About a year ago, I read this article by Jeff Varasano and decided to embark on my own quest to make the best pizza I could. I don’t think my results were anything near the quality as what Mr. Varasano produced, but I think it’s a little more attainable and still quite tasty.

I should start by saying this pizza recipe fascinates me because it stands apart from all my other recipes. Most recipes are basically combinatorial – put the right things together and get them sufficiently warm. A few move into the realm of being chemical or biological (using bacteria or a chemical leavener to add fluffiness). This recipe is very mechanical. Having the right ingredients and getting the yeast to activate is not enough to make a great pizza. How the dough is physically handled makes a huge difference.

The recipe is simple:

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 package (2.5 tsp) yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• flour
• olive oil
• corn meal
• mozzarella cheese
• pizza sauce
• smoked swiss
• basil

Start by putting 1 cup of warm water in a mixing bowl, sprinkle the yeast on top (if you just dump it all it, it clumps together and does not activate as well). Then sprinkle the sugar and salt in as well. Let that stand for 5 minutes. Use that 5 minutes to preheat the oven to the lowest setting (as soon as it beeps to say that it’s pre-heated, turn it off, we just need a warm oven for the dough to rise). Also during this 5 minutes, put the mozzarella cheese in a wire mesh strainer and rinse it under cold water. I found that most mozzarella cheese that I buy in the store has a fine layer powder that prevents it from completely melting, washing this in cold water will remedy that.

After the five minutes is done, we’re going to add flour and knead the dough. Notice that I did not put a quantity on the flour; I have no idea how much flour goes into a pizza, I only know the correct texture. Start by putting in a cup of flour and start kneading. I use a Kitchen Aid with a dough hook, I’m sure it can be done by hand, but it’s going to take a long time. On my mixer, it takes about 20 minutes to knead the dough. Slowly add flour a 1/4 cup at a time. The goal here is to keep the dough as wet as possible and have it be just workable in the end. The dough will get very stretchy near the end. Another sign that the dough has reach the right consistency is that when I add the last 1/4 cup of flour, the dough will briefly form a ball, then mix back down and not quite ball up. There is no good way to describe the dough, but this is the crucial step. I think you simply have to accept that you’ll make a few pizza’s where you add too much flour, then you’ll make one pizza where you don’t add enough and then you’ll have the hang of it. So don’t plan on your first few pizzas being great.

When the kneading is done I throw a few table spoons of flour on top and work it underneath the dough using a spatula. This way I have a nice ball of dough that is well floured on the outside but still very wet at the center. If I try to pick this up with my hands, I can’t, the dough would ooze through my fingers. Cover the bowl with a cloth and stick it in the oven which should still be warm (remember, we pre-heated and turned off the oven on the lowest setting, so it should not be on right now). Wait one hour for the dough to rise.

After 1 hour, take the dough out of the oven and turn the oven to it’s highest setting (550F in my case) Also move one of the racks to the lowest setting. Get out a cookie tray, and put about a teaspoon of olive oil (I don’t measure this, just eyeball it) on it and rub it around to coat the pan (just use your hands and wash them before and after). Then sprinkle some cornmeal on the tray. The combination of the oil and cornmeal will keep the dough from sticking to the pan and it gives it a nice texture. This next part is tricky, we’ve just got all that air into the dough while it was rising, every time we touch it now, we’re damaging that; so the challenge is to get the dough in the right shape on the tray touching and moving it as little as possible. Pour the dough out onto the tray (it should ooze out of the bowl) and dust with a little flour (just enough that it won’t stick to your hands). You now want to go around the edges and pull the dough into the correct shape, it should be very stretchy and easy to shape. Don’t spread it, that will push the cornmeal around, grab the dough (gently) and lift it (gently) then pull (gently) placing it down in the right place. After a few tries you should be able to completely shape the pizza dough in less than a dozen motions.

