Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: Wood Fired Oven Pizza Party

There are some things that you are highly unlikely to ever find at my house. Among those things are take out, frozen or microwaveable, (*shudder*) pizza. I would much rather make my own, thank you very much. And since I’m making my own pizza I might as well go all out and make my own dough too. But really, if I’m going to the trouble of making my own dough, I’d better make sure to cook it properly and a regular oven just won’t do. That’s why I have a wood fired oven in my backyard. Sure, it might take me 3 or 4 hours to make pizza but it’s well worth the wait.

The only thing that can get in the way of my pizza making is the weather. Canada is both blessed and cursed with a climate that can range from warm and sunny to snowy and downright cold. That’s why on any given day when I head out to the wood fired oven I may find it in a variety of states such as the three photos you see below. The first one was taken mid September on a summery day, the second during a brief thaw in the snow this week and the third is a prediction photo. What’s that you say? You can only see a white rectangle where the third photo is supposed to be? That’s because there’s so much snow in that picture that white is all you can see. I suspect that’s the way things will be here very shortly. When that happens I will be forced to retire the wood fired oven for the season, but until then, it’s time for a pizza party!

There’s no need to wait for a special occasion, pizza is reason enough for a party, especially when it’s this good! There are a few routes you can go when planning a pizza party. One is to simply lay out a variety of toppings and have your guests build their own pie. Another way is to plan out a few different pizzas so that your guests need only choose a slice of each one they want to try. The second option is a good one if you have adventurous friends who will try anything you throw their way. I chose the second route this time but I made sure to have a little something for everyone.

So what was on the menu? I decided to offer 4 different pizzas which I dubbed Classic Combo, Greek Inspired, Seafood Plus and Chef’s Choice. The Classic Combo was a blend of Italian and American with tomato, basil, mozzarella and pepperoni. The Greek Inspired pizza had garlic stuffed olives, sundried tomatoes, feta stuffed jalapeno peppers and feta, (I think I should have stuffed the crust with feta too, just to keep my theme of using stuffed ingredients). The Seafood Plus pizza is not one you’ll likely see on the menu board of your local pizza place as in addition to bay scallops, shrimp, caramelized onions and a goat cheese béchamel sauce, it also contained butter fried Lion’s Mane mushrooms. I get those from my friend who grows organic specialty mushrooms at Wylie Mycologicals. And finally, the Chef’s Choice pizza was topped with homemade bacon, (yes, I make that too!) caramelized onions, halved red grapes and aged cheddar.

I think my favourite was the Chef’s Choice pizza, it’s a flavour combo I’ve had in my head for a while now and I really like how it works together. Grapes aren’t your typical pizza topping but I quite like them, especially with homemade bacon, (because everything’s better with bacon!). Unfortunately, since I can’t come to your house and build a wood fired oven in your backyard, the best I can do for you is to give you one of the easiest pizza crust recipes you’ll ever find. It requires no kneading and is from a book I’ve been using a whole lot of lately, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.

No Knead Olive Oil Pizza Dough

Makes 4 1lb loaves. This recipe is easily doubled or halved

2 3/4 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tbl granulated yeast
1 1/2 tbl salt
1 tbl sugar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Mix the yeast, salt, sugar and olive oil with the water in a 5-qt bowl, or a lidded (not airtight) food container

Mix in the flour without kneading, using a large wooden spoon.

Cover (not airtight) and allow to rest at room temperature for about 2 hours. You can use the dough at this point, or refrigerate and use over next 12 days. If you refrigerate at least overnight, you’ll develop better flavor in the dough. If you only want to make 1 flatbread, just pinch off a grapefruit sized piece of dough to use…keep the remaining covered loosely in the refrigerator.

This post is part of Foodbuzz's series 24, 24, 24, where 24 meals are posted, one each hour of the day from 24 locations around the world. Head over to Foodbuzz soon to check out the other 23 meals!

Quirks and Quacks

Everybody has quirks, little idiosyncrasies that make us unique. These quirks can range in scale from subtle actions to overt behaviours. Sometimes you only notice a person’s quirks after spending a great deal of time with them, while others you pick up on immediately. When I was little I knew a girl who had no eyelashes. This wasn’t some sort of genetic defect, she would just compulsively pluck them out. One of my university roommates used to leave cupboard doors open, it drove me crazy. I would follow behind her shutting them. A guy at work shuffles his feet everywhere he goes. It’s a wonder he doesn’t go through more pairs of shoes, he never lifts his feet.

And for some people, their quirk manifests itself in the form of quacking like a duck. There’s no explaining these people and what’s more, they’re surprisingly hard to identify. You can know a quacker for months without ever suspecting there’s anything duck-like about them until one day a fury of quacks are unleashed and things will never be the same. Sound too strange to be true? I assure you, this happened… In honour of the quackers, here’s a recipe for duck breast with chili, honey and ginger glaze, served with mashed sweet potato. Try it yourself, it’s quacktastic!

