Polenta Greek Pizza

Hiya folks!

How was your day? Did you have a good Monday, I was quite busy  which is always a good thing. If things are not busy at the lab, the day gets slow and seems to just drag. I also managed to get my legs back into action. My knees and overall health was really down last week and rest was all it needed.I am charged and energized now, well, I have to be my race is on July 3.

Workout: Not major, but we walked to warm up and ran a mile!

Last night I showed you a snapshot of the polenta pizza crust I made for tonights dinner. Well I am happy to tell it was a great success. I love pizza but somehow the combination of dough and cheese does not go well with my stomach. So this corn crust is the perfect alternative.

Polenta Pizza crust:

- 3/4 cup cornmeal (I used the white one)

- 3 cups water

- 1/2 tsp salt

- pinch of pepper

In a skillet, add the water and let it come to a boil. Once boiling add the salt and the corn meal. Mix vigorously, you don’t want any lumps. The whole mixture takes about 7-9 minutes to thicken.

Once thick, add the pepper and bake them in pie pans.

I baked them for about 40 minutes at 350F. This gave it a crusty top.

Then can be cooled down and freeze really well.

This evening I defrosted one in the oven and topped it with some homemade tomato sauce (recipe courtesy Dani), sprinkle of some mozzarella, eggplant, asparagus and kalamata olives. Lets call this pizza, POLENTA GREEK PIZZA!

a little closer,

My friends this is my recipe of the week, I oohed and aahed while savoring each bite and the husband gave it a thumbs up too!

 

I love making makeshift pizzas anyways and if it tastes fantastic, that is definitely an icing on the cake!

How was your Monday?

Motivation Monday quote:

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Eggplant in a tomato gravy

Growing up, as kids we weren’t allowed to fuss over food and make tantrums. If the dinner served does not include your favorite veg. you will suck it up and eat it, simply no complaints allowed. That is probably the reason why there is no food that we hate. Well that statement is not entirely true because I hate pumpkin and beets. Even those I had to eat, sometimes I managed to sneak some into my brothers or dad’s plate.

The husband on the other hand was a very fussy eater as a child, he had a limited taste palate when it came to foods. This did not go well with me after we got married, since I come from a disciplined family. It became my mission to expose him to various foods and slowly but surely managed to convert him into an almost all veggie lover. The first veg that he had to adjust to was eggplant and I had some really good recipes in my recipe treasure chest to make even the most extreme eggplant hater  a lover and that is exactly what happened.

So here I have an eggplant recipe that the husband has grown to love (the other being baingan bharta)

Ingredients:

(Serves 2 or 3)

½ of a medium sized eggplant.

1 medium potato

4 roma tomatoes

¼ cup chick pea flour

Spices: ½ tsp turmeric powder, ½ tsp cayenne pepper and 1 tsp dried mango powder or juice from a whole lemon.

Optional: mustard seeds, curry leaves and asafetida (can be found at your local Indian grocery store)

1 T canola oil

Salt to taste

Directions:

Chop the eggplant, potato and tomato

In a skillet, heat the canola oil and add the optional ingredients if using i.e. mustard seeds, curry leaves and asafetida. If not, go ahead and add the potatoes and cook them till they are soft.

Next add the tomatoes and cook them till they are all soft and mushy.

Once you have the soft consistency, add the eggplants, spices and cook till the eggplant is soft and cooked.

Finally add the flour and lemon juice and season to taste. Cook it till the rawness from the flour disappears from the gravy.

Serve with rice or quinoa!

YUMMY!

Picture tutorial:

chopped up

Start by tempering the hot oil with mustard seeds, asafoetida and curry leaves. If you don’t have these ingredients its quite alright, you can go ahead and add the potato.

Cook the potatoes first.

Once the potatoes are cooked, add the chopped tomatoes and cook till they are all soft and mushy,

Once the tomatoes are cooked, add the chopped eggplants and the spices,

Cover and cook for about 5 minutes or till the eggplants are cooked and then add two tablespoons of garbanzo bean flour,

Cook the gravy till the rawness from the flour goes away and serve.

I made this last weekend and the husband loved it!