Light wheat bread

This week...or really last week...I mixed up some light whole wheat bread from Artisan Breads in 5 min a Day. I had every intention of starting with bread, just regular bread, but I never got around to it.

I made pizza twice (once for us and once for the fam). I like to leave the classic pizza to the pizza places. I can't recreate that experience. So I make interesting pizza. This is my own special bruschetta pizza with Ricotta cheese (the cheese serves as a sauce of sorts), and it is definitely worth a try. It's hearty because of the bread, but the toppings (which you don't cook) are light and full of fresh flavor...SO GOOD! The perfect summer balance.

Then, last night, I tried to make pita bread. According to the directions, the light wheat, rolled out really thin, should puff like a pita. Mine didn't (I'm going to have to try that again). But it made really yummy flat bread with random puffs, a crunchy crust, and a soft top.

I used the flat bread as a bun of sorts for kidney bean burgers, my favorite of the bean burgers. To make kidney bean burgers just give all of the following ingredients a whirl in the food processor: a can of kidney beans (drained), an egg, a small onion, whatever spices you want (I used fresh parsley, worchestershire sauce, chilli powder, and garlic powder), and enough binder to make the mixture the consistancy of a burger. You can use whatever binder you want: oatmeal, corn meal, bread crumbs, or whatever else you have on hand (I used matzo meal this time). Wala! Bean burgers.

....on still warm, fresh from the oven, flat bread.

Easter weekend

Even a kichen disaster couldn't ruin this weekend. The chance of having to work (maybe even on Easter Sunday) killed the plans we had to go out of town. And my sexy husband and I spent the whole weekend by ourselves. It was really nice.

Saturday night we watched a movie and ate smoked salmon pizza on a wonderful homemade crust.


And on Sunday we decided to go all out with our own fondue dinner. We had a cheese Fondue with Chorizo, homemade Foccacia bread, and blanched broccoli and asparagus.




And we had a regular hot oil fondue with bay scallops, lamb, and beer battered mushrooms and onions.



For dessert, we each picked a beautiful single serving dessert from Whole Foods (enter the coffee-making kitchen disaster). And, yes, we did have coffee with them.

Crunchy and doughy and easy

Making dough in my new food processor goes like this: dump flour, salt, and yeast in food processor (with dough blade); turn food processor on; pour water and oil into the food processor through the feed tube; allow the food processor to run for about 30 seconds; dump dough on counter top to rise for 1-2 hours; deflate; wait 20 more minutes; shape, top, and bake. I topped this one with onions, green peppers, and kielbasa. It was the best homemade pizza I've ever had. Mark Bittman says it's the olive oil that makes the crust crunchy on the outside and doughy on the inside. It works.

A light, fresh, and creamy pizza

First the inspiration, then the recipe (I totally forgot to take a picture...and it looked so lovely!).

Last week I spent one day in New York City. I apologize to all of you who have lived in New York City and to all of you who love New York City. I do not. This trip was just further confirmation for my sexy husband and I that New York City is just too much. Give me Chicago or, best of all, Vancouver any day. I do not want New York City. It may very well be the culinary capital of the world, but who can eat at all of those restaurants? How can this one or that one be the jewel? There are approximately 50 million "jewels" in New York City. I find it all very overwhelming. Still, on my last two trips to New York City the highlight has been restaurants. Last year we found this awesome wine bar that was an oasis. It didn't belong in New York City at all. It made me feel like I was somewhere else, somewhere relaxing and peaceful, and that's probably why I liked it so much.

Last week we went to this wonderful pizza place off of Broadway near Times Square (I don't remember the name...but no matter, you can't recreate an experience in New York City anyway). It was spacious, unhurried, and uncrowded (and a welcome relief since we'd been standing in line at the Empire State Building for over 2 hours). They had two coal fired ovens in which they made New York style thin crust pizza. My sexy husband and I got a bruschetta pizza. The pizza had no sauce. The mozzarella cheese was directly on the crust with grilled chicken and tomatoes marinated in basil and olive oil on top. It was fantastic. The restaurant also had a white sauceless pizza with both ricotta and mozzarella. Unfortunately at $22 a pizza, I didn't get to try that one.

These pizzas were my inspiration.

My pizza (which my sexy husband declared to be even better than the $22 version) was pan fried. As I suggested when I first succeeded at pan frying a pizza (see my directions here), it is much easier to pan fry a pizza if you don't have to worry about cooking/melting the toppings. So, if you haven't already guessed, I topped my pizza with ricotta cheese (no moz) and bruschetta topping.

Bruschetta topping:

3 large tomatoes, diced (try to squeeze out some of the liquid or use a firmer Roma tomato)
2 green onions, chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
a small handful of fresh herbs, chopped (I used basil, savory, mint, and thyme because I had them available. You can just use basil if you want. That should be your predominant flavor)
1 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste

I made the bruschetta topping about an hour ahead so the flavors of the herbs would start coming out into the juices.

