Ive had a lot of fun cooking this year.  I ate a lot of things I never thought I would, cooked things Ive never attempted before and learned a completely new way of eating.  There are just two cooking goals I had for myself before the year ended that I didnt get around to: mastering a soufflé and making a gelatin dessert that set properly.  So on Christmas day with the chef to egg me on I thought I would try a simple (or so I thought) soufflé so I could get that obstacle out of the way. Like so many things in life it didnt turn out the way I thought it would but it was still fun and delicious.

A lot of little things went wrong while I was trying to soufflé  I forgot to sift my flour.  The whisk wasnt perfectly dry.  My safety net disappeared to attend to a cat feeding before the snow got too bad emergency just as I was starting the part of the process I was unsure about.  I was flustered from being at an annoying job for the 6 hours before dinner.  And my family was walking in the door just as I got to the step where I couldnt walk away from my ingredients without them falling.  It wasnt an ideal situation to begin with so I wasnt too surprised when my soufflé didnt poof.  Fearing just this out come I had given the fella strict instructions on which bottle of wine to open for me in my fallen soufflé sadness and just the right tone to say “there there bunny” to me.

I pouted over the sad looking soufflé but since everything else on the table looked so fabulous I never managed to look any where near as pathetic as my fluffy obviously starving to death princess did. 

Besides I had every one I loved around a big purple table with amazing food, even a soufflé failure couldnt get me down.  And the surprising thing was that the soufflé, as unattractive as it looked tasted really great.  A creamy cheesy warm treat.  It nicely filled the gap in the dinner left by the crispy rolls or focaccia  we usually have at holiday dinners. 

So the good news was the soufflé despite its ugliness was tasty enough to warrant the effort which means Ill be motivated to try it again on a day with less stress when I can better focus.  And Julia Child has an entire section devoted to soufflés in Mastering the Art of French Cooking that I apparently need to read over a couple more times.  I will make a puffy wonderful soufflé happen.  Most people have resolutions about losing weight, I have them about cooking somewhat complicated food stuffs.  Ill let you know when I succeed.

Cheese Soufflé

1 teaspoon butter

1 tablespoon Parmesan

1 cup milk

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons sifted rice flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

4 egg yolks

5 egg whites

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup coarsely grated swiss or Parmesan cheese

Before you start:  place your eggs on the counter so they will be room temperature when you need them, measure out all your ingredients and have them close at hand, and make sure all the bowls, whisks and mold are very clean.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Butter inside of soufflé mold and sprinkle with cheese.  Set aside for later.

In a small pot put the milk on a medium heat to begin boiling.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan.  Stir in the flour with a wooden spatula and cook over moderate heat until foamy, about 2 minutes.  Remove from heat.  When mixture is no longer bubbling pour in the boiling milk.  Beat vigorously with a whisk until well blended.  Beat in the seasonings.

Return to medium high heat and boil, stirring with the whisk for about 1 minutes.  Sauce will be very thick when youre finished.  Remove from heat and set aside while you separate eggs.

Drop the four egg yolks one at a time into the hot sauce pan, reserving the whites in a metal or ceramic bowl for later in the recipe.  With the whisk beat the yolks individually into the sauce.  Continue with each yolk until well incorporated.  Keep the mixture at a tepid temperature while preparing the egg white mixture.

Beat the five egg whites and salt with a whisk or in a stand mixer until stiff by starting at a low speed, gradually increasing it as the eggs become foamy.  Take about a minute to raise mixer speed from low to high, constantly using a spatula to push the eggs off the sides of bowl and into the beaters.  Stop when the beaters leaves slightly shiny peaks in the surface of the mixture.

Stir a big spoonful of the egg whites into the warm sauce.  Stir in all but one tablespoon of the grated cheese.  Delicately fold in the rest of the egg whites being careful not to over fold and break the fuffly consistency.

Put the incorporated soufflé mixture into the prepared mold.  It should be about 3/4 of the way full.  Tap bottom of mold on counter to smooth the surface of the soufflé  Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Set rack in middle of the oven and immediately turn heat down to 375.  Do not open the door for the next 20 minutes.  In 25 to 30 minutes the soufflé will have puffed a couple inches over the rim of the mold and the top will be nicely browned.   Serve at once.

Gluten free version of recipe from Julia Childs Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

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#52weeksofRoarke

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The fella has been missing pizza just a teeny bit.

It used to be his Tuesday night ritual to buy the cheapest most unspeakable frozen pizza to eat while doing the geeky things he does on Tuesdays with his friends while I work. Apparently its called gaming or something. Everyone has their flaws so I try to pretend this one doesnt exist by refusing to understand it.

Some people juggle geese. Some people sit around pretending to be demons and necromancers while playing with tiny painted figures. Some people decide to cook highly complicated meals 7 days a week and then freak out at random intervals about it being too difficult. If the person is worth it you grin and bear their silly hobbies and soldier on. Really Im more concerned about his ability to have eaten those cardboard pizzas for so long.

