Spring Pizza with Potato Crust

I've had the cookbook 열두달 절집 밥상 (yeol du dal jeol jip bap sang ~Twelve Months of Temple Dishes) by Venerable Dae Ahn for some time. As you might suspect from the book title and the author, it's a cookbook by a Buddhist monk in Korea with temple dishes divided into each month of the year. As you'd also expect, recipes are highly seasonal and local vegetarian dishes, but five vegetables in the alium family (chive, garlic, leek, onion and scallion) prohibited in Buddhism for their strong flavor are excluded.

As far as I know the book is only published in Korean, so that could be one obstacle for some of you. If you're outside of Korea, many vegetables and herbs used in the book are also very specific to Korea, which may be another hurdle for you to use it as a practical cookbook.

Aside from that, I find it very helpful for ideas and tips on basic sauces and cooking methods for a variety of vegetables, which I could apply to the vegetables easily found around me. One of those that I came to really enjoy is this idea of using grated potato as pizza crust. It comes out surprisingly good, crispy crust on the edge, soft-chewy in the middle, and sturdy enough to be a base for the usual pizza toppings.

I add a spoonful of potato starch to make sure that the thin potato crust base stays together, but feel free to try using only grated potato as is in the original recipe. Grating seems to be the toughest work for this recipe, but other than that, I just hope you have some cheese and vegetables to top the base. You can even use a toaster oven with the baking function, as I have done for my snack pizza, and it comes out beautifully.

Nagaimo (마 - ma)

As for the pizza toppings, I'm into smoked mozzarella and don't find tomato sauce necessary everytime. Not pictured here, but I've also had prosciutto on top another time. The white stuff in the bottom pictures is grated nagaimo (마 - ma), a.k.a. Japanese mountain yam (also the picture above before peeling). Although the vegetable itself is very crunchy, it's covered in viscous layer once it's peeled. If you haven't grown up with it, its slimy feel may take some time getting used to. I mixed a small amount in with grated cheese as done in the original recipe. As always, take this recipe as your guide, but at the end of the day, it's up to you and what you have in the refrigerator. Sometimes all it takes is one potato, one cheese and hopefully one more vegetable.

Spring Pizza with Potato Crust
Adapted from 열두달 절집밥상 (~ Twelve Months of Temple Dishes)

Yield: A 7-inch pizza (enough for a meal for one or snack for two)

INGREDIENTS:
Potato pizza crust
1            Russet potato, medium size, peeled and grated
                (about 1 cup after grated and its liquid squeezed out)
1 T      Potato starch
1/4 t      Salt

Toppings used
Smoked mozzarella
Sharp cheddar cheese
Nagaimo (마 - ma), a.k.a. Japanese mountain yam
Asparagus
Peas
Scallion
Enoki mushrooms

DIRECTIONS:

1. Peel and grate a potato with a cheese grater, on the medium or coarse surface. Squeeze out liquid. In a bowl, mix grated potato with salt.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 F degrees.

3. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. For a small toaster oven too small for a baking pan, use a double-layered aluminum foil and be very careful not to tear it. Spray the aluminum foil with oil. Spread out the grated potato into a thin, even round. Spray oil on the surface of the grated potato.

4. Bake in the oven until the edges turn golden brown and the middle part is soft, about 30 minutes.

5. Take it out of the oven and rest for 5 minutes. Lay out assorted pizza toppings on the potato crust. Put it back in the oven and change the oven setting to broil. Broil just until the cheese bubbles up and melts nicely on the pizza, about 5 minutes. Take it out of the oven.

6. Rest for 5 minutes to let the pizza cool off slightly, which will make it easier to cut through. Cut to pieces and enjoy!

Using the same potato crust, I made a mushroom pizza with sautéed shitake and crimini mushrooms, seasoned with balsamic vinegar and soy sauce (a spoonful each is enough) another time. Again, smoked mozzarella and sprinkled with scallion. Yum!