Category: Recipes

Two Links About Pizza

by A.J. Coltrane

Two links to Serious Eats —

The very cool Del Popolo food truck serves wood-fired pizza out of a 5,000 lb oven — the oven is inside the truck! Includes a slide show and an interview.

This is an older post that I just ran across today:  Donna Currie has a 12-part post discussing many different baking surfaces for home oven pizza. Includes a slideshow overview highlighting the pros and cons of each surface. There’s a lot of useful information both in the posts and in the comments. Well worth the reads.

…and a bonus animal pic!

Late Afternoon Sun On The Kitchen Table

 

Another Batali Pizza Dough

by A.J. Coltrane

The Batali Pizza Dough recipe has sort of become my go-to-almost-fast-food-pizza-dough. There’s only 45 minutes of rising time, so dinner can be on the table in an hour.

Here’s one that’s steaming hot out of the oven covered with onions, italian sausage, and red peppers. The sausage got slightly precooked to avoid rawness. The thinly sliced onions and peppers went on raw. There’s also some cheese hiding under the sauce.

 

A Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Reinvented

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Photos by PW

One of the benefits of living in Seattle is that you have access to some interesting stuff – great foraged mushrooms in the fall, nettles and fiddleheads in the spring, geoduck and spot prawns throughout the summer, great cheese makers and some of the best ice cream in the U.S. There are also a ton of places that do some really creative things with the local bounty.

Case in point is Molly Moon’s Ice Cream Shop. They have made some interesting seasonal flavors in the past from things that you would not necessarily expect to find in ice cream, most of which are worth trying. They recently produced an ice cream using another local ingredient – Beecher’s Flagship Cheese. I tried it on a recent trip into the Molly Moon shop in Wallingford and found it interesting, but not something that I necessarily would order. I commented to Mrs. Iron Chef that I was surprised there were no special sundaes on their menu board around the Beecher’s ice cream.

After thinking about it, the gastronomic wheels started spinning and I had a brilliant idea of what to do with the ice cream. If my forays into molecular gastronomy have taught me anything it is that the goal of cooking should be to take familiar flavors and present them in new ways without really changing the taste of the original. This lead me to the brilliant conclusion, if someone makes an ice cream using one of the cheeses that I love on a grilled cheese sandwich, then why don’t I just turn that sandwich into a sundae?

At a recent dinner party, I unleashed my creation on the unsuspecting guests. I have found that the easiest way for someone to not like something new is to tell them what it is before they eat it. In this case, I did not reveal what everyone was eating until after they finished and the creation was generally pretty well received.

So I present to you, Molly Moon’s Beecher’s Flagship Grilled Cheese Sundae.

 

It really does taste like the some of its parts - a grilled cheese sandwich.

The Software
1 lb. heirloom tomatoes, seeded and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon dry vermouth
1 pinch kosher salt
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
3 slices bacon, cooked crispy and sliced into 1/8 inch lardons
1 cup brioche crumbs
1 pint of Molly Moon’s Beecher’s Flagship Ice Cream

The Recipe

Brioche crumbs

  • Cut 3-4 slices of brioche into 1 inch cubes. Place on a sheet pan and dry in a 275 degree oven for 90 minutes or until the bread is completely dried out.
  • Remove and pulse in a food processor until a coarse crumb (about 5 pulses, one second each on my machine).
  • Store in an air tight container if not using right away.

Tomato Compote

  • Add the tomatoes, vinegar, salt and vermouth to a medium sauce pan over medium heat and cook until the tomatoes break down, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  • Transfer the tomatoes to a blender and puree until smooth.
  • You are looking for roughly the consistency of a really thick tomato sauce. If your compote is too thin, return to the heat and reduce, stirring occasionally. If it is too thick, you can add water to thin it out.
  • Let cool

The Sundae

  • In a ramekin, take a tablespoon of the tomato compote and put it in the bottom. Add one scoop of the ice cream and top with the brioche crumble and bacon lardons. Serve to an unsuspecting public.

