Pizza Dough III

Slowly my pizza dough is improving. It is now tender and crisp. I still have problems getting the pizza off the palette and onto the stone, but that's a matter of practice.

The more I make pizza, the more I realize that a great crust is as much about technique as it is about ingredients. I have to take my time. This isn't a recipie that produces pizza in under an hour. And I have to go slow to make sure the crust is thin. I use a rolling pin and I dust with flour every time the pizza dough becomes sticky.

This should be enough dough for 4 8'' pizzas.

Ingredients...
2 tablespoons sugar.
2 teaspoons Kosher salt.
1 tablespoon pure olive oil.
3/4 cup warm water.
1/2 cup whole wheat flour.
1 and 1/2 cups bread flour.
1 teaspoon instant yeast

Mix together and kneed. I kneed it in my stand mixer for 15 minutes. If the dough sticks too much, then scrape it into a ball, sprinkle the ball with flour and keed some more.

Put the dough in a lightly oiled dish. Cover and let rest in the fridge for 24 hours. I've read several "Worlds Best Dough!" recipies and all of them have this rest stage. It is important for the dough to develop and soften up.

When the dough has rested, take a quarter of it and make it into a ball.

I raise the dough in a microwave.

I put a cup of water in the microwave and nuked it on high till the water was boiling and the interior of the microwave was steamy.

I set the dough ball on a plate, covered it with a wet cloth and microwaved it for 20 minutes at 10% power. I checked plate after 10 minutes to ensure it wasn't too warm or dry.

Next, I rolled out the dough. I went slow. I started the dough with a rolling pin. And I dusted the dough with flower every time it got sticky.

It is important for me to to start with a rolling pin. While it is romantic and authentic to roll out pizza dough with only your hands, a rolling pin is fast, easy, more consistant and no one will taste the difference.

I rolled out the dough till it was as thin as the rolling pin could make it. Then I let the dough rest for five minutes and rolled it some more. I went slow.

Then, I dusted the dough with flower and finished stretching the dough out by hand. In the end the pizza was thin, so thin I could almost see through it.

Again, I dusted the pizza palette with four and corn meal. Put the pizza dough on the pallet, lightly cover with tomato sauce and the ingredients. The operative word is lightly. Too much water from the sauce or ingredients and the pizza will be soggy.

Baked at 450F for 10 minutes. Next time I'll try 500F.

Gazpacho

I've been making Gazpacho's lately. You don't need to follow an exact recipie.

Take a slice of bread. Get it wet. Throw it in the blender.

Add one quarter cup of olive oil to the blender.

Add one and a half cups of diced tomatoes to the blender.

Add one cup of seeded and peeled cucumbers to the blender.

At a tbsp vinegar (balsamic or sherry) to the blender.

Add one small hot pepper to the blender

Add one quarter of an onion and two cloves of garlic to the blender.

At this point, I keep adding vegies to the blender till the blender fills up. Try a bell pepper, or carrots, or celery, or zuchini.

Blend for two minutes until everything is a liquid-- a soup.

I strain my gazpacho, but that is not necessary.

Roasted Dinners

I heard about roasted dinners from the Splendid Table. I've been making them fairly often-- they are very easy and work well for week nights.

The basic idea is that you take a bunch of food that will cook at about the same rate, or tastes good when over roasted, prep, oil and spice the food, put it on cooking tin and roast at 450F for 45 minutes.

More details..

When I get home I preheat the oven to 450F.

Now, I decide what I want to cook. All hard veggies work well. Try carrots, squash, potatoes, snow peas, brocholi, zuchini, onion.

I take a variety of veggies, tonight it's potatoes, carrots and brocholi, and cut them so they will cook at about the same time. The potatoes are more thick than the carrots since they cook faster.

Next, I toss with some oil and herbs.

Place the veggies on a baking tray next to a few thawned chicken pieces.

Place everything in the oven and roast for 45 minutes.

If your chicken comes out over done, then the next time, try putting it on the baking tray directly from the fridge, instead of letting it warm up to room temp.

Chili

I am neither Southern, nor Spanish, nor Mexican. That means I can make Chili with beans and without peppers and not feel bad about it.

Mark insists this makes the best chili he has ever tasted.

The recipe happened by accident. I made beans with diced tomatoes one night, then dressed it up with meat the second.

In a pressure cooker, brown one diced onion and four cloves of garlic.

Add one pound of dried beans (I used the Costco bean mix), 32oz of canned diced tomatoes and 16oz of chicken stock.

Pressure cook for 1 hour.

Get your meat ready. Stew meat would be good. I used a mystery roast in the freezer. Cube the chucks of meat.

