Simple snack or appetizer: Snap peas and edamame

This is so fast, easy and nutritious, I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it sooner! But better late than never. Three simple ingredients: a bag of frozen edamame (soy beans in their pods), a bag of fresh snap peas, and my own dehydrated homegrown tomatoes from this summer.

I simply microwaved the snap peas and edamame according to the instructions on each bag, then plunged the pods into a large bowl of ice water to chill, and to stop the cooking process. This preserves flavor, color and nutrients.

After they cooled, I drained them and then blotted them dry on a kitchen towel. Once arranging them on a platter, I sprinkled them with sea salt, and then scattered my own dried tomatoes. Voila!

Guests really loved this, and what was leftover was just as good as a pre-dinner appetizer the next night. I’m definitely going to keep a couple bags of the edamame and peas in the freezer now. The edamame and peas were pretty cheap, especially considering they can be frozen, so this qualifies as a thrifty idea.

-maven

Pissaladiere? What? Oh, you mean that pizza thing.

Actually, not pizza. It’s like pizza, but it’s French. Black olives, anchovies, tomatoes and caramelized onions French. With a whole grain crust. That’s right a light, well textured whole grain crust.

Here’s the photo from in the oven. I would’ve had a photo out of the oven, but company arrived, I got busy, bottles of wine were being opened, and then they ate it all. Sheesh. WTF? I knew I should’ve done two.

This is so easy. A no-brainer. Really.

In a big old cast iron skillet, medium heat, add 4-5 tablespoons olive oil and one huge sweet onion that has been finely sliced - or ‘frenched’.

Add a few pinches of salt. Gently, slowly cook these lovely onions down to a fare thee well, stirring frequently - or until they are very wilted, soft, tender, fragrant, and almost but not quite golden. Don’t let them burn or brown. Kill the heat. Set aside. Try not to ‘pick’ at them.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Meanwhile, take one packet of fast rising yeast, add that to a bowl which contains: one egg beaten, 1/3 cup barely warmish tap water and a pinch of sugar. Stir with a fork, and then let it sit for about ten to 15 minutes and liven up. Get a little foamy thing going on.

In a larger bowl: 3 cups of flour ( I use a combination of Italian 00 bread flour, white whole wheat, and barley flour). Keep your ratio of white flour at one half of the total flour. Add 1/8th cup of fresh thyme and rosemary, minced. Two teaspoons of salt.

Stir that flour, salt and herbs around with your fingers to combine. Make a ‘well’ in the center. Pour in 3/4 cup of barely warmish water, followed by the yeast/egg mixture and two tablespoons more of olive oil. Take your clean little fingers and start mixing from the outside of the bowl to the well, around and around. Feel how wonderfully light and ‘silky’ the flour is. Like silk sheets. Draw the flour in to make the dough. Knead to make it rather more elastic. Add a bit more flour, only as needed to keep the dough workable. Take your rings off before you start this.

When all is thoroughly combined and happy looking, form it into a ball and rub about two tablespoons of olive oil around on it. Cover with a kitchen towel and set it in a warmish - draft free place until it doubles.

Slice up two nice tomatoes. Prepare the olives. You will need about 1/2 cup of pitted Nicoise or similar olives roughly chopped. Round up 1/2 cup of shredded parmesan cheese. Now open a small tin of anchovies and drain them in a colander, and rinse them under water to remove excess salt and fishy-ness. Drain.

When the dough has risen to twice it’s original volume, punch it down and take it out onto a baking sheet. Roll it out, more or less in a rectangle. It’s alright to sprinkle a bit of extra flour on it, to keep your rolling pin from sticking to the dough. Spread the cooled caramelized onions all over. Yum. Add the tomato slices,  an attractive lattice of the anchovies, olives, spinkled cheese and several healthy grinds of black pepper.

You can sprinkle some generic Italian seasoning or Herbs de Provence around on it all.

Now, let it all set and think for about 30 minutes, allowing the dough to rise again. This isn’t a huge rise.

Now, pop it into the hot oven for 30 minutes. Remove and let it cool for about 10 minutes before slicing. Serve as a cocktail appetizer, or a side to a wonderful salad and soup.

Try this on a weekend, and you’ll see that it’s so easy that you’ll be able to do it on a weeknight.

-maven

Oh, remember to go get your rings out of the bread box, and put them back on. Duh. Your ultra-sonic toothbrush will remove any dried dough.

I crack myself up. Really, I do.

Roasted golden beet refrigerator pickles

As much as I love the pickled red beets, I prefer to use the new golden beets. I can toss in other colorful ingredients and it makes an absolutely gorgeous jar to give or to serve from.

As you can see, they made a nice nibble platter when paired with a melange of olives (which I served in some old BBQ oyster shells that I saved).

I took my original recipe from Alton Brown, but then made it my own with an array of spices that I keep handy. All I say, is that everybody raves about them, and they don’t last too very long. We went through an entire quart mason jar this evening with guests that inhaled them.

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