Zero zero

I have made lots of pizzas, but this is the first time I've used 00 flour. The verdict: totally worth it. Or maybe the pizza gods were smiling for some other reason. Clearly I will need to do more research, where research means pizza making.

I used this recipe. I replaced some of the flour with vital wheat gluten (12 grams?) because the 00 flour was only 9.5% protein. After 1 day rising in the fridge, half of the recipe made 2 pizzas, the rest sat for a couple more days in the fridge and then went in the freezer for next time.

The first pizza was olive, pesto and homemade melting mozzarella. (I ferment the mozz a lot longer than the book calls for, and add a little bit of nutritional yeast. I think the homemade yogurt I used this time was an 80/20 soy/coconut milk blend.) This was fantastic. The crust was great, and the cheese melted really well.

The second pizza was inspired by this one. I made a bechamel with olive oil and soy milk, and added nutritional yeast, miso and a tiny bit of soy sauce. We had kale from our garden, which I tore up and massaged with oil like you would for a raw kale salad. I added a bit of parsley and spring onion, but I don't think they added much. This was really nice. Here it is, pre- and post- baking.

Corn on the cob

I got over my Western-Mass.-induced corn snobbery and bought a couple of ears at the market this week. I decided to go for the classic corn on the cob, and then I felt the need to go all southern for the rest of the meal: seitan ribz; kale cooked collards style, with smoked coconut flakes and magic shroom dust; broccoli, not really fitting into the theme; and biscuits. I based the BBQ sauce on the apricot one in Veganomicon, but used dried apricots and a few random smoked prunes in place of the fresh apricots, used less of the sugary ingredients, and added some vinegar.

Kale

A proud day: after defending it from caterpillars, cabbage whiteflies and cabbage aphids, I have my first kale harvest from the backyard. This was lunch today.

Kale Salad!

I've seen these really beautiful kale salad posts on SmittenKitchen and 101Cookbooks, but my version is sort of a hack's salad with lots of whatever in it (like a regular salad). This one has wild rice with roasted butternut squash, dried cherries, feta, almonds, and raisins. The wild rice-squash mixture is actually a pilaf I made, so it has onions in there too... but I've had this for lunch now two days in a row, and with a slice of German seeded rye bread, it's superb.

Kale!

This is the first kale I've had in over a year (it's not really a thing here). I finally found some, and then it found its way into my belly (sauteed with garlic, salt and pepper, and a squeeze of lemon at the end). I did not share this with anyone.