Gluten/Dairy-Free Shrimp-Avocado Pizza w/ Blush Sauce

BE WARNED: This is a very strong and savory pizza!  If the ingredients sound too strong for you, omit or reduce the amounts!

Savory Ingredients

Okay.  Here we go again - PIZZA! YabbaDabbaDOOOoo!

 Uh, sorry…just finished writing the post – “Mete the Flintstones” – about a dream I had the other morning.

Shrimp and Avacado Pizza. With Blush Sauce… betchya never thought you’d be having that delicacy again! So what? You’re dairy free.  You’re off the gluten.  WHAT? You can’t enjoy a top-notch, gourmet pizza now?  I think not!

I used to make a lot of pizza.  I  started somewhere between the ages of 11 and 12.  Made alotta rock crusts. Though I used the finest of brand name yeast, and good flour (bleached bleached bleacho-McBleach-white!) I could never get the dough to rise.  Turns out, I was murdering the poor little yeastie guys with water that was too hot, and not proofing with a little sugar.  By my twenties I had corrected that problem, as I turned a passion for baking fresh bread into an equal passion for fresh, homemade, chewy pizza crusts.

Okay, I know, that’s just cruel of me!

For this little personal-sized apizzapie (I’m speaking Jersitaliano now)- I just bought a bag of crusts by Glutino. Get ‘em at your smart grocers freezer section.  If they do not carry gluten-free products, why – you just march right up to that customer service desk…

      ..and you let ‘em have it!!!!

Steaming Shrimp with Thyme

You’ll need shrimp. Depends on the size of pizza you will be making. In fact, amend all volumes accordingly for a larger pie.  For the small size here, I used about 6 shrimp, but 5 would have been sufficient.  So, say 10 or 12 for a full-sizze-ah pizza.  Steam your shrimp first, with a little herb stuff – I chose thyme – some sea salt and, if you have it (optional) a quick sprinkle of  Old Bay Seasoning.  (This is where all that overpowering, savory stuff comes in.)

INGREDIENTS:

½ dozen shrimp, steamed and deveined, then chopped into ½ inch pieces.

1 personal sized Glutino Gluten-free pizza crust

½ cup pizza sauce, or spaghetti or tomato sauce will do

1-2 tablespoons dairy-free, or Vegan, Tofutti Cream Cheese

½ Avocado, sliced (use what you need)

1 clove garlic, sliced paper-thin

1 green onion/scallion, chopped

herbs and spices, optional: Fennell seed, crushed red pepper flakes, fresh thyme, Old Bay Seasoning,  Course Sea Salt

METHOD:

Make the Blush Sauce: Add the cream cheese to the pizza or tomato sauce.

Stir it up until it reaches the desired pink, or ‘blush’ color.

An Added Note:  It is best to sharpen your best knife between chopping ingredients- as to get a paper-thin garlic slice, you need a gleaming, guillotine-sharp blade.

Slice/chop all ingredients, including your shrimp. Put them in fancy little finger dishes, just like I did, further up the post. It’s best.

Allright…so you’ve got all the basics ready. The oven is pre-heating to 400º degrees Fahrenheit… Did I forget to mention that? Well,  just do it!

Spoon the blush sauce onto the pizza crust (reserving about 1 tablespoon.) and spread toward the edges.  Next, add some herbs, like the thyme, fennel seed if you’re brave enough, the crushed red pepper flakes, garlic slivers and most of the green onion (save some for a final topping after the pizza is cooked).

Nowz  dah time to add da shwimp! (oops- that’s my inner Jersey girl tawkin’) 

I then spoon a little of the reserved blush sauce over the shrimp, to protect them while baking and to keep them moist. Dot the top of the pie with extra soy cream cheese if you like. It won’t melt, but it tastes nice.  Bake it for 9-12 minutes for a small (15-18 for large), or until it just looks done.

Crust will be golden, not brown.

Nowsza da time to adda all-ah youse avocaw-do. Fix it up into ah-nice-ah starfish pattern, if you gawt duh gutz!

An’ Datz it! You be dunz now. Eat up, bichiz!