Deep-dish pizza

25 Jul

I really wanted a pizza with this topping. But I don’t have a pizza stone. I don’t have a big pizza dish. I didn’t want to bother with bread flour. I didn’t want to bother with much at all. So the first day I just used pre-made dough. Totally acceptable. Will use again. The second day, I felt compelled to try to make the dough myself.  I decided on this America’s Test Kitchen recipe- because it didn’t require special ingredients and it uses a small round pan (i’m not so into rectangular pizza).  I used a springform pan because that’s what I have.  I’ve heard that if you don’t have a pizza stone, you can use unglazed terracotta tiles. As I didn’t have those either, per  Test Kitchen, I used a rimless cookie sheet- upside down as a stone.  This recipe is a lot like focaccia bread– very thick and doughy. Enough dough for 2 pies. The second pie I made in an 8 inch square pan- as it turns out, square pizza still tastes good. If you have a slightly bigger pan, i’d probably recommend it- it would let the dough be a little less super thick.  Can also use this amount of dough- don’t divide in half- in a 14-inch deep dish pan- though I’m not sure who owns one of those.

Pizza dough:
1 medium baking potato (about 9 oz) peeled and quartered
3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 3/4 salt
1 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
6 tablespoons olive oil- more to coat bowl w.

Topping: arugula, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, fried egg
Other topping idea: ricotta (i used ricotta salata), mozzarella, red chili flakes

Bring 1 quart water and potato to a boil in small saucepan over medium-high heat; cook until potato is tender, 10-15 minutes. Drain potato and cool until can be handled.  Press through potato ricer or large holes of a box grater.  Measure 1 1/3 cups lightly packed potato; discard remaining potato.
Adjust one oven rack to the highest position and the other rack to the lowest position. Heat oven to 200 degrees, maintain heat for 10 minutes then turn off heat.
Combine flour, yeast, and salt in food processor.  With motor running, add the water and process until the dough comes together in a shaggy ball.  Add the potato and process for several seconds, then add 2 tablespoons of the oil and process several more seconds, until dough is smooth and slightly sticky.  Transfer the dough to lightly oiled medium bowl, turn to coat with oil, and cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap.  Place in the warmed oven until the dough is soft and spongy and doubled in size, 30-35 minutes.
Oil the bottom of two 10-inch cake pans with 2 tablespoons olive oil each.  Turn the dough onto a clean, dry work surface and divide in half.  Pat each into a 9-inch round.  Transfer to the round to oiled pans, cover with plastic wrap, and let rest until the dough no longer resists shaping, about 10 minutes.
Place a pizza stone or rimless baking sheet on the lowest rack and preheat to 500 degrees.  Uncover the dough and pull it into the edges and up the sides of the pan to form 1-inch high lip.  Cover with the plastic wrap and let rise in a warm, draft-free spot until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.  Uncover the dough and prick generously with fork.  Reduce oven temperature to 425 and bake on the heated stone or baking until the crust is dry and lightly browned, 5-10 minutes.
Add desired topping, bake until cheese is melted, another 10-15 minutes.  Move to top rack and bake another 5 minutes until cheese golden brown in some spots, about 5 minutes longer.  To make sure crust is done, use spatula to life up the crust- i should be nicely browned on the bottom.  Let cool  5 minutes.

Arugula tomato Mozzarella topping
In the Add topping stage- add halved cherry tomatoes and mozzarella. Melt.  After pizza is out of the oven, rinse arugula, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Fry egg and place on top, crack open runny yolk. Or- haven’t tried it- but Rach said you can crack the egg directly on the pizza and place back in the oven to barely bake- place cold arugula on top.

Mozzarella, ricotta salata, chili flakes
Drizzle with olive oil, mozzarella, ricotta, red chili flakes. Melt. Sprinkle with fresh ground sea salt and pepper.

