can easily make your own.

For 3 pizzas, I used:

2 packed cups shredded mozzarella
about 5 ounces baby bella mushrooms, sliced
about 1-2 ounces pepperoni slices (happened to have this around after a party)
1 bunch of swiss chard, shredded
1 large eggplant, sliced into 1/2 inch slices, drizzed with olive oil and salt and broiled for about 10 minutes, flipping halfway through, then cut into cubes

Once the toppings are on, preheat the oven to 475 F (max temp for the Silpat is 480 F), then bake in the lower middle of the oven for 7-9 minutes until crust is crispy and golden.

Delicious!

I served this with GREEK SALAD

1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into cubes
a few handfuls of cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters
1 x 1 x 2 inch block of feta cheese, in cubes
1/2 of a sweet Vidalia onion, sliced
1/2 head of Romaine lettuce, shredded
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 lemon, juiced
a few tablespoons of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Spa Food at Home: Mesquite Grilled Salmon with Arugula Pesto Sauce, Green Beans with Roasted Garlic, and Roasted Root Veg

I have been hankering for salmon these days and have eaten it at least 5 times this past month. Today I bought some delicious wild sockeye salmon and decided to try out the mesquite powder that I bought on vacation in Sarasota, FL, at a little spice/tea shop called The Spice & Tea Exchange (http://www.spiceandtea.com/smoke-powders-mesquite-p-115.html)

Mesquite Grilled Salmon (The Cheater Mesquite)
Serves 2

2- 6 ounce fillets (skin on) wild sockeye salmon
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon mesquite powder
1 tablespoon soy sauce
pepper to taste

Marinate salmon fillets at least 30 minutes, then grill over medium heat.

Arugula Pesto Sauce
I had some arugula pesto that I made last summer stored in the freezer, so I mixed a couple of tablespoons of this with about 1/2 cup of full fat Greek yogurt and added about 1 T fresh squeezed lemon juice. Delish.

Green Beans with Roasted Garlic
I also had some roasted garlic cloves leftover in the fridge that I stored in olive oil. In a frying pan, I mashed 4 of these with some of the olive oil and sauteed about 1/2 pound fresh green beans until crisp-tender. Seasoned with a little salt, this was fantastic.

Roasted Root Veg
I cut up 2 small sweet potatoes and 4 small yukon gold potatoes into 1 cm cubes. Placed in a baking pan, drizzed with a little olive oil, sprinkled a little sea salt, roasted 450F for 15 min, stirred them around, then another 5 minutes or so until the edges had gone toasty.

Pictures to come....when I finally upload them from my camera