Sausage and Potato Calzones

I've been pretty kitchen-bound on this blog, so I thought I'd take you on a field trip this time around. A while ago, I read one of those "it turns out you've been doing this all wrong" kind of articles online. Most of the items on the list were meat or cheese-related, but it did include pizza dough. And yes, it turned out I was doing it all wrong. Did you know there's a special pizza dough flour? Maybe I was the last person on earth to know this, but it's called "00" four, and it's pretty fantastic. I have a tried and true pizza dough recipe, made with unbleached flour, that I've made for years (see here). It's wonderful, but I've always wondered why I couldn't get it to be more like a restaurant-style dough. This flour is the key for two reasons: it's more finely ground and it contains less gluten (though it's not gluten-free).

I looked high and low for places here in Seattle where I could buy 00 flour and found only one: Big John's PFI in Sodo. It's a great little store in a warehouse down by the stadiums:

Wander the aisles and you'll find all sorts of interesting things, including the largest bulk spices section I've ever seen (this pic captures only about 1/4 of it).

The flours are in the back, and there's every possible kind you can imagine. You'll find the pizza flour along the back wall. It's a bargain at less than $2/pound.

If you can't get your hands on some 00 flour, don't worry. All-purpose flour will work just fine for this.

They also have some incredible bulk olives for sale at the front counter. I picked some up to put in the calzone, but it was hard not to eat them all before I got cooking. This is their house mix (the bella donna), but you can get just about any kind you want at a pretty fair price by the pound. Look at these beauties:

These turned out to be almost cartoonishly big calzones. Feel free to use smaller pieces of dough and less filling if you are feeding more people or want a smaller portion. I wasn't sure I could eat it all, so I cut it down the middle and did half at a time. I still ended up going back and getting that other half.

Ingredients
For the dough:
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 1/4 oz. packet yeast
4 cups "00" flour
1 tbsp sea salt
fine semolina (if you're using a peel and a pizza stone)

For the filling: 
1 1/2 lbs yukon gold potatoes, thinly sliced
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp minced garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 package vegan sausage
1 medium sweet yellow onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
6 oz (1 small can) tomato paste
1 tsp chopped fresh basil
1/2 tsp sugar
2-3 cups shredded vegan mozzarella


Make the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the oil, sugar, yeast and 1 1/4 cups water heated to 115 degrees. Let the mixture sit until foamy (about 10 minutes). Mix the flour and salt in a separate bowl. With the hook running on low, slowly add the flour mixture and mix it until you've got a smooth dough. Transfer the dough to a greased bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. Let the dough sit at room temperature for an hour and a half until it's doubled in size.

Make the filling: Toss your potatoes with 1/4 cup of the olive oil and salt and pepper. Spread them evenly on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake them in a 400 degree oven until tender, about 10 minutes.

Heat the remaining oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until it's soft, about 8 minutes. Add the sausage, garlic, salt and pepper and cook until the sausage is browned.

Add the tomato paste, basil, sugar, salt and pepper and stir it around a bit to combine. It will be very thick.

Add 1/2 water and stir it around, letting it cook until it comes together and the sauce thickens a bit. Once it starts to pull away from the pan when you stir, you're where you need to be. If you're using olives, this is where you'd throw them in.

Once the dough is done rising, punch it down and dump it out onto a floured surface. Give it a couple of good kneads, but don't overwork it. Shape it into a ball and use a pastry cutter to divide it into four wedges. Take your first wedge and roll it out into an oval shape. Spread some filling onto it, leaving a good margin of dough around the edges. Top your filling with potatoes and cheese.

Fold the top half down over the filling until it meets with the bottom half of the dough. Press the edges together and crimp them with a fork. Cut three slits in the top of the calzone and repeat with the other three wedges of dough and the rest of the filling.

Bake in a 450 degree oven (or 500 if you're using a pizza stone) for 30-35 minutes, until the crust is puffy and browned. They will be insanely hot inside, so be careful when cutting into them. Here's a little cross-section view of the finished product.

