These delicious and impressive flatbreads are great for summer parties or a family dinner!
As I have said before my husband is an excellent baker. His ability to be precise and follow directions the same way every time means that his dough always come out light and delicious, while mine is usually dry and flat. When ever we have pizza of flatbreads I ask him to make me some dough either the night before or in the morning before he goes to work. Someone has to keep an eye on it for the first rise because it has a tendency to try to escape the bowl you but it in. After it has risen once though it can be put in the fridge where it still rises but not too much more. For this recipe we used half the dough and wrapped the other half in cling wrap and put it in the freezer where is will last for a while.
Dustin’s Pizza Dough:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups bread flour
1 Tbsp. sugar or honey
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. instant active-dry yeast
3 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cups room temperature water
Combine all ingredients together in a stand mixer bowl mixing thoroughly and then let it sit for 5 minutes. After it has rested use the dough hook to knead the dough on a low speed. Let the stand mixer knead the dough for about 10 minute. The dough will try to climb it’s way up the dough hook so you will have to stop a couple time and pull it down. When you are done the dough will still seem a little wet but that’s okay. Transfer it to a clean bowl that you have but a little olive oil in. Swirl the ball of dough around so it’s covered in the oil and then cover the bowl with cling wrap. Leave out on the counter out of direct sunlight and let rise for 2 hours.
BBQ Shrimp Flatbread:
10-15 medium sized shrimp, cooked
1/2 cup of BBQ sauce
1/2 bell pepper, sliced thinly
1/3 cup of red onion, sliced thinly
1 cup grated mozzarella
For this flatbread I had every thing laid out ahead of time. I cooked my shrimp earlier in the day by sauteing them in a small pan with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Try to remove them from the heat when they are just barely done because they will also get a little cooked on top of the flatbread.
I simply cut of a small chunk of Dustin’s pizza dough and rolled it out on a floured surface. I was aiming for about plate-size on these, so it was about a tennis ball sized chunk of dough.
Heat oven to 400°F and spread your dough out on a cookie sheet. Rub the top with a small drizzle of olive oil and bake until the dough looks cooked but not brown on top and just beginning to turn brown on the bottom (about 10 minutes). Remove the flat bread from the oven.
Spread the BBQ sauce on the bread (I used a “Sweet Heat” variety) and then layer your ingredients, finally topping with a light layer of cheese. Turn your oven’s broiler on ‘High’ and then place the flatbread an inch or two under the broiler so that the cheese can melt and get bubbly. For this last part you should probably sit there watching the dish broil, as it will burn the second you turn away from it.
Earthy Salmon Flatbread:
4 oz. of salmon, cooked
3/4 roasted beet, diced
3/4 cup sauteed crimini mushrooms
1/2 cup shallots, sliced
2 Tbsp. aged balsamic vinegar
1 cup mozzarella
1/2 cup creme fraiche
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. fresh dill, minced
salt and pepper
This flatbread begins the same as the first. Make sure you have your dough prepared and then begin assembling the mise en place.
Pan sear your salmon starting flesh side down and then flip it over and finish it skin side down. Cook until just barely done and set aside and allow to cool.
Earlier in the day (or the day before) peel, slice in half, and roast your beets. One small-medium sized beet is all you will need for one flatbread (about 3/4 of a cup) but roasted beets are delicious and handy to have around for salads so you should roast up a few when you do it.
Next slice one large shallot very thinly and add to a small saute pan, cook with a little butter and salt until the shallots begin to brown and then deglaze the pan with a little over a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Stir the shallots so that the vinegar doesn’t burn and all the liquid should cook off or be absorbed almost immediately. Remove the shallots from the pan and set aside.
Dice your crimini mushrooms and also saute them with a small amount of butter and salt, cook for about 5 minutes.
In a small bowl add your half cup of creme fraiche with a pinch of salt and some fresh ground pepper. Add 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice and about a tablespoon of finely minced fresh dill.
Once again roll out your dough on a floured surface and then transfer to a cookie sheet. Top with olive oil and then cook for about 10 minutes until the top is cooked and the bottom is beginning to brown. Remove from the oven and layer the beets and mushrooms on the bottom, and then sprinkle the pickled onion on top of that.
Flake the salmon over everything else and then finally top with the grated mozzarella, not a lot, just enough to cover everything.
Broil on high for an additional 3-4 minutes until the edge of the crust gets darker and the cheese is bubbly. Remove the flatbread from the oven and once it has cooled for about 5 minutes then drizzle the dill sauce over the flatbread.
(Note: I purposefully did not call these “pizzas” because they lack tomato sauce, and are a little free-form. I feel like whereas pizza needs sauce, toppings, and cheese, you can put whatever you want on a flatbread. In the summer I’ve made them with grilled peaches and brie, topped with arugula and drizzled with vinaigrette. Seriously. Put whatever takes your fancy on them. Also they can be made on the barbecue too which is equally fun and delicious.)
This meal turned out to be incredibly easy, but looks impressive enough to be served for a stay-at-home date night.
Rose hips are a quintessential Alaskan ingredient. Wild roses can be found in nearly everybody’s back yard, always lovely but sometimes also a bushy, thorny nuisance. Their fruit, which is best harvested after the first frost of fall, is packed full of vitamin C and perfect for a deliciously tart jelly. Growing up, many of the older women I knew often made this traditional product. Here in Portland, the City of Roses, I saw a plethora of rose hips all last fall but never quite got up the gumption to go pick the two quarts I’d need for my mother’s recipe. Therefore, when I was contemplating how I could incorporate rose hips into a savory seafood dish, I found myself purchasing a jar of German rose hip fruit spread that I found in the international section at Fred Meyers.
