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Appetizers anyone can make

Appetizers anyone can make
Figs stuffed with parmesan and wrapped in bacon

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Vegetarian Pizza

Gluten Free Vegetarian Pizza, worked well
Ingredients for Dough:
2 cups of Gluten free rice flour ( I like EnerG)
3/4 cup warm water (not cold, not hot, you want it for the yeast) *
1/2 tsp sugar
7/8 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp butter *
7/8 tsp active dry yeast

I used a bread maker and used the dough mode.  It takes 1 hour and 30 minutes.  This dough is a little dry, so while the machine is mixing it, check on it many times, and pull back in any dough that is sticking to the side of the pan, and help it mix it a little.  Remove from the machine, and place in a greased bowl.





Cover with a cling wrap and a clean towel, and place in a warm part of your kitchen.  Let rest for 1 hour.  To be honest, I'm not sure this step makes a difference, as gluten free dough doesn't rise the same as regular dough.



  Cover your board in flour and begin to roll out into a rectangle or circle. All you're really trying to do is get the dough to be even across it and the thickness you desire.  In this case, I was making mini pizzas so I made them a little thinner.




I used a biscuit cutter and then a smaller one to make the mini pizza look like it had a crust like a larger one.






Next Make the pizza sauce:



Top with pizza sauce, a pinch of grated cheese.
(I used a mixture of 1 cup grated Romano,4 ounces of Fontina, 9 ounces of Mozzarella, and 1 cup of Parmesan-way too much cheese, probably because they were mini-but mix up the cheese, and put a pinch on each pizza. 

Romano cheese
Grated Romano cheese







Grated Parmesan






Fontina Cheese grated






Grated Mozzarella. 



Add your favorite toppings.  Shown here are 6 vegetarian pizzas and 1 pepperoni on the edge.   
 See below for how to prepare the vegetables.
I thought they were prettier before they were cooked, but tasty so I'm happy.  This is my first gluten free cooking.
*A discussion on gluten free dough making.  Well, I tried a mix from a health food store, and it was a total flop. Gluten free without the gluten in the regular flour works differently.  So, then I went back to my usual pizza dough recipe and substituted the gluten free rice flour and it was so dry, it looked like it wouldn't work.  So I adjusted the water amount and butter amount, and it came out well (already shown with these additions in the ingredients list).  The crusts could be crunchier if you pre-bake them for about 3-4 minutes before you top them, then proceed like shown above and cook for 12-15 minutes more.

How to prepare the vegetables:
Ingredients:
1 beet, peeled and diced
1 baby bok choy
1/4 of large sweet onion, diced
l ear of corn
l small portabello mushroom
salt and pepper




Firstly, if you don't want red hands, I suggest either gloves or paper towels between you and the beet, and I cut it on a separate board so it doesn't stain my butcher block.
Use a potato peeler to peel the outside of the beet.  I leave the greens on while doing this to help you hold onto it. Then cut off the greens (they are edible I do believe, but didn't use them in this recipe). 




Peel and dice the Beet



Place 1 can of vegetable broth in a sauce pan over medium heat.  
Add the diced beets to the broth and cook until they are soft and to your liking.    
Use a slotted spoon and remove the beets to a medium size bowl.
Next, dice up the bok choy.  Here I tend to separate the greens from the whitish stem as they cook in a different amount of time.  Heat up a fry pan over medium heat, add olive oil to the hot pan.  Stir fry the vegetables separately for best results adding salt and pepper to each batch.  You can tell when each is perfectly done this way.


Sauteing the onions. When soft and caramelizing, remove to the medium size bowl with the beets.  By the way, I learned the other day, that when you want to caramelize and get all those nice browned bits off the bottom of the pan, you should not use not-stick pans as they "don't stick", shown my old way here.
Cut corn off the cob by standing it on end and cutting off with a sharp knife.
Saute the corn kernels.
Saute the mushrooms.
Not shown, but saute the bok choy white stem part for a few seconds, add the greens, a few more minutes.


Mix the vegetables together.  Not only is it a pretty mix, but the more colorful the vegetables, the better for you it is.


Mixed up and ready to top your pizzas.     

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