The picture that came with the recipe, however, did not look very thrilling, though. Pizza crust, sparsely sprinkled with a few beans and a couple of jalapenos - while, it was pretty, it just seemed a little bare. Reading the ingredient list, though, it didn't sound bare. Sure, there were only a few ingredients, but they were in large amounts. I concluded that the photo was not taken of a pizza made with strict adherence to these directions. Mine was going to look much heartier.
Adapted from James McNair's Vegetarian Pizza
Crust:
½ cup warm water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup + 2 tablespoons bread flour
½ cup cornmeal
½ tablespoon olive oil
Guacamole:
2 avocados
2 ounces minced red onion
2 ounces minced sweet pepper (I used a combo of red and green bells)
2 tablespoons minced garlic
¼ cup prepared salsa
juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
The rest of the story:
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 ounces Mexican blend cheese (I used Sargento's Authentic Mexican cheese)
15 ounces canned pinto beans, drained and rinsed
15-18 pickled jalapeno slices
1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro
½ cup sour cream
½ cup prepared salsa
Make the crust: Mix the water, yeast, and sugar in a small bowl. Set aside for at least five minutes. In the bowl of a mixer, fitted with the dough hook attachment, stir the salt, flour, and cornmeal together. Add the olive oil and yeast mixture. Continue stirring until the mixture starts to form and dough and clings to the hook. Scrape the sides of the bowl and continue stirring until dough becomes smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover with a damp towel or loosely with plastic wrap and set it in a warm, dry place for an hour or until doubled in size.
Make the guacamole: Cut the avocados in half the long-way, working around the pit. Remove the pits. While still in the skin, slice the meat of the avocados diagonally one direction without cutting through the peel, then the other, forming a crosshatch pattern. With a soup spoon, scoop out the inside of the avocado and place in a medium-sized bowl. Add the onions, peppers, garlic, salsa, lime juice, and cilantro. Stir well to combine.
The rest of the story: Preheat the oven with a pizza stone inside, if using, to 500º F. On a cornmeal or flour dusted pizza peel or board, roll or stretch the dough out to a 14 inch circle. Brush the dough all over with the tablespoon of olive oil. Sprinkle half the cheese over the dough. Scatter the beans evenly over the cheese. Arrange the jalapeno slices over the beans. Top with the remaining cheese. Transfer to the preheated pizza stone or place on a greased pizza pan and put it in the preheated oven. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until crust starts browning and cheese has melted. Remove the pizza from the oven and top with cilantro. Cut and serve alongside the sour cream, salsa, and guacamole for each person to add to their tastes.
Had it been summer, I may have used fresh jalapenos and made my own fresh salsa, but alas! We were in the middle of another blizzard (ugh!) in April, and at the end (at least I hope it's the end) of a long winter, grocery store tomatoes are pretty dull and lifeless. I had this lovely jar of salsa I had purchased at the Kaukauna farmer's market last fall. It tasted fresh-like, and it was zippier than regular commercial salsa with a great pepper flavor and a rich tomato base.
I would have liked to make the guacamole in advance, because, while it is easy to make, the chopping is a little time consuming and tedious. However, once the insides of avocados are exposed to the air, they start browning and become really unappealing. I could have chopped and mixed the onions, peppers, cilantro, garlic, and lime juice Wednesday night to speed up the process on Thursday, but it really hadn't occurred to me. It turned out okay, though, because I just had Pam work on our drinks while I chopped veggies for the guacamole on Thursday and assembled the nacho pizza.
2 measures whiskey (we used Jack Daniel's)
1 measure freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ measure simple syrup
soda
orange slice
cherry
Pour whiskey, lemon juice, and simple syrup into an ice-filled shaker. Fill a tall glass with ice. Strain shaker ingredients into the ice-filled glass. Top with soda. Thread a toothpick through the orange slice and cherry, with the cherry in the center of the orange slice. Float orange and cherry sail in the glass. Serve with a straw.
The first drink wasn't bad, but it was a little thin, I thought. Then, I found out that Pam had not doubled the ingredients to make two drinks, so we were actually splitting one drink with twice the amount of soda than we would have had otherwise. I made her try again (after we finished the first one, of course). The second time was the winner. It was lemony and fizzy with just a hint of whiskey.
When the nacho pizza came out of the oven, it really wasn't much to look at.
Unlike the original recipe that had all of the cheese on the bottom, I put half on the bottom and half over the beans and jalapenos. It acted a little bit like a glue, but muted the reds and greens of the toppings. It was sort of drab looking. Oh, but when we added the cilantro, salsa, sour cream, and guacamole, it didn't matter what it looked like. It tasted fantastic! The crust was crisp and thin, the jalapenos were zippy and juicy, the cheese salty and gooey. The guacamole and sour cream tamed the heat of the jalapenos and salsa and brought the pizza to a heavenly level.
I proved myself not very adept on that particular procedure, however. When I tried to pull the non-filled side of the dough over the filling, the dough ripped, and I couldn't get the edges to seal. I washed my hands of it and Pam took over. She expertly fixed my holes and sealed the three turnovers (I had decided to put half the goo back in the refrigerator for another time, since there were only three of us).