Paella-style Orzo with Hearty Veggies

A good vegan paella is hard to come by. That never made sense to me, because it really wouldn't be hard to make the substitutions. I made one for a party a few years ago that was a big hit and wasn't hard to figure out. The problem with paella is the time commitment. All that checking in on the rice and adding stock at just the right interval and in the right amount. It can be a bit of a process and you have to stay on top of it. This dish is an effort to cheat at that, and I think it pulls it off quite well. Instead of constantly adding stock to arborio rice, we're using orzo, which cooks much faster. This makes the previously-laughable idea of a 30-minute paella (or at least a reasonable facsimile of one) a reality.

You can use just about any hearty vegetable you have on hand for this. Don't worry about it or overthink it. If you've got cauliflower, use it. Oyster mushrooms would be fantastic in this. A good field roast sausage would be great in it, too. It'd be hard to screw this up in any combination, really.

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups veggie broth
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp saffron threads
 14.5 oz. can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, juices drained and reserved
2 tbsp olive oil
1 bell pepper, diced
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
1 cup orzo pasta
1 carrot, chopped
8 green onions, chopped
2 cups broccoli florets

In a medium pot, bring the broth to a simmer. Stir in the garlic, seasoning, saffron and tomato liquid. Season with salt and pepper and keep hot.

Put some olive oil in a large skillet or a small dutch oven and put it over high heat. Add the tomatoes and sear them for a couple of minutes until they're browned and a little dry, then transfer them to a plate. Next, add the bell pepper and sear it the same way. Transfer it to the same plate when you're done.

Sprinkle in the orzo and stir it around for 30 seconds or so, until it starts to brown slightly.

Stir in the broth and reduce the heat to medium. Add the green onions, carrots, tomatoes and bell peppers, cover and let it simmer without stirring for 10 minutes or so.

Drop the broccoli on top around the top of the orzo, remove the pan from the heat and cover. Let it stand, covered, for other 10-15 minutes, until the orzo has absorbed the liquid and the broccoli has been steamed to the point where it's crisp-tender.

Rustic Beet Tarts with Sauteed Greens

This is an old favorite in our house. I'll admit, I was no fan of beets as a kid. I think that's because the only ones we ate were from a can. My parents were always big on vegetable gardening, I just don't remember them ever growing beets. It's their loss, because fresh beets are just superior in every way. Doug is a big fan and his enthusiasm for them was infectious. Soon after meeting him, I was also hooked. Beets don't need a lot of help, which is why this recipe is pretty uncomplicated. Walnuts, balsamic, garlic and a cheesy, flaky crust are kept in a supporting role. The beets are the star, which is as it should be.

Don't throw out those greens! Beet greens are among the most healthy, nutritious leafy greens you can eat, and they're really simple to prepare. This is one of those great opportunities to get a full meal out of all the parts of a vegetable.


Ingredients

1 pound beets
1garlic bulb, top cut off
olive oil
walnuts
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 stick Earth Balance, cut into small cubes and kept cold
4-6 tbsp ice water


Cut the stems and greens from the beets. Wash and dry the beets, then place them on a sheet of foil alongside the garlic. Drizzle both with olive oil and wrap them in the foil. Place the foil packet on a sheet pan and roast them in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour.

Put the flour, salt, pepper and nutritional yeast into a food processor. Add the Earth Balance cubes and pulse 4-5 times until they're the size of peas.

Turn the food processor on and add the water, letting the machine run just until it comes together. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and shape it into a mound. Wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge until you're ready to use it.

Meanwhile, pour the balsamic vinegar into a small saucepan and reduce it over medium heat, until it's about 1/3 of what it was. Set it aside once it's done.

When the beets and garlic are ready, take them out of the oven and bump up the oven temp to 400 degrees. Once the beets are cool enough to handle, peel the skin off and discard. I usually to this with the back of a knife.