After the oven is preheated, put the tray with just the dough on the lowest rack for 3 minutes. A ‘real’ pizza is cooked at 800F in a wood burning stone oven. This conducts a lot of heat to the dough quickly. Unless you build your own or hack your oven, this probably isn’t available to you so by putting just the dough in for 3 minutes, we can get the crust a little crisper with out burning the cheese. After 3 minutes pull out the dough, cover it it sauce. spread the mozzarella cheese around and grate a little bit of smoked swiss over the top (this makes a big difference but you only need a little, one block of smoked swiss is easily enough for a dozen pizzas). Sprinkle some basil on top. You can put toppings on the pizza if you like, but I swear it doesn’t need any.

Put the now topped pizza back in the oven still on the lowest rack. It’s only going to take a few minutes, but cook it until the cheese gets a little bubbly. Take it out, let it cool for a few minutes and eat!

This week I undertook the project of canning soup. The process started with a little research, mostly to see if it could be done safely. The consensus seemed to be that canning soup was safe as long as no grains or thickening agents were added (rice, noodles, flour – I also avoided barley and quinoa to be safe) and that the soup needed to be processed in a pressure cooker at 11psi for 60 minutes (for pints).

The next step was to find a recipe. I ran into a little trouble here, I couldn’t find anything that was quite what I was looking for. So I decided to wing it – I recommend this, I had a lot of fun and produced a soup that was exactly what I wanted in terms of taste, price and health. I went through the produce section at my grocery store and picked up anything I wanted in a soup – rutabaga, potatoes, onions, carrots, celery. The base of he soup ended up being a combination of veggie broth, tomato and lentils. I probably spent a total of 30 minutes cleaning, peeling and cutting vegetables and ended up with about two and a half gallons of soup.

I added vegetables based on their hardness and how I wanted them to cook down. Lentils, rutabaga and potatoes went in first, carrots a little while later, when that was getting soft, everything else went in. Once the soup was nearing the right consistency, I started taking out small bowls (just a few table spoons) and adding different seasonings to each bowl. My wife and I went through and tried the various combinations, then mixed up a few more batches based on what we liked and where we thought we could make it better. We decided on curry, sriracha and a little honey. We added those to the big pot until it tasted right and let it cook for another hour.

When the soup was done, I canned it in pint size jars (a good size lunch) and processed them in the pressure cooker. The one big mistake I made was doing this after work. It doesn’t require a lot of attention, but it takes a long time. The soup took over three hours and each batch of cans (I ended up having three) took about an hour and half (one hour to process, plus time at either end to build up pressure and release it safely). I didn’t finish until two in the morning. Next time, I’ll make it a weekend project and probably double the quantity.

The numbers are where this project gets really impressive. I ended up making 17 cans (I would have probably made more than 20, but I ran out of cans). Per can, the soup cost $0.60 and took about 5 minutes of my time. It has at least an order of magnitude less sodium that any soup you’ll find in a can in a store. All the ingredients were high quality and healthy. And because they’re canned, I can bring them to work in bulk, leave them in a desk drawer and take them out as I need them.

If you’re interested in doing something like this, the following are my recommendations. If you are not familiar with canning, do your research. It’s not hard, but you have to follow the rules or you can make yourself very sick. Make up your own soup (but only use safe ingredients). Make the soup first, then season it, and try a bunch of little samples to make sure it’s exactly what you want. It’s a lot of fun and you’ll enjoy eating it. Leave yourself lots of time.

I got the original recipe that started all of this from this site, but I’ve diverged quite a bit now. Having originally made the samosas, I’ve now made some baked (instead of fried) variants as well.

Filling
3 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 onion finely chopped
1 potato diced
1 carrot peeled and diced
1 cup peas
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp curry
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
2 cup water
1 cup lentils + 1 cup water (optional)

Add onions, garlic and oil to the pan and cook until the onions are translucent. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer on low, stirring occasionally. You may need to add more water if the filling starts to burn and stick to the pan. Cook until the potatos and carrots are soft. While the filling is cooking (which will probably take an hour), start on dough.

Dough
1 cup flour + more for kneading
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp canola oil
1/2 cup water

Mix everything in a bowl and turn out on a floured surface and knead. Continue kneading in flour until dough is no longer sticky. Cover with a bowl for at least ten minutes.

