Broccoli and potato pizza

Broccoli and potato are two pizza toppings that taste fantastic, but I haven't enjoyed them since living in New York and Melbourne respectively.



Broccoli heaped high on a pizza slice is a classic choice at Penn Station at 34th street. Now, the Yanks like their pizzas fairly plain. They often go for a single topping, such as pepperoni, broccoli or even just cheese. That's their culture. Where as I'm the sort of person who orders a vegetarian pizza and add chicken.



Potato on a pizza might be seen as carb-loading, the sort of thing Michael Phelps might inhale before an Olympic swimming event. However, when done modestly, the crackle and softness of herb encrusted roast potato pieces is the perfect addition to any pizza. I first tried it in Lygon St. Melbourne and suddenly remembered how good it tastes.



Anyway, before the toppings comes the dough-making athleticism of my beloved husband Morgan! See the recipe here. Last night he even allowed me to touch the stuff mid-knead. I felt like a bit of a duffer, every time I tried to gently squish the dough, it tore. Ah well, practise, practise, practise. :)


While the dough sits to rise. Chop up a sweet potato, 1 potato and 1 beetroot into 3cm-5cm cubes.


Oil a baking tray and add veges. Cover with a little oil, rosemary, tarragon, salt, pepper and smoked paprika. Put in a medium oven for 40mins. Take out the sweet potato and beetroot. Let the potato cook for another 10-20mins.

We use Alfa One Rice Brain Oil Cooking Spray. Rice bran oil has a mild nutty flavour and a high smoking point, which is good in the oven. We use it to spray around the metal bowl for the pizza dough too.


Dough is ready!


Chop up broccoli florets. Make a mixture of olive oil, vinegar (I used pomegranate balsamic), lemon juice garlic, salt and pepper. Use this mixture in addition to tomato paste for the base of the pizza. You can also sprinkle it on top of the ingredients before they go into the oven. You don't want the broccoli to get dry.


Put tomato paste onto rolled out dough. Add grated mozzarella cheese next. Finally add: broccoli, torn salami and slices of roasted sweet potato.


Mmmm, broccoli


Finished!


For the potato pizza, start the same as above, but then add cubes of roast potato, roast beetroot, 2 slices prosciutto, sliced olives, some crumbled feta and sliced mushrooms


Delicious!

Tandoori chicken with persimmon raita and beetroot chutney

Tonight after a bike ride to the Gap and back, we made tandoori chicken. Marinading this overnight is ideal, but you can make a dinner to rival any regular BBQ chook with only 1hr in preparation.


I added fresh cinnamon, cardamom seeds and cloves to this recipe


Mix tumeric, smoked paprika, ground coriander, garam masala


Mix yogurt, lemon juice, spices, garlic and ginger together and rub under the skin of the chicken. It's pretty messy, but don't worry too much. I stuffed a couple of half-lemons into the tummy. Put on the BBQ and obey these instructions.


I grew up with my grandma making banana, coriander, dessicated coconut and lime juice sambal (thank you Charmaine Solomon!). My grandma lived in Kuala Lumpur in the 1930s when my dad was very young. Our family has a long tradition of home-cooked curries.


Another classic of Charmaine is her raita. I made it tonight with julienned persimmon instead of cucumber. Add natural yogurt, lime juice, salt, a little grated ginger and garlic and coriander.


Pop cubes of beetroot and roughly sliced red onions in the oven at 180 degrees for 1/2 hour in some olive oil.


Inspired by Nigella's Beetroot chutney, I poured roasted beetroot and onion into a frypan and simmered with 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar, 1 tsp brown sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, grated ginger, chopped garlic, garam masala, one mandarin's worth of juice for 10mins. Serve with mandarin segments and coriander tossed through. The mandarin really gives a complimentary flavour to the beetroot.


Serve beetroot, persimmon, chicken and banana over rice and eat!


A light, delicate variety of flavours all working together to honour the hard work of Brissy farmers.

Warm beetroot and quinoa tabouleh

I like the constraints of box living. The lack of choice is actually incredibly freeing. I would prefer someone else choose for me than have to figure it out at the markets. I love inventing food to fit what nature provides. On a slightly more spiritual level, I like to feel the moods of the earth and know her influence on living things. We are lucky to have such plentiful food and I am grateful for it.

Really, I appreciate that farmers are making any produce at all. I tried to grow herbs this summer and whilst they began well, by the end of the flooding rains punctuated by no rain, my own forgetfulness or my cats leaping into them... they're all done for! The sage and tarragon are the only things left and some sort of bug has eaten most of 'em! Heh.

It's an interesting psychological difference between the fearful way I 'choose' produce in the supermarket ("it must be perfect") vs. the joyous way I accept a box of Food from Food Connect ("I trust it will be good"). I can't quite explain it, but there you are. :)

Anyway, tonight I wanted to use the single fresh beetroot that I got in my Gourmet Box this week. I had some parsley left over from last week and limes, so a beetroot and quinoa tabouleh inspired by this recipe was worth trying. I was very excited because I've never used quinoa before. Have you?


Quinoa is grown in Bolivia, but grows in Australia if farmers wanted to develop our industry. ;)


Quinoa has a similar proportion of protein to meat--taking water into account--and remarkably contains a balanced set of essential amino acids. These are the proteins humans cannot manufacture by ourselves. Apparently NASA is rather impressed by this ancient grain (NASA Technical Paper 3422).

Ingredients
1/3 cup quinoa (wash carefully! See the comment from my Boliva-traveling friend)
2/3 cup stock
1 beetroot* grated
1 onion finely chopped (I used white, though red is recommended)
1 tbsp olive oil
big handful of parsley
1/2 lime's worth of juice
1 tbsp aged red wine vinegar
black pepper

Method


Dry roast the quinoa in the frying pan for a minute or two. Add stock and simmer covered on low for 15min. Remove from the heat and let sit for 5mins. Saute onion in olive oil for 10mins or so.


Combine beetroot, parsley, lime juice, vinegar and pepper in a bowl. Beetroot and parsley are both fantastic nutrients, containing all sorts of great antioxidants and vitamins.


Add onion mixture, quinoa and beetroot mix to make a salad. Voila!


Look how crazy the quinoa is! The little grains look like tiny eggs with tails floating off. This stuff is so much tastier (and healthier) than cous cous. Apparently it sprouts fast overnight, releasing even more nutrients.

Plus, this recipe was super-yummy. The textures really pop and it's super fast and easy to make. 20 minutes to noms.

* Ingredients in green come from Food Connect