Thursday, October 30, 2008

Eat This?

 
Kristi's ^

 
Karl's ^

 
Chloe's ^

 
The White's ^

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Fig Pizza?

 

As unlikely as it may seem, the idea for this was brought on by a find of Meyer Lemons at our local co-op. Having never come across one before I had to buy one, but having never come across one before I also had no idea what to do with it. A search came up with Meyer Lemon Pizza on Weekly Dish (Which I am at the mo' madly in love with and reading from end to end.) I didn't have all the ingredients called for but decided to force the issue by making whole wheat pizza dough. The co-op had more lemons but the jalapenos at Schnucks were, erm, nasty. Black mission figs caught my eye and below them walnuts and click, click, click my brain assembled a fig and walnut pizza.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough (Enough for two pizzas)

2 cups warm water
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon active dry yeast (2 packets)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat bread flour (may need slightly more or less depending on the humidity)
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons salt

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attached, dissolve the sugar in the water. Sprinkle the yeast over the top and wait five minutes. Mixture should be bubbly or "scummy" looking. No activity means your yeast is dead either by suicide/old age or homicide (too hot of water) and you will need to start over. If all is well stir in one cup of all purpose then the salt and olive oil. Add the remaining all purpose flour and 1 1/2 cups of the whole wheat bread flour. Mix to combine adding more flour as needed to form a soft but not sticky dough. Using the dough hook "knead" for 10 minutes. Turn out of the bowl, form into a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl. Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled. Punch down and cut dough in half. Wrap one half and refrigerate for 2-3 days or freeze for 3 months. (Let it thaw in the fridge at least overnight before using.) With the remaining piece make Fig Pizza

Fig Pizza

Whole wheat pizza crust or crust of your choice.
18-20 dry Black Mission figs (or the type of fig you like best) destemmed and cut in halves
1/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1/3 cup honey
Large sprig of rosemary roughly chopped
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Coarse sea salt
1/2 cup fresh parmesan cheese shredded or grated

Preheat oven to 475. Spread pizza dough on a lightly greased baking sheet as thinly as possible. Mix the honey and rosemary together and warm in the microwave for 30-45 seconds. Set aside. Drizzle the crust with olive oil and sprinkle sea salt over. Scatter the figs and walnuts evenly over the crust then drizzle with the rosemary infused honey making sure to get some on every fig. Bake for 10 minutes remove from the oven sprinkle the parmesan over the top and bake a further five minutes. Mmmmm

We served it with cider vinegar marinated chicken breast that I grilled and a field greens salad with onions and tomato. 

A few days later I found decent jalapenos so I made the Meyer Lemon Pizza. Fantastic! (Even better the next day, cold.)