The Fun Part

A few notes before we choose which variation we’re making. I do not peel my potatos, I just wash them. I do however, dice the hell out of them. When my filling is done, there are no potatos left, instead the potato starch thickens the filling like gravy. How you do it is up to you though. I also use whole wheat flour for the dough. It’s a little harder to knead, but much healthier, and in this case, I actually like the flavor of the dough better. The lentils are optional. They make the filling very hearty. I’ve not used them when making actual samosas, but I use them for all other variations.

Variation 1 – Just the filling
For this, don’t make any dough. Just make the filling, serve it over rice or quinioa, eat it with bread or crackers, or just eat it as a side, it’s delicious.

Variation 2 – Samosas
Form about 8 balls with the dough, and roll them out to 10 inch circles. Cut each in half. Take each half circle and form a cone by sealing one half of the straight edge to other half (inside to outside, you should have a smooth cone, not a crimp). Fill the cone with filling, but leave enough room at the top to seal it. Seal by folding one half of the opening over, then the other and sealing them together. When you’re done, you should have a sort of pyramid shaped samosa. Deep fry in canola oil. Honestly, it’s really hard to describe, look on Youtube, there’s some good videos of people folding them, also some other recipe variations.

Variation 2 – Pies
Take the dough and cut it into equal portions for how many pies you want. I always make small, one meal pies about 3 inches in diameter, but it depends on what pie trays you have (you may end up makeing one big pie). For ball/pie, cut the ball into two portions one being twice as big as the other. Use the larger portion to form the base of the pie. Cook for 45 minutes at 350 F. Take the base out of the oven, Fill and roll the remaining dough to form a top. Seal the edges between the top and bottom and cook for 45 more minutes. The small persoanl pies are great. It takes two or three hours, but you can easily double or triple this recipe and make a dozen or two, freeze them and you’ve got lunches for the better part of a month.

Variation 3 – Pasties
Very similar to pies, I started making these because I do them faster than the pies and they only need to bake once. Divide the dough into equal portions (probably about 8, but more if you want smaller pasties, less if you want bigger ones). Roll each into a circle. Wet the edge (just a quarter of inch in) of half of the circle. Place filling on the same side of the circle (don’t get any filling on the wet edge though). Fold the other half over and crip with a fork. Cook at 350 F, flipping the pasties every 15 minutes. Mine usually cook for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes.

1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup water
12 Oz tomato paste
1/2 cup TVP
1 green bell pepper diced
1 can black or pinto beans, drained
1 can sliced olives, drained
1 can kidney beans, drained
3 tbsp vegetable broth
2 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Cayenne pepper
Red pepper flakes

Saute onion, garlic and green pepper in oil until onion is translucent. Add the remainder of the ingredients and cook until warm enough to server stirring occasionally.

I originally got this recipe from another site (I don’t remember where) but I’ve modified it to my tastes. This is a very tasty recipe that can be cooked up quickly. I really like this recipe because it like many vegan recipes. It tastes like it could be any body’s chili and it has a very normal set of ingredients. Even the TVP can be found at most stores. Healthy, delicious, easy, cheap – the perfect recipe.

1 onion diced
4 cloves garlic diced
1/4 cup olive oil
2 T red curry paste
1 can coconut milk
1 t salt
1.5 T sugar
4 large carrots
1 green bell pepper
2 t basil
cubed tofu

Peel the carrots, then Slice them thinly on a diagonal. Steam them while your continue to prepare the dish. Dice the onion and garlic and saute in oil until the onion is translucent. While the onion and garlic is cooking, dice the green bell pepper into pieces about a half inch square. When the onion is translucent add everything except the tofu. Cook until the carrots and onions are almost to desired texture. Add tofu and cook for five more minutes. Server over rice.

Christmas Chex Mix (11 batches, 120 Cups)

This is the recipe I use every year to make chex mix for just about everyone I know. It makes a lot (see picture of lots of chex mix and trashed kitchen).

