life without lactose

So sorry everyone! Well, a lot has happened since my last post and now that life is finally settling back down more recipes and pictures will be coming soon! 

Probably Friday or Saturday… I’ll try to make at least one post a week from here on out :)

-e.

If you were to know one thing about my brother it would be this: give him a cheese pizza and a bottle of ranch and he is set. However, I think it would be safe to assume that not everyone out there wants to just eat cheese pizza every day.  So for the rest of us that might want another variation on this dish (I bet someone’s already written a book called something like 1001 ways to make a pizza) here’s what I like.

Pizza Dough:

     (This makes about three large pizza’s)

3 cups flour

1 package dry active yeast

1 1/4 cups hot water (plus 2 tablespoons to dissolve the yeast in)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder 

1 tablespoon olive oil

Pizza Sauce:

1 can diced tomatoes

1/2 can tomato sauce

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon Herbes de Province 

1 teaspoon garlic powder (or two cloves of minced garlic)

2 tablespoons olive oil

Pizza Toppings:

Your choice of cheese, since Goat’s Milk and Sheep’s Milk are lactose free I generally use  a Spanish Manchego cheese or a French Chèvre.

6-10 cloves of roasted garlic

1/4 cup steamed spinach

A few julienne sun-dried  tomatoes

4 artichoke hearts cut into quarters

1/4 cup roasted bell peppers

Fresh Basil

To get started, first add some hot water into a small dish (about 2-3 tablespoons). Sprinkle the yeast on top and set aside for ten minutes.  While you’re waiting for this combine all of your dry ingredients for your pizza dough.

After the ten minutes are up, the yeast should build up a foamy layer above the water. Now, you can add the yeast, oil and water to your dry ingredients and mix until everything comes together.  Take your dough out onto a floured surface and kneed it a few times until the dough is glossy. Place it back into the bowl, cover it with a cloth and let the dough rise for around 30 minutes.   

While you are waiting on your dough you can get started on your pizza sauce.  In a medium sauce pan combine the can of crushed tomatoes, tomato paste and olive oil. Then add in all of your herbs and spices (and anything else you might want to add in on your own).  Let the sauce simmer for a few minutes or until it reaches a consistency you like.

Now, for the roasted garlic. Pour about 1/3 cups of olive oil into a pan over medium-low heat and add in your garlic.  Make sure to flip over your garlic cloves occasionally so that they are a nice golden brown on all sides, this usually takes about 15 minutes.   

Before you start to assemble your pizza, turn your oven on and set the temperature to 375 degrees fahrenheit. Take your dough and divide it into however many pieces you want, I like thin crusted pizzas usually so with the dough divided into three pieces I can stretch it out until its about a 16” pizza.  Place the dough onto a pizza pan and set it in the over for about five minutes.  Remove the pizza and add your toppings.  Place your pizza back in the oven and bake until the cheese is melted and has just a bit of a golden color to it.   

Ok! Today I made a pie. Growing up, my mom would always make a peach cobblers during the summer with the copious amount to peaches we’d get from our peach tree.  Because of all this overexposure to peaches, I learned to despise this fruit.  Well, I’m back at home and surprise, it’s also summer! At the request of my mother, I made something with peaches; but since I was in charge this time, it’s not overwhelmingly peachy :)

Pie Filling:

6 peaches, skinned and cut into slices

3 cups Blueberries

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 tablespoons tapioca flour

1/4 of a lemon’s juice

1/3 of a lemon’s zest

Pie Dough

2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup of butter (I prefer earth balance over the other brands, it cooks more like butter)

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar  

1 teaspoon vanilla

the rest of the lemon juice and zest

1/4 cup ice cold water

So here’s what you do, or at least what I did…

First you will want to cut your peaches in half, remove the skins, and slice them. Place the peaches in a medium sized mixing bowl. 

Add your blueberries, sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Mix everything gently to ensure that your peaches and blueberries stay intact.  

Next, you’ll want to add your tapioca flour (tapioca starch).  I really like Bob’s Red Mill and his products so thats what I use.  You can probably find it at your local grocery store, if not check out your town’s natural food store or co-op. 

The next thing I did was a bit unconventional, but I hate runny pies and I thought this might be a nifty way to figure out if I needed to add anything else to the pie mixture before putting it in the oven.  Pour the entire mixture into a large sauce pan and place it on the stove over medium heat.  Stir occasionally until it starts to boil, then stir continuously until the mixture thickens. This took me about 15 minutes or so. Then turn off the heat and let the mixture cool off.

Next, you’ll want to make your pie dough (you can do this in advance and let it chill in your fridge while you make the pie filling but it’s not a big deal).  Mix together the dry ingredients first, add the butter (you’ll want to make sure its very cold and cut into small cubes), and then add the wet ingredients.  Mix everything up until the dough becomes one solid form, if it’s still crumbling add more ice cold water a tablespoon at a time until it all comes together.  At this point you’ll also want to turn your oven on to 375 degrees fahrenheit.

After you’ve finished this spread a little bit of flour out onto your counter space and roll the dough out until it’s about 1/4 of an inch thick.  Fold the dough in half and then in half again so that you can transfer it easily to your pie pan (I ended up using a 9 inch cake pan just because I had so much filling and I enjoy deep dish pies).

Now, you will want to add the pie mixture to your pie pan.  With your leftover pie dough you can re-roll it out again into a long rectangle shape and cut 1/4 inch strips to create a lattice top.  To do this, you might want to lay down about three to four strips in one direction and then taking one strip at a time weave it across the pie. 

After all this, take a bit of butter and brush it over your lattice top and sprinkle some sugar on top of your crust.  You can also use an egg wash (1 egg and 1 tablespoon of water), I just got tired of wasting eggs and this butter method seems to work fairly well. 

Next place your pie on a cookie sheet (this makes clean up a lot easier and keeps your pie from dripping all over your oven) and place it in the over.  Let your pie cook for about 45 minutes and check it frequently.  If your crust becomes a nice golden brown before the 45 minutes are up, cover it with some tin foil and let it cook for the remainder of the time. 

Enjoy!

~e.

Alright, first post ever!

I’ve decided to finally create a blog that showcases my culinary adventures.  After many requests for recipes from family and friends, here it is. I’ll be posting recipes for everything that I make as well as pictures.

As for the  tumblrs, stumblers, and random google searchers welcome!  Let me tell you a little about myself and this (hopefully) lovely blog you’ve found.  I have just finished my first college degree (there will be more to come) and have moved back home with my parents (yippie…) to take additional post-bac classes at a local University.  So, inorder to keep my sanity, I’ve decided to start this little blog up and keep on cooking.  

As a head’s up I’ve never had any culinary training whatsoever.  If you happen to be a cook/baker/chef of any kind, sorry in advance if I do something that is some huge culinary faux-pas.   With that being said, you won’t find a single recipe on here that uses dairy, (I think a chef in France just died)  but it’t not my fault! It’s the cow’s fault.  

Oh, one more thing. Don’t expect this to be a vegan blog, some things will be vegan by coincidence but also don’t be surprised to see a nice juicy steak on here every once and a while. My rationale behind this? Well, until I can enjoy a delicious scoop of bubble gum ice cream again, those cows are going to need to watch their backs… 

p.s. if you’re still confused as to why nothing here involves dairy it’s because I’m horribly lactose intolerant. Because of that, I’m sure you’ll also see several recipes that cater to my other friends with food allergies as well :)  

~e.