Cinco de Mayo 2011

I have to admit, I used to love the drinking holidays in my younger years. However, I've either gotten a lot older or smarter or both. I no longer stay out until the wee hours of the morning, wonder how I got home or nurse a nasty hangover. For these things I am truly grateful. OK that confirms it...I AM OLD! Hee hee.

Cinco de Mayo was not a holiday we celebrated back in my youth. I really only learned to appreciate this fine celebration after I moved to AZ. Many people incorrectly think that this holiday is Mexican Independence Day (which is actually September 16th). It is actually a celebration of the Mexican army's victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. 4000 Mexican soldiers took down an army of over 8000 French and renegade Mexican soldiers. It was a huge victory. Now that you know the true reason for the holiday, lets talk about food and drink.

Admittedly, I spent much of my day at work gorging myself on chips, salsa and guacamole. So by the time I was heading home, I had lost my entusiasmo for creating a festivo Mexican dinner. I was very torn to say the least. I hate passing up any day that allows me a theme for my kitchen toiling, so I had to find something to make.

I still had cornmeal pizza dough left over from Vine and Dine in the fridge. I set about digging through the disaster that is my fridge to see if I could scrounge up any reasonable ingredients for a tasty pizza. Somewhere in its depths I found a small amount of enchilada sauce. I have no idea which recipe I used it for originally or how long it had been in the fridge. But I gave it the sniff and taste test and decided it was safe. I found some mushrooms that needed to be used, stat. There was some Soyrizo I just happened to pick up the other day. A friend of mine had given me a load of fresh cilantro from his garden yesterday and I hit the garden to find a couple of lonely jalapenos to throw into the mix. The results of this impromptu fridge cleaning/Mexican themed creation were tasty!

Cinco de Mayo Pizza

Makes 8 slices

Cornmeal pizza dough (enough for one 14" pizza)
1/4 cup enchilada sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon olive oil
4 oz. cremini mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup soyrizo
1/2 small onion, thinly sliced
1/3 cup vegan cheddar, mozzarella or combo ( I prefer Daiya)
2 fresh jalapenos, thinly sliced
few springs of cilantro, leaves only

Preheat Oven to 500.

In a 10 inch saute pan or iron skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add mushrooms and Soyrizo and saute until mushrooms are just starting to release their liquid and Soyrizo is just browning. Remove from pan and set aside on a plate. Add a touch more oil and saute the onions until they just start to soften, about 3 minutes. Remove from pan.

Roll out pizza dough to 14" diameter. Place on corn meal dusted pizza pan. Using a large spoon, spread enchilada sauce onto dough. Sprinkle minced garlic evenly over the pie. Do the same with the mushrooms, Soyrizo and onions. Sprinkle the Daiya evenly over the other ingredients. Place jalapeno slices and cilantro leaves decoratively over the top of the cheese.

Place pizza pan on rack that is about 6" from top of he oven. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes. Cheese should be bubbling and the crust should be golden. Let sit for about 5 minutes before slicing. Wash down with a cold Mexican beer (example below).

Pizza Night

I had a hankering for pizza. It would not go away, so not being one to deny myself, we had a pizza night last night. Now when I go out for pizza, I am often shocked at how much places charge for extra ingredients. This is the beauty of DIY pizza at home. You can add to your heart's content. For this pizza night we opted to make two smaller pizza's instead of one biggie. This way we could make two very different varieties.

Before I left for work, I mixed up the dough from Joanna Vaught's Potluck Mania Issue #1. We gave it two risings; one slow in the fridge and one faster in the slightly warm oven. I was hungry and not so patient. When I got home from work, Fred already had the dough rising in the oven. I'm pretty sure I didn't let it get a good second rising.

Next I selected my ingredients and got them all prepped. For the first pizza I decided to do a vegan version of on of my all time fav pregan versions: Mushroom, Sausage, and Onion. I sauteed the mushrooms in a touch of olive oil with just a little salt. Be careful not to overcook them, just saute until they are barely starting to get soft. The onions were carmelized by sauteeing slowly in olive oil with just a touch of sugar and salt until they were golden brown. I used browned Gimme Lean sausage because I had some left in the fridge. I toyed with the idea of using Julie Hasson's Italian sausages from the freezer, but was too hungry to wait to thaw them out. I used Joanna's no cook pizza sauce from the same 'zine as the dough. We love garlic, so of course we had to add extra minced garlic. So it went like this: dough rolled out as round as Fred could manage (this is no easy task we found), sauce, veggies and sausage evenly distributed. Top with Daiya cheese and sprinkle with oregano. Bake for 20 minutes at 450.

Our next little lovely was a Pesto Pizza. We started with Julie Hasson's Basil and Spinach Spread (pesto) which will be in her upcoming Vegan Diner cookbook. On top of that we layered lightly sauteed zucchini, beautiful campari tomatoes, roasted red peppers, Daiya Italian blend cheeze, then we sprinkled the top with kalmata olives. This was also baked for 20 minutes in a 450 degree oven. I honestly thought I would like the first pizza the best, but this one stole my heart. It was really tasty! One ingredient I meant to use on this one was arugula from our garden. Oops. Well, I have some leftover dough in the freezer. I see arugula/ricotta calzones in our future!!!

Fred was very happy to report that Heineken is indeed vegan!

As soon as I get the dough perfected, I think we should have a make your own pizza party!!! We'll let you know!