Thin Crust Pizza

Pizza is a staple in our home. The whole family looks forward to the Pizza night on Fridays, everyone for different reasons though. My 4 and 8 year olds love to create their own pizzas and I am highly impressed to see the toppings on the pizza for my elder son are adding up (last night he added mushrooms, capsicums and tomatoes). The younger one follows though he still craves a margarita so he has compromised on eating half healthy pizza and half plain cheese pizza. The husband just loves garlic, jalapenos, sun dried tomatoes and roasted vegetables (the possibilities are endless). And me, well, I am always on the lookout to make the pizza more healthy. Not only do I try to get healthy toppings I also like to play around with the sauce and the Pizza dough.

Have fun creating your own pizzas but remember not to get carried away..too many toppings weigh the pizza down and make it soggy from the center.

1 recipe Pizza Dough

1 recipe Tomato Sauce

200gms japanese mushrooms

1/2 green, red and yellow capsicums each

1/2 Onion

1 tomato

250 gms fresh mozarella (fresh mozarella has no salt)

salt (Do not use salt if you are using a salty cheese)

fresh basil

oregano

grated garlic

red chilli flakes

Preheat oven to 250°C. Place the Pizza stone in the middle rack if you are using it.

1) Wash all the vegetables.

2) Slice the Capsicums, onion, tomato and basil

3) Grate the Mozarella.

4) Divide the dough into 4 pieces and roll out thinly using flour sparingly.

5) Place the rolled out dough on a peel if your are baking the pizza on a stone or on a pizza tray that you will be baking the pizza on.

6) Build the pizza starting with the sauce, cheese, garlic, mushrooms, capsicum, onion, tomato.

7) Sprinkle salt, basil or oregano or both and chilli flakes if you are using them.

8) Slide the pizza on the pizza stone or the pizza tray in the center of the oven for about 8-10 minutes. This will depend on the oven.

9) Once bubbly and golden from top, remove from oven and let the pizza rest for a minute or two before the slicing the pizza.

The following Pizza is one of the favorites with my family, topped with fresh chopped spinach and sun dried tomatoes.

Basic Pizza Dough

Basic Pizza Dough

1 cup Bread Flour

1 cup Wholewheat Flour

2 tbsp Cornmeal or Semolina(optional)

1/2 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Sugar

1 tsp Oil

1 tsp good quality yeast

Warm no fat milk

1) Mix the flours together, add salt.

2) Mix the yeast, sugar and 3 tbsp warm milk. Let stand for about 5 minutes or until frothy.

3) Add the yeast mixture to the flour alongwith the oil.

4) Knead the dough by adding little milk at a time, till the dough forms a ball.

5) Transfer the dough to a oiled bowl and let it rest covered for atleast 4 hours.

Basic Tomato Sauce

This is a basic tomato sauce that I use often. This is a all purpose sauce and works well with most dishes.

I season the sauce according to the type of cuisine I am planning to use it with.

For Italian I tend go for oregano and basil whereas for Indian some ginger and coriander are a welcome addition.

I am planning to use this sauce for the pizzas we are planning to make this week.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves minced garlic

16 large ripe plum tomatoes, blanched, peeled and seeded

1 carrot

fresh basil leaves (about 15)

Salt and pepper

1)Wash the tomatoes thoroughly, slit the skin of each tomato. Blanch the tomatoes by placing them in simmering water, cook until the skin of the tomatoes is wrinkled about a minute at the most. Remove the tomatoes from heat, drain and let cool in a colander.

2) Once cool, dice the tomatoes.

3) Dice the carrot finely.

4) Cut the basil into strips by first stacking them one over other and then rolling them lengthwise and then cutting across.

5) On medium, heat olive oil in a pan, add garlic, saute till garlic is fragrant, do not brown.

6) Add carrots and tomatoes, cook until liquid is released for about 5 minutes.

7) Add Salt, Pepper and basil.

8)Cover and cook till sauce is condensed, for about an hour.

The sauce can be refrigerated for a week.

Tangy Thai Green Mango Salad

This recipe uses both raw and ripe mangoes and is a very good meal in itself for a light lunch or a good accompaniment for a summer barbeque.

I have served it whenever I can lay hands on mangoes and it has been a hit everytime.

I like to use the sweet variety of green mangoes for this recipe, the sour ones don't work here.

This Mango Salad is traditionally served with Crabs, and I am pleased to report that my vegetarian version has been a hit with hard core traditionalists.