The recipe should serve 4 to 6 people.

Notes
I used some really nice heirloom tomatoes that were sweet enough that I did not need to add any sugar. If the tomatoes you are using are not very sweet, add some sugar to the cooking process, a small amount at a time and let dissolve before adding any more. You are looking for slightly tart to balance the sweetness of the ice cream. I suppose that any bread would work for the crumble, but I really like the buttery flavor of brioche. I used Skagit River Ranch’s uncured bacon for this recipe because I like the balance of smoky and sweet it has. Use whatever bacon you would normally use on a grilled cheese sandwich for the recipe.

Caesar Dressing – Good Eats Style

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I love Caesar Salad but the store bought dressings are somewhat lacking and there are too many people who are scared off from eating the real stuff due to a raw egg yolk in the dressing. I won’t go into it here as to why that is nothing to worry about, but needless to say, I wouldn’t make Caesar dressing with just any store bought egg. Alton Brown devoted an episode of Good Eats to tofu a number of years ago, which lead me to discover the Tofu Chocolate Cake, which is really an easy and wonderful dessert item. Also in this episode was a recipe for Caesar Dressing, replacing the eggs with tofu, so I decided to give it a shot. You know what, it is pretty tasty and about 100 times better than the store bought dressing.

The Software
2 ounces cubed Parmesan
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
11/2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
11/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Pinch kosher salt
Pinch freshly ground black pepper
1 cup silken soft tofu
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

The Dressing
Starting on the lowest speed, chop the cheese cubes in the blender jar until it settles into the bottom of the jar, gradually increasing the speed. With the blender running, add the garlic down the chute and chop until minced. This step will take 30-60 seconds, depending on your blender

Next, with the blender off, add the mustard, white wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, and tofu to the blender and blend until smooth. While the blender is running, drizzle olive oil down the middle of the vortex that has formed. Slowly add the olive oil (can’t stress SLOWLY enough) and blend until it reaches salad-dressing consistency anywhere from 1-3 minutes. You may need a bit of extra oil, depending on how much liquid is in your tofu.

Notes
The above is the original recipe ratios, I adjusted the instructions. This dressing probably takes about 5 minutes to make. The first time I made it, I made it a couple of hours in advance and while it was very tasty It thickened considerably, so you need to bring it back to room temperature before serving it. I would actually just make it right before serving, as it is so easy to do. Taste the dressing before you serve it, I have, at times had to add more mustard or garlic or vinegar to it. The dressing could also stand the inclusion of 2 anchovy fillets, if you are so inclined.

Batali’s Pizza Dough

By A.J. Coltrane

Mario Batali’s pizza dough recipe here. I used sugar instead of honey, and only 2 tsp of instant yeast, which was plenty. It made a *very* extensible dough that cooked up in 16 minutes at 500F, with a puffy cornicione and a crackerlike interior.

The “light wine” used was Facelli’s Red Table Wine, a blend of Pinot Noir, Merlot, Lemberger, Syrah, Sangiovese, and Cab Franc. I think it added a nice dimension to the crust. Topped with red onion, sopressata, and..a little bit of cream cheese.
A tasty pie! I may never go back to “regular” pepperoni.

Joy Of Cooking’s Fast White Bread

by A.J. Coltrane

I wanted to make a white sandwich bread, so I thought to myself: “Where would I find a totally universal white bread recipe?”

In the Joy Of Cooking of course!

Ingredient Volume
Bread Flour 3 cups
Water 1 cup, warm (115-125F)
Salt 1.5 tsp
Yeast 2.25 tsp
Sugar 1 TBP
Butter 2 TBP, softened

The recipe calls for mixing most of the flour with the other ingredients, then the remaining flour. I skipped that. Otherwise, this is the basic recipe:

1. Knead all ingredients on low speed for 10 minutes.

2. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and let rise 20-45 minutes until doubled in size.

