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Portabella Pizza

Portabella Pizza

Pizza remains a popular meal in this house. With two teenage sons it’s not hard to understand why and it makes for a relatively simple prep job for me too so I’ve got no issues with pizza…except that I’m trying to make lower cal, more nutritionally dense food for myself. The portabella pizza fits into that category plus it’s super easy and fast.

This pizza sports a big fat portabella mushroom cap as the crust. I piled it high with diced zucchini, onions, and a heirloom tomato. I tossed some Italian turkey sausage in, just about 1/3 cup, then I added some Penzeys Pizza seasoning and salt, tossed it again. The secret to loading the caps is to use your hands…that way you can press it firmly into the caps and really pile it on high.

Portabella Pizzas
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3 portabella mushrooms, stems removed, caps wiped off
1 largish zucchini, weird, seedy middle scooped out, diced
1/2 medium red onion, diced
1/3 cup cooked Italian turkey sausage
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
Penzeys Pizza Seasoning
Olive oil
Salt

Preheat oven to 350°.

Place the 3 caps on a small baking sheeet, sitting up like cups. Combine the zucchini, onion, sausage, seasonings, and a slosh of olive oil. Toss them together well. Load the mushrooms with the filling, top with the cheese and put in the oven to bake for about 20 minutes or until the cap is tender and the cheese is golden brown.

August 25, 2009 | Filed Under South Beach, food, geek fast food, low carb, low cal, mushroom, pizza, quick and easy, recipe | 5 Comments 

Free Tibet Chicken

chinese chicken

Over 2 years ago I wrote a post about a meal I referred to as Chinese Chicken, named as such because I didn’t have an actual name for it and because it’s vaguely asian in flavor. However, I’m dissatisfied with calling this chicken by it’s old name and so I gave it a new moniker, Free Tibet Chicken. Other than that this meal hasn’t changed much over the years and it’s still a family favorite and it still has the power to nourish your belly, heart, and soul.

chinese chicken

Begin by cutting a chicken into pieces, remove the skin if you like or leave it on. Bring 4 quarts of water to boil and drop the chicken pieces into the water along with 2 or 3 cloves of peeled garlic. Once the water comes back up to a boil turn the temperature down and poach the chicken on a low temp for 30 minutes or until cooked through. Once it’s cooked remove the chicken from the pan, and debone it. Throw the bones back into the poaching liquid and place the chicken in a serving dish and spoon some of the poaching juice over, splash it with soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, and chili oil.

chinese chicken

Stir fry some veggies over incredibly high heat. I used leeks and …

chinese chicken

cabbage. This step only takes a few minutes. Arrange the veggies alongside the chicken and add a spoonful of poaching juice over the chicken again. Serve with a medium grain white rice like Nishiki if you like but if you’re a South Beacher you can be totally Phase 1 with this meal as long as you serve it up sans rice..

Replenish yourself with this meal; it will nourish your belly, heart, and soul.

Be sure to save the bones and poaching juice; they’re still full of flavor and can be thrown in the pot with other chicken carcasses to make stock.

October 8, 2008 | Filed Under Asian, South Beach, beef, fish, poultry, pork, food, geek fast food, recipe, vegetable | 2 Comments 

Chard salad with Walnut Raspberry Dressing

chard salad with walnut raspberry dressing

Thanks for all the great comments. I am feeling better, although I’ll admit that this cold is just hanging on and tormenting me. But enough of that because despite the silly cold I’m as busy as ever and I’ve got something special to share with you today. I know it’s just a salad but I personally think that the colors and flavors of this salad are just phenomenal. I dubbed it the french apron salad because it has the same color combination as the apron I bought in Paris. The very same apron that I photographed and used as the graphic header up above…yup, that’s the one. Now you see what I mean.

chard salad with walnut raspberry dressingHere in Wisconsin we’ve had several weeks of tender chard. I know that may sound strange but chard usually has pretty thick and sturdy leaves but the last two batches that my CSA delivered have had beautifully soft, tender greens with stems that match. It seemed wrong to even contemplate cooking this chard so I decided to make a salad. I used a fabulously fresh walnut oil and a raspberry vinegar to create a dressing, I topped it with toasted walnuts, red onions, and carrots. I also used the chard stems but they required a bit of special handling. Chard stems seem to have teeny tiny deep channels that hold onto sand and soil like crazy. I washed then in a sink full of fresh cold water but that didn’t get rid of all the grit and there is nothing worse than a gritty salad. So I filled a quart mason jar 3/4 full with cold water and I dropped the stems in, screwed on the lid and shook it up for at least a minute. When I dumped them out and rinsed them off I gave one the grit test and it passed. The stems add a significant amount of color and a ton of flavor so I’m glad I found a way to use them.

We often get mixed baby greens in our CSA box and they have so little texture and flavor that I really dislike them. But this salad has big textures, big flavors and yet there is a subtlety, a tenderness that is really inviting. I plan on making this pretty salad again.

Chard Salad
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1 bunch of tender chard, stems and leaves
1 small red onion
2 carrots, sliced thin

2 tablespoons raspberry vinegar
¼ cup fresh walnut oil
Squirt of honey
Salt and pepper
1/3 cup toasted walnuts

Separate the chard leaves from the stems. Wash and spin dry the leaves and chop them into 1” ribbons and place them in a large salad bowl. Trim the stems into 2 inch pieces and place them in a quart jar filled ¾ of the way with fresh cold water. Screw on the lid and shake for a minute or so. Drain into a colander and rinse with fresh cold water. Test a stem for grit by eating it. If there is any grit left repeat the shaking routine. If no grit is detected then slice the stems into thin match sticks and add to the salad bowl.

Slice the carrots into think rounds and the onion into thin slices and add to the salad bowl. Combine the dressing ingredients and mix well. Taste and adjust accordingly. Add the walnuts to the salad bowl, add the dressing and toss and serve. It is good as is but I was tempted to add goat cheese…that might be even better.

August 5, 2008 | Filed Under Local, South Beach, braising, food, low carb, low cal, recipe, soup, salad, sandwich, vermont Valley CSA | 10 Comments 

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