Basic Pizza

So I have a beef...I have a beef with the companies that make and sell pizza stones. They advertise them like the best thing in the world and make it sound like they will make your pizza turn into delicious brick oven pizza. Well people, let me save you from this, they suck...plan and simple. You may love them, but I hate them and I will tell you why. The thing that makes brick oven pizza special is a crap load of heat, a lot more heat then our little home ovens can produce. The problem with these pizza stones is that they are impossible to get hot enough to make a really good pizza. So here is the solution...metal. Metal is way more conductive, it heats faster and it heats more evenly. I've read that some people get sheets of aluminum cut to the dimensions of their oven, then they heat that as hot as their oven can go and then get it even hotter with the broiler. This is the ideal solution and you will be spittin' pizza's out of your oven faster than you can say....I don't know, some big word...But, since I didn't have a big sheet of aluminum laying around, here's the way I did it. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups Mozzarella
• 1/2 cup pizza sauce
• Pizza topping(s) of choice

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees F

In a small bowl mix the yeast, sugar and warm water. Let stand for 5 minutes until yeast is activated and foaming. In a large bowl, combine the flour, olive oil, salt and yeast mixture. Mix until dough forms. If dough is to sticky, add in 1 Tbsp of flour at a time until elastic, vice versa with 1 Tbsp of water if it is to dry. Cover with a dish towel and let rise in a warm area until double in sized, about 30 min. Once dough has formed, knead on a floured service until smooth and elastic. 

Roll out pizza dough on a metal pizza pan or, in my case, a metal baking sheet. Don't put on any toppings yet, put dough in the oven and bake for 7-10 min until dough is starting to brown. Remove the crust from the baking sheet onto a pizza peel (You don't need a pizza peel, just put the crust on something so you can transfer it back into the oven). Add sauce, cheese and toppings of your choice. Slide the pizza into the oven, directly on the oven rack. Bake for another 7-10 min until cheese is melted, I hit it with the broiler for about 30 second to brown the cheese. 

Song of the Recipe

Happy Valley Cheesesteak

Well call up Pat and Geno down in Philly and let them know that there is a new cheesesteak in town. Then also let them know it was made by a diehard Pittsburgh Fan (LETS GO PENS!!). This is a pretty classic cheesesteak, but I did have to give it some of my own personal touches. I used some thinly sliced Delmonico Steak, sauteed onions, peppers, jalapeno (for good measure) and I made a Beer and Cheddar sauce. Of course, if I'm going to make a Pennsylvania sandwich, I better use some Pennsylvania Beer to make the sauce...probably my favorite cooking beer, Yuengling. I was really pleased with how this turned out...of course if I wanted to make it out of this world, I would have to give it the Pittsburgh touch by adding french fries and coleslaw...but I figured I'd just keep it simple. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 cup beer, preferably a lager
• 2 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 rounded tablespoon of all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
• Few drops of Worcestershire sauce
• Few drops of hot sauce
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 Vidalia Onion, halved & sliced
• 1 Red Pepper, halved & sliced
• 1 Green Pepper, halved & sliced
• 1 Jalapeno, seeded, halved & sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 lbs Delmonico Steak, thinly sliced
• Salt and Pepper
• 4 hoagie rolls

Directions

Heat beer in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. In a separate bowl mix the cheddar cheese with the flour. Then whisk in shredded cheddar & flour mixture, spicy brown mustard, worcestershire sauce and hot sauce into warmed beer. Whisk until cheese is melted and smooth. Keep warm on low.

Melt butter in a large sautee pan over medium heat. Add in onions, peppers and jalapeno and sautee until caramelized, stirring occasionally for about 12-15 min.

For the beef, I asked the butcher at the grocery store to slice the delmonico steak as thin as possible (If they don't sell delmonico's, get a ribeye). Don't be afraid to tell them what you're using it for, that will give them an idea for how thin to make it. While the butcher did a good job, I actually ended up slicing the sliced steak into strips. 

Heat the olive oil in a large sautee pan, or use a griddle if you have one, over medium high heat. Add in the beef and sautee until cooked through about 7 min. Season the beef with salt and pepper.

Slice open the rolls and evenly distribute the beef into them. Add the caramelized onions, peppers and jalapeno and then top with a generous amount of the cheddar beer sauce. Have plenty of napkins on hand!

