When people ask me what is my favorite food, I’ve never been able to give them a straight answer because I love variety and the unique flavors of so many cuisines. But, if I HAD to pick a favorite, pizza is certainly at the top of the list, so I was really pleased when Natasha and Lazaro announced that pizza was the theme for August’s Five Star Challenge.

The true origin of pizza differs depending on the source and whether you’re talking about the etymology of the word “pizza” (Latin), or what culture was the first to start adding toppings to flavor bread (Middle East and Mediterranean), or who invented the edible plate (Greeks). Generally, its agreed that pizza, as we know it, came from humble beginnings; a Galette flat bread with a red sauce, it was a dish of the poor people and sold in the streets of Naples, Italy in the 16th century. Later, after tomatoes were brought to Europe by explorers from the Americas, the sauce was made from oil and tomatoes.

Origins aside, pizza has evolved to gourmet status with a place on the menu of many a fine dining establishment. The pizza’s appeal transcends borders and its versatility knows no bounds – you can have pizza for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert now!

The pizza I created for this challenge speaks to my roots in the South (the S in SXSW), my love of Southwestern flavors (the SW), and the bounty of tomatoes from our garden. This year we planted three varieties of tomatoes: Organic Beefsteak, Heirloom Black Krim, and Sweet Tangerine Hybrid and I used each one in this delicious vegetarian thin crust SXSW Pizza.

We’ve been having a problem with the Beefsteaks developing “blossom rot”, so have been picking them before they mature into their biggest, brightest, beautiful selves – this is the variety I used for the fried green tomatoes. The Black Krim’s have a dark maroon skin with red flesh, they grow to a medium-size which is perfect for bites of pizza, alternated with slices of the extra sweet, golden orange Sweet Tangerine Hybrid. With Marcella Hazan’s dough recipe (thank you, Angela of Spinach Tiger), a sprinkling of aged Asiago cheese and the delightful crunch and Southwestern flavors of toasted pepitas and smoky roasted corn – this was a garden fresh, gourmet pizza bursting with flavor that I think you’ll love and that I’ll be making again and and again.

Besides being a catchy acronym for the South by Southwest flavors in this fabulous pizza, SXSW also makes reference to the annual  SXSW in Austin, Texas, the mega happening of interactive, media, music, and film festivals that one day I’d like to attend

Cheers to pizza in all its incarnations!

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1. Moroccan Chicken with Green Beans I’ve been on a Moroccan bender for the past year,...

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I’ve been on a Moroccan bender for the past year, especially after “discovering” this quality blend of the aromatic Moroccan spice Ras el Hanout from Awaken Savor Spices. Ras el Hanout can contain more than 30 ingredients and is a traditional Moroccan blend of herbs and spices, popular across the Middle East and North Africa. The name means “head of the shop” in Arabic and represents the very pinnacle of spice blends – for Moroccan souks (spice merchants) it’s a point of honor to have the most sought after version of this blend. Ingredients include saffron, paprika, cumin, ginger, coriander, tumeric, fennel seed, and allspice to name a few.

I first used it in my 5-Minute Spicy Hummus recipe posted last year and, funny sidenote:  my volunteering at a #140 Meetup at the Comedy Store the same day, led to a mention of my site and  contributed to hummus trending on Twitter that night If you love Moroccan cuisine, I highly recommend adding Ras el Hanout to your array of spices. Rather than having individual bottles of all the spices that typically go into a Moroccan dish, a tablespoon or two of this exotic blend is all you need.

For Green Bean week, this is Simple + Seasonal recipe #3 highlighting tender, young green beans fresh from the garden or your nearest local farmer’s market. I adapted this from a Bon Appetit recipe that I saved from years ago. The original recipe called for about 10 different spices, simplified by using Ras el Hanout Similar to a tagine, this Morrocan stew is made in one large pot or dutch oven. Feel free to vary the vegetables – it’s fantastic with roasted eggplant, zucchini or roasted cauliflower.

