I'm ba-a-a-ack! (Spinach Calzones)

Two months?! I can't believe that I have ignored this poor blog for that long. Life stuff has been hectic, but still ... two months!

Anyway, I'm back with mini spinach calzones. I needed to take a plate* to a party last night, so I threw these together quickly. I had the dough for a pizza base in the freezer, as well as some spinach and some Cheezley cream cheese, so I decided to combine a couple of favourites, spinach and calzones. I also like my party nibbles small and not too messy, so these worked well.


Mini Spinach Calzones

Makes 24.

Ingredients

• Pizza dough for 1 base, uncooked. (I used some from the Vegan with a Vengeance recipe, with whole wheat flour swapped for about about 1/3 of the plain flour in the recipe. I always make extra when I make pizza and freeze it in 1 pizza batches. Use whatever pizza base recipe you like)
• 250g frozen spinach
• 2 large spring onions chopped
• 75 grams vegan cream cheese (I used Cheezley Sour Cream and Chives variety that I found in my freezer)
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (also called savoury yeast) (optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste
  

Method

1. Preheat oven to 240 degrees centigrade.
   
2. After you have prepared your pizza dough, cover it and put it aside.
3. Defrost and drain the spinach.
4. Add cream cheese, yeast and spring onions to spinach. Mix well.
   
5. Add salt and pepper to spinach mix to taste. Mix again.
6. Using a rolling pin, roll pizza dough very thin, about 1/2 cm (1/4 inch).
7. Cut 7 cm circles of dough from the rolled dough. I used the top of a skinny glass, but a round biscuit cutter would work well.
8. Consolidate remaining dough, roll and cut again. Keep doing this until you have used all the dough.
   
9. Divide the spinach mixture between the circles of dough, leaving a clear rim of dough to use to shut the calzone.
10. For each circle, wet the rim of the circle and fold it over into a half circle over the filling. Seal the edge.
11. Place calzones on two baking trays. Leave a little space (1/2 - 1 cm at least) between the calzones.
12. Bake until gently browned, turning once. (Approx 10 - 15 minutes)
13. Serve hot or cold.
    

I served them cold, in a large bowl. They were delicious and popular. They had a thin crust of pizza bread with a nice substantial serve of savoury spinach filling. I think that they would also be good in lunch boxes or made into approximately 6 larger calzones as part of a meal. The kids loved them, so I'll be making these again.

Caturday


Why would you want to use the printer? Why would you want the contents of your canvas satchel? Cat sleep is far more important than your paltry human concerns. (Featuring Berry sleeping on a satchel and wedged onto the printer tray. Bonus Switch staring at moths out the door.)

Note
* For the non-Australians, the Australian phrase "bring a plate" means to bring food to share appropriate to the type of event. It can mean to bring a main dish, a side, a salad, a dessert, finger food or any similar item to share. I'm told this phrase is far from universal and that it has led to confusion for non-Australians in the past.

My week and Peking "Duck"

My poor blog has been ignored this last week. I have had a rather hectic week.

Last weekend I stayed on the Gold Coast. A friend, Tania, hosted a girl's weekend for 4 of us on the Coast. We stayed at the Watermark, had massages, saw a show at the Casino and cruised the shops.

How was the food for a vegan? As I was with 3 omnis, and Tania had prebooked packages, I ate in non-veg restaurants all weekend. The Watermark's restaurants were very happy to make a lunch (pasta with fresh vegetables and a tomato sauce) and hot breakfast (mushrooms, tomato, beans, hash brown, toast and cold buffet items). I also found the buffet at the casino to be willing to cater for a vegan. I asked which items were vegan. The chef indicated the few salad items and then made me pasta with tomato and spinach sauce and steamed veges with no butter. They brought so much food, I couldn't finish it (which is a lot because I can eat a pretty good amount of pasta).

Through the week, I have been working late-ish, so food was pretty boring and basic. Therefore, no pictures.

