Stone baked Pizza- (partly) whole wheat and (mostly) from scratch!

Note: Highlights of the recipe in 'RED' for easy re-read/reference!
I got the pizza dough recipe from @tKe and the recipe has been a regular feature in our house. There are all kinds of pizzas and all kinds of preferences. This pizza has a crispy yet soft medium crust and does not have any tomato sauce (just our family's preference). When you take a slice in your hand, it does not droop or bend. In spite of this level of crispiness, the crust is soft to the bite and not chewy. Its also fairly higher on the health quotient for a pizza due to whole wheat flour and oil, cheese, sauces and toppings being in your control. So if you think you like this kind of pizza read on. I hate asking you to buy equipment for a recipe but some inexpensive equipment makes all the difference in the crust.

• A pizza stone (I bought mine from Bed bath and beyond). A pizza stone ensures an oil-free non stick surface and even heating of the crust without burning it. It also helps the crust be crispy and soft at the same time. This is a deal clincher. 
• A surface to roll the pizza and a rolling stone. I have a marble tile and a marble rolling pin.
• A Pizza peel for handling the baked and unbaked pizza. (Optional but useful)
• A pizza cutter.

Ingredients:

Basic pizza dough:

Makes about three 12'' pizzas

Warm water (as needed - about 3 cups)

nonfat dry milk 1/4 cup or warm milk - 1 cup

salt - 1/2 tsp

bread flour/maida/all purpose flour - 2 cups

atta/whole wheat pastry flour - 2 cups
sugar - 1 tbsp

active dry yeast - 2 tsp

olive oil - 2 tbsp

dry flour/cornmeal - to dust

dry herbs (basil, oregano) - optional and to taste

Add yeast, sugar, salt, and dry milk/warm milk in a large bowl. Add a cup of warm water and stir to mix well. 

Allow to sit for two minutes. 

Add olive oil and stir again. 

Add flour, water and any herbs/seasonings you may like in the crust. (We like dried basil and oregano)

Knead with warm water until the dough comes together and is soft but not sticky to the touch.

Close the bowl and leave in the oven with the light on for about half an hour or until the dough almost doubles in volume.

Pizza dough is ready

Place your pizza stone in the oven and set the 'Bake' function to the highest temperature possible (in a range of 450 to 550 F depending on level of crispness needed)

During preheat get the crust and toppings ready.

For the crust,

Lightly, roll and flatten 1/3 of the dough and dust it with dry flour.

Roll out the pizza while applying as little pressure as needed. (I cannot twirl, stretch or pat or do any of the fancy hand movements to make the pizza crust)

Dust the crust very liberally on one side with cornmeal or flour (this is important for easy transfer to the pizza stone in the oven) and place on the pizza peel with dusted side at the bottom.

For the toppings,

Apply sauce. (We like the classic basil pesto). Other ideas include white sauce, broccoli cream sauce, garlic with olive oil, or plain ole' tomato sauce. Go easy on the sauces to avoid a soggy pizza. A sauceless pizza is actually pretty tasty too with the right toppings and seasonings.

Then goes the veggie toppings. Our favorite combinations (not too many - we are creatures of habit it seems)

Pineapple chunks + red onion slices + green peppers (serrano or Thai). - Good candidate for sauceless pizza

Tomato + red onion slices + dried herbs. (excellent with pesto)

I usually add fresh basil leaves from my kitchen pot but in reality fresh basil is wasted on a pizza as it is usually overcooked and charred. Pesto is a better option for basil flavor.

Then comes the cheeses - mozzarella with a sprinkling of feta.

Brush the edges with olive oil if you really want to give it your best.

Slide onto pizza stone (DH's area of expertise) and bake for 10-15 minutes until the edges are golden brown. 

Set oven to Broil on high and broil just for a few minutes until the cheese bubbles. (Broil setting heats from above)

Time for broil!

Remove from oven using pizza peel.

Serve with grated parmigiana, crushed red peppers and/or garlic salt/ dried garlic.

Notes:

Never place the hot stone on a cold surface or a cold pizza stone into a hot oven.

I do not wash my stone with soap. I do not wash my stone, period. Leaving it in the oven at high temperatures keeps it clean after a wipe down.

Pizza dough can be stored in the fridge for a few days. Getting it to room temperature before baking is a good idea.

Adding yogurt/paneer/cheese whey (instead of warm water) while kneading makes for an unbelievably soft crust. Make sure whey is at room temperature or warm and not too cold.
@tKe swears increasing the proportion of whole wheat flour to more than half ruins the pizza! I always do a 50-50 whole-to-white mix.

Quinoa Pilaf with Marinated Tofu side

I have recently become a big fan of quinoa. I also realized that I like red quinoa more than yellow. This recipe is best when it is had with tofu.

Tofu for the side dish:
Take a box of firm or extra firm tofu,cut into blocks and marinade it in olive with lots of Caribbean jerk spice powder(You get this in the spice section of any grocery store). Let it sit for 1 hour or two hours max. Does not need a lot of oil. You can either saute in a pan or grill the tofu.

