Pizza magic

It’s been a very busy week in Dr. Tae Yun Kim‘s kitchen and that is exactly why I haven’t had a chance to write much yet – there was a lot happening!  See?

Here you can see her latest creation – pizza pockets!  But not just any pizza pockets – these are 100% gluten free.  They are also a health food.  The dough was a dream to work with – it took a long time to figure out a good and healthy way to make gluten free yeast dough and  Dr. Kim came up with the secret magical ingredient – yucca root!

But that is only one of the healthy ingredients, there are also hemp seeds, almond flour, yucca flour, ground chia seeds, ground flax seeds in there.  See what a nutritional powerhouse this is?  Dr. Kim is really starting to share her vast knowledge of Eastern healing foods and medicine and I would have never expected so much nutrition in pizza pockets of all things!  🙂

For the filling, things were a little simpler.  Just make your favorite spaghetti sauce and keep it on the dry side.  Spice it up with whatever strikes your fancy; we like jalapeno peppers, or red pepper, and lots of herbs, sometimes olives and add some meat, I had small meatballs and cut up gluten free hot dogs in there too.

The dough is fairly easy to roll out, just make sure you put a lot of (gluten-free) flour on a wooden board and start rolling, flipping dough over frequently to prevent sticking.

To put it all together, roll out a piece of dough and cut a round, I used an upside down soup bowl as “cookie cutter” and it worked great.  Put some grated cheese, then add a big spoon of thick, chunky tomato sauce and top with a little more grated cheese.  The cheese acts to bind the sauce and will keep it all together nicely.  Gather the edges and form a roll/bun/turnover type thing, pinching edges together the best you can.  It’s ok if the dough breaks here and there, the outcome will be just as delicious.

Bake this at 350 (375 works too) for about half an hour.  Don’t blame me if everyone in the household gathers to wait for these goodies to come out of the oven – they smell absolutely divine!

I am still working on making this a “repeatable” and fool proof recipe, with the proper measurements and everything that a recipe requires.  I am a newbie at developing recipes that are repeatable, and will share in another post how I happened to figure out how to go about that entirely scientific process.

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No such thing as leftovers

Dr. Tae Yun Kim has been very strong about treating food right and to not abuse it – this means not letting it sit in the refrigerator until it goes bad.  It means you only cook as much as you and those eating with you can eat.  It’s ok to have enough for next day’s lunch, but no out and out leftovers.  It means keeping the kitchen very clean too!

Dr. Kim also wants us to develop and use our creativity.  Sometimes that’s not as easy as it seems.  I mean, what do you do with too much yeast dough?  There is only so much bread I want to make and freeze, because if I make it, I will eat it, right?

First I want to acknowledge the source of my gluten-free yeast doughs.  Shirley of gluten-free Easily has these fantastic roundups, and one of my very favorite ones are her bread roundups.  Click here for one of them.

Since I usually make at least a double batch, sometimes I need another creative use for what might be too much.

All the veggies and herbs came from Dr. Kim’s garden

Pizza is of course always a good choice and I cannot tell you how often I have used “Pizza dough” that started out as something entirely different.

I have also made peach or apple cinnamon buns and they are wonderful even made out of bread dough!

Lastly, if you don’t mind carefully rolling out whatever dough you have, go ahead and improvise an apple strudel, where the filling is peeled and chopped apples, with a generous dose of chopped walnuts, 1/2 cup sugar and a lot of cinnamon, also a couple of tablespoons of starch for every couple of cups of apples.  Let rise for 45 minutes to an hour and bake at 350 for about the same time – check frequently!

Not the most beautiful, but certainly one of the best ones!

And there you have it!  Of course, bread sticks, bread sticks with cheese….and a lot more can be made as well!  Have fun, get creative and know there is no such thing as a failure!

 

 

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Pizza construction

Dr. Tae Yun Kim not only emphasizes healthy foods, but also the importance of being creative when we cook.

Can you imagine eating the same food every day?  Sure, when you don’t have options and are starving, we’ll do anything for a crust of bread.  But in today’s world, creativity helps to encourage making the right food choices.