For the Shrimp:
3/4 – 1 lb. of large 16/20 count shrimp
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 a cup of rose hip fruit spread
2.5 tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon habanero hot sauce (I used Secret Aardvark Trading Co.)
For Beet Zucchini Quinoa Salad:
1 large golden beet
1 medium to large zucchini
1 cup prepared quinoa
1 cup water
1/2 cup of quinoa
1 teaspoon chicken bullion
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste
Chèvre for garnish
Peel desired amount of shrimp for two people. For this recipe I got about half a pound of 16/20 count shrimp which ended up being 4 larger shrimp each. It was so delicious though, that next time I will definitely get more. To be on the safe side I’d say a whole pound would be enough to for each person to have seconds. Make sure each shrimp is peeled and deveined and has been rinsed in cold water and then patted dry with paper towels. You always want your protein dry before you put it in a pan to sear.
To prepare the salad begin by using a sharp knife to cut the beet and the zucchini into matchstick sized pieces. In about a tablespoon of olive oil begin cooking the beets first as they will take longer to cook. Add a pinch of kosher salt and cook on high, stirring frequently for about 5 minutes or until the pieces begin to soften. Next add the zucchini, which will require another 3-5 minutes to cook before adding the prepared quinoa. Stir to combine, add pepper, and taste to make sure it is salty enough. When you go to plate the salad place a large dollop of chèvre on on top of each portion. Garnish if desired with minced green onions or chives for some color.
For the shrimp, preheat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a nonstick skillet before adding the washed and dried shrimp to the pan. In a separate bowl combine jelly, vinegar and hot sauce. Place the shrimp in the skillet and sprinkle with a large pinch of kosher salt. Cook for about 1.5 to 2 minutes on each side or until the shrimp turn pink and just finish turning opaque throughout. Right before the shrimp finish cooking add the sauce to the pan. It with bubble and begin to thicken almost immediately so remove the pan from the heat as soon as you add the glaze. Place shrimp on plate and drizzle with the remaining pan sauce.
Lavender is a staple of many Alaskan’s herb gardens. It can easily be grown in a pot on the porch or in a window box in and apartment. Besides it’s numerous therapeutic qualities, used sparingly, it can be a delicious addition to many dishes and drinks.
3/4 a cup of softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 Tbsp. dried lavender flowers
zest of half a lime
Combine softened butter, sugar, lavender and lime zest until completely incorporated. Next add the flour, using your fingers to mix everything together until the dough can be formed into a ball. If the dough is still crumbly add a couple teaspoons of melted butter. Roll out the dough on a floured surface until 1/2 inch thick. Cut in desired shape and bake for 20 minutes on an ungreased cookie sheet at 350°F.
This ice cream isn’t too hard to master but all your friends will me amazed when you tell them you made this yourself!
A couple of years ago I went berry picking in the fall with my friend Jenn (I wont tell you where! It’s a secret, of course!). I don’t have a ton of patience for sitting in one spot monotonously picking pea-sized things off the ground, so I only managed to get about a quart of blueberries. When I brought them home I found I also did not have the patience to pick all of the teeny-tiny stems off the berries so I took the lazy way out. I blended them, stems and all. I then ran the puree through cheese cloth sitting in a mesh strainer. What I ended up getting out of all that was about two cups of thick blueberry puree.
I froze this for about 4 months and dug it out of the freezer for a New Years dinner. I used about half of it for a blueberry gastrique I made with lamb, and the rest seemed like enough to keep, but I had no clue what for.
We’ve had a Cuisinart ice cream maker for about two years (one that Nina generously gave me), and I never had managed to churn out anything good. Well I let my very precise husband loose on the machine and whereas I had always simply eyeballed the recipes, my husband managed to create a masterpiece of a dark chocolate stout ice cream. A remembered the blueberries and a light bulb seemed to go off in my head! Make ice cream with it, my brain screamed! But of course I am not the ice cream master, so I sat there as my dear husband concocted this blissful creation.
Seriously though. MAKE YOUR OWN ICE CREAM. It’s so creamy, and rich, and you can put anything you want in it! The key is in the custard!
Note: Best results come from putting your freezing canister in the bottom of a chest freezer for 24 hours, or better yet, put in outside in Fairbanks, Alaska in the middle of January!
Ingredients:
1 cup milk (we used 2%)
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup blueberry puree
1/2 sugar (for the blueberries)
Instructions:
First heat up the blueberry puree with about 1/2 a cup of sugar, just to get the sugar to dissolve. In another pot mix milk, salt, and sugar and heat on medium low until steam starts to rise off of it. You can still stick your finger in the mixture at this point, but it’s pretty hot. In a separate bowl whisk four egg yolks until they are completely broken apart and a slightly lighter color. VERY SLOWLY pour the hot milk mixture into the eggs a little bit at a time as you whisk continually. Once all of the milk is incorporated pour the egg/milk mixture back into the pot and mix constantly with a wooden spoon until it begins to thicken. When it’s about the viscosity of maple syrup try the wooden spoon test. Pick your spoon up out of the mixture and run your finger horizontally over the back of the spoon. If the custard on top of the line doesn’t run down over the gap your finger made then it’s ready. Pour the custard through a mesh strainer into a bowl. Finally whisk in the heavy cream and the cooled blueberry sauce. Toss into ice cream maker and mix for about 30 minutes. When it is done it should be about the consistency of soft serve. Place into a storage container and freeze until it firms up completely.
We are both born and raised in Alaska, land of the midnight sun and fishing at 2am. We love to find new ways to use fresh ingredients or put a modern spin on an old Alaskan classic. We hope you will enjoy tasting Alaska.
We are both born and raised in Alaska, land of the midnight sun and fishing at 2am. We love to find new ways to use fresh ingredients or put a modern spin on an old Alaskan classic. We hope you will enjoy tasting Alaska.