Taciturn Tuesdays: Make Your Own Pizza

Because we live in the type of island-town where there's one grocery store for every twelve bike rental places, a large pizza costs more than a brick of gold. Not really. But it's expensive.

We used to pay the eleventy-billion dollars it took to have an under-cooked, over-greasy pizza delivered to our house.

Which was stupid, because it's so easy to make pizza at home.

Make the dough (I use Jim Lahey's pizza dough recipe). This step usually consists of stirring flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and water together for about twenty seconds, and then ignoring it...

...for like two hours. Any recipe that calls for leaving the ingredients alone for the length of two Dog Whisperers (yes, I measure my time in Cesar Millan-sized installments) is fine by me.

Then, stretch the dough on a baking sheet. Don't even worry about the whole "circle" thing. Why? Because circles and blobs taste the same. It's science.

Put stuff on the dough. Like barbecue sauce.

Or pesto.

Then, put more stuff on the dough. Here, we have the slightly random but completely delicious combination of barbecue sauce, cheddar cheese, roasted sweet potatoes, and kielbasa.

You could also go the pesto, mozzarella, and grape tomato route.

Then, bake the pizzas in a really hot (as hot as it'll go) oven for about ten minutes. It's. Just. So. Easy. (Tip: in order to avoid a greasy pizza, cook the kielbasa ahead of time...lesson learned.)

Then, you eat the pizza. All of it. Even though the leftovers are probably great, T and I never manage to have any.

Sweet Potato Wontons

So I tried to make these Asian Chicken Dumplings last week, and just failed for all sorts of stupid reasons.

Such as. I had to rig a homemade steamer system, because I managed to lose my steamer basket (in addition to books! and clothes! and other random things! frustrated!) in moving from Richmond to Connecticut to North Carolina. And I put the water on to boil before assembling the wontons, so it had almost all boiled away by the time the wontons were ready to cook, and I more or less just glued them to the plate upon which they were steaming.

The problem with making wontons, though, is that wonton wrappers come in packages of, like, a gazillion. So, every time I opened the fridge this week, the wrappers taunted me. Never one to endure taunting when I could just kick the bully in the shins (ask any boy I knew in fifth or sixth grade) or steam the life out of it, in this case, I decided to try again. With sweet potatoes. Because it's STILL the Sweet Potato Challenge of 2010.

Apologies in advance for the darkness of the photos. The Kittchen struggles to be properly lit sometimes.

Sweet Potato Wontons

• 8 wonton wrappers 
• 1/2 cup puréed sweet potato
• 2 Tablespoons cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon chopped rosemary

 1. Combine sweet potato, cream cheese, and chopped rosemary. If cream cheese is too stiff to mix well, put the whole mixture in the microwave for 15 seconds to soften it up.

2. Fill a small bowl with water. This will help you seal each wonton.

3. Using a regular kitchen spoon, put a dollop of filling in the center of each wonton wrapper. Dip your finger in the bowl of water, and trace the perimeter of the wrapper with it. You may need to re-wet your finger a few times to do this properly.

4. Take two opposing corners and press them together, and then do the same with the other two corners, so that you've created a little X with all the edges.

5. Pinch together each diagonal ridge until all the openings are sealed.

6. Depending on how you plan to steam the wontons, prepare your steaming system. I used a large dutch oven with a steamer basket inside, and filled it with about an inch and a half of water, and it took about five minutes to get hot enough.

7. Steam wontons (covered!) for 6-8 minutes, until the wrappers are tender and glossy.

8. Remove to a plate, and serve immediately with a dipping sauce of your choice. I recommend a blend of 2 parts soy sauce to 1 part rice wine vinegar and 1 part sesame oil.



These wontons, while definitely not conventional, were definitely tasty. The sweet, creamy taste of the wonton filling was complemented perfectly by the salty soy dipping sauce, and the texture of the wonton wrappers was just right.

These are another perfect holiday cocktail party hors d'oeuvre, as long as you serve them immediately. Much like the musical stylings of Carrie Underwood, cold wontons just aren't that great.

Curried Sweet Potato and Cauliflower

This was such an easy answer to the Sweet Potato Challenge of 2010 that I wish I had thought of it earlier. I'd had tandoori cauliflower at Balliceaux in Richmond last spring, but it hadn't occurred to me until last night to pair such great flavors with sweet potatoes.

Curried Sweet Potato and Cauliflower

• 3 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into one-inch pieces
• 1 head cauliflower, broken up into bite-sized florets
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• Red pepper flakes to taste (I used about a teaspoon)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss sweet potatoes, cauliflower, olive oil, and spices in your baking dish.

