Cauliflower "Pizza"

When I started dating my husband six years ago, I remember his father would visit New York for business and we would go to such fancy, delicious restaurants. It wasn't just a desire for good food that drove us to these places, my future father-in-law was on a very strict diet, similar to that of individuals who have Celiacs disease. More upscale restaurants were accommodating and also had delicious varieties of the protein + veggie entrees that he was limited to. The two biggest limitations were gluten and processed sugar, then a number of other foods like corn and melon and potatoes. As an Asian person who likes to cook, the first time I wanted to prepare a meal for him I thought...what the $%#! can I make?! He can't eat fish sauce! No noodles! No rice! 

Being so close to someone with these eating limitations actually became a really fun challenge for me, and opened me to a different relationship with food. I couldn't rely on a starch or prepared condiments to build flavor or mental food satisfaction -- I had to rely on building flavor naturally. What a great door to be forced to walk through! Since then his diet his become way less limited -- I remember how relieved I felt when we discovered potatoes and rice products didn't make him sick anymore before our wedding. However, the lessons in cooking I learned are still there and I still get excited to try new gluten free variations of familiar foods. Like this cauliflower "pizza" crust! 

This is not as crunchy and bready as a real pizza crust, so any expectation of that needs to be eliminated before trying this. BUT, it is still delicious and worth trying even if you are not gluten intolerant. No yeast, yummy cauliflower, and it still had the notes of pizza flavor you crave. If you are gluten intolerant and have missed pizza, this is awesome.

Tips before giving this a go -- squeezing out the water out of the cauliflower is very very important and makes the difference between a crispy crust versus a floppy one. Also, let the crust stay in the oven just a tad longer than you think it should be in there -- let that cheese get brown and crisp up.

To top the pizza, I just pureed a can of San Marzano tomatoes, seasoned with salt and pepper. I like my pizza sauce tangy, less on the sweet side. Enjoy!

Cauliflower "Pizza" Crust

Florets from 1 medium sized head of cauliflower (about 3 cups once processed), washed + dried
1/4 tspn kosher salt 
1/2 tspn dried oregano

1/2 tspn dried parsley 

1/2 tspn garlic powder
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese
1 egg + 1 egg white, beaten
2 tblspns almond meal

Special equipment: pizza stone (or baking sheet)

Place a pizza stone (or baking sheet) in the oven. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Prepare a piece of parchment paper and spray it with nonstick cooking oil. 

Pulse the florets in a food processor for about 30 seconds, until it's crumbly and looks like cous cous. Microwave the cauliflower for about 4 minutes. Let the cauliflower cool for a bit (otherwise this next part will hurt your hands!). Wrap the cooked cauliflower in a dish towel and squuuuuuuueeeeze until you feel you've gotten as much water as you can out of the cooked cauliflower.

Place the cauliflower in a bowl and add the cheeses, salt, dried herbs, garlic powder, almond meal, and eggs. Combine the ingredients with your hands and form it into a ball.

Place the ball on the parchment paper and start pressing it + patting it into a round pizza-like shape. Don't press it too thin, and try not to have gaps around the edge of your pizza.

Slide the parchment paper onto the hot pizza stone. Bake for about 11 minutes, until it starts to turn golden brown. Cool the crust by delicately placing the parchment sheet on a cookie rack.

Add your pizza sauce and toppings (this one has spinach, freshly grated mozzarella and turkey pepperoni) then place the pizza with the parchment paper back in the oven for another 5-7 minutes until the cheese is melted and nice and brown.

Let the pizza cool for a few minutes on the cookie rack before serving.

The Piglette making little piglets

I was in a mode where I was super motivated to update this blog regularly and devote a good portion of my summer to making fresh, light, beautiful meals. I was going to be super hostess and have fun tapas parties and grill outs galore....until I found out I was pregnant in May. Then I became tired. And lazy. And a huge fan of things like donuts and Skyline and basically anything that I didn't have to prepare myself. I get bursts now and then -- and it manifests itself on my Instagram page -- but not so much here. Because mostly I've been eating things like this:

However, I have been trying to balance out my meals so that I'm not a complete glutton destined for gestational diabetes. Anything crunchy and watery has been right up my alley -- watermelon, grapes, pickles. I have also become obsessed with green tomatoes. The squirrels in our neighborhood get to the red tomatoes before we do, so initially using green tomatoes arose out of necessity. I didn't have any red tomatoes on hand and I wanted to throw them in a salad. The green tomatoes were just staring at me outside so I thought why not? Now I actually prefer them to red tomatoes in a lot of things because you always know that they'll be firm -- you'll never get caught off guard but a mushy, grainy green tomato. It's wonderful! I mixed in some green tomatoes for a panzanella-like salad

 

I made a green tomato salad with pickled pistachio relish (recipe here: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/green-tomatoes-with-pistachio-relish)

I threw green tomatoes into a calamari salad with thinly sliced celery, onions and a lemon parsley vinaigrette, I've been dreaming about how they'd taste juiced -- there are so many possibilities! Since summer is not officially over yet, it's a great time to make use of these green beauties rather than waiting around until they ripen to turn them into sauce (although that is also a very worthy, delicious use).

On a personal level, I read this blog post by Emily Henderson tonight about her sixth months of pregnancy: http://stylebyemilyhenderson.com/blog/6-month-pregnancy-update/. I am five months along and I related to so much of her post. I am also incredibly in love with my husband right now, and I feel so grateful that he is the father of my child and that he will be my parenting partner. I have been riding the hormone rollercoaster for sure... One morning Tyler and I were walking to a bakery for donuts and we ran into a really kind, sweet neighbor who had the audacity to want to stop and talk to us. At the time, I felt like I'd never been more furious or impatient in my life. Why was she interrupting my donut run?! And there was that day I cried because Tyler wouldn't go to Target with me... I do however love being pregnant. Even on the days when I wasn't feeling well -- it boggles my mind that there is a thing growing inside me which eventually will became a full sized human. It is insane and I can't believe this is how people are made. I love not caring about sucking in my stomach. I love how my maternal instincts are in hyperdrive right now and I just want to love and mother everyone (when my hormones aren't telling me otherwise). I love imagining Tyler as a father. It's just such a happy time and I don't care (right now) about becoming a big ol' whale. It is incredible that I get to experience this and I am so happy. We are also in the process of buying a house -- we're under contract and we're hoping to get most of the work done that needs to be done before January rolls around. I can't wait for this baby room! I am more excited about that one room than I am about that whole house.

So even though I'm not devoting as much time cooking and learning about food as I hoped I would at the beginning of the summer, I am very very excited about what's taken over that part of my brain and stomach instead. Maybe being pregnant will inspire me to combine things in a way worthy of posting so I can remember it even when I'm not driven by 3 am ramen cravings...