I'll admit I'm a bit of a pizza geek.

An Extreme Pizza Geek.

I just ordered two full size pizza stones for my GE Profile double oven. I'm in pizza heaven and have been wanting a set up like this for years. It's kind of like having a professional stone oven in my kitchen.

I had been using the big square pampered chef stone for the last 10 years. It was perfect in my little boat oven. Just a teeny space around the edges. My pizza was always the envy of the anchorage.

And the pampered chef stone worked really well in the 1947 GE Stratoliner we had until last spring. It was a small oven and not very tall most of the time. (You could change the size of the oven, a real piece of great ideas that Stratoliner)

I have about a dozen girl scouts coming over this evening for their pizza making lesson in a little while to put the new set up through its paces. I'll take pictures.

Time to get Jack to bed.

I threw this together last night from a recipe that looked interesting, but that I didn't completely like the looks of, combined with a soup I had years ago and never forgot. There were no leftovers. I promised David and Wendy next time I would double it.

1 Leek sliced
6 carrots (appx), sliced
1 tbls butter
1 1/2 tsp cumin
3 cups chicken bouillon or broth
1 cup cream or half and half
2 tbls chopped cilantro

Melt the butter in the pot or pressure cooker, saute the leeks and carrots in the butter for about 5 minutes. Add broth or bouillon and cumin. Pressure cook for 10 minutes (or boil until carrots are very soft)

Strain out carrots and leeks reserving the broth. Puree the carrots and leeks and stir back into the broth. Add the cream and simmer for about 10 min. Add cilantro just before serving.

Home made salsa...now easier than ever!

2 14.5oz cans of diced tomatoes with Jalapenos (or other variation if you prefer it milder)
2 large diced onions
1/4- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro chopped
salt to taste
1/8 cup lemon juice
(optional) 1 tablespoon crushed chili (I use the garlic chili sauce you can find in the thai section of the supermarket or at oriental groceries)
Garlic-diced crushed whatever... at least a tablespoon of the stuff
6 oz can of tomato paste + 1/2 can of water

Throw everything except the tomato paste in a pot and heat it until it bubbles and foams a little- you don't really want to cook things till they're limp, just enough that the flavors blend and the onions don't lose their crispness. Then add the paste and water blending it in with everything else, it'll thicken up the salsa some although you could skip it if you prefer your salsa watery

Serve warm....or cold....or with cream cheese. That's how I'm eating it right now, with some chips and a nice cup of jasmine tea.

Alright, I know. I'm using CANNED tomatoes. Listen, I've made and canned enough *real* homemade salsa over the years to know which part of it I hate. Peeling the tomatoes, seeding the tomatoes...dicing the tomatoes...

Thanks Del Monte!

My sister in-law came over today. She wanted to try some Indian food that I've been talking about so much for so long. So we ordered a late lunch from Azaad. It was...as we've come to expect, excellent.

Once I realized she was coming over, I started some dough for Naan bread. I haven't made for real Naan for at least a year. Used up all my remaining flour, but the dough came out great. It was busy rising when B and J showed up. We hung out, talked, etc for a while, I called for lunch and made sure to specify that the malai kofta be MILD this time.

We took a ride out, picked it up and came back and I started the naan. Came out great. Finished eating about 3.

Tons of leftovers to heat up for dinner and about half the naan dough. I decided to get a little fancy and spent some time online to find recipes for other naan. Specifically....peshwari. Didn't see it, but saw menus describing it.

So we had a late dinner, and I made 3 pieces of garlic naan....easy. Got out my mortar and pestle, a little box of raisins and some cashews and started pounding with a few drops of olive oil. I made two sides of naan, spread the mixture and cooked it.

BTW...traditionally Naan bread is slapped to the sides of a Tandoor, (cyclindrical clay over) and when they are done they peel off the sides. I cook mine in an pretty hot oiled iron frying pan, about a minute on each side.

for my naan, I make the traditional dough (From my Madhur Jaffrey Cookbook, she uses a different cooking technique though) and roll it flat, spray some oil on the pan and lay the bread there and cover cook about a minute and then flip it over.

I made garlic naan this way: I rolled it flat, pour a tiny bit of olive oil on and spread some garlic, then placed it with the non garlic side down in the pan, flipped it over when the first side was done. The second side doesn't usually need to be cooked as much.

Oh....how did the peshwari come out? Wendy says it's JUST LIKE taste of India in Melbourne. Now there's a compliment!

med to large package flat rice noodles
1 green pepper- cut up
1 onion- cut up
garlic- crushed (I use jar stuff)
ginger- grated (I use jar stuff)
olive oil
soy sauce
purple basil
eggs

Sauce
Creme of coconut
garlic sauce (the RED stuff you get in oriental markets...it's basically ground hot peppers w/seeds and garlic)
mild curry powder or paste

boil some water and put the noodles in to soak. Turn off the heat. After they are soft, drain and run cold water over them

Heat up the wok and add oil
add the garlic and ginger and then the pepper and onion. Stir fry for 5- 10 mins or until well cooked, add the basil...best fresh and cut up.

add the noodles and soy sauce and stir fry until well coated and hot
push the noodles to one side and add the eggs.

Let them cook a couple seconds in place and then cook them in the noodles by continuing the stir fry
When the eggs are cooked, the noodles are done.

In the mean time...in a separate pot mix all the ingredients for the sauce. add tiny bits of the garlic and curry to taste. It'll be really sweet, but then have a bit of a kick to it. Serve it over the noodles to those who "like it hot".

incipient_bard and Wendy LOVEd this....no leftovers tonight and it was a huge pile of food.

I feel so stinking domestic. Did two loads of laundry, hung it out to dry....then cooked.
Of course I have also been making phone calls doing research online...
OK been trying to perfect this recipe for several months now...here's my most recent version. kinda yummy but the tomato taste in the sauce is a little too strong. Maybe half the amount next time, this recipe shows the tomato halved for my reference.

Koftas

4-5 potatoes
3-4 carrots
1/2 c nuts..finely chopped...nearly ground
3/4 c grated cheese (a mild one like mozzerella)
1 onion (pureed)
ground coriander
ground cumin
ground cardamom
chili powder
a couple cups flour to roll the balls

boil the carrots and potatoes, drain and mash, add the pureed onions. cheese, nuts and spices.

form into balls and then roll in the flour and deep fry. Be sure to fry them quickly in pretty hot oil, if they stay in the oil too long the cheese will start break down and the balls will fall apart....a mess.

(I may want to try these cooked in the oven sometime to cut down the fat, but with the carbs and the nuts....I wonder if it would be worth it. they don't usually turn out too greasy either.)

Sauce

oil or butter
3-4 pureed onions
3 tablespoons crushed garlic
3 tablespoons grated ginger
1/2 small can of tomato paste
Heavy cream (pint?)
1 small stick cinnamon
3 cardamon pods
4 cloves
ground coriander
ground cumin
garam masala
chili powder
fresh chopped coriander

Heat the butter or oil in a sauce pan, add the onions, garlic and ginger. Cook for about 10 minutes until translucent, add the tomato paste and stir until blended. Add cream and spices and simmer for about 15 minutes. Serve koftas and sauce over rice.

At least I have it written down somewhere I can compare to the next version.