After several months of being unable to slather gluttony rounds of dough with mounds of cheese hes been getting punchy. We drive by pizza places and he starts to drool. At night he would mumble the name of his lost mistress, pizza. Any mention of the word would cause him to go wide in the eyes and tap his veins begging for a fix.

Okay so it wasnt quite that bad. There were times that he looked at me however and I couldnt tell whether he was imaging that I was a pizza he was about to eat or if he was wondering how he could back out of this diet before losing his cheese loving mind. It was time to find a way to make this man a pizza.

Enter almond flour and all the wonderful things that can be made out of it. Weve been on a bit of a kick with it lately, satisfying cravings all over the place by using it. So it was only natural that about this time I stumbled upon a nut flour pizza crust recipe. And lo the heavens opened and the fella said “woo flipping hoo” when I sent him the link letting him know pizza was imminent.

When the faithful night of pizza making arrived we were both bouncing with excitement. Then we started making the crust mixture and got a bit concerned. It was really runny and didnt look like any crust Id ever made before. It didnt seem like it was thick enough to not run all over the pan. And how was this wet mess going to solidify enough to put toppings on it in just 5 minutes of baking? We were seconds away from thawing something from the freezer as we watched the crust do a whole lot of nothing in the oven.



Miraculously I pulled it from the oven and it was a nice firm crust like texture. We let it cool to firm up a bit more and started throwing toppings on it. It withstood being covered in sauce and veggies so things were looking good. I pre-sauted the vegetables assuming the vegetables wouldnt have enough time to cook on such a delicate crust and was right. Unless you like raw veggies on your pizza, cook them to your preferred level of doneness before this goes back in for round two. Topped with some sundried tomatoes and Havarti and we were drooling as hard as the dog does while we cook.

This was fabulous! It looked and smelled and had the texture of pizza. It doesnt taste like the real thing exactly but its a great fake out. The only problem is you really need to oil whatever surface youre baking this on or it will never let go of the pan. We spent a lot of time dislodging our pizza before being able to eat it.

Im sure this will become a regular fixture on our menus. That sound you hear is the fella sighing with relief. His favorite food is a possibility again.

Flourless Pizza Crust

3 eggs
3 tablespoons yogurt
1 tablespoon oil
1/ 2 teaspoon baking soda
1/ 2 salt
6 ounces ground almonds
1 teaspoon vinegar

Preheat the oven to 360. Line a round pizza pan with baking parchment, make on a silcone tray or oil your pan VERY well. This crust will stick like crazy.

Whisk the first five ingredients together in a bowl until frothy and starting to thicken slightly.

Beat in the ground nuts and vinegar and spread onto the baking parchment in an even, thin layer. It will be like thick batter, not a sticky dough. It doesnt look anything like pizza crust at this point but dont worry.

Bake for 5 minutes until just firm but not colored. Leave crust to cool a little before spreading your chosen toppings on and re-baking until the edge of the pizza base is golden brown and the cheese melted. Youll want to pre-cook any vegetables you plan on putting on this pizza in order to soften them, they wont have much time to cook before the crust is ready to be removed from the oven.

Original recipe from Straight Into Bed Cakefree and Dried blog.

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I cracked five raw eggs on a pizza... gross right... no delicious! I have never really made homemade pizza before so I was pretty intimidated with doing it. Luckily, I have a husband who is a good cook and he helped coach me through this first time. After making it though I wondered why Dan and I ever get take out pizza. Hello... homemade is the way to go folks!

Breakfast Pizza (www.budgetbytes.com) $3.24

Ingredients

• Refrigerated pizza dough 
• ½ cup pizza sauce
• 1 cup shredded cheese
• 1 medium roma tomato
• 3 oz. ham
• 5 large eggs
• 2 sliced green onions
• 1 Tbsp corn meal
• 1 green pepper

If using frozen pizza dough, allow it to come to room temperature before stretching it into shape (it is much more cooperative at room temp). While the dough is thawing, slice the tomato, green onion, green pepper and dice the ham.

 

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Spray a perforated pizza pan with non-stick spray and sprinkle with corn meal. Stretch the dough into a pizza pan.

Top the pizza with sauce, half of the cheese, the tomatoes, ham, green onions, green peppers,eggs and the remaining half of the cheese (I used monterrey jack on the bottom and cheddar on the top). The eggs can either be placed on top whole and raw or pre-scrambled and sprinkled over top.

Bake the pizza for about 15 minutes at 450 degrees or until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted.

This pizza was very good. Who would have thought eggs on a pizza??? Dan rated this meal a 4 out of 5 stars and Im excited to make my second homemade pizza ;)

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I spent New Years Eve doing all of the things I liked doing most in the year that came before which is what I hear youre supposed to do for a successful new year.  Not the least of these things was spending a ridiculous and enjoyable amount of time in the kitchen cooking with the chef while the fella supervised.  We decided to do a gluten free pizza party and it was splendid.  I worked with two crust recipes Ive tried before with interesting toppings and the chef to my great pleasure tried something purple.