Every month, Nancy at Spicie Foodie hosts a Your Best Recipe (YBR) roundup to bring together in one spot some of the best recipes in  the food blogosphere. I’ve included my Moroccan Chicken with Green Beans in the YBR June Roundup  – take a minute to check out some of the other delicious dishes – just click on the button

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Seldom do we start off a weekend without any plans and, with owning a busy photography business, these weekends are few and far between!  Our weekend began with a relaxing Friday evening on the sofa in front of the TV.  Yes, sometimes you just have to chill and partake in some channel surfing! We came across the movie Julie & Julia and since Jeff and I both love cooking…. and eating,  and we missed the movie while it was showing on the big screen,  we decided to watch it.  We were both fascinated by all the fabulous meals that were prepared and loved Julia’s accent!  “Butter” everything is better with butter and lots of it!

The next day we headed to Barnes and Noble to buy a copy of her culinary classic,  “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”.  Thumbing through the index, I zoned in on Beef Bourguignon otherwise known as Beef Stew with red wine, bacon, onions and mushrooms.   I had Jeff at “Bacon” and we decided to test our mad cooking skills in the kitchen that evening! We were so proud of ourselves – it was nothing short of sensational, especially paired with a Mouton Cadet Bordeaux…AMAZING!!!! I have to say that it was fun to cook together.  I just love when you can combine your passions: for us food, wine and photography; and cooking is another art form that inspires us to be greater!

The Sipper’s Beef Bourguignon

from Julia Child’s recipe

Ingredients:

6 ounces of chunk bacon

3 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

3 pounds lean stewing beef, cut into 2-inch cubes

1 carrot, sliced

1 onion , sliced

Salt and pepper

2 tablespoons flour

3 cups red wine, young and full-bodied (like Beaujolais, Cotes du Rhone or Burgundy)

2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups brown beef stock

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 cloves mashed garlic

1/2 teaspoon thyme

A crumbled bay leaf

18 to 24 white onions, small

3 1/2 tablespoons butter

Herb bouquet (4 parsley sprigs, one-half bay leaf, one-quarter teaspoon thyme, tied in cheesecloth)

1 pound mushrooms, fresh and quartered

Preparation:

Remove bacon rind and cut into lardons (sticks one quarter-inch thick and one and a half inches long). Simmer rind and lardons for ten minutes in one and a half quarts water. Drain and dry.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Sauté lardons in one tablespoon of the olive oil in a flameproof casserole pan over moderate heat for two to three minutes to brown lightly. Remove to a side dish with a slotted spoon.

Dry beef in paper towels; it will not brown if it is damp. Heat fat in casserole until almost smoking. Add beef, a few pieces at a time, and sauté until nicely browned on all sides. Add it to the lardons.

In the same fat, brown the sliced vegetables. Pour out the excess fat.

Return the beef and bacon to the casserole and toss with one half teaspoon of salt and one quarter teaspoon of pepper.

Then sprinkle on the flour and toss again to coat the beef lightly. Set casserole uncovered in middle position of preheated oven for four minutes.

Toss the meat again and return to oven for four minutes (this browns the flour and covers the meat with a light crust).

Remove casserole and turn oven down to 325 degrees.

Stir in wine and two to three cups stock, just enough so that the meat is barely covered.

Add the tomato paste, garlic, herbs and bacon rind. Bring to a simmer on top of the stove.

Cover casserole and set in lower third of oven. Regulate heat so that liquid simmers very slowly for three to four hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.

While the beef is cooking, prepare the onions and mushrooms.

Heat one and a half tablespoons butter with one and one-half tablespoons of the oil until bubbling in a skillet.

Add onions and sauté over moderate heat for about ten minutes, rolling them so they will brown as evenly as possible. Be careful not to break their skins. You cannot expect them to brown uniformly.

Add one half cup of the stock, salt and pepper to taste and the herb bouquet.

Cover and simmer slowly for 40 to 50 minutes until the onions are perfectly tender but hold their shape, and the liquid has evaporated. Remove herb bouquet and set onions aside.

Wipe out skillet and heat remaining oil and butter over high heat. As soon as you see butter has begun to subside, indicating it is hot enough, add mushrooms.

Toss and shake pan for four to five minutes. As soon as they have begun to brown lightly, remove from heat.

When the meat is tender, pour the contents of the casserole into a sieve set over a saucepan.

Wash out the casserole and return the beef and lardons to it. Distribute the cooked onions and mushrooms on top.

Skim fat off sauce in saucepan. Simmer sauce for a minute or two, skimming off additional fat as it rises. You should have about two and a half cups of sauce thick enough to coat a spoon lightly.

