Sweet Corn and Bacon Pizza

We picked up the first of the sweet corn at the farmers market this weekend. That night we grilled some up to have with steak and Matt suggested we grill a few extra to use on pizza later in the week. We had also bought some hickory-smoked bacon from the Sunshine Farms, so we decided to pair them.

This is a sauceless pizza, which is actually they type I prefer. Sometimes I feel like the sauce can overpower all the other flavors and if I want tomatoes I'll just add sliced fresh one. Back to this pizza, it is a wonderful combination of sweet and salty and seems lighter than your regular pizza despite all the cheese. Matt added a peppercorn dressing base as a seasoning on top which gave it a nice peppery bite.

Sweet Corn and Bacon Pizza

2 ears of sweet corn
4 strips of smoked bacon
crust for one pizza
olive oil
1/4 c buttermilk (Don't have buttermilk? Mix about 3/4 t of lemon juice into 1/4 c milk. Let sit 5 minutes and you have buttermilk.)
2 c grated monterey jack cheese
1 small onion sliced thin (we used a Walla Walla Onion)
1/4 - 1/2 t Penzeys Creamy Peppercorn Dressing Base (or freshly ground black pepper)

Cook the sweet corn until crisp tender. You can just boil it or do what we did and brush it with a little olive oil and grill it. Let cool and cut the kernels from the cob. Set aside.

Roughly chop the bacon slices. Cook until crisp. Drain on a paper towel. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 450F. Lightly grease a baking sheet with olive oil. (If you have a pizza stone you can skip the baking sheet and cook the pizza right on there.)

Spread out your dough to the desired thickness. Brush all over with the buttermilk, you may not use it all. Top with cheese. Sprinkle the corn kernels, bacon and onion on top. Season with the peppercorn dressing base.

Bake for 13 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbly and the crust is golden brown.

Makes 3 servings

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2011 Kathy Lewinski

Weekly Menu and Farmers Market Finds 7/24 - 7/30/11

Small trip to the farmers market this week as I am heading up North and Matt will be home alone. With his right arm in a cast still, Matt isn't doing much serious cooking these days.

Sun Street Sourdough Bread
Eggs
Walla Walla Onions
Sweet Corn - First of the season & it was so tasty on the grill last night!
Cucumbers

I did remember to take picture of Bogart Loves luscious donuts this week though.

I think Matt is addicted to that Maple Bacon one. My favorite remains the Brioche and Brown Butter. Just looking at these pictures makes me want one now!

On to Menu Planning Monday...

Tonight - We are out to dinner
Tues - Wed - I'm up North probably eating Walleye and Matt is probably getting a burrito somewhere
Thursday - Sweet Corn and Bacon Pizza
Friday - Saturday - I'm thinking ribs on the smoker one day and perhaps out to eat the other.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2011 Kathy Lewinski

Blueberry Lime Donuts

Since I got my donut pan I've been thinking about making blueberry donuts. It's been so hot though I haven't wanted to turn on the oven even for a little bit. Yesterday though, the heat and humidity dropped, so I had my chance.

The thing that got me thinking about blueberry donuts was this Swedish Blueberry Drink Concentrate I had picked up at Ikea.

We'd used it to make blueberry soda in our Soda Stream and have ideas for cocktails, but I thought it might be a good baking ingredient too. I went back and forth about whether to make a citrus donut with blueberry glaze or a blueberry donut with a citrus glaze. Since I had fresh blueberry from the farmers market I thought I'd mix it up and put whole blueberries in a citrus donut with a blueberry glaze.

I would say the results are about 80% there. The donut tasted lot like a blueberry muffin, though it was a little denser. Matt really liked them. One of them had way too many blueberries in it and sort of fell apart. I was planning on doing lemon as my citrus, but had a lime in the fridge so went with that. It was a little old, so the zest was kind of dried out and didn't give the flavor kick I had hoped for. The glaze was stunning, but watch out that blueberry concentrate will stain anything!

I share the recipe as I made it as a starting point for someone else who might be interested in trying it or improving on it.

Blueberry Lime Donuts

3/4 c flour
1/4 c sugar
3/4 t baking powder
pinch of salt
2 T fresh lime juice
zest from half a lime
2 - 3 T milk
1/2 t vanilla
1 egg
1 t shortening
handful of frozen blueberries (just enough for a couple per donut) (I think you could also use fresh)
1/3 c powdered sugar
3 T blueberry drink concentrate

Preheat oven to 325F. Lightly grease three mold in a donut pan.