Brown the meat on two sides. Season a little. Add 32 oz diced tomato and juice. Pressure cook for 15 minutes.

Mix the beans with the meat. Season appropriately.

This dish is even better if you let it sit over night in the fridge.

One of the reasons this recipe is good is the two separate pressure cooking's. The second, shorter cooking of the tomatoes and meat allows the tomato and meat to each have distinct flavor and texture. As opposed to the "It all tastes and feels the same" food that happens with long cook times.

Popovers

I've been making Popovers instead of serving buns or bread with the meal. Very tasty. I don't have Popover cups, so I use a pie plate instead. The result is kind of like a Welsh Pudding.

This recipie comes from Good Eats...

Put 1 tbsp of butter into a pie plate. Put the pie late into the oven and heat to 400F.

Mix 1 cups of milk, 2 eggs, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tbsp melted butter.

Now, mix in 1 cup of all purpose flour. I take a stick belder to it just until smooth-- about 30 seconds.

When the oven has finished heating, swirl the butter in the pie plate around. Pour the batter into the pie plate.

Let them bake for 40 minutes. Take out and stab holes into them to let the steam out.

The Joy of cooking has a few more suggestions....

Try using 1.5 cups of milk instead of 1 cup. Bake at 450F for 15 minutes and then 350F for 20 minutes.

If you want crispy Popovers, take the popovers out of the pie plate and put them on a wire rack. Turn the oven off and let the popovers sit in the oven for 10 minutes.

The Red House

410 Burnett Ave S, Renton.

So good and so affordable.

Wine is priced at retail plus a five dollar corking fee. You can have excellent wine for under $20.00!

Try the beets with sherry, garlic and Gorgonzola. I'm serious... try them. This dish elevates beets from Germanic side dish to great cuisine.

Tomato Soup.

Finely chop a carrot, a stock of celery and an onion. Sweat these in a sauce pan until soft.

Add 64 oz of diced & seeded tomatoes. Add 8oz of chicken stock.

Simmer for 30 minutes or pressure cook for 15.

Take a stick blender to soup to make it nice and smooth.

Season to taste.

Pressure Cooking

I received a new pressure cooker as a gift. Now, many slow cooked foods are practial week night dishes.

I made an excellent beef stock in under an hour. With thirty more minutes I turned the stock into a french onion soup which my partner claims is the best he has ever had.

Dried beens can cooked in under 35 minutes. If you presoak first, it takes less than 15 minutes.

Vegitarian.

Lately, I've been eating vegitarian every 2nd or 3rd night. This has two advantages. First, it's cheaper. Second, I enjoy my meat more. Cooked animal is even better if you didn't have cooked animal yesterday.

Pudding...

Coco powder, flour and corn starch often clump if you are not careful when mixing them into a liquid. You can avoid this problem by shaking them up in a large container, rather than mixing with a spoon or whisk...

Chocolate pudding...

In a sauce pan on medium heat, melt one tablespoon of butter.

In a large sealable container add...
half a cup coco powder.
half a cup sugar.
3 tablespoons corn starch.

seal the container and vigorously shake until combined.

Now pour two cups of milk into the container, quickly reseal it and vigorously shake some more

pour the mixture into the sauce pan. Stir often with a spatula. Don't walk away-- the mixture can quickly develope a thick layer on the bottom of the pan.

When the mixture starts to thicken and simmer, set the temperature to low and let simmer for one minute more.

Pour into four dishes

You can add some frozen fruit and serve hot, or put the dishes in the refrigerator and serve later cold.

Fritata

This turned out well. It takes about an hour to make, the it's worth it.

Put half a tbsp of butter and half a tbsp of oil into a pie plate.

Put the pie plate into an oven and heat to 400F. The idea is to heat the pie plate and oil up so that when the egg mixture hits it, a quick and thin crust will form to prevent sticking.

Break five eggs into a measuring cup. Add milk to bring the measure up to two cups. Wisk to combine.

Find a cup of filling-- I used left over vegitables-- and chop the filling into small pieces.

When the pie plate has heated up and the oil is popping, pull the plate out of the oven, swirl the oil and butter around to coat. Now, quickly pour the egg & milk into the pie plate. Don't mix or scrape the bottom.

Sprinkle the filling all over the eggs.

Cover with half a cup of grated cheese.

Bake at 400F for 40 minutes.

Rice Pudding.

Lately I've been taking left over rice and making rice pudding. Very taste. Very easy.

Take one cup of cooked rice.

Add three cups of milk and half a cup of sugar.

Heat on medium until a simmer is reached, then turn down to low.

Stir regularly to avoid burning.