If too thin, boil it down rapidly. If too thick, mix in a few tablespoons stock. Taste carefully for seasoning.

Pour sauce over meat and vegetables. Cover and simmer two to three minutes, basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce several times.

Serve in casserole, or arrange stew on a platter surrounded with potatoes, noodles or rice, and decorated with parsley. Enjoy

I was intrigued by this book before I saw the movie and now I know why!!

Cheers, Dana & Jeff
Sipper Photography

Simple + Modern+ Casual

Sipper Photography is an award-winning husband and wife team specializing in wedding, family, and event photography. Recently featured in Glamour magazine and included in MyFoxLA’s HotList of top five wedding photographers.

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© Dana for She's Cookin' | from the heart, 2010. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: beef, Beef Bourguignon, French classics, Main Dish, Sipper Photography, wine

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Along with the bumper crop of slender green beans – the particular variety, I’m not quite certain of; our garden has blessed us with a bounty of  beautiful purple and green peppers as well as Japanese eggplant and Chinese peas. It’s a veritable United Nations of vegetables growing in our backyard – just one of the pluses of growing your own vegetables – whether in pots on your patio or in a sliver of side yard, if you’re fortunate to have one in your slice of urban oasis.

So, I had a LOT of green peppers – and a colorful crunchy, summertime salad, like the one I posted last week,  would only require one pepper – I needed a dish that would use at least 6 peppers. I decided on stuffed peppers – don’t groan, this is NOT your mother’s stuffed peppers, or my mother’s – which I remember being somewhat thick-skinned and bitter tasting and smothered with stewed tomatoes, and would eat grudgingly.  Now, I know that charring and removing the skin of  peppers imparts a smoky flavor, removes any bitterness, and renders the peppers a soft, yet unctuous meatiness.

Grilled Peppers Stuffed with Herbed Basmati Rice

6 medium-sized green peppers

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 cup cooked basmati rice

8 oz. chopped pancetta (optional)*

1 garlic clove, minced

1 medium tomato, finely chopped

1/4 cup onions, finely chopped

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dried

8 oz. of prepared Arrabbiata sauce*

1/2 cup fresh parmesan cheese, shredded

Serves 4

Heat gas grill to med-high or, if using a charcoal grill, prepare it for direct heat over hot coals.

Brush green peppers with olive oil, Grill whole, turning every 5 minutes until charred all over and very soft, about 10 minutesk. Remove from grill, put into a paper bag, folding down the top. This allows the green peppers to steam a bit and makes it easier to peel off the skin. When cool enough to handle, peel and discard the charred skin from the peppers and slit lengthwise to remove the seeds and core from the top. Lay the peppers on a paper towel to absorb any cooking liquid.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large skillet. Cook the pancetta for 2 minutes, add the onion, garlic, tomato and cook over med-high heat, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 4 minutes. If you’re using dried thyme, add the thyme during the last minute to release the flavors. Transfer to a bowl.Add one cup rice and the parsley to the pancetta mixture, combine the ingredients, season to taste with salt and pepper.

Cover the bottom of a 9×12 baking dish with a layer of arrabiata sauce. Gently mound a spoonful of the rice stuffing in the middle of each pepper and press the sides around the filling. Place in the baking dish, spoon additional sauce on top, cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil, sprinkle with parmesan cheese, and bake for another 5 minutes to melt the cheese.

* Can be eliminated for a satisfying and delicious vegetarian dish.

* I always like a little heat and used an Arrabbiatta sauce from Antonello’s Ristorante, but you may use Puttanesca or any spaghetti-type sauce that you prefer.

Shown served atop a bed of polenta (recipe to be posted).

Enjoy

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© Priscilla for She's Cookin' | from the heart, 2010. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Grilled Peppers Stuffed with Herbed Basmati Rice, Italian-style stuffed peppers, Main Dish, Meatless Monday, stuffed green peppers

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Although we’ve been having typical southern California weather, most of the country has been blistering in 90+ temperatures, and just like those folks,I’d rather be firing up the grill or stoking a beach bonfire than inside cooking on the range. So following an afternoon spent lazily floating in the pool and dodging kids hurtling themselves off the diving board, I decided the evening called for succulent grilled turkey burgers and a garden-to-table summertime salad.

