Charcoal Grilled Pizza!

© Nick Young 2011

Grilling pizzas outside on a warm day is a fun group activity. Encourage your guests to get creative with their choices of toppings and sauces!

Dough
1/2 lb bread flour
1/2 lb all purpose flour
1 tps salt
1 tbs honey or sugar
10 ozs warm water
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
Makes about three small pizzas.

The grill should be prepared with the charcoal around 30-40 minutes before you are ready to cook. The coals should be glowing. I advise gathering the coals to one side in order to give you control over the amount of heat the pizza gets by moving from one side to the other as needed.

Add the yeast, honey (or sugar) and olive oil to the water. Add the salt to the flour and make a well in the center, when the yeast begins to bubble add to the flour. Work the flour and water together from the center outwards. Once well mixed, turn out on a clean floured surface and knead throughly. Shape the dough into a ball and place in a oiled bowl, cover and allow to rise.

Once the dough has risen, turn out on to a floured surface and knead briefly to knock the air out. Split into three roughly equal pieces. Roll out a piece the dough, sprinkle a little cornmeal on a cutting board and lay the rolled out on top. The cornmeal prevents the dough from sticking to the cutting board/pizza paddle. Add your sauce, cheese and toppings and slide gently on to the grill and place the lid back on the grill!

Depending on the temperature of the coals, the pizza should only take about 10-15 minutes.

You can, of course, put whatever you like on a pizza, the different combinations are limited only by your imagination!

I am not going to add specific pizza ingredients to this "recipe" as, after the dough, there are just three basic tenants to makings pizza,

• Base sauce
• Cheese
• Toppings

As I said above, the different combinations are limited only by your imagination!

Some of the pizzas we made tonight were, a honey, apple and gorgonzola; an alfredo, tomato, and double cheese; and a tomato, asparagus pizza.

Enjoy!


Video to follow!

Tomato, Potato & Coconut Curry

© Nick Young 2011

I was listening to NPR this morning and caught the tale end of an interview with Nigella Lawson. One of the dishes she mentioned was a tomato curry, unfortunately I wasn't able to hear the whole recipe. On the way home from work I decided to try my own spin on a tomato curry.

Once home, I realized I had a bunch of potatoes I needed to use up, so this recipe morphed a tomato and potato curry!

2 lb tomatoes
1 lb potatoes
1 large yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
2 cups of raisins
2 tbsp chili powder
3 tbsp garam marsala powder
1/2 bunch cilantro, save some to garnish
1 can coconut milk
A handful of curry leaves
Sweet mango chutney, served on the side.

Cut the tomatoes into quarters. Peel and chop the potatoes into large chunks, toss in a little oil and roast in the oven at around 400°F until cooked.

Sauté the onions and garlic in a little oil, add the curry leaves, chili powder and garam marsala powder.

Add the tomatoes, potatoes, chopped cilantro, raisins and coconut milk. Turn down the heat and place the lid on the pot. Cook for around 20 minutes, until the tomatoes have begun to break down.

Serve over rice with a side of sweet mango chutney.

Enjoy!


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Grilled Goat Cheese Salad

© Nick Young 2011

This is a lovely salad refreshing for the summertime, or just as a reminder of summer on one of these icy winter days!

1 half inch slice of bucheron goat cheese

2 cups of the salad greens of your choice

1 quarter cup toasted pinenuts

1 quarter cup dried cranberries

1 egg

1 quarter cup flour

2 cups breadcrumbs

Balsamic Dressing

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 heaped tsp dijon mustard

2 cloves garlic, crushed

pinch of salt
(Alternatively, a raspberry vinaigrette works well with this.) 

Lay out three dishes with the flour, egg and breadcrumbs (It's better to use dried breadcrumbs than fresh).


Coat the cheese with the flour and dredge through the egg and coat with the breadcrumbs. Make sure the cheese has a nice coating of crumb, you can put it back through the egg and breadcrumb one more time if necessary.


Place the breaded cheese on a cookie sheet and grill under a broiler until golden brown on both sides.


Toss the salad, cranberries, pinenuts and dressing together, arrange on the plate and place the grilled goat cheese on top and serve.


Enjoy!

How To Make A Simple Omelet.

© Nick Young 2011

I just wanted to demonstrate how to make a simple omelet, as I have noticed that, sometimes, people have a hard time making them.

3 eggs

1 oz cheddar

1/2 oz parmesan

1/4 small onion, sliced

3 slices tomato

Salt & pepper

A splash olive oil

Beat the eggs together with a fork, add the cheese and seasoning.