When the milk is mostly absorbed, beat one egg with one third a cup of sugar.

Temper the egg & suger with one cup of the rice & milk-- that is, take a cup of rice & milk and slowly pour it into the egg & sugar, beating constantly. This will heat up the egg and prevent it from curdling.

Mix the egg & sugar back into the rice & milk.

Add half a teaspooon of vanilla extract.

Heat unti thickened.

Cool down.

For bonus points, make rice pudding brulee. Spoon the rice pudding into a bowl. Place a teaspoon of sugar ontop of the rice pudding. Take a blow torch to the sugar until it melts.

Crackers

You can make your own crackers. They taste good!

One cup flour-- or various flours. I've tried this with half amaranth flour plus half bread flower and half whole wheat, plus half bread.

half a teaspoon salt.

two tablespoons oil.

three tablespoons water.

one teaspoon seasonings. Any kind. Rosemary is good.

Mix everything together until it forms a ball. You may need to add more water.

Roll the ball out on parchment paper. Roll as thin as possible.

Bake at 400F for 15 minutes-- peek at 10 minutes to make sure nothing is burning.

Splenda.

Mmmmm Splenda. Sugar and chlorine together at last!

Seared Ahi with Finger Potatoes and Asparagus

Mark enjoyed this meal so much that he asked me to write it down so I could reproduce it again and again. The meal was seared ahi with finger potatoes and asparagus.

I marinated the ahi in

• 2tbsp sesame oil
• 2tbsp soy sauce
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp ginger.
• pinch of salt
• pepper

I seared the ahi at medium high heat for about 40 seconds a side.

I plated the ahi on a bed of lettuce and carrot strips with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

For the potatoes, I sliced each finger potate in half length wise, springled with oil and paramsan chease. I then roasted the potatoes for 40 minutes at 400F.

I roasted the asparagus for about 10 minutes at 400F. I served with a pat of butter.

More No Kneed Bread...

The bread recipie continues to evolve. I am now use dough from the old batch as a starter for the new. This way I don't need any yeast-- the last expensive ingredient.

In a large bowl mix until combined....

• 2 cups of bread dough starter
• 3 cups hot water (1ooF)
• 1 tbsp kosher salt.
• 1.5 cups whole wheat flour
• 5 cups bread flower

The dough doesn't need to be smooth. Just make sure there are no big flour clumps.

Pull off about 2 cups of the dough. This will be used as a starter for next time. Put the starter into a sealable container than can hold at least 4 cups.

Split the remaining dough into two lumps. Put each lump into a greased & floured bread pan. I cover the pans with plastic wrap.

Rest the dough and the starter in a warm spot, I use a heating pad. Let them raise till doubled.

After everything has risen, put everyting into the fridge for up to two weeks.

When you want bread, take a pan out and let it rest at room temp for about 30 minutes.

Put a broiler pan on the low rock in the oven and preheat to 450F.

Put a cup of hot water into the broiler pan. Put the loaf on the rack above it.

Bake for 30 minutes.

The Joy of Cooking calls this a mixed starter method. It says that over time the dough will take longer and longer to rise. Slow rises improve the taste. If the rise ever takes too long, you can boost things the next time by adding a teaspoon of yeast to the mix.

More bread.

The bred recipie is still evolving. I've reduced it, added some whole wheat flower and pour it into loaf pans for rising. This way, when I want fresh bread, I grab a pan and pop it in the oven.

Mix...

• 1 tbsp kosher salt.
• 1 tbsp yeast.

into

• 2 cups hot water (100F)

Add...

• 3 cups bread flour
• 1.5 cups whole wheat flour.

Mix until combined. I put all the ingredients into a large sealable container, shake and then stir a little to get rid of any flour clumps.

Split the dough between two loaf pans. Let it raise in a warm spot until more than doubled (Min of 2 hours). I use a heating pad since my home is on the cold side.

Put the loaves in the fridge for up to two weeks. Bake as before.

Next, I'm going to try eliminating the yeast and using some of the dough as a starter. This is covered in the "Joy of Cooking" under "Mixed Starters" so it should work. I'll have inexpensive and easy to make fresh bread whenever I want. Yum!

Chocolate Ganache

I am having great luck with ganache. Basically, you take a 50/50 mixture of dark chocolate and heavy cream, add sugar, mix, whip and serv.

Ch0p up 8oz dark chocolate.

In a sauce pan mix the chopped chocolate with 2 cups heavy cream and half a cup brown sugar.

Heat on medium until everything melts and mixes. About 170F.

Chill.

Whip.

This is very rich, so while it's great on it's own, it's better to team it up. Try banana's brule or berries.