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Watermelon Feta Salad with a Balsamic Fig Crostini

12 Jul

This was an off-the-cuff experiment with my dear friend, and park slope neighbor for the summer, Miss beezy burgess. I started to make a balsamic glaze, originally intended for the watermelon salad.  On whim, I threw in some fresh figs I had just bought at the co-op. To my delight, this turned into a lovely balsamic fig compote. Spread with some goat cheese on a crostini (aka  little piece of bread toasted w. olive oil) this lovely hors d’oeuvre would be best enjoyed with a chilled glass of wine, on a porch, in the summertime [or as it was- on my fire escape – beer in hand.]

Watermelon Feta Salad
big bowl of watermelon- cut into chunks
feta
fresh mint
lime (i subbed w. lemon once- but lime works way better)
splash of balsamic vinegar
sea salt
red chili flakes or maybe a serrano pepper (optional)
Take big bowl of watermelon. Squeeze fresh lime juice over. Sprinkle with some feta.  Chop a couple sprigs of fresh mint add (a little mint goes a long way with flavor.)  Add a splash of balsamic and a grinding of sea salt. Add hot pepper if you like. Mix up. Let sit for a minute for the flavors to combine.

Balsamic Fig Crostini
Fresh figs (dried might work too)
balsamic vinegar
goat cheese
baguette
Take a frying pan, add enough balsamic vinegar to cover bottom of the pan. Bring to boil on high heat [beware this lets off a very strong vinegar scent- keep your oven fan on]. Keep cooking down. After a few minutes, this  will thicken into a glaze. Add a few chopped fresh figs. Continue stirring to cook until thickens slightly more- coming together like a jam. Take off heat.  Preheat oven to broil. Cut baguette into slice 1/2 in thick. Lay on cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Broil for about 2 mins- keep an eye- as they go from toasty to burnt fast.  Spread goat cheese on toast. Spread compote.

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Halibut with kale, white beans and lemon vinaigrette

28 Jun

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So Sam, new mother to my most darling niece Eleanor (Ellie), told me I should make up a recipe. And hopefully it could involve white beans. Maybe kale. So here we go. [Let it be said that recipe requests are welcome- so please feel free.] This is loosely inspired by a recipe in the Union Sq Cafe cookbook. I have a lot of trouble cooking fish- falling apart in the frying pan or just not tasting great- so I decided to broil it- to lessen the chances of fucking it up. Also, I used dried beans because they taste so much better.  I was very tempted to use canned beans though- because that would make this a 30 min or less meal.  This recipe made about two of the portions you see pictured above.

1 lemon, juice and zest
1/3 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic
salt & pepper
1 fillet of halibut or other fish
1 bunch kale (i used purple stemmed)
2/3 cup dried white beans or 1 can white cannellini beans

Vinaigrette: Whisk olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, pinch pepper (i found that using the microplane/zester for the garlic works really well too).
Canned beans: Open can, drain, rinse, salt & pepper.
Dried beans- two methods: 1. Soak overnight (6-8 hours) with about 3 times as much water as you have beans (also note that beans expand 3 times in size through soaking). Drain in morning (don’t want them to sit for too long in water because will begin to break down). OR 2. Put in pot w. 3xs water, bring to boil, turn off heat, cover and let sit for 1-1.5 hours. After either method, you then need to cook rehydrated beans. Put beans in fresh water, covering beans by about 3 inches. Bring to boil, then immediately lower heat and cover, cook for 1 hour-1.5. They are done when they squish between your thumb and forefinger (mine took 1 hour.)
Kale: Rinse thoroughly (best way to do this is fill a giant bowl w. water and swish around- do a couple baths). Add a tablespoon of olive oil to pan. If any leftover garlic feel free to add- though vinaigrette is already pretty garlicky (i just had the stub remnants from my microplane zesting). Saute until wilted and cooked. I cover it for a minute or so to steam it a bit. Once done, take off heat, add the beans, spoon a couple tablespoons of vinaigrette over and mix up. Adjust for seasoning.
Fish: Set oven to broil. Line a cookie sheet with a small piece of foil. Wash your fish, pat dry.  Drizzle with oil, salt, pepper, and maybe any last bit of lemon juice you can squeeze out. Cook 8 minutes, rotating pan after 4 mins.  You know it is done when a knife pierces the thick part easily. Drizzle a couple tablespoons of vinaigrette over fish.