2 boxes Rice Chex (35 Cups)
2 boxes Corn Chex (30 Cups)
3 boxes wheat chex (27 Cups)
11 cups mixed nuts
11 cups pretzles
4 cups (8 sticks) butter or margarine
1 1/3 (actually 1.375) cups Worcestershire sauce
5.5 tablespoons seasoned salt
2.75 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion powder

Melt the butter in a pot and add last 4 ingrediants. Mix the top 5 ingrediants together in what ever vessel will hold them and carefully pour spice mixture over them while gently stirring.

Oven at 250 F, bake 1 1/2 hour stirring every 15 minutes.

Homemade pasta is one of the most amazing things in the world. The first time you make it, it will take a long time, and might not come out to well. But after a couple time, this will be second nature. I was making this on such a regular basis at one point that I could make and cook this faster than it took boxed pasta to cook.

Basil is optional, but it makes the pasta absolutly amazing. If you’re going to add basil, but the basil with one cup of water and an egg in the blender until it’s pureed then pour that in a bowl and add a tablespoon of olive oil. If you’re not adding the basil just mix one cup of water and egg, then add a table spoon of olive oil. It’s a lot easier to make pasta with white flour, but if you want some whole wheat flour, add a cup now, if not add a cup of white flour. Mix in the flour. Keep adding white flour and mixing until it forms a ball. Then knead it on a heavily floured surface. It will continue to absorb flour for a while. The more flour you can work in, the better your noodles will turn out.

When you can’t work any more flour into the dough, tear the ball into equal, ping pong ball sized chunks and store them under a bowl to keep from drying out. Take one and roll it out.

If you have a pasta machine, this is the time to use it. Roll the dough several times on the widest setting. Flour the dough and fold occasionally until the surface is smooth and no longer sticky to the touch. Successivly roll on thinner settings. At some point you will probably have to cut the strip in half, they can grow to several feet. When you’ve reach the desired thickness, roll through the noodle cutting part.

If you do not have a pasta machine, roll the dough out on a floured surface with a rolling pin. Keep the top side well floured. When it reaches the desired thickness, cut it into strips with a knife.

Drop the finished noodles into boiling water. They only need to cook for a minute or two.

Much to my protest, a friend of mine insisted that I try some Ethiopian food a few months ago. I was surprised to find that it was not only delicious, but instantly catapulted to one of my favorites. I immediately learned how to cook it at home myself. And while the following recipes are not quite what you would get at a good Ethiopian restaurant, but they are quite delicious and pretty cheap to cook (see my article about spices). There are three recipes that go together to make a (very large) meal. Chicken (Doro Wat), lentils (Mesir Wat) and bread (Injera). Traditionally the chicken and lentils are eaten using the bread as a utensil, and the food is placed on one of the pieces of bread, so there is no waste that has to be washed off the plate. Instead of presenting this as three recipes I’m presenting it as one. That’s how I make it, and it took me a while to figure out how to fit all the pieces together so I could cook in a reasonable time.

Here’s everything you’re going to need before you start cooking.

4 onions
Olive oil (a little more than a cup
5 cloves garlic
1.5 teaspoon Salt
1.5 teaspoon Curry powder
1.5 teaspoon Ground Cardamom
.5 teaspoon Ground Cloves
.5 teaspoon Oregano
.5 teaspoon Sweet Basil
.5 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
Small can tomato paste
Chicken (about 7 chicken breasts, cubed)
2 t Gingerroot, peeled, minced
1 t Turmeric
2 T Paprika
½ to 2 t Cayenne Pepper
1 lb Red Lentils
1 cup Buckwheat pancake mix
1 cup biscuit mix
2 small cans of tomato paste or one normal sized can (and divide in two)
2 eggs

First, peel the onions and cut them up just enough to fit them in a blender with the garlic. Add some water (enough to blend) and blend to a fine puree. Get out one big pot and one big pan (the pot I cook in is about 12 inches wide, 6 inches deep, the pan is 14 inches wide and 2.5 inches deep) and put about a half cup of olive oil in each and get it hot. This next part sucks, and if the food wasn’t delicious, it wouldn’t be worth it. First off, get every fan going you can and open any window you can. Now pour half the onion puree into each pan and stir and let it cook for a little while.