Pan fry (in some olive oil) or grill pizza dough until it's nicely browned and crispy on one side. Flip. Top with ricotta cheese and bruschetta topping. Continue frying or grilling until second side is nicely browned and crisp. If your dough is burning before it cooks through, the pan/grill is too hot.

For me, the key to this pizza is the dough (crispy on the outside and wonderful, doughy goodness inside) and the ricotta cheese. The ricotta makes the pizza both creamy and light while allowing the tomatoes and basil to dominate.

My father-in-law told me to tell all of you that it was a great success. He loved it.:)

Success!

Last time I made stovetop pizza it was not so good. Apparently my pan was too hot because the pizza had little burned spots (nothing nicely browned), was not fully cooked on the inside, and wasn't hot enough to melt the toppings. This time I kept the burner at medium (which required a bit more patience for the pan to heat up), and it was a total success....Just like Mark Bittman said, nicely browned on the outside and soft and wonderful on the inside. However, contrary to what Bittman says, I would use less oil for the first pizza and add more as necessary. The first one was a bit greasy.

My toppings worked well too. Mark said he preferred the lamb to the sausage (though both were good), but he liked the pizza dough better than using a pita in the oven. And putting fully cooked stuff on top of the crust worked really well too...and looked beautiful. I started to think that you could put a salad on top of the crust (with arugala and asparagus...man, that could be good), and it would be great. Or bruschetta! You could make a bruschetta pizza by putting a whole garlic clove in the oil (to flavor) and topping the pizza with warmed (or cold) bruschetta topping.

Oh man. If you like bread, you have to try this!

Oh! And you should know that if you use Bittman's crust recipe, you make the whole thing in the food processor and only have to let it rise (no kneading). You know what...forget looking it up, I will share the ingredients and two attempts worth of wisdom with you here.:)

Dump all of the following into your food processor:

3 c flour

1 tsp rapid rise yeast

2 tsp course salt

Turn the machine on to mix and gradually add 1 c water and 2 Tbsp olive oil to the food processor

Bittman says that it takes about 30 seconds to form a ball. I've found that it works faster than that. If all of the dough isn't coming together, add a bit more water.


That's it...turn it out onto a floured surface and fold it over a couple of times. Then put it in a bowl greased with olive oil to rise for about an hour. For the pan fried pizzas, I break this into 4 lumps and let them sit a bit more before shaping them into disks slightly smaller than the pan with my hands.

If you don't have a food processor, you'll just have to do a bit more kneading...check out Bittman's recipe from my last post or buy the pizza dough pre-made.:)


To pan fry dough disks, put a some olive oil in a pan (Bittman suggests nonstick. I used cast iron.) and turn the heat to medium. Wait for the pan to heat up then put the first dough disk in. It should take 3-4 minutes per side. Once the first side is all browned and nice, flip it over and put your toppings on top. Obviously the whole thing is done when the bottom finishes.


Like I said, I think it's easier to use precooked toppings. However, if you want to melt/cook the toppings just put the cover on the pan while you cook the second side or finish it off under your broiler (which I do not have).:)



Oh man! We're having this again tonight!



(By the way, Bittman makes all his breads in the food processor this way. I've had good luck with his baguette recipe as well... only there is no way to make it without an oven.)

Stovetop Pizza

This broken oven thing isn't going well for me. It seems like I can never make any of the things I want to make. I've tried making coffee cake in a skillet on the stove top (dry...and I got impatient, turned the heat too high, and burned it in the middle). I've even made meat loaf on the stovetop (a wonderful success...so moist!). A couple of nights ago when I was scrounging for food for dinner, Mark suggested that I make seasoned potato wedges..."You mean those potatoes I make in the oven?" "Oh. Yeah." I made pasta with zucchini, white wine, and herbs instead. But I've been craving these awesome pita pizzas that I made a couple of times a long time ago (You know, when I had a working oven). I got the recipe last time I visited Josh and Cindy in Chicago from one of Cindy's cooking magazines. I think it went something like this:

Top half a pita sliced lengthwise with hummus, sliced red peppers, ground lamb (uncooked), artichoke hearts, and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Bake.

I'm telling you, these sound good...but they are great...fantastic...amazing. Every time I have them, I want them again...and fast!

But no oven....

So...tonight I'm going to try making a variation...stovetop pizza. I'll make a pizza dough and pan-fry it in a cast iron skillet (kinda like grilled pizza...I learned this from Mark Bittman. Check out the technique here. He even has a video.) but I'll top it with hummus and sauteed red peppers and artichokes with ground spicy sausage (Giant Eagle didn't have lamb, and I didn't feel like making another trip). I'm guessing I won't need black pepper. Sound good? I hope so. I'll let you know how it turns out.
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I'm sorta wondering if anyone is reading this...is anyone reading this?