Take the dough out of the fridge and cut it into four equal wedges, like this:

On a floured surface, flatten each piece of dough into discs around 6 inches in diameter. You can do this with a rolling pin, but since these are supposed to be rustic, I just do it with my knuckles. Peel off a few pieces of the garlic and gently squeeze them. The garlic will be soft and spreadable. You can squeeze them out and spread them with a knife, or just spread it around as you squeeze. As long as you cover it evenly and leave a little bit of a border around the edges, you're fine.

Slice the beets to your desired thickness (I like mine kind of chunky) and arrange them on top of the garlic. Tuck in the walnuts, sprinkle on some salt and drizzle them each with the balsamic reduction. Turn the dough edges up. You can roll them down over themselves or keep them sticking up, whatever works for you.

Bake the tarts on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 20 minutes or so, until the crust is golden.

Meanwhile, wash, stem and slice your beet greens. In a medium-sized pot, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat. Drop in the greens and stir them around to coat them in the oil. Add plenty of salt and pepper, a clove of minced garlic and a teaspoon of lemon juice. You may think they're too big and leafy, but it's astonishing how much they cook down. Put the lid on the pot and let them cook for a couple more minutes. Stir them every 2 minutes or so. Once they're done, put the lid back on and remove them from the heat.

When the tarts are done, drizzle them with a little olive oil and let them rest a few minutes. Plate them up with the greens and serve.

Chocolate Eggnog Cake

I've never been an eggnog guy. The name alone is enough to gross me out. Maybe it's all the "g" sounds. What is nog, exactly? Aren't you just drinking french toast batter? How is that okay?

Doug is a big eggnog fan and was initially bummed about having to give it up when we went vegan. It turns out that there are some pretty good vegan eggnogs out there. There are also some strange ones that taste nothing like eggnog. I used a rice milk variety for this cake and it turned out fine. For drinking, it's a different story. He loves the coconut milk eggnnog, which isn't always easy to find. He's been drinking a soy variety that's just so-so. He took a swig of the kind I used in this cake and said it tasted nothing like eggnog at all. I think you'll be fine no matter what kind you use, honestly. There's so much going on in this cake that the type of "nog" won't be noticeable.

This is a big cake, as you can tell from the frosting ingredients. I originally made a single cake (basically half of each recipe), which just didn't seem right. It's a holiday-themed cake and should really look special, right? I say this in the notes below, but want to reinforce it here: don't skimp on the frosting. This makes much more than you'd think, so really pile it on to that first layer. If you worry about running out and skimp on it, you won't be able to go back later and put the excess in the middle. Throw caution to the wind and really frost that first layer!



Ingredients
For the cake:
2 cups vegan eggnog
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp rum extract
2 1/2 cups unbleached flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp nutmeg

For the frosting:
2/3 cup Earth Balance buttery stick (11 tablespoons), softened
2/3 cup vegetable shortening (I used Earth Balance for this as well)(11 tablespoons), softened
4-4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
6 tbsp vegan eggnog
1/2 tsp rum extract
3/4 tsp nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two round cake pans by lining the bottoms with cut-out circles of parchment paper and spraying the bottom and sides of the pans.

Make the cake: Combine the eggnog and vanilla and set aside for a couple of minutes. Combine the eggnog mixture, sugar, oil and extracts in the bowl of a mixer. In a separate bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.

With the mixer running, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, a bit at a time to give them time to incorporate. Divide the batter evenly in the cake pans and put them in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Set the finished cakes on a wire rack to cool. Try not to accidentally dent the top of the cake like I did.

Make the frosting: Using a mixer, cream the butter and shortening together until they're smooth and well incorporated. Add the powdered sugar a bit at a time (I do a 1/2 cup), allowing time for the mixer to incorporate it. It won't really look like much while you're doing this, but don't panic. Add the eggnog, rum extract and nutmeg and then let the mixer do its thing for 4-5 minutes. It'll start out looking kind of limp and dull, but once it's done, it'll be fluffy and white. Take a taste and see if it needs more nutmeg.

Assemble the cake: Once the cakes are fully cooled, run a butter knife around the edges of the pan and invert it onto a plate. It should come right out, but if it doesn't a gentle, but firm, shake should do the trick. Turn it right side up and frost the first layer.