After enjoying many versions of hot soup lately, it was time for some “sink in your teeth” food, and pizza is an almost universally liked food for all ages.

Here is the secret: you don’t really need a recipe, just some ideas.

Dr. Tae Yun Kim has made some astonishing creations, and here is a picture of my try to re-create – it was very good, but not anywhere near what Dr. Kim did!

Tip # 1: you can take pretty much any yeast dough as pizza dough.  This goes for gluten-free as well as gluten full.  If it’s too sticky and wet, just use a little flour on your hands and pat directly onto a well-greased pizza pan or baking sheet.  Pre-baking also helps when the dough is sticky.

Tip # 2: use either any tomato sauce you have on hand, or any pesto, as a layer between dough and toppings.

Tip # 3: anything goes as topping!  I mean, you know you shouldn’t pour soup on it, but seriously, any meat, any veggies, in any combination will work well, depending on your taste buds.

Tip #4: if you are adding cheese, bake without the cheese first and add it only about 5 minutes before it’s done, so you won’t scorch the cheese.

Tip #5: I bake pizza around 400 degrees and not at the higher ones you might find in recipes – basically, know your oven and bake at higher heat than you would bread, but not so hot it burns before it’s done.  In my oven, that’s about 400 degrees.

Most important tip: Dig in and enjoy!  🙂

HE CAN DO, SHE CAN DO, WHY NOT ME!

 

 

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Down home Jung SuWon style healthy pizza

Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim's special recipe: healthy warrior pizza/before cooking

I really really really love pizza.  I have been thinking about how to make it into something very healthy, and yet still very yummy.  I asked Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim about how I could make something so wonderfully great tasting and yet keep it consistent with healthy eating.  She gave me some wonderful tips and hints (by the way, she is a great cook in her own right) – and here is the outcome.  You won’t feel loaded down after eating it.  In fact you could up and go to a fired up Jung SuWon Class and you would be fine.

And yes, even the dough is home made, and it’s worth it’s effort.  I personally always make plenty of dough and freeze what I am not using, so I can make pizza whenever I want to.

For the dough:

• 2/3 parts whole wheat flour, 1 part white flour
• flax seed meal
• amaranth flour, if you can get it
• garbanzo beans, or pinto beans, cooked, and mashed to make it liquidy (or blended into liquid)
• fresh yeast cake if you can get, or 1 envelope regular dried yeast
• some olive oil
• dash of salt and pepper

proof the yeast (dissolve the yeast in some warm water, with a little flour and a dab of honey). Once this mixture is bubbly , add your bean liquid and add some water if you need more liquid.  Add the oil at this point.  Add enough flour to make a soft, but non-sticky dough.  Knead thoroughly, cover, and let rise.  This dough will rise slower than other doughs.  When doubled, punch down – at this point you can either freeze the dough, let it rise again, or roll it out into pizza shape. 

While the dough is rising, prepare the toppings.  Preheat the oven to about 400 degrees at this point.  Of course, you can put just about anything and everything on it as topping and chances are, it’ll come out tasting great.  I am just telling you what I put on the pizza that you are seeing on the picture in this blog, and the pizza was great and not a single crumb was left. 

• cut up big green olives into slivers
• prepare refried beans or use canned refried beans
• sautee some coarsely chopped garlic, enough to cover the pizza dough
• cut up some pastrami and/or corned beef into strips
• chop up some tomatoes and sautee them in olive oil, until all the liquid is gone.  You can add either basil and/or chopped parsley to this
• chop and sautee finely cut leeks
• grate a mixture of swiss cheese and gruyere cheese

Pre-bake the pizza dough until very light brown.  If it forms pockets during baking, make it come down by piercing it with a fork in the pockets. 

Let the pre-baked dough cool off briefly (but you don’t have to).  Cover with a thin layer of refried beans.  Sprinkle the sauteed garlic and leeks evenly over the pizza dough.  Neatly lay out the strips of meat (or use some pre-cooked ground beef) , sprinkle the olives, and spread out the tomatoes.  Cover with cheese and put in the oven. 

Be prepared for some awesome goodness in about 10 minutes!

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