Last night I called at an asian supermarket on the way home. (The one at Sunnybank, in the carpark, opposite where Magic Wok used to be, for my Brisbane readers.) I bought vegan wrappers and vegan "duck." We had peking "duck" for dinner. It was a very easy dinner, but a bit away from simple pasta.

In the picture, you can see the wrappers, soy-based "duck", carrot, cucumber and thinned hoisin sauce. Each person took some of each and made a little parcel.

We also had spring rolls, BBQ buns, turnip cakes and rice (not pictured, obviously).

We had extra children at our place for dinner, as I was babysitting for my sister. They were omni kids. They liked the vegan spring rolls. The 10 year old had a couple of wrappers. The 8 year old only liked the rice and spring rolls, but he is a bit selective about even omni food.

My family followed the same split. J, Mr BrisVegan and I all liked the peking "duck" in the wrappers with cucumber, carrot and sauce and ate all the sides. The younger 2, Z and M, did not like the wrappers, but ate heaps of the "duck" which they always like. They also loved the BBQ buns, rice and spring rolls.

I think that pre-made wrappers might be good for a party snack.

Broken Finger Foods

Since Z broke his finger, I have been serving food that is easy to eat with one hand. Anything that can be eaten with fingers or a spoon is popular.

On Saturday night, we tried the lovely Char Siu Rice from Vegan About Town. I served the fragrant savoury rice with Lamyong roast “pork” on lettuce, tomato, and stir fried gai choy. To make the food more child and finger friendly, I also added store bought spring rolls, money bags, mini samosas, turnip cakes and “drumsticks”. Everyone loved the meal. Thanks to Vegan About Town, the rice was a great hit.

Sunday night was Veganomnicon and Vegan With a Vengeance night. Both are recipe books by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. We had the chickpea cutlets, with mustard sauce (both V’con), with garlicky kale with tahini sauce (VWAV), roast pumpkin and sweet potato chips.

This time I did not have any gluten flour and the shops were shut before I started cooking the chickpea cutlets. I decided to try plain (all-purpose) flour and to bake the cutlets. It worked almost as well as the gluten flour, though it would not pack the same protein punch. I also made smaller medallions (one was already eaten before I took the picture, because I couldn’t resist). Isa is right, the tangy mustard sauce is delicious with it. The children always like these cutlets.

They also like the sauce, to my surprise. I had thought that it might be a bit too tangy and spicy for the younger two, who tend to be a bit cautious about that sort of food. I should have known that their love of capers would win over all other considerations.

The garlicky kale with tahina sauce was simply delicious. My omni, greens-loving husband was quite impressed by it. The younger children were not fond of it, but then they are not overly fond of many types of leafy green. 13 year old J will eat anything that an adult would eat. Though he didn’t rave over the kale, he ate it all.

The sweet potato chips are a bit of child vegetable psychology that I have been using for a while. If called “chips” and cut in batons, the younger, fussier kids will happily eat sweet potato. If it is served in chunks or medallions, they are not so enthusiastic.

Monday night I served a Middle Eastern style platter. On the plate was pita bread wedges, baba gannouj, hommous, caperberries, baked stuffed olives, baked mushrooms, baked chickpeas with tomato, spring onions, coriander seed, cumin and time, and chickpea balls. When I made the chickpea cutlets, I doubled the recipe and made these balls at the same time, so that I could use them for this meal. The baked chickpeas were left overs from the cutlets.

This sort of food is always a favourite with my family. They love Middle Eastern dips. We ate an entire jar of caperberries, which was no surprise. The children love caperberries and capers.

Both hommous and bab gannouj are naturally vegan. These were both shop bought versions. They can easily be made at home, but I was being lazy. If you buy these dips, make sure you check the ingredients, as some brands might include non-vegan ingredients, which are not traditional or necessary.

We have also had some rather boring bangers and mash and pies and chips for the football, though I didn't take photos of them. So far the invalid has not starved!