Be generous with the top of that first layer! I was afraid of running out of frosting and skimped a bit. I ended up having a ton of leftover frosting and middle layer in the cake that was a bit wimpy. Add the top layer and frost it, making sure to fill in gap between the two layers with frosting.

If you're feeling extra fancy, you can slice the rounded top off the bottom layer so the alignment is more professional-looking. I'm not a professional, so I wasn't worried about that. You could also pipe the frosting on and do some cool things with it, or lightly dust the top with nutmeg or colored sugar. The sky's the limit, really.

Mole Chick'n Chili

If you're a chili purist, you might want to look away. My approach to this classic dish would probably be considered apostasy to those who take their chili making seriously. It's not that I don't take it seriously, I do. I just don't have the options that they do. First, no meat (obviously). I usually use the soy beef crumbles in my chili and they're perfect for it. Second, no beans. We're pretty much a bean-free household, so the standard recipe for 3-bean vegetarian chili is not an option. Third, there are all sorts of weird spices and ingredients in it. This happened by accident one time ages ago when I wasn't paying attention and dumped a bunch of cinnamon into the pot instead of cumin. After it cooked a while, I found that I really liked what it did to the chili. After a while, I was adding other things, like chocolate and honey (or, as a vegan, agave nectar). I came to really appreciate the sweeter possibilities of chili.

One final indignity that might cause a chili champion to faint: Until now, I've never written the recipe down. In fact, there really is no recipe. I just wing it and it turns out a little different every time. Maybe there are mushrooms, maybe there aren't. Same thing with bell peppers, ketchup or beer. It just depends on what kind of mood I'm in.

Since I am now writing it down, I'm pulling together some of my best old ideas and some new ones. This is definitely an upgrade from the way I usually do it. I never really use chick'n in my chili, for example. Since this is more of a mole sauce, chick'n is a better fit than the beef crumbles. Gardein's Chicken Scallopini is well-suited for this kind of dish and is pretty easy to find in the freezer section at the store. Once it's browned up and cooked into the chili, it's hard to tell that it's not the real thing.

I can be a wuss when it comes to heat, so feel free to throw in a jalapeno or something with some more kick if this doesn't do it for you. I found it to be plenty hot, but not uncomfortably so.


Ingredients
3 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 large sweet onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 poblano pepper, diced

1 medium butternut squash, peeled and diced

2 cans fire-roasted diced tomatoes, with juices
2 tbsp chipotle chili powder
1 1/2 tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1 package of vegan chicken or homemade chicken seitan, and diced
8 ounces dark beer
1 cinnamon stick
3 strips of orange peel (no pith)
1/2 cup dark or semi-sweet vegan chocolate chips (I use Ghiradelli)
guacamole or sliced avocados

In a large pot, heat 2 tbsp of the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and cook them for about 3 minutes. Add the garlic, bell pepper and poblano pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for another 5 minutes or so. Stir in the chili powder, cumin and oregano and cook for another minute or so, until everything is coated in the spices.

Add the squash and stir it around to get it coated as well. Then add the tomatoes, beer, cinnamon stick and orange peel, along with a teaspoon or so of salt and a few good cracks of pepper. Stir it together and put the lid on. Bring it to a boil, then reduce it to a simmer and cook, covered for about 20-25 minutes, or until the squash is tender.

While that's simmering, heat the remaining 1 tbsp of oil in a skillet and add the diced chick'n pieces. Cook it over medium heat, stirring it around until it's browned on all sides. Remove it from the pan and set it aside.

When the squash is tender, stir in the chickn' and cook it for a few minutes. Stir in the chocolate and add some more salt and pepper to taste. Fish out the orange peels and cinnamon stick before serving (or don't. I bit into an orange peel and it was actually kind of nice).

Garnish with a big dollop of guacamole or some avocado slices. Serve with lime wedges, vegan sour cream, tortilla chips, whatever floats your boat.