Quinoa Pilaf:

Ingredients:
Red or Yellow Quinoa-1 cup
Water or veggie broth-2 cups
Frozen South western mix packet-1/4(this has yellow corn,black beans,red bell pepper)
Zucchini-1/2,cut into decent size chunks
Garlic-1 clove minced finely
Lemon juice-A splash
Salt-to taste
Pepper-1tsp
Red chilli powder or paprika powder-1/4 to 1/2 tbsp according to taste
Cumin powder-1 tsp
Olive oil-1 tbsp
Cilantro-For garnish
Spring Onion or Green onions-For garnish

Method:
1. Wash the quinoa in a small filter till the water runs clear.
2.Add a tbsp of olive oil,saute the zucchini,minced garlic and the south western frozen veggies.
3.Add salt,chilli powder,cumin powder and pepper powder,saute the quinoa for a bit and add the water/broth and let cook in the vessel for 10 mins or until quinoa is done and water is evaporated.
4.Turn off stove,add a splash of lemon juice,cilantro and green onions and mix well.
5.Eat the quinoa with the Tofu as a side dish.Enjoy!

Links to other recipes

Whole Wheat Bread

Notes:

The recipe says add 4 cups wheat flours  (thats 6 cups total), but i think because its so dry here, if you add anything more than maybe 5.2 total..your bread will becomes too dense.

so, just knead till the dough stops being sticky. its ok if you add less than what the recipe calls for.,or rather, add flour till the dough stops sticking.

Another thing to keep in mind when baking bread at high altitude is .. keep the oven temperature lower (I kept it 10 deg lower) than the recipe calls for. But bake for as long as the recipe calls for.

Quinoa Patties

Patties are my new favorite thing to eat! The possibilities are endless. You can eat them with a sandwich, make a burger, serve as a side with pasta, serve over a salad, or just gobble up with ketchup! Yummy!

This is my latest effort to include Quinoa in our diet. Its is a complete protien, very healthy etc etc etc. I am sure you can get all the good qualities of this super grain online. So let me jump straight to the recipe

For about 8 patties you'll need:
1 cup white/red uncooked quinoa
2 cups water/stock/water + buillion to cook the quinoa
1 big potato
Lots of cilantro
2 Green chillis finely chopped
Cumin powder
chilli powder
or just use a mexican Chilli powder
Salt to taste
Oil

Wash the quinoa well. Bring it to a boil with 2 cups of water. I use stock or add a bullion cube into the water to give it more flavor. Once the water is bubbling through the quinoa, lower the heat , cover the pot and cook for another 10 mins or so. Turn the heat off and let it sit for 5 mins or so.

Meanwhile microwave/boil the potato.

Mix the potato and quinoa and mash the two togeather. Add spices, cilantro, salt. You can get very creative here. Add vegetables, chopped walnuts, zucchini goes especially well. Or add spinach, beans. The list is endless.

Divide into 8 parts. Shape each part. Coat with breadcrumbs. Roast it on a skillet with a tsp or oil on each side. You can do with even lesser.

The quinoa cooks into a nice crunchy golden brown crust.

Thats it, patties done!

I also tried patties with quinoa, black beans and chopped zuccnini. Very good!

Coconut quinoa

Quinoa is a very interesting grain and a nutrition storehouse .. Lot of the recipes I have found online have a western tinge to them. A lot of the entrees and preparations didn't seem to naturally belong with quinoa as they would with rice or bread for example.

This recipe feels like it has arrived as far as quinoa was concerned.

quinoa - 1 cup
coconut (shredded frozen/fresh) - 1/2 cup
mustard seeds - 1 tsp
urad dal (black gram lentils) - 1 tsp
Peanuts - 1/4 cup
dried red chillies - 2-3
curry leaves - few
oil - 1 tsp
salt to taste

To cook quinoa add 2 cups of water, cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes until completely dry and al dente. (If using half a cup of quinoa add 1 cup of water and cook for 10-15 minutes).
In a pan, add the oil, mustard seeds, black lentils, peanuts, chillies and curry leaves and let it sputter.
Add coconut and fry till it is dry and browned a little bit.
Add cooked quinoa and salt and toss. Serve by itself or with kadhi/kootu.

Breakfast beginnings - Cooking Steel-cut oats

While all oatmeal available is a "whole grain", rolled oats, oatmeal are all pre-cooked/steamed/rolled and dried with the husk of course. What makes steel cut oats different is that it is the whole grain machine-cut into 3 pieces with no other pre-processing.


While there are many great tips out there to cook steel cut oats, I needed one using a pressure cooker. So after some trial and error, here is how I cook it ...

Soak 1/4 cup of steel-cut oats in 1 cup of water(1:4 = oats:water) for any length of time from 2 hours to 24 hours. If you choose to skip this step, oats tend to cook like par-boiled rice - (semi cooked separate grains) with a crunchy texture that doesn't blend well with milk/yogurt. Some like it this way though. I prefer mine mushier. So I never skip this step.

Fill the cooker with some water and pressure cook the soaked oats in a stainless-steel vessel placed in the cooker upto 2-3 whistles. This set up avoid burning the food that is pressure cooked. Make sure the vessel is only half-filled with the oats-water mixture as oats tends to bubble out of the vessel.

Also if you want to pressure-cook oats and say rice which may require more whistles (in separate vessels placed in the cooker at the same time) the extra time will not hurt the oats as long the vessel is big enough for the oats to bubble up.

I tried oats with milk and stevia (natural leaf - sugar substitute) and not having the sweet tooth for a sugary breakfast I switched to having oats with yogurt like a runny 'thayir saadham' with a tiny dollop of my favourite pickle (anything from mango pickle to carrot thogaiyal). Love my breakfast now.
Have a hearty healthy Beginning everyday :-)