Friday, March 7, 2008

Carmelized Onion Pizza


Before I say anything else, I want to say this is my first successful pizza dough experience. Something always goes wrong and I end up throwing the ruined dough into the trash, swearing, while Phil stands by with a concerned look on his face. My last attempts was with Isa's recipe in Vegan With A Vengeance, and that especially sucked because there were people over to eat the pizza I screwed up, so I had to go (well, Phil had to go, I won't lie) get store bought crusts from Whole Foods. After that I omitted the yeast and had a weird chewy crust that, needless to say, satisfied but wasn't the same. This time I tried the dough recipe in Student's Go Vegan, and even though something did go wrong, I fixed it (still swearing, but Phil wasn't home yet) and it turned out really well. I think the key was the tip given in the recipe, which is that you want warm rather than hot water, as if the water is too hot, the yeast gets pissed and refuses to cooperate. Kind of like me. For some reason I had to add about 1 c. more flour than it called for. But it was so easy to roll out, and rose like a dream! Go figure.

This pizza recipe was greatly inspired by a recipe from the Student's Go Vegan Cookbook, combined with a spread from Vegan Delights. But because pizza is pizza, and pretty basic, I'm going to give you a general recipe regardless that I hope won't infringe on any copyright laws. It was a tasty pizza, and I did change some stuff, so there.

I also really like making salad dressings, and I got creative with this one-- but it was kind of a failure. Phil *said* he liked it, but I think he and I have different dressing-standards (it's true, I'm a salad-dressing-snob). At any rate, the general idea behind it is:

1/4 c. coconut milk
1 tbsp. toasted sesame oil
healthy squeeze of lemon juice
1 tsp. maple syrup
1/4 tsp. ginger powder
pinch of salt

My issue is that it's not thick enough. To me, a good dressing should properly coat the lettuce without making it wet. So basically this needs more fat. But the sesame oil is too strong of a flavor. So I'm going to say, add another

1 tbsp. canola oil

and maybe more salt and pepper to taste, if you care to.

Not that anyone actually reads this. But you know.

Okay, so the pizza. I ramble, I know.


Ingredients:

  • enough pizza dough for one 12 in. pizza, or a pizza crust
  • some sort of spread-- olive tapenade, hummus, etc. (see below for what I did)
  • 2 yellow onions, sliced into thin rings
  • 1 tbsp. olive oil
  • handful of walnuts, pine nuts, or pistachios
  • 1 tsp. rubbed dried sage
  • salt and pepper
1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a skillet. Once warm, add the onions and a dash or two of salt and pepper. Keep an eye on this, stirring often and making sure it doesn't stick to the pan. It takes about 30 minutes for the onions to caramelize on medium-low heat, so you can do stuff (like make the spread) in the meantime, but make sure you stir it! Otherwise they won't caramelize evenly, they'll burn, etc.
2. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. If you want a thin crust, wait until the onions are done to continue, and omit the 10 extra minutes of rising time. Oil a baking sheet or tin foil, if you are like me and your baking sheet is too big for your stupid tiny oven, and pulled the rolled out pizza crust on it, or roll it out directly on it; whichever floats your boat.
3. If you want a fluffly crust, let the pizza rise for ten more minutes. If you want a thin crust, don't. Smear your spread all over, leaving the crust blank, then top with the onions and nuts of choice.
4. Pop in the oven for 10 minutes or until the crust is nice and dark.
5. Sprinkle with sage before serving.

I can't list the actualy recipe I used for the spread, as it's from Vegan Delights (a very useful cookbook that my mom bought when I first crossed into the dark side). However,

  • tofu
  • roasted cashews
  • black olives
  • lemon juice
  • salt
  • pepper
blended together makes a PERFECT spread for this pizza. Which makes me think that olive tapenade, or Bobbi's green olive and garlic clove hummus would do nicely, too.

And.. that's that. Yum.

1 comments:

zebeckras said...

Hi Charlotte. I love you and your blog is hilarious. I'm going to try some of these recipes at some point (b/c boy howdy do I love tempeh, and quite a lot of vegan food actually) but right now I'm just enjoying the pictures and the anecdotes of you swearing. ^_^