2. Bake for about 40 minutes, stirring once at about 20 minutes. Serve immediately.







So it turns out that T isn't a big fan of cauliflower...even really crispy, delicious cauliflower. He loved the spicy flavor of the sweet potatoes, though, and I ate enough cauliflower for the both of us.

Sorry for the short post--lots of work to do before we can leave for the holiday break to travel to the land of decent grocery stores and strangers who (thankfully) don't feel the need to talk to one another early in the morning while they're waiting for coffee at Starbucks. The North. I'm talking about The North.

Rosemary Sweet Potato Chips

Welp, I've blogged about sweet potato chips before, but the ones I made last night were the best...ever.

Sick of really sweet sweet potatoes, I decided to cover them in chopped rosemary and loads of fresh ground black pepper (and salt, duh) to see if I could get a more savory snack out of this Sweet Potato Challenge of 2010.

I decided to go for chips that were as crispy as possible, so I brushed them with a very light coating of olive oil and put them in a 350-degree oven for about 20 minutes. I then turned the heat down to about 300 degrees, and gave them another 15 minutes, checking regularly to make sure that they didn't burn while they were drawing out.

The end result was lovely: a hint of the potatoes' natural sweetness, a hint of rosemary, and a nice bite from the pepper. T and I managed to eat them all in about five minutes, and then I picked at the leftover salt, pepper, and rosemary blend sitting in the pan. Who says we need a dog when we have me, right?

Spicy Asian Sweet Potato Stir-Fry

Disclaimer: I know that Asia is, like, a whole continent and stuff, but my made-up recipe includes ingredients that are traditional in several different types of Asian cuisine. Instead of choosing one reasonably close fit, I decided to go with the whole of Asia instead. I'm open-minded like that.

I refuse to make anything resembling a marshmallow-topped sweet potato casserole during the Sweet Potato Challenge of 2010, so I've been trying to find cool, alternative sweet potato recipes (now I'm picturing a sweet potato with a mohawk and an All-American Rejects T-shirt).

Last night, I decided to make a riff on Mark Bittman's Sweet Potato Stir-Fry and give it an Asian twist for no real reason other than I wanted to use a jalapeno I had laying around. It turned out so good that I ate the whole thing for dinner (don't worry, T had overnight duty...I didn't make him go hungry).

Spicy Asian Sweet Potato Stir-Fry

• 3 sweet potatoes, peeled and shredded
• 3 stalks celery, sliced thin lengthwise
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, sliced thin
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
• 1 Tablespoon ginger, minced
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoons chopped lemongrass or grocery store lemongrass paste
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• Chopped cilantro for garnish

 1. In a medium skillet, heat most of the vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Once oil is hot (it will start to look like it's rippling), add celery and onions and sauté until tender. Once tender, add jalapenos, garlic, lemongrass, and ginger.

2. Once you can smell the garlic, add the sweet potatoes, soy sauce, sesame oil, and the rest of the vegetable oil, and crank up the heat to almost high. Sauté the mixture, stirring only a few times, until the sweet potatoes start to brown and crisp up a bit. (Sorry about the steam!)

3. Using tongs, transfer the stir-fry to a serving platter and sprinkle with chopped cilantro. Or if you're me, just transfer the whole thing to a large bowl and eat it in one go.




Clearly, I ate this as my dinner last night, but it could also work perfectly alongside some brown rice or noodles, or with teriyaki-marinated chicken or steak. Thanks, all of Asia, for contributing your sweet, spicy, and savory flavors to my dinner!

Sweet Potato Pancakes: Part of the Sweet Potato Challenge of 2010

30 lbs. of sweet potatoes + 2 people = The Sweet Potato Challenge of 2010.

 

In order to survive the Challenge without going crazy, I've been trying to come up with tasty sweet potato options other than just a purée, and am pleased to report that Sweet Potato Pancakes have become a lovely new addition to our breakfast repertoire.

Sweet Potato Pancakes

(makes 2-3 servings or 10-12 medium-sized pancakes)

 

• 3/4 cup puréed sweet potato
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp. melted butter
• 3 tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

 1. Preheat a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Combine the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients, then mix the two together. Don't worry about lumps. Use a 1/4-cup measure to scoop even amounts of batter into the skillet.

2. Cook the pancakes until they start to bubble, then flip them and cook for about another three minutes.

3. If you're making one huge batch instead of serving in shifts, store cooked pancakes on a baking sheet in a 170-degree oven with a pat of butter on top of each.

4. Serve pancakes in a big, ugly, lopsided stack like this, covered with butter and [REAL] maple syrup.






My favorite part about these pancakes, other than their beautiful color, is that the baking powder makes them light and fluffy.

Other sweet potato items on the agenda: sweet potato muffins, sweet potato latkes, sweet potato au gratin, sweet potato stew, and sweet potato cookies. We may or may not turn orange by Christmas. At least it will look like a tan?