Potato and Broccoli Soup with Mock Parmesan

Be advised: I'm going to get a little soup crazy this winter. The weather has now shifted from fall to winter (about 3 weeks early) and it just feels right. I've never been a big soup person, but that seems to be changing for some reason. I started out thinking that this particular soup would be a creamy one, but at the last minute decided against running it through the blender. This was partly because my blender can be a pain to use and partly because chunky veggie soup is kind of underrated. I struggled to get a "pretty" picture of it, but trust me, this is a great soup. It's also easy and has only a handful of ingredients, which is always nice.

The flavor of this soup really depends on caramelizing the onions, so don't rush them or pull them off the heat too early. It's worth the wait.

I used a mock parmesan for this to give it some "oomph" at the end, but also to thicken the broth a bit. This parmesan is really easy to put together and, like real parmesan, goes well on all sorts of dishes. Try it on spaghetti, pizza or anything else you would normally shake a little parmesan over. The look and texture are perfect and the flavor is pretty close as well.


Ingredients

For the soup:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp Earth Balance, divided
1 large sweet onion, julienned (about 2 cups)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups diced Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled or unpeeled
2 1/2 cups broccoli florets, with little or no stem
3 1/2 cups veggie stock
6 basil leaves, roughly chopped
Sea salt and ground black pepper

For the mock parmesan:
1 cup almond meal
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp white miso paste
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder


To make the parmesan, combine all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse it 3-4 times. Set 1/2 cup aside and keep the rest refrigerated in a sealed container.

To make the soup, combine the olive oil and half the Earth Balance in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Once the butter has melted, add the onins and season them with a pinch of salt and pepper. Saute the onions until they become caramelized. This will take some time, so resist the temptation to turn the heat up or to move on before they're really ready. It could be 10-15 minutes, depending on how hot the pot gets.

They'll start like this:

You're looking for this:

When they're about done, add the garlic and cook it until fragrant, about a minute.

Add the potatoes and stir them around to coat. Let them brown up for a couple of minutes and then add the brocolli and do the same thing.

Add the stock and bring it all to a boil. Simmer the soup until the brocolli and poatatoes are tender, about 10-12 minutes. Add the parmesan, the rest of the butter and the basil and stir to combine.

Roasted Butternut Curry Soup

Is it just me, or is everything pumpkin flavored right now? I do love pumpkin, but butternut squash will always be my favorite seasonal flavor. You can eat butternut squash pretty much anytime of year these days, but it only really feels right in the fall. It's absolutely perfect for soup because it doesn't need to be gussied up. It's pretty close to perfect as-is.

It's even better when paired with curry and lime. I know it sounds weird, but go with me on this. Throw in some apple cider and you have fall warmth in a bowl.

Ingredients
1 small butternut squash
1 sweet yellow onion, chopped
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp smoked salt
1/2 cup apple cider or good apple juice
1 cup warm water
2 tsp Better Than Boullion veggie paste
1 14 ounce can coconut milk
2 tsp lime juice

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Cut the squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the stringy stuff and the seeds. Brush the cut side with a little olive oil and sprinkle on some salt and pepper. Place both halves cut side down on the baking sheet and put enough water in the sheet to cover the whole surface with 1/2 inch of water. Put the squash in the oven and roast it until browned and soft, about 1 hour. When it's done, a fork should easily pass through the flesh of the squash. Set it aside to cool. It'll look like this:

Add some olive oil to a dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot and put it over medium heat. Saute the onions until soft, then add the curry, ginger and salt, stirring it around to coat the onions. Add the cider or apple juice, scraping any browned bits from the surface of the pot.

Bring to a boil and simmer until the cider has reduced by half. It'll be much thicker than when you started out.

Remove the onion mixture from the heat and add it to a food processor or blender. Scoop the squash flesh from the rind and add it as well. Puree it all together until smooth, then transfer it back to the pot and put it over low heat.

Dissolve the bouillon in the hot water and add that along with the coconut milk to the pot, stirring to combine.

It'll look like a wreck at first, but don't worry, it'll come together. Turn the heat up and let it simmer for 10 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. Add the lime juice and salt and pepper (if needed).