The Food Allergy Foodie

Pizza party

There are some food experiences that stay with you forever.  When you think of them, you drool (hopefully not in public or if so not too obviously).  This was a pizza that will haunt me...in a good way.

I was visiting Karen in Ottawa when Laura called us up, and told us to bring our favourite toppings over to her house the next day for a little birthday party pizza dinner.  Laura is a great baker, in fact  I associate her with the mind blowing millionaires shortbread she makes at Christmas time (mmm...only a few more months!!)  Anyway, I knew it was going to be a good time and a good meal. 

When we arrived at her house with mushrooms, pancetta and wine in tow, she was chopping rosemary for the dough.  'Rosemary is key', she said, and I took a mental note.  Laura mixed in a ton of the stuff, then baked the dough on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes.  We topped it with sauce, mozzeralla cheese and our favourite toppings. 

It just had to bake for another 15 minutes.  While we sipped our fine Spumanti Bambino (who can celebrate without the sprite-like bubbly?!) the oven emanated the most beautiful rosemary bread smell, it seemed to say, 'screw the 15 minute timer, eat me now!'.  We did our best to ignore this rude out burst.

Out of the oven and cooling on the counter. The cheese golden brown, the pancetta sizzling and crispy, we waited a few minutes before cutting in.  We each took a bite...

and were left speechless.

Pizza Dough

1/2 cup light cider or lukewarm water(it should feel warm)

 3/4 cup lukewarm water(it should feel warm)

1 1-1/2 tsp instant yeast (Laura used active yeast)

1 tbsp honey

2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2 tsp olive oil

1. In a bowl, combine the cider, water, yeast and honey. Let stand until frothy, about 5 minutes.

2. In a different bowl, mix the flour, salt and oil. Stir with a wooden spoon. Add the yeast mixture and mix until a soft ball is obtained. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead a few minutes while flouring to avoid sticking.

3. Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean cloth. Let the dough rise for about 1 hour in a lukewarm area, away from drafts.

4. Using your hands divide the pizza dough into two equal parts.

5. Use the dough immediately or lightly oil before storing in a plastic bag. It can be refrigerated up to 12 hours or frozen.

Note: To activate yeast, the temperature of the cider and of all other liquids is important. The temperature must be between 41 and 46*C (105 and 115*F), which means that the cider must be heated a little. The liquids should not be too hot as this will kill the yeast and not too cold, as the dough will not rise.  Also, the pancetta was crisped first in a pan.

I'm hoping that when she reads this my friend, and gracious hostess Laura will start planning her next pizza party!

This recipe is from The Food Network: http://www.foodtv.ca/recipes/recipedetails.aspx?dishid=8247m

Arugula with hearts of palm, grapefruit, and oil-cured olives

If you think you're bored of salad, try this!  It's bright, refreshing and easy to make.  Hearts of palm are a vegetable harvested from the soft core of certain palm trees.  They have the flavour of artichokes, without all the work.  On a not so delicious note, this salad won't fit into your 100 mile diet, or even an 1000 mile diet.  So enjoy, but enjoy sparingly.

This recipe, from Fine Cooking No.99 serves 4 as an appetizer

1 large Ruby Red grapefruit
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp chamgpagne vinegar ( I used white wine vinegar and it worked out fine)
1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Kosher slad and freshly ground black pepper
3 hearts of palm, rinsed, halved lenghwise, and cut on a diagonal into 3/4 inch pieces
1/4 cup pitted black oil-cured olives, halved lengthwise (It's not the end of the world if you skip the pitting)
7 oz arugula (about 5 cups, loosely packed)

Finely grate 1/2 tsp zest from the grapefruit, set aside.  Slice just enough off the top and bottom of the grapefruit to expose the fruit.  Stand the grapefruit on one cut end and slice away all the peel and white pith.  Working over a bowl, cut he segments away from the membranes, letting them fall into the bowl.  Then, over another bowl, squeeze the membranes to get any remaining juice.  Cut each segment into thirds.

In a small bowl, whisk 2 tbsp of the reserved grapfruit juice an the zest with the oil, vinegar, rosemary, red pepper flakes, 1/4 tsp, salt and a pinch of pepper.

In a small bowl, mix the grapefruit segments, hearts of palm, and olives with 2 tbsp of the dressing.

Toss the arugula and parsley in a large bowl with a generous pinch of salt and 3 tbsp of the dressing.  Divide the arugula amount 3 plates, top with the hearts of palm mixture, and drizzle with the remaining dressing, if desired.

Maple dry-roasted granola

My perfect breakfast is granola with plain yogurt and fresh fruit.  Growing up with nut allergies, there was never a granola that was safe for me to eat, so I learned to make it myself.  My standard recipe for a long time was 1 part honey, 1 part oil, 8 parts granola.  I'd bake it in the oven and then stir in toppings.  It takes about forty minutes and it's oily and heavy.

A few months ago while leafing through my hand-me-down Enchanted Broccoli Forest cook book, by Mollie Katzen (she wrote the quintessential Mousewood Cookbook), I found a recipe for dry roasted granola, and it has stolen my heart.  It's genius, it's quick and practically fat free!  Her recipe includes nuts, brown sugar, wheat germ, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut, brown sugar and salt.  Of course the beauty of granola is you can add anything you like.

I started with 1 cup of rolled oats (the slow cooking kind) in a frying pan over medium heat and stirred it constantly until the oats started to visibly toast.  You'll smell it happening, it's amazing!  My stove has a mind of it's own, and goes from high heat to low heat unannounced, so I had to watch carefully.  I then added 1/3 cup sunflower seeds and stirred some more.  Next, I threw in 1/3 cup wheat germ and 1/3 cup shredded coconut.  After about two minutes I sprinkled in 1/4 cup maple sugar (brown tastes great too) and a generous pinch of salt.  This is when the magic happens.  The heat of the pan melts the sugar and leaves a crunchy coating on the granola.  At this point you can add any dried fruit, I add a handful of raisins.

And that's it!  Perfect breakfast in about 15 minutes.  I ate mine hot (I couldn't wait) over plain Liberte yogurt and topped with Ontario peaches and wild blueberries.  I'm thinking life doesn't get much better than this...and that's a nice thought to start your day!

Cheers! (with spoons of course)