Since it's that time of year, I figured I'd post my favorite hockey goal of the season so far. GENO!! GENO!! GENO!!

Fish n' Chips

This is the fish course that I made for the grand dinner event last month. I wasn't pleased with how it turned out at the actual event (you would understand if you saw the kitchen I had to work out of) so I decided to try it again at home to try to get it perfect. This time it definitely didn't disappoint! This is a recipe I adapted from Thomas Keller's The French Laundry Cookbook. This dish features Rainbow trout, a parsley coulis, garlic palette, a potato chip (yes it's there!) topped with a parsley and shallot salad. Bon Appétit!

Ingredients

For Palette's:

• 6 medium heads garlic, cloves separated and peeled
• 10 hard-boiled egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons butter
• Kosher Salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs

 For Parsley Coulis:

• 2/3 cup chicken stock
• 2 bunch of parsley, stems removed
• 1/4 cup cooking white wine 
• Salt and Pepper to taste 

Parsley Salad:

• 1/4 cup Italian parsley leaves
• 1 tsp finely minced shallots
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Pinch of kosher salt

 Potato Chip:

• 2 Large Idaho potatoes, peeled
• Peanut oil, for frying
• Kosher Salt

 Fish:

• 6 large trout filets, separated
• Salt & Pepper
• Canola oil 

Directions

 

For Garlic Palettes: Place the garlic cloves in a small sauce pan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil. Drain the garlic through a fine mesh sieve and run under cold water. Return to small sauce pan and repeat process twice. The third time, let garlic boil until easily pierced with a knife. Drain the garlic cloves and place them in a small food processor and slightly puree. Measure out 1/2 cup of the garlic puree for the garlic palettes. 

 

Place the garlic puree, egg yolks, butter and salt in a food processor and blend until smooth. Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper. Place a 1 1/2" circular mold on the baking sheet and add enough of the garlic mixture into the mold to come 1/2" up the sides. Carefully remove the mold and make 5 more disks with the garlic mixture. Cover and freeze for several hours, until mixture is solid, or up to a few days.

 

After mixture is solid, place the flour, cream and crumbs in three separate bowls. Dip each disk into the flour, patting off any excess, then completely coat with cream and dredge in the crumbs, being careful to coat each round completely. Re-dip a second time in the cream and crumbs and return the palettes to the freezer. I recommend making these the day before you want to make this dish, that way the are nice and solid before you pan fry them.

 

For Parsley Coulis: In a sauce pan, bring the chicken stock up to a boil. Remove from the heat. Pour into a blender along with the parsley and white wine. Puree until smooth. Remove and keep warm.

 

For the Parsley Salad: Toss the parsley leaves and shallots with a light coating of olive oil and the salt. 

  

To Complete: Heat about 1/2 inch of canola oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat (there should be enough oil to come about halfway up the sides of the fish). Season the trout with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the fillets skin side down and saute, pressing down on the pieces of fish with a narrow spatula or small skillet to keep them flat. When the fish is almost cooked, after about 1 minute, turn the pieces to "kiss" or briefly cook, the second side. The total cooking time will be about 1 1/2 minutes. Remove the fillets to paper towels. Add the frozen palettes to the pan and brown for about 1 minute on each side, until crisp and warmed through. Be careful for two reasons 1) turning the palettes because they will be very fragile and 2) There will be a lot of bubbling with the heavy cream reacting with the hot oil. Just keep an eye on it and don't let it boil over cause it will cause one heck of a mess. 

 

Cut each filet in half, it will be one filet per plate. Place a spoonful of the parsley coulis on each serving plate. Center a palette on the sauce and crisscross the cut trout filet on top. Top with a potato chip and parsley salad. The potato chip and parsley salad is intended to be eaten in one bite, almost like a built in amuse-bouche.

 

Kitchen Word of the Day 

 

Amuse-bouche is a single, bite-sized hors d’œuvre. Amuse-bouches are different from appetizers in that they are not ordered from a menu by patrons, but, when served, are done so according to the chef's selection alone. These, often accompanied by a complementing wine, are served as a little tingler for the taste buds both to prepare the guest for the meal and to offer a glimpse into the chef's approach to cooking.

The term is French, literally translated to "mouth amuser". The plural form is amuse-bouche or amuse-bouches. The French word amuse-gueule is also employed in France, although amuse-bouche is more often used on menus in fine dining restaurants, as the word gueule is an impolite way of saying bouche.