To retain the crispiness of green mangoes the dish should be assembled just before serving, prepare the mangoes and dressing and leave in the refrigerator till required.

Because mangoes vary in sizes please do adjust the seasonings in the dressing. The dressing should be sweet and sour with a spicy garlicy flavour..

Also dont pour all the dressing, use your judgement.

2 crisp raw green mangoes (Sweet)

1 stalk lemongrass

1 ripe yellow mango

1 red chilli or more if you prefer spicy

3 garlic cloves

juice of 1 lime

Fresh Mint leaves (Although at times I have used dried mint leaves)

salt

sugar

1/2 cup or more peanuts

1) Peel the green mangoes and coarsely shred them.

2) Slice the lemongrass thinly and mix with the shredded mango.

3) Peel and cut the ripe mango in chunks and put it in a blender.

4) Add garlic cloves, chilli, lime juice, sugar and salt to the mango in the blender and blend well.

5) Pour the salad dressing on top of the shredded mangoes and lemongrass just before serving.

6) Top the salad with peanuts and mint leaves.

Soothing Green Mango & Mint Drink

Please excuse me if I get carried away with too many mango posts.

I should hardly be blamed for I live in Thailand and at this time of the year everytime one looks around all they see is mangoes! Sweet green mangoes, Sour green mangoes, Ripe yellow mangoes...so many varieties of mangoes..I love them!!

The following recipe is for a drink that is very cooling especially in the summers.

I am happy that my children prefer it over the fizzy bottled stuff.

2 Green Sour Mangoes

1/2 to 1 cup of fresh mint leaves

Salt or Black rock salt powder (according to taste)

Sugar (according to taste)

1 tsp roasted cumin seed powder

4 cups Cold Water or more

Ice Cubes

1) Boil Mangoes till tender.

2) Once cooled, peel them and scrape out all the pulp.

3) Blend the Mango pulp, mint leaves, Sugar and Salt and pass the mixture though a strainer.

4) Dilute the mango mixture with cold water, add cumin powder and adjust salt and sugar.

5) Pour into glasses and top with ice cubes before serving.

Note: You can always freeze the blended mango mixture in small pouches and dilute as required!

Whole Moong Bean Sprout Stir Fry

Whole Moong beans are one of my favorite beans. Apart from being nutrtious they have a very mild taste thus it is very easy to create a variety of palatable dishes with them.

I like to buy dry beans and soak them overnight, the beans can be boiled at this point and used. However going one extra step and sprouting them increases their nutritional value and so of course I have to sprout them!!

The following recipe is a staple in my home.

For this recipe you will need:

1) 1 cup of dry moong (Soaked overnight - if you want to sprout them drain the moong, tie them in a wet cheese cloth and leave them in a colander for 10 -12 hours)

1/2 medium onion diced

2 medium plum tomatoes diced

1/2 capsicum diced (any colour or a mix)

1/2 carrot grated or diced

chopped cilantro

chopped green chillies (optional and according to taste)

lime according to taste

salt according to taste

1/4tsp Turmeric powder

1 tsp oil

1/2 tsp cumin seeds (optional)

Boil the sprouted moong in a covered pan with four tablespoons of water and a sprinkle of salt on high heat. Let them boil and soak up the water- please do not throw away the water as it is packed with nutrition!!

On medium heat, add oil to the pan. Once hot add cumin seeds if using them, add onions, stir till translucent then add capsicum, carrots and tomatoes stir fry for a minute till vegetables are tender but not mushy.

Add Moong beans, salt, turmeric, chillies and cilantro. Give a quick stir and remove from heat.

Squeeze the lime just before serving.

Served with wholgrain bread, it makes a wholesome meal at any time of the day:)

Welcome to my own art gallery (this blog) where I will share my recipes and ramble on about tidbits of everyday life...

I am a Jeweler by profession and a cook by heart.

I love food and I love to talk...

Creating new dishes has always been fun and I love the challenge.

I am a cook with a passion , the art of cooking and creating new dishes for a perfectionist like me is very theraputic. I feel immense satisfaction and pleasure when family and friends are brave enough to try my edible art and actually relish it. Although I have to say sometimes it is a hit and sometimes it is a big MISS -- still that does not stop my creativity!

Edible Ramblings will try and stick to Healthy, Nutritious, Vegetarian, Kid-Friendly medium....

I love company and am so glad you stopped by to cook with me!

Happy Cooking..

Divya