REAL pizza. Yep – YUM!

Ok – so one of the big things lamented in our household (outside pasta) was a good pizza. Yes, you can get GF pizza a number of locations (our local one is Garlic Jim’s), and there are a number of frozen pizzas and pizza crusts available.

However, they all lack that yummy chewy yet crunchy thing that a good pizza has. Pizza crust should hold it’s own, and not be second fiddle to the toppings. It needs to have good flavor, and not wimp out under sauce and toppings. It should not need a fork to eat.

We’ve found pizzas that taste starchy. We’ve found crusts that are just crunchy, but with no chewy. We found savory nut-based crusts that are almost impossible to come by – they taste fantastic, but don’t have the chewy thing. And we’ve found some pretty funky tasting pizzas.

Making a pizza at home is a great family affair. Each kid has a favorite (mushroom and bacon seems to be the theme). It’s been a bit of a bummer to not be able to engage in this activity.

Until last night.

An acquaintance shared his GF pizza dough recipe and we gave it a try this weekend. WOW. Chewy, yet crispy, with a nice doughy flavor. Held up to our (hubby and mine) gourmet pepperoni/green olive/shallot/mushroom/mozzarella/goat cheese concoction.

The kids demolished their pizza. Then they went about eating the leftovers today for lunch. Yep – it reheats great!

This is someone else’s recipe, so I cannot post it in it’s entirety here. However, it’s based on the pizza crust recipe on side of a box of Schar white bread mix:

The additions are a bottle of GF beer, and enough corn starch to make it not-sticky. It was fairly easy, outside finding a local source for the above.

If you cannot find Schar locally, you can obtain online at the Schar online store, or at GlutenFreeMall.com.

Truly yummy – give it a try.

Enjoy!

Dosas?

So among the things we’ve missed from our now GF (Gluten Free) diet is yummy warm flour tortillas.

My husband works with a culturally rich set of coworkers, some of whom introduced him to the dish called Dosa. See – we don’t normally eat Indian food – it’s not a cultural cuisine that I’ve learned to cook. But he brought home this idea, and set of instructions garnered from much discussion, and I said ‘Sure. Let’s try it.”

First, you need the ingredients. Here in our house, we use one part any variety of rice to one part any variety of lentil. Lately, we’ve been using the long grain rices (Jasmine) and the red lentils.

To this mix, add enough warm tap water to cover completely. And now for one of the parts that seem a bit on the strange side, at least to me.

Let sit on your counter in a covered container overnight. Do not mix, but do add more water if the lentils/rice soak it up totally.

In the morning, or afternoon (better) of the next day, add your spices to the mix. Traditionally (according to Wikipedia), fenugreek is added. We don’t add that, but do add cumin, coriander, and red chili flakes. Each of these to your personal taste, but remember that you are seasoning essentially flavorless (well, low flavor) items (rice and beans).

Now for the second strange bit. Place the whole mixture, without draining, into a food processor or blender (food processor is more resilient – we’ve already killed one blender with this process), and process until smooth. You’re shooting for a consistency of loose, runny pancake batter. Add water (or if daring, broth) until you get to that consistency.

After processing, let sit on your counter, covered, for a bit longer, to let the spices blend.

When you are ready to cook, heat your pan over medium high heat and add a bit (1 tsp) of olive oil. When the oil is hot, not smoking, add a 2Tbs ladle full of the mixture. Cook til the top seems dry, and then flip and cook a minute or two on the other side. remove from pan, and keep cooking til you have enough.

You will have mix left over. This can be refrigerated until you can cook it up. It keeps for about 5 days or so.

Serve warm. They are the perfect accompaniment to a tortilla-type meal – beans, rice, or meat. Or – just load with cheese and eat as a snack.

We’ve also done the soak part of this process with coconut milk. Very yum.