Thai Pizza

Flavor Explosion!  POW!  Between the new and improved crust, the home made peanut sauce, that extra delicious leftover chicken satay and a little fresh mint and cilantro...this may be my new favorite pizza.  However I did fail all of you a little.  I didn't photograph the dough making process.  I just used a basic crust recipe that I dug up, it had a little honey in it.  I have been doing a fair amount of perfect pizza dough research lately, and I found out what I already knew all along.  If you want amazing pizza crust, you gotta knead the dough.  None of that 2 minute kneading stuff...a full 6-8 minutes.  I have to admit, I was being lazy before.  It makes a difference.

What you'll need:
2 leftover chicken satay tenders (or just grilled chicken)
1/2 cup peanut sauce
1 carrot sliced into thin strips
2 green onions chopped
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
2 or 3 mint leaves broke up
1/2 red pepper slightly sautéed
1 cup sliced mozzarella
olive oil

For the curst:
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup warm water
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
cooking spray

Add yeast to the bottom of a large bowl.  Pour in warm water and honey and swirl to dissolve honey.  Let sit 10 minutes until really bubbly.  Add 1 cup flour and salt and mix with a wooden spoon until smooth.  Add second cup flour and combine until dough beings to pull away from sides of the bowl.  Dust a surface with some of the remaining 1/4 cup flour.  Begin to kneed dough adding a little flour at a time until dough is just sticky but no longer clings to your hands.  Keep kneading for 6-8 minutes total.  After about 5 minutes, the dough will begin to feel more stretchy and that the flour has combined.

Wash the large bowl, and spray it with cooking spray.  Place dough into bowl cover with cling wrap and let rise in a warm spot for about an hour or until dough has doubled in size.  You could warm your oven on its lowest stetting for a few minutes, turn off and place dough in there.  Once doubled, punch the center, break in two.  You can wrap the second dough ball in cling wrap and freeze it for later.

Stretch to about 12 inches, brush one side with olive oil.  Have all ingredients for the pizza topping ready at the bbq.  Preheat the bbq to medium high.  Place dough oil side down and grill for about 5 minutes or until golden browned.  Brush top of dough with more olive oil and flip.  Quickly spread peanut sauce and toppings over crust.  Close lid and allow cheese to melt.  Keep checking for bottom of crust to brown.  If curst is done before cheese melts, turn off once side of burners if you can and move pizza away from heat.  Close lid, cheese will finish melting and crust won't burn.  Slice up and eat!

Kam brought me flowers.  Aren't they pretty =0)

If you like delicious food, then this is for you.  And who doesn't like delicious food?  Enjoy!

Thai Cabbage Wraps

So the whole time I'm making this, I'm thinking that I'm going to have to add a little more sauce than just the marinade.  I didn't think there was anyway that the little bit of sauce that you mix through out the ground beef would ever be enough to give it a good flavor kick.  But, man was I wrong.  I cooked the beef through, then decided to give er a taste to see what else it was going to need.  Bwamo!!  Full flavor in my mouth!  I'm in love with this recipe.


What you'll need:


1 package ground beef (around a pound.  I used the super lean stuff)
1 head green cabbage
1 red bell pepper sliced
1/2 red onion sliced
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil


For the marinade:
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon fresh ground ginger
1/2 of a lime juiced or about 1 tablespoon 
1 jalapeno  chopped
2 cloves garlic minced


Mix everything together for the marinade and add ground beef.  Using your hands, mix the marinade and the beef together until it is well combined.  Refrigerate for AT LEAST one hour, 2+ is better.


Cook beef.  Do not drain excess liquid, keep cooking until liquid has just about reduced out.  While beef is cooking, add olive oil, brown sugar and purple onions to a small pan and saute over medium low heat until onions are very soft.   When liquid in beef is almost gone, add caramelized onions and bell pepper to pan.  Cook for about another 10 minutes or until peppers are soft.  


By the base of the cabbage head, cut leaves, one or two at a time at the thickest part where they attach to the core.  Gently remove the leaves peeling them fro the base to the top.  


Spoon beef mixture into cabbage leaves. 

After my surprise of how tasty this was, even without a lot of excess sauce, now I'm thinking of what else you could do with this tasty beef.  I'm thinking burgers with grilled pineapple.  Enjoy!