Only one turnover at a time would fit in the basket of my fryer, so I had to fry each one separately. This turned out to be a good thing, because the crust became so delicate and the filling was so heavy, that if I were to have two or more turnovers in the basket when I turned it upside down on the plate, they would probably have all oozed into one gooey mess. As it was, when I turned them out of the basket, they threatened to fall apart.
When the nacho pizza came out of the oven, it really wasn't much to look at.
Each slice was like a giant tortilla chip with all the good stuff on it. No naked chips here. Every bite was delicious and spicy.
Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin
15oz package pie crust
6 tablespoons cranberry sauce (or jelly)
8 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 cup superfine sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sweetened dried cranberries
vegetable oil for frying
Heat a deep fryer filled with oil to 375º F. Cut each pie crust dough into three equal triangles. Spoon 1 tablespoon of cranberry sauce over each triangle, leaving the edges bare for sealing. In a mixer, combine the cream cheese, sour cream, superfine sugar, and vanilla until mixed well. Spread one sixth of the cream cheese mixture over half of each triangle. Sprinkle the cranberries over the cream cheese mixture. Brush the edges of the triangles with a little bit of water to help with the sealing process. Fold the unfilled half of each triangle over the filled side and pinch the edges to seal. Fry each turnover for about 4-5 minutes or until golden brown. Carefully remove turnovers from oil, as the crust will become very delicate. Drain on paper towels. Allow to cool for a few minutes before serving.
We waited until we were done with the nacho pizza to start assembling the dessert. We wanted our fried turnovers to be hot when we were ready to eat them. I had mixed up the cream cheese filling the night before. The directions said to "combine" the cream cheese, sour cream, vanilla, and sugar together in a bowl. It made it sound so easy. I had chosen a bowl that had a lid, so when I was done stirring it together, I could easily store it in my refrigerator for Thursday and not have an extra dish to wash. However, "combining" those ingredients with a regular spoon was not an easy task. I ended up having to dirty up my mixer and let it do the work.
The original recipe had called for apricot jam and dried apricots, which I had fully intended on using. I had some dried apricots in my cupboard, and I knew somewhere in the depths of my fridge, there was apricot jam or something similar. However, when I checked out my apricots on Wednesday, they looked a little dark. I figured that was fine, they probably still tasted good and definitely weren't poisonous or anything. I decided to try one to make sure and almost broke my tooth. The apricots went into the garbage can. I searched through the cupboards for something else. I had dried blueberries, but I had used the last of the blueberry jam on last week's turnovers. I had prunes (ahem! I mean dried plums), but they were awfully hard, too, and I couldn't think of any jam or jelly I had on hand that would go with them. The black raspberry might taste good, but then Jeff couldn't eat any because of his berry allergy. Then, I found a bag of sweetened cranberries. I wasn't sure how long they had been in my cupboard, but I tried one and it seemed fine. Perfect! I had some leftover cranberry "sauce" (from a can, with those beautiful rings around it) that I certainly wasn't going to eat and I doubt that my darling husband would think to eat it on his own.
I had taken the lazy way out on the crust. The original recipe called for the same crust I had made for last week's turnovers, but I didn't feel like making it again. I bought a box of premade pie dough instead. Then, there was a little dilemma. How do you make two circles of dough into 6 circles of dough. I would have had to smoosh the dough back into a ball. Divide each ball into three pieces and roll it out again. My shortcut would then have not been all that short. Instead, I decided my turnovers were going to be triangular. I could easily cut the dough into three triangles that could be folded over on themselves for the turnovers. I proved myself not very adept on that particular procedure, however. When I tried to pull the non-filled side of the dough over the filling, the dough ripped, and I couldn't get the edges to seal. I washed my hands of it and Pam took over. She expertly fixed my holes and sealed the three turnovers (I had decided to put half the goo back in the refrigerator for another time, since there were only three of us).
Only one turnover at a time would fit in the basket of my fryer, so I had to fry each one separately. This turned out to be a good thing, because the crust became so delicate and the filling was so heavy, that if I were to have two or more turnovers in the basket when I turned it upside down on the plate, they would probably have all oozed into one gooey mess. As it was, when I turned them out of the basket, they threatened to fall apart.
I had forgotten that I was supposed to sprinkle turbanado sugar over them as soon as they came out of the fryer, but I don't think we missed it. These were quite delicious! Jeff said it was like liquid cheesecake in a flaky crust. We all decided, however, that they would be better if they were smaller. This was not so we would eat less, of course, but so we could eat them more easily and there would be more crust to filling.
The inside was very creamy and sweet and rich. The tang of the cranberry sauce cut through it a little bit and dialed back the richness a little bit. I didn't particularly care for the cranberries in there. They were a little too chewy. It may have been because they were a little old, but I think they really should have been rehydrated before adding them to the mixture. I think soaking them in hot water or maybe even in some brandy would have improved their texture and made them a little less of a contrast to the sweet, creamy filling. Perhaps if they were added to the cream cheese mixture the night before, they would have been softer. I do think it requires more research. Maybe I will try that with the rest of the goo and the other pie crust from my box.
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