Into your big pot, add 2 t Ginger, 1 t Turmeric, 2 T Paprika, ½ to 2 t Cayenne Pepper and stir. Add small can tomato paste, 4 cups water and 1 lb red lentils.

Into your pan add 1.5 teaspoon Salt, 1.5 teaspoon Curry powder, 1.5 teaspoon Ground Cardamom, .5 teaspoon Ground Cloves, .5 teaspoon Oregano, .5 teaspoon Sweet Basil, .5 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon, Small can tomato paste and enough water so you can stir in the tomato paste (about a cup). Stir it for a minute or so. Add chicken.

Now comes the juggling part. Both pots are going to start at a high heat and come down. The lentils will be pretty obvious when they are done. The chicken you want to cook down as much as you can. The thicker you can cook the sauce the better (probably 30 minutes). Stir both of them regularly, and now start cooking the pancakes on the side. Mix together Buckwheat pancake mix, biscuit mix, 2 T olive oil and 2 eggs. Get lightly oil a pan, and get it up to medium-low heat.  Pour out about 1/4 cup batter onto the pan. The trick is to flip the pancake as soon as possible, but not too soon, it just takes practice. Ideally you don’t want the surface to get the golden brown color we normally associate with pancakes.

When you’re done cooking you should have a huge pot of lentils, a large pan of chicken and a pile of pancakes to eat them with. Salt the lentils to taste, and layout 3-4 pancakes on a platter. Put enough chicken and lentils on these pancakes for every one and serve.

The pancake recipe only makes enough pancakes for 2 people, but the lentils and chicken will probably feed upto about 6. The chicken and lentils will keep in the fridge for about a week, and in the freezer almost indefinitely. However, the pancakes lose their texture quickly. When I make this for me and my wife, I divide up the chiken into 3 parts and the lentil to 4 parts right away, freezing 2 chicken and 3 lentils, eating the rest with the pancakes that night. Then each time we pull out some frozen leftovers, I make a new batch of pancakes. And one day we have the extra serving of lentils on their own with lunch or as a snack.

Sources:

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Cookbook/Ethiopia.html

http://www.whats4eats.com/vegetables/mesir-wat-recipe

Rice – cheap, delicious and healthy, what more could you want. Rice and beans are a staple of cooking in many cultures and for good reason.

1 Cup Brown Rice
Cup Pinto Beans
4 Cups water
1 small can tomato paste
Salt
Garlic
Oregano
Cumin
Chili Powder
Cayene Pepper

Before cooking, wash the beans in cold water then place in the crock pot with 4 cups water and 2 tsp salt. Cook on high. Wash rice in cold water and set aside to dry. When beans are nearly done (about 2-3 hours) stir in rice. When rice is done (about another hour) turn off the crock pot and mix in seasoning to taste. Try to use as little salt as is palatable. I used to cook up a batch of these every week and they were a big part of every lunch.

I have a modest spice rack, stocked with the stuff I use the most, and I do use spices in almost everything I cook. Between lunch and dinner, my wife and I probably eat about 10 meals a week that were cooked at home. Not from a box or can and not going out and getting it, but stuff that we cooked in our kitchen. And most of that stuff goes from bland and unappetizing to tasty and delicious from spices. I’m always under the impression that spices are expensive, and they are. But we refill one of our spices about once a month, normally at a cost of $5. That’s $60 a year! That’s cheap. We would easily spend that going out to eat just two or three times. Further, if don’t count spices, a lot of great recipes, full meals even, have only a handful of ingredients. My point, the key to cooking cheap, delicious and healthy food is a great spice rack.

My Spice Rack

• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic Powder
• Cayenne Pepper
• Turmeric
• Cajun Seasoning
• Curry
• Cinnamon
• Cardamom
• Paprika
• Chili Powder
• Oregano
• Parsley
• Ground Ginger
• Cumin