Mirvana's Amazing Adventures

White Pizza with Salmon and Chevre

Given a leftover piece of cooked salmon, a potato and some pizza dough that needed to be used up, I just concocted the following:

White Pizza with Salmon and Chevre
by Mirvana

Pizza dough (or one thin crust)
Olive oil
Dried herbs: basil, oregano, red pepper flakes, fresh ground pepper, or Italien seasoning blend
salt to taste
1 medium potato, peeled and very thinly sliced
1 medium onion, very thinly sliced
*Almost forgot: fresh sliced garlic, and lots of it*
1 leftover serving of cooked salmon, flaked - preferably wild-caught Alaskan Sockeye
Handful of crumbled chevre (goat cheese)
Calamata olives
Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven 450 F. Roll dough out into a thin crust and drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with herbs. I used about a teaspoon ea. basil and oregano, 1/2 t. red pepper flakes and several twists on the pepper grinder. Layer on sliced potatoes, onions, garlic, salmon, chevre, olives, and a bit more of the seasonings, and a pinch or two of salt. Bake 20 minutes, or until crust is crispy and top has started to brown. Sprinkle with parm cheese.

This was probably the most awesome homemade pizza I have ever made.

A note about salmon: since I started eating meat (and fish) again, I have been trying to make more responsible choices as to where the product comes from, and wild-caught Alaskan Sockeye salmon is both nutritionally and environmentally a better choice over farmed salmon. Farmed salmon is just, well, gross.

A note about pizza dough: when pressed for time, I will buy pre-made pizza crust, but nothing compares to homemade. This week, I made a batch of pizza dough, enough for two medium-largish thin crusts, wrapped in plastic and kept in the fridge until I needed it. The other half became a more traditional chevre pizza with tomatos, peppers, onions earlier this week.

[Iron Chef Mirvana] Scary Eyeball Black Rice Pudding

This impromptu recipe was inspired by Martha Stewart's recipe for Rice Pudding Tartlets with Prunes and Currants, except I didn't have any of that stuff, and I wanted to use up some things that have been sitting in my pantry for too long. The measurements on this are rough, because I was using what I had on hand.

• 1/2 c. black rice
• 1 c. coconut milk (I had half a can left over from something else, in the freezer)
• 1/4 c. sugar
• a dash of nutmeg
• a few pinches of cardamom and cinnamon (any of the sweet spices will do)
• a splash of vanilla extract <<<---I almost forgot about that
  
• dash of salt
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
• Lychees, peeled and pitted (I used canned, from Trader Joes)

In a small/medium saucepan bring the rice and enough water to cover to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered at least 20 minutes, or until the rice is tender. Drain the excess water, add the milk, sugar, spices, and stir until its heated through. Taste to see if it's sweet/spicy enough. Adjust accordingly. Remove from heat, beat the eggs and add to the mixture. Pour into 4 large custard cups, add one lychees to the center of each. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.

Eating now. Looks really weird, but OMG this is so yummy. Black rice is already sweet and exotic, goes perfectly with coconut milk and the spices and lychee are complimentary flavors. I probably could've added the juice I drained from the lychees to the mix, but instead I used it to make myself an iced green tea with lychee juice cocktail, which I sipped while making the pudding. That was also yummilicious.