Itsa Pizza Party! (Roasted Vegetable & Goat Cheese Pizza)

A couple weeks ago, I took part in a noodle party featuring Korean yam noodles / dang myun. Participants were to blog about their favourite noodle recipe, try something new, or...anything, just as long as the recipe included the yam noodles. A couple days later, Jeroxie suggested a pizza party, and the ball got rolling.

Participants this time (to be changed periodically once this post is live - list is from Jeroxie) are:

• Penny - Jeroxie - Addictive & Consuming - Serpent Pie with Pizza Sauce (Happy Birthday and Thank you for Hosting!)
• Divina – Sense & Serendipity - Breakfast Pizza
• Christine – Christine’s Recipes - BBQ Chicken Pizza
• Mardi – Eat, Live, Travel, Write - Pizza w Lemon Asparagus Pesto
• Trix – Tasty Trix - Langos, Three Ways
• Conor – Hold the Beef - Poached Pear Pizza
• Shirley – Enriching your kid - Healthy Spiced Dough Vegetable Pizza
• Natasha – Five Star Foodie - Plum Pizza Pie
• Ozoz – Kitchen Butterfly
• Agnes – Off the spork - Pizza Pie (Literally! And cute pizza toppers on lemon cupcakes.)
• Joanne – Second Helping - Mushroom & Taleggio, Signore Lupo
• Celeste – Berry Travels - Lasagna Pizza Pie
• Mark – Cafe Campana
• Steph - Momofuku for 2 - Pizza 4 Ways
• Shao - Fried Wontons for You
• Ahn – A food Lover’s Journey - Chicken and Kimchi Pizza
• Cherry – Sweet Cherry Pie
• Tangled Noodle - Irish Pan Pizza

For my contribution, I kept in my "meatless" theme and went with an old favourite: roasted vegetable and goat cheese pizza. The crust is crisp, light and thin, and the vegetables are complimented by the tang of goat cheese. I forgot to add olives here, but they really add to the dish - calamatas please! :)


Ingredients - Crust (makes 2)
2 t yeast
1 1/4 c warm water
1 t sugar, syrup, or honey
2 T extra virgin olive oil
3 c all purpose flour
1/2 c whole wheat flour
3/4 t sea salt
1/2 t thyme leaves
1/2 t rubbed oregano

In a large bowl, mix together yeast, warm water, and sugar (or syrup or honey). Set aside for 10 minutes.

Add olive oil to bowl. In a medium bowl, mix together 2 1/2 c of the all purpose flour, all of the whole wheat flour, salt, thyme, and oregano. Gradually mix flour mixture into yeast mixture. Dough will be slightly sticky and moist. Add in remaining all purpose flour by hand.

Generously flour a working surface and hands. Knead for 10 minutes, adding flour if necessary to avoid stickiness. Place in well-oiled bowl; flip to coat surface. I covered the bowl and left it to proof for a good long while (I was away at work. :)

Punch down dough. Allow to rise for 1 hour.

Divide dough into two parts. With floured hands, on a floured surface, form the dough into two rectangular or circular bases.

Usually, I dust the pizza pan or baking sheet with cornmeal. In addition to adding lots of texture to the finished product, it prevents the crust from sticking to the pizza stone, baking sheet, or pan. But M is anti-cornmeal. So I dusted a piece of parchment paper with flour and used that instead.

Ingredients - Toppings (Yields about one pizza-ful; double to make enough to use up the dough)
1 small each red, green, orange bell peppers, or about 2 colours of your choice, cut into wedges
4-5 sliced mushrooms (I used shitaake, although this would be nice just with a mixture of mushrooms and asparagus!)
4-5 spears fresh spring asparagus cut into 3-4 inch sections
1/2 t garlic powder
1/4 t red chili flakes
1/2 t basil
Salt and pepper to taste
2 t balsamic vinegar
3 T olive oil
Tomato sauce
~150 g goat cheese / chevre

Preheat oven, with pizza stone, to 440ºF.

In a medium bowl, toss together vegetables, garlic powder, chili flakes, basil, salt and pepper, and olive oil. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

Smear tomato sauce onto reserved and shaped crust; top with seasoned vegetables. Drizzle any remaining olive oil mixture over top of pizza. Crumble goat cheese over pizza.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until crust bottom is lightly browned and toppings are cooked.

Enjoy!

I've enjoyed this with eggplant, portobellos, wilted spinach, and fresh summer tomatoes - it is just so good. Do give it a try and let me know how you like it!

BTW - this is not only limited to veggie toppings. M seemed to have assaulted his half of the pizza today with some cooked ham. C'est la vie!

Guilty Pleasures: Screamers at Danny's Market and Pizza (Richmond, BC)

I had another *fantastic* weekend (and a busy Monday!) that was kicked off by a Screamer at Danny's Market & Pizzeria in Richmond.

People who know me know that I have one of those "addictive" personalities - I pick something up, I love it, and then I *have* to have it. There was the first night when I logged on to the internet and stayed glued for about twelve hours straight (when my brother woke up and had to pry me off). There were the times when I drove to Sephora *just* to get Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer when I first heard of it (I still use it religiously, to this day). There was the time when I hunted down my size of Pumas when one of the only pairs was downtown - I drove there straight after work to pick them up (still in their box, well worn but still beautiful).

Sometimes I think I just love the hunt...it becomes part of the obsession and experience.

Such was the case when I read Five Loaves' review of Screamers, part of me said, "me want."

Being that I work in Richmond, I began to plan out how I'd take my prey.

I'm usually one of the unfortunate saps that make up the Knight Street traffic during rush hour, so being that Francis Road is in the opposite direction of home, I decided to drop by on a Friday to ring in the weekend.

It was a great choice.



I pulled up to Danny's on a hot Friday afternoon. It's one of those corner stores that has every kid in the ten-block (ok, maybe every five Richmond blocks) radius hanging out. There were kids sitting and sipping screamers on the plant stands outside - you know. The green painted risers that could be stairs leading up any east van porch. There were kids inside who had just finished their after school basketball pickup game and ordering a slice of pizza along with their screamer. There were even the one or two truck drivers / cabbies / off-work construction workers ordering a screamer combo.

All that was missing was the Street Fighter game in the corner and the "sore-loser" kid that would lose and scream at their best friend for pulling a cheap move...

Wow. What a step back in time.

A screamer, as posters around Danny's Market claim, are "The Best Drink on Earth". It is a perfect parfait-style layering of thick soft serve ice cream, and syrup-flavoured slush that results in a concoction that is not ice cream float, and not slurpee, but a thirst-quenching hybrid of spoonable, slurpable goodness.

Danny's Market is just around the corner from an outdoor go-kart track and a load of fruit farms. I'm thinking it'd make a good "trip back in time" afternoon stop after some go-kart racing and farmers markets.



Danny's Market & Pizza

9040 Francis Road [map]

Richmond, BC