Heat the oil in the skillet, add the onions. When the onions are cooked to your liking, add the eggs etc. 

Use your fork to keep the mixture moving until partially cooked, distribute evenly across the base of the skillet and cook a little longer, allowing the eggs to set. 

Lay the tomato slices across half the omelet, fold onto it's self and serve.

This is just an example on an omelet, you can put a large variety of ingredients in an omelet.

Below is a how-to video, enjoy!

Beans! Beans! Beans!

© Nick Young 2011

In my exploration of vegetarian cooking I'm finding that beans are a great protein substitute, so I thought I'd explore some of the dried beans/peas that are commonly available at the average supermarket.

Great Northern Beans
I find myself using these beans the most. They are great to use in a Cassoulet. However, as that is a meat dish I can't post that recipe in this blog, at least not until Louisa goes out of town! They are also a good choice for veggie/bean burgers and soups.

Pinto Beans
Pinto beans are prominent in Mexican cuisine, primarily as refried beans.

Small Red Beans
Small red beans are used a lot in the cuisine of southern Louisiana such as the classic Creole dish, red beans and rice.

Cannellini Beans
Cannellini beans are related to kidney beans and are popular in central and southern Italian cooking.

Black Eyed Pea
Black Eyed Peas have many uses around the world, even as a dessert in Vietnam. Here in Texas it's called Texas Caviar when served with a mix of spices, peppers etc. and a zesty Italian dressing.

Split Peas
Split peas are mainly used in soups, although I have seen, and plan to try, burger recipes using them.

Black Beans
Black beans are prominent in latin American cooking as well as Creole and Cajun food. A great bean for soups. They are also a good choice for veggie/bean burgers and soups.

Light Red Kidney Beans
Kidney beans are commonly used in chili. Kidney beans contain a toxin when raw and should be boiled for ten minutes, before cooking by any 'slow cooker method', to avoid poisoning! Yikes!

Photo: left to right, starting from the top - great northern beans, pinto beans, small red beans, cannellini beans, black eyed peas, split peas, black beans, light red kidney beans.




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Banana Tart Tatin

© Nick Young 2011

This is really great take on the classic apple Tart Tatin, which I have made many times before. I saw this banana version on Jamie Oliver's free podcast "Jamie's Ministry of Food", I highly recommend it, some great recipes explained well. However, there are very few vegetarian recipes!

4 bananas
1 cup sugar
4 oz butter
1 sheet puff pastry

Puff pastry is hard and time consuming to make so I advise buying store bought frozen pastry. The kind I got was Pepperidge Farms brand puff pastry sheets.

Pre heat the oven to 400°F. On the stove top, heat the sugar and butter in a nine inch square baking pan, stirring continuously, until the sugar has caramelized. Be very careful when caramelizing the sugar as it boils at an extremely high temperature and can cause severe burns if it comes into contact with the skin.

Peel the bananas and split in half lengthwise. Carefully lay the bananas in the caramelized sugar and place a sheet of the puff pastry on top. With a wooden spoon tuck the pastry down on the edges. You may find you have to trim it a little to fit.

Bake until the pastry is golden brown and puffed, around 25 minutes. Remove from oven, and carefully invert the tart onto a serving plate or board, cut and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!

Potato, Cheese & Onion Soup

© Nick Young 2011

We are having some pretty bad weather here in the Dallas area, the college where I work has been closed for three days in a row!

In icy weather a hot soup is the perfect food, and this one is really simple to make and is pretty tasty.

1 lbs peeled and sliced potatoes
1/2 lbs yellow onions, chopped
1 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 anaheim pepper
32 fl ozs water and/or vegetable stock
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
A splash of olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp ground cumin

Sauté the garlic, onion and peppers in the olive oil. Add the potatoes, water and/or vegetables stock, seasonings and simmer until throughly cooked.

Blend with a hand or traditional blender until smooth, garnish with chopped scallions and serve.

Louisa's Three Minute Cake

© Nick Young 2011

I'm proud to present my daughter Louisa's, first contribution to this blog.

This recipe is based on a a couple of different recipes she found online and tried out with her friend Andrew.

4 tbs of all purpose flour
4 tbs of sugar
1/8 tbs baking powder
3 tbs of oil
3 tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbs of cocoa
1 egg
Add as many chocolate chips as you wish.

Mix all the ingredients together in a mug, making sure there are no pockets of dry flour.

Add the chocolate chips last so they don't sink to the bottom, and place in a microwave oven for 3 minutes.

Enjoy!