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Gazpacho

22 Jun

Quick and easy. With a food processor – took maybe 15 mins to make. Refreshing and delicious. Perfect for summer. No cooking required. I’m thinking about making this the summer of gazpacho- so if you have any favorite recipes- send along. This one is from Ina, the Barefoot Contessa. I was a little put off by the tomato juice- because it’s not something I drink usually- but think of it more like cold tomato broth. I topped mine w. a bit of ricotta salata… feta or goat would also work nicely.

1 hothouse cucumber, halved and seeded, but not peeled
2 red bell peppers, cored and seeded
4 plum tomatoes
1 red onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
23 ounces tomato juice (3 cups)
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup good olive oil
1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 jalapeno (optional)

Keep the vegs separated- chopping cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, jalapeno, red onions into 1-inch pieces.  Put each vegetable separately into a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until it is coarsely chopped (each breaks down at different rates). Do not overprocess!
After each vegetable is processed, combine them in a large bowl and add the garlic, tomato juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix well and chill before serving. The longer gazpacho sits, the more the flavors develop.

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Banoffee Pie

14 Jun

Banoffee- like banana and toffee. Oh what deliciousness.  This is actually a British dish- invented in East Sussex at a restaurant called The Hungry Monk in 1972. But I know it from New Zealand- used to make it with my Kiwi roommates.  The recipe can vary- and I have melded a couple here- but I go w. the basic strata of crushed up cookies, dulce de leche, bananas and whipped cream. To make the dulce, you boil tins of condensed milk for a few hours. There are two ways to do this- one faster though more potentially dangerous. If you do it on your stovetop, you put the cans- (unopened!)- in a heavy saucepan covered w. water and boil 2-2.5 hours. Make sure the cans stay covered in water, will need to keep topping up. Otherwise, apparently, they can explode all over your ceiling and burn your face. The alternative is to start boiling on the stove, but then switch to the oven. They won’t explode, but it takes an extra hour.   I really don’t remember doing this whole long thing in NZ, granted it was a long time ago, so I once tried to shortcut the long boil  and it turned out a sickly sweet mess.  I’d say if you want to shortcut it, just buy a jar of dulce de leche.  The other tip is- if you are going to bother with the boiling tins- do as many tins as you can fit- and they will keep very well- unopened in the cupboard for later use.  The cookies- I used digestive biscuits- McVities- an English brand I picked up at a London store in the west village. I used about 2/3 of a 400g pack. Graham crackers could also work as a substitute.   Once the toffee is made- assembly is super fast and easy.

1- 10 oz pack of digestive biscuits.
1 stick unsalted butter
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
1 pint of heavy cream
a couple ripe bananas
instant coffee (optional)

Toffee instructions from the inventor, Ian Dowding
Find a deep saucepan or casserole that will go in the oven. Put into it as many tins as will fit. (THE TINS MUST BE UNOPENED). Cover the tins with water and bring to the boil. Cover with a lid and transfer to the oven 275 degrees. Cook for 3 ½ hours.
Lift the cans from the water, cool and store.
Stovetop: Put the tins in the deep saucepan. Cover with water. Make sure submerged at all times, will need to keep adding water. Takes 2-2.5 hours. Be careful.
To assemble the pie (Ian scoffs at cookie base and uses pastry- but I prefer the cookie route)
Crush up the biscuits. Can do this in food processor. Melt one stick of butter. In a large bowl, mix up butter and cookies, best to do with your hands, cookies get moist. Press into the bottom of a tart pan, or springform, with a removable bottom. Use your hands to make flat.  Chill in fridge- maybe half hour. Open up cans of dulce de leche. Spread about 1.5 tins into a layer on cookies. It’s pretty sweet so it doesn’t need to be super thick. Peel bananas and slice across lengthwise, cover toffee in a single layer. Whip the cream, can add a pinch of confectioner sugar and ground coffee. Spread on the bananas. I maybe used 3/4 of the whipped cream. Keep pie chilled.

The last fun thing- I had some extra ingredients- so made some mini pies in little ramekins- and also one portable pie in a small tupperware. And if you want to be like that, mason jar pies are so hot right now.

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