Thai Pizza

For Solstice, I tried a new kind of pizza. We liked it so much we had it again on Sunday!

I read a bunch of recipes online and via pinterest and used this one as my model.

For the pizza crust (see our favorite crust recipe here or) buy some from your favorite grocery store. The sauce is peanut sauce from the international aisle at Publix. The original recipe had chicken; we substituted shrimp which we coated it in peanut sauce before adding to the pizza. Our major change was adding cilantro - not key - leave it off if you hate it - but if you love it, the more the better as it adds just the right fresh bright note to each bite of pizza!

Approximately 1 pound pizza dough (we used about 3/4 of a batch of our favorite Crusty Pizza Dough)

5 ounces peanut dipping sauce (we used Tsang Bangkok Peanut Sauce - see photo below), divided

12-15 cooked medium shrimp  

1-1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, grated
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp garlic, minced
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1 cup shredded Napa cabbage
1/2 cup scallions, chopped
1 tbsp fresh basil leaves, chopped
cilantro, peanuts, fresh lime and sriracha sauce for topping

flour and corn meal for prepping the dough and baking

Prepare the oven. We place our bigger pizza stone on the bottom rack and preheat the oven to 450. Sprinkle some corn meal on the pizza peel so the pizza will slide off easily. Roll out the pizza dough on a floured surface and then move to the pizza peel.

Prepare the slaw. In a medium bowl, combine the lime juice, vinegar, ginger and garlic and then toss the veggies in the dressing - the carrots, cabbage, scallions and basil.

Toss the shrimp in about 1/3 cup of peanut sauce and set aside. Spread the remainder of the peanut sauce on the pizza crust, just like you would with tomato sauce. Top the sauce with the mozzarella and then arrange the shrimp on top of the cheese. Slide the pizza into the oven and bake for about 8 minutes, until you can see the crust is set up and the cheese has melted. 

Take the pizza out and cover it with the veggie slaw. Put the pizza back in the oven for 2-3 minutes, just to heat the veggies through. 

Take the pizza out and cool for 5 minutes before slicing. Top each slice as you like - lots of cilantro for me and sriracha or other hot sauce if that's your jam!

The finished product!

 

Peanut pizza sauce

Solstice 2011 Recap

Solstice Moon from Syracuse Cultural Workers

Celebrating the winter solstice is one of our favorite family traditions. We have a huge fire with the Yule log, eat home made pizza and sleep in front of the fire with mattresses dragged out from the bedrooms. The actual Solstice this year happened at 5am on December 22nd so we had our festivities that evening, partly because Thomas had school on the 21st. The weather almost did not cooperate - at lunch time Thursday it was 77 degrees! Luckily, it cooled off when it got dark out (or at least fell into the 60s which is cool enough for us!). 

In the morning, T and I drove out to Monticello to Johnston's Meat Locker. We picked up some of their house-smoked sausage and a natural pork butt to smoke on Sunday. At 2:30 T and I made pizza dough (recipe here), then went to visit the chickens we help take care of. Back at home, we prepped our pizza toppings (fresh pineapple, mushrooms, and ham) and got the oven ready for pizza baking. 

To make pizza baking more exciting, I bought us a pizza peel. T loves to do things "Big Bite" style (the way his Food Network chef Idol Guy Fieri does) and this is one of Guy's go-to tools. The way it works is you keep the pizza stone in the oven while it preheats, then slide the pizza off the peel onto the stone to bake it. Easier said than done! For the first pizza, I didn't get enough cornmeal on the peel and couldn't get the pizza to slide off. I took the stone out of the oven, set it on the stove top and from there I was able to move the pizza on to the stone and put it in the oven. Taking it out when it was done was a snap! The crust turned out nice and crisp too. 

I decided not to give up and the second pizza went onto the stone much more easily. Hurray! 

While the pizza was baking, C & T built the big, beautiful fire! We had a lovely evening together in front of it.

Here's to longer days and shorter nights ahead!

Solstice Recap

We started celebrating Solstice when T was a year old. In part it was to add more festiveness to the holiday season, and in part it was to take the focus off of presents and put it on activities. Over the years our Solstice celebration has evolved into a night that we all look forward to. Here's our 2010 recap:

The first thing you need is a big Yule log:

It turned out this year's Yule log was too big, so C & T split it into two: one for this year; one for next. Thomas said, "Mom, we saved Solstice!"

The next step is to make that big log into a big fire. Here's a shot with the flash

... and one without:

We then spend the evening hanging out in front of the fire with all the lights turned off (except for the holiday lights - the tree stays on, as does the lit garland on the mantle). We eat homemade pizza and hobo pies. This year for pizza we had Hawaiian (ham, pineapple and (on half) jalapeno) and Greek (olive oil, hummus, ground lamb, tomato, banana peppers). Hobo pies are simple pastries, made of crescent roll dough, filled with (this year) peach pie filling or chocolate chips. We went through a few years where we tried to cook them in the fireplace in pie irons, but the fire is just too hot, and they would end up scorched. 

To complete the Solstice fun, we camp out in the living room over night. We even drag out mattresses so we can be comfortable. It's nice (and toasty!) to fall asleep in front of the fire!