In a small bowl stir to together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add in the lime zest, lime juice, 2 tablespoons of milk, vanilla, egg and shortening. Combine until just blended. If it seems dry add the rest of the milk. Fold in the blueberries.

Fill the donut molds about 3/4 full. Bake for 11 - 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a donut comes out clean (They will probably cook quicker if you use fresh instead of frozen blueberries). Let cool in the pan for a few minutes and then move to a rack to finish cooling.

Mix the powdered sugar and blueberry concentrate together until smooth in a shallow bowl. Dip the cooled donuts in the glaze. Put back on the rack for a few minutes to let the glaze dry. I recommend putting a paper towel or something until the rack to catch the drips of glaze.

Makes 3 donuts

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2011 Kathy Lewinski

Chive Blossom Vinegar and Räksmörgås

I had planned on having a post for you today showing off my beautiful handmade mayonnaise flavored with homemade chive vinegar. Um yeah, planned is the important world there. I started a batch of mayonnaise and after adding about one fourth of the vinegar it broke. Sigh. So, I tried again and broke a second at almost the same point. With only on egg left it was time to give up. Oh well, I can still show you my pretty pink Chive Blossom Vinegar.

I got the idea from Cooking With Anne. I was pulling out a bunch of chive plants that were in bloom, so I threw some together. It couldn't be simpler. I just threw about twelve blossoms into a cup of white vinegar in a sealed container, then let is sit in a cupboard. Anne let her's sit for two weeks, but I let mine go a whole month. When it was time to use it, I strained it through a sieve lined with a paper towel. The result is a vinegar that smells and tastes of chives. It's a really great combo.

Since I couldn't use it in homemade mayonnaise like planned, I just mixed it in with some prepared mayonnaise to use on Räksmörgås, a perfect dinner for a hot night.

Our homemade Räksmörgås

Räksmörgås is a Swedish open-faced sandwich that we saw on every menu on our trip earlier this year. Matt really took a shine to it, so we've started making it at home.

So, what is in a Räksmörgås? You start with a dark rye bread (tonight we used Sun Street Breads Wheat Beer Rye and Sunflower Seed). Top that with a very generous smear of mayonnaise. I mixed about half a cup of mayonnaise with the chive blossom vinegar which made a sort of oniony mayo sauce. Then you add a layer of sliced hard boiled eggs. Small, cold cooked shrimp goes on top of the egg. We found the prefect size precooked frozen shrimp at IKEA, all we have to do is thaw some under cold running water and it's ready to use. Finally, you add the classic Scandinavian herb, fresh dill. Sometimes the sandwich was served with lettuce, some tomato, or a few slices of cucmber. We also had it topped one day with a little chopped red onion and some roe.

Räksmörgås at a restaurant in Stockholm

This is a really filling sandwich. There is a creamy, richness from the mayo and eggs which compliments the shrimp really well. We think the dill is really important and find it a little bland without it. (I actually heard a Scandinavian chef on TV once say you can never add too much dill.)

So, any other ideas for ways to use my Chive Blossom Vinegar?

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2011 Kathy Lewinski

Weekly Menu and Farmers Market Finds 7/17 - 7/23/11

So, I read today that the only place more humid than Minneapolis right now is the Amazon rain forest. I don't know if that is true or not but it certainly feels like it. These heat indexes of 117F really take away our desire to cook, eat or do much of anything. All I can say is, thank goodness for air conditioning!


We did manage a quick trip through the Kingfield Farmers Market yesterday. I felt for those vendors in the heat, they were all thanking us for actually coming out on a day like that. Here's what we picked up.

Kohlrabi - for slaw
Sun Street Rye and Sunflower Seed Bread - made with a wheat beer
Beez Kneez Honey - she'll deliver it right to your house on a bike if you want!
Purple Broccoli
Hickory Smoked Bacon - also for the slaw
Cucumbers
Fresh Garlic
5 pints of blueberries - I froze these until it gets to be a little cooler to make jam.
Carrots
New York Strip Steaks
Not shown are a Maple Bacon Donut and a Brioche Brown Butter Donut from Bogart Loves (because we ate them before we got home!)


On to Menu Planning Monday...

Brats with Kohlrabi Slaw and Potatoes

Swedish Shrimp Sandwiches

Chicken Pita Sandwiches

Thursday we'll be going to Eat Ramen, Help Japan 

Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry

Grilled Steaks - if it ever cools down, enough

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2011 Kathy Lewinski