Sesame Beef Sandwiches

My apologies to my poor little half-abandoned blog. I haven't been taking care of you the past few weeks as I should have. I also haven't been very adventurous in the kitchen the past few weeks either - which, remarkably enough, is suggestive of the fact that the blog has been lacking!

On the weekend, my husband cooked an absolutely mammoth piece of beef. I'm talking huge. It's only the 2 of us and, while I'm sure Georgie would have loved his share, he has quite the delicate little disposition. Needless to say, we`ve been looking for ways to eat up our excess of beef. This recipe is quite different in that you use pan-fried pizza dough as your `bun`. Neato.
Bon appétit!

Ingredients:
1 pound pizza dough (fresh, not frozen)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for greasing
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 cups shredded coleslaw mix
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon chili oil
6 ounces roast beef (you could easily use deli sliced)
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
3 scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon grated peeled ginger
1/2 cup fresh cilantro

Directions
1. If using pre-bought pizza dough, microwave dough on 50 percent power to soften, 1 to 2 minutes, then let rest 5 minutes. I`ve never tried pre-made dough so hopefully it works out okay. If you`re keen, you can make your own very easily with this recipe. Grease a large plate with vegetable oil; shape the dough into a 9-inch round and place on the plate. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sesame seeds and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

2. Toss the coleslaw mix, vinegar, chili oil, and salt to taste in a bowl. In another bowl, toss the roast beef, sesame oil, scallions and ginger.

3. Heat 3 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the dough seed-side down and sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon sesame seeds. Cover and fry, shaking the pan occasionally, until the dough is golden, about 3 minutes per side, turning with tongs. Transfer to paper towels, season with salt and cool.

4. Wipe out the skillet and place over high heat. Add the roast beef mixture and stir-fry until crisp, 1 to 2 minutes. Slice the flatbread in half horizontally. Layer the beef, coleslaw mixture and cilantro on the bottom half. Cover with the top and cut into 4 wedges.

- photo and recipe cred to the Food Network

Flax & Sesame Multigrain Pizza Crust

This recipe looked so appealing to me because I had a strong desire to make our pizza-night meals more healthiful (I think that`s a word...). As much as I love traditional pizza, I love healthy pizza all the more. And a thick, chewy crust popping with a multigrain crunch? Even better. You can do a couple of different things with this recipe - it would yield about 8-10 6" personal crusts (which can be kept frozen for easy dinners down the road) or you can make a nice big traditional dough for a large sized pizza crust. Either way, just so you know, this recipe will make 2 `large` pizza doughs. So seedy. So grainy. Yum! Bon appétit!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. hot water
1 T. yeast
1/3 c. olive oil
1/2 c. oatmeal
1/4 c. quinoa, uncooked
1/4 c. flaxseed
1 1/2 t. salt
1 egg white
1 c. whole wheat flour 2 c. white flour
1 T. poppy seeds
2 t. sugar
1 T. black sesame seeds

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast into water. Add olive oil and egg white, then add remaining ingredients, mixing in just enough flour to make the dough pliable, but not terribly sticky. Knead until elastic. Monitor your flour content. You may need to add more or less. Drizzle with olive oil, cover loosely with a flour sack, and allow to rise until double in bulk.

2. Press small portions of the dough into very thin, pizza-sized circles. Place onto a well oiled cookie sheet. Allow to rise 20-30 minutes, then bake in an oven heated to 400 degrees just until cooked (but not browned), about 5-6 minutes. Remove and top with desired toppings then return to oven to finish cooking. To freeze, allow cooked crusts to cool. Stack with parchment between each crust, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and freeze. Frozen pizza’s will last up to 2 months in the freezer.