3. Shape, grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan, place the dough into it and let rise another 20-45 minutes, until doubled again.

4. Bake at 450F for 10 minutes, then turn down the oven to 350F and bake about 30 minutes more.

5. Remove the loaf to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

Notes:

1. I think 10 minutes is a loooong time to knead anything. I’d cut it back to about 6 minutes next time and see how that works out.

2. It came out maybe a little too salty. I think I’ll weigh the salt in the future and shoot for 2% of the flour weight (about 8 grams).

3. Substituting olive oil for the butter would make a pretty generic pizza dough recipe. (It’s a ~60% hydration dough.)

4. All in all, a very easy loaf that’s better than store bought. Cheaper too.

Dulce de Leche Pie

by A.J. Coltrane

By request. Annie S’s Dulce De Leche Banana Cream Pie.

Recipe here. [Food Network, Marcella Valladolid:  Dulce de Leche Banana Cream Pie Recipe] Annie substitutes a pre-made graham cracker crust. The Nestle La Lechera Dulce de Leche should be available in the Mexican section of any large supermarket.

Unorthodox Egg Rolls

by A.J. Coltrane

These were inspired by this Simply Ming recipe:  Spring rolls filled with turkey, carrots, and carmelized onions. The carmelized onions in an egg roll sounded really good to me.

I began by shredding one red pepper, 1/2 a red onion, and three large button mushrooms. These went into a skillet with two cloves of minced garlic, two tablespoons of hoisin sauce, and a splash of soy. Everything was sauteed over medium heat until it was all a big, sticky, red mess. When cool it was combined a bowl with minced cooked chicken (about one large breast), and the green parts of a bunch of scallions.

The egg rolls were sealed with an egg wash.

And deep fried in canola oil until golden brown.

I used this recipe for sweet and sour sauce, minus the cornstarch and the boiling. (1/3 cup rice vinegar, 4 TBP brown sugar, 1 TBP ketchup, 1 tsp soy.) It came out vaguely too sour, though that could have been because I ran out of ketchup. A little fiddling and it was fine… if anyone has an easy sweet and sour recipe they like I’d be happy to try it.

*Somebody* has a drinking problem.

Don’t worry, no beer was wasted on the cat.

A Low Hassle Pizza

by A.J. Coltrane

The dough:

 

Ingredient Baker’s Percentage Weight Approx Volume
Bread Flour 75 300g 2-1/4 cups
Wheat Flour 25 100g 3/4 cup
Water 70 280g 1 cup + 3 TBP
Sea Salt 2 8g 2 tsp
Yeast 2 tsp 2 tsp 2 tsp
Honey 1.5 TBP 1.5 TBP 1.5 TBP

The other stuff:  14oz can of tomatoes (I use Muir Glen, in this case Diced Fire Roasted), dried oregano, garlic, red onion, balsamic, cheese (I used havarti and parmesan).

1.  Combine the dough ingredients and knead at low speed for 6 minutes. Lightly oil the dough and the bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a towel, and let rise about two hours (about double in size).

2.  Lightly oil a pizza pan. (I use a 13″x18″ sheet tray.) Press the dough out to the edges of the pan (or close). Cover with a towel and let rise one hour.

3.  Get the toppings ready. Here’s what I did:  While  the dough is resting, thinly slice 1/2 an onion and cook with a splash of balsamic over low heat until soft. Puree one 14oz can of tomatoes together with 1 tsp dried oregano and two cloves of garlic. Remove the onions from the pan, turn off the heat, add the tomato mixture and let it reduce slightly in the still warm pan.

4. To top the pizza:  Start by topping with shredded or sliced cheese, then the tomato mixture,  the onion, and finally a generous amount of grated parmesan. Bake at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes. I didn’t have pizza-appropriate meat in the house, but that would be good too.