 

 Almond Flour Zatar Pizza

The first crust was the much loved almond flour variety that the fella and I have been making off and on all year.  I found out totally accidentally that it comes out it a much better crust texture if you half the recipe and go for a mini sized thinner crust. 

Once the crust was par baked I used a pastry brush to slather it with oil from the huge jar of sun dried tomatoes I always have in the back of the fridge.  Then I sprinkled it with my newest obsession, zatar seasoning.  I added, a wee bit of feta, some grape tomatoes, and marinated artichokes.  A couple more minutes in the oven and it was amazing.  This was simple but my favorite pizza of the evening,  I will be making this again many time over.

 

Flax Seed Crust with Roasted Veggies

Next up for turning the flax seed focaccia recipe into a crust which worked out pretty well.  I halved that recipe too so it would fit into a well greased cake pan.  The only problem was once it had moist ingredients and melted cheese on it, the crust got a little too wet.  We decided it needed to cook longer or be cooked once, refrigerated, toasted in the oven and then decorated with toppings.  This situation will obviously require more experimentation.  Oh darn.

On this pizza I wanted to do something more traditional.   So I put some left over pasta sauce on it, roasted some veggies, threw on some sun dried tomatoes and covered it all with mozzarella and baby portabellas tossed in balsamic vinegar.  It was tasty but the slightly too wet texture of the crust was a bit of a turn off so it wasnt our favorite.  The crust did do a good job of imitating the taste of a hearty whole wheat type crust though so Ill continue to play with this one until I get it right. 

Purple Rice Flour Crust

The chef will have to explain to the world what he did the create the purple rice flour crust.  All I know is it was very yummy and while it was cooking it looked like the surface of the moon and he has the pictures to prove it.  So lets all bother him until he posts about that.

What I do know was that the crust had a really nice texture right out of the oven but suffered from sogginess as it cooled.  So this crust will require more experiments before its perfect as well.  With roasted eggplant, Parmesan, fig vinegar, and a goat cheese red wine reduction sauce it was as near to perfect as I could hope for something that pretty to be. 

Leatherwood South African Cab 

The only disappointment of the evening was the wine I picked.  In my defense my boss at the wine store I work at raved about it saying it was the best Cab in the store in the $11 to $15 range.  He almost always has impeccable taste so I believed him, needing something big and tannic to hold up to a bunch of pizzas.  Sadly it was a watery very blah wine.  You know the kind of wine Im talking about--its fine, not bad but not good.  It just tasted like wine it had nothing going on in it. 

Happily after dinner we were off to Lindsays to have more sparking wine cocktails than most people could possibly imagine.  That helped me to forget the very so so wine.  And we got to confuse our friends by serving them the pizza left overs.  I did have to bow out to go to bed early, having a low key ringing in the new year with the dog and my favorite guys.  But I couldnt have been happier doing it.  All in all its been my favorite new years even so far.  If you ask me all the other holidays could be improved with pizza.  

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This is what dinner looks like when I neglect to plan out recipes ahead of time.  Dont get me wrong, it was delicious but more random than Im used to.

The fella and I were both hungry and uninspired.  All we had were a couple random vegetables and a bunch of dry beans that no one wanted to put the effort into boiling.  Then while looking through the oddities of my cupboard I found one can of white beans neither of us could remember buying.  Not one to look down upon random dinner providing beans, I whipped them into a dip I remembered seeing in my food blog browsing earlier in the day.  And tada we had protein and an almost balanced meal.

Im not a fan of raw garlic (its not a fan of me either I found out in my elimination dieting so at least the feeling is mutual) so I cooked mine before adding it.  But if youre a the garlicky-er the better type and loss in a few cloves raw, this is the easiest dip imaginable.  Its like hummus for when youre all hummus-ed out or not in the mood to plan ahead for soaking chickpeas.  Especially on the forbidden corn chips this dip was extraordinary. 

White Bean Dip

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 cups (or 1 15-ounce can) cooked white beans

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup vegetable broth
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 a lemon, juiced 
salt and pepper, to taste


If you decide to cook the garlic, saute it briefly in the olive oil over medium heat just until it is no longer raw before tossing in the food processor.


If using canned beans, drain and rinse them, then place in food processor.  If using dried beans, cook 1 cup of white beans of your choice using your preferred method and put in food processor when cooked through.


Put all of the remaining ingredients in the food processor with the garlic and beans and pulse a few times until the mixture is very smooth.  Check the seasoning to see if more salt, pepper or thyme is needed.  Also add additional liquid at this point if you would like the dip to be thinner.  Blend again until well combined. 

Modified from an original recipe at Affairs of Living blog.

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