I have never seen a purple pepper, but The Don planted these gorgeous organic Purple Beauty peppers this year.

Cutting into the peppers, I was surprised to discover that their flesh was green – red peppers have red skin and flesh, yellow peppers – yellow, etc. – this gave them an unusual striped look when chopped. Combined with a tablespoon of  basil chiffonade and a small pile of chopped red onion, then tossed with a handful of halved grape tomatoes and the kernels from two ears of corn and splashed with a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, this crunchy salad, chock full of vibrant color, shouted “Hooray, it’s summer!”

Southwestern Turkey Burgers

1¼ lb. ground turkey

2 tsp. Southwestern Rub or Cajun seasoning

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. prepared barbecue sauce

cracked black pepper to taste

4 whole wheat buns

Garnish:

sliced red onion
sliced beefsteak tomato
romaine or butter leaf lettuce leafs
bread and butter pickles

Heat the grill to med-high. Spray the grill rack or use a piece of crumpled up tin foil to spread oil on the rack – a tip I read somewhere which prevents flare-ups and the possibility of singed eyebrows

Combine the ingredients and form 4 patties, be careful not to overwork the meat – this makes for tough burgers. Carefully place the patties on the grill and cook for  7 minutes. Turn only once and cook for about 5 minutes more or until the burger is fairly firm to the touch (gives just a little) and meat juices are clear.

Enjoy

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© Priscilla for She's Cookin' | from the heart, 2010. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: family favorites, Main Dish, Southwestern Turkey Burgers, Tomato and Corn Salad, vegetables

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Careening through the aisles of Costco in a carefully orchestrated path that circles around the wine bins and heads toward the fresh fish section, I quickly snatched up a length of fresh Sockeye salmon and was headed to the giant refrigerated produce room, when I spied a package of  three colorful, whole fish in an Asian lady’s cart. I screeched to a halt to ask her what kind of fish it was – she replied, “red snapper”; and I asked her how she prepared it and she stated, “steamed with just some soy sauce and ginger” and added that she uses the head for soup, and smiled knowingly.

I laughed because I knew why she was smiling. Most Americans are squeamish just seeing a whole fish with the eyes staring back at them, have to make the obligatory “ewww” and “gross” exclamations, and wouldn’t even consider having a whole fish presented to them on a plate, much less eat the head or the eyeballs. Being half Asian, I know that Asians (and other cultures, too) do not let any part of a fish go to waste. The nice lady pointed to where the fish was in the case and said there was just one package left – I raced over and grabbed it. The eyes were clear, the gills bright red  and the skin shiny  -  indicators of a good, fresh fish.

Personally, I think a whole fish, beautifully prepared and surrounded by fresh herbs and a fragrant sauce, makes for a striking presentation. Years ago, one of our favorite places to dine was Five Feet in Laguna Beach – and their signature whole catfish was the main reason.

On this day, I decided to grill the fish rather than steam it – mainly because I didn’t have a pan large enough, but also because grilling ensures that your whole house won’t smell like fish! A grill basket comes in handy, but isn’t necessary – before grilling use a paper towel, or your hands, to spread oil on the fish to prevent it from sticking.

The head was removed in the final shot to protect the innocent and the squeamish.

If you happen to have a fisherman in your house, or buy fresh fish that hasn’t been cleaned or scaled, visit Jaden at Steamy Kitchen for tips – she’s a fabulous cook,  the author of the Steamy Kitchen cookbook, and has a funny, irreverent style.

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© Priscilla for She's Cookin' | from the heart, 2010. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: fish recipes, Grilled Whole Fish, Main Dish, Soy Ginger Sauce

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For my first ever professional photo shoot I prepared two entrees: one was a Mediterranean-inspired Zucchini and Sundried Tomato Tart, the perfect dish for a spring garden party or brunch. With summer nearly here, I decided on Grilled Lamb Brochettes for the second dish. Brochettes or kabobs are a lighter alternative to grilled steak or ribs and provide a beautiful display for the bounty of fresh veggies at the farmer’s markets!

Photo credits:  Sipper Photography

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© Priscilla for She's Cookin' | from the heart, 2010. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baking, Main Dish, vegetarian recipes

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