Seared Duck Breast with Chili, Honey & Ginger Glaze (from Michael Lomonaco, Epicuious, 2000)

2 whole magret duck breasts, approximately 1 pound each, available from specialty meat markets

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1 small dried ancho chili pepper soaked in 1 cup boiling water for 30 minutes

1 small white onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon grated ginger

2 tablespoons warm honey dissolved in 1/2 cup port wine

2 scallions, chopped, about 1/2 cup

With the point of a knife, score the skin side of the breasts in crosshatch pattern, being careful not to pierce the flesh of the meat. Season the duck breasts with salt and pepper. Heat a sauté pan over medium heat for 1 minute before adding the breasts, skin side down. Cook skin side down over medium to low heat, for approximately 10 to 12 minutes to render the fat from the skin before turning the breasts over. When the duck has rendered its fat and the skin has taken on a crisp exterior quality turn the breasts over and sauté the flesh side for 3 to 4 minutes. Carefully remove the duck from the pan, place on a platter to keep warm and pour the excess fat safely into a heat proof container. (The reserved duck fat may be chilled and used for another cooking use.)

While the duck is cooking (or even before you cook the duck), remove the chili pepper from the water in which it had soaked and reserve the liquid. Place the chili into a blender and begin to pureé, adding as much of the reserved liquid as necessary to create a smooth and thin paste-like texture. This chili paste may be refrigerated for a day covered with plastic wrap or pour a tablespoon of olive oil on its surface and keep refrigerated for up to 1 week.

After removing the duck breasts from the pan add the onion to still hot pan and return to the heat. Add a tablespoon or two of reserved duck fat. Sauté the onion briefly before adding the ginger and 2 tablespoons of the chili paste. Add the honey and port to the ginger chili, stir to combine and cook for one minute.

The breasts have rested for several minutes and should now be medium rare. They can be sliced lengthwise or cross-wise and several slices placed on each plate. Drizzle the warm glaze over the duck or for more impact, brush some on the duck breasts before slicing, run the duck under a hot broiler for 1 minute, caramelize the glaze and then slice and drizzle. If you desire, drizzle some around the duck breasts on the serving dish.

SHF: All That Glitters

It’s been a while since I’ve participated in some of the monthly blogging events. I don’t even remember what the last Sugar High Friday was that I participated in and it used to be a regular event for me. Since my little bike accident I’ve spent most of my time on the couch, trying not to move. It’s such a waste of time off work, I can’t even bake. I have gotten caught up on some blog reading though and I’ve been sifting through my enormous list of “Stuff Left to Post” (the eggnog ice cream, although it was quite suited to my last post was actually made weeks ago). So when I saw that this month’s SHF theme is All that Glitters, (hosted by The Well Seasoned Cook) I figured I should definitely be able to find something that I’ve already made to suit the theme.

A while back I was challenged to make Croquembouche. At the time I knew what it was although it was not something I had ever attempted. Essentially, Croquembouche is a pyramid of cream puffs, glued together with caramel and topped with spun sugar. As regular readers will know, although I love caramel, I have not always had the best of luck with it, going so far as to call caramel, (and hot sugar in general) my nemesis. In order to prepare myself for the challenge, I decided I would do a trial run. What resulted is the mini croquembouche you see here, not perfect by any means but kind of glittery and therefore appropriate for SHF. I thought my practice run went reasonably well and although I knew there were some some wrinkles I hoped they would be ironed out for round two. Well somewhere in my croquembouche research I failed to note that despite the fact that the spun sugar decoration is made from hard crack sugar, the actual cream puffs should not be glued together with it as you will never be able to free them from the pyramid if that’s what you use.

Silly me, I started making a pyramid with hard crack sugar, essentially cementing the cream puffs together, never to be separated again. I had only made a couple layers like this when it was so graciously pointed out to me by my challenger that I should have added some cream to the sugar so that the cream puffs could be gently pulled apart and eaten. My mistake turned out to be not such a bad thing though because instead of continuing on with making the cream puff pyramid, my challenger suggested I dip half the cream puffs in the hot sugar, let them cool and then dip the other half in chocolate. It was no croquembouche but the dipped cream puffs looked pretty neat, (glittery even) and were quite good that way. I like when failures can be rescued.

If you’d like to attempt a Croquembouche, you’ll need pate a choux dough to make the cream puffs, pastry cream to fill them with and caramel to glue them together. After checking out Epicurious though, I think chocolate is definitely an easier medium to use to glue together your croquembouche, as seen here. Or, you can do them like I did and dip the cream puffs in some of each!

Egg Nog Ice Cream to Soothe the Soul (and Body)

When only ice cream or booze will do, why not have both? Egg Nog Ice Cream. It’s the best of both worlds. And for those of you who are already singing Christmas carols, Egg nog ice cream will fulfill your festive needs as well. Now I’m not the one singing carols, (and those of you who are, are driving me crazy!) but I could certainly go for a pint of this ice cream after the day I had yesterday. For some silly reason I decided I would go for a bike ride despite the fact that it was cold and wet outside. I bundled up, put my ipod on and off I went. I cursed the rain that began only moments after I started pedaling but decided to continue my bike ride anyways. About two thirds of the way through my course as I was going down a hill, (at speeds unsuited for the conditions) my bike slid out from under me and I met the pavement face first. Hard. I sat on the ground for a bit and tried not to blackout, thankful that I always wear my helmet and then shakily walked my bike up the hill and pedaled home. Adrenaline is wonderfully useful at times like this as without it I would probably still be laying on the pavement, unable to move. After making it home I took a 4 hour trip to the hospital to determine that I had a scraped up face, concussion and bruised ribs, but nothing broken. Just because it’s not broken doesn’t mean is doesn’t hurt like a thousand bees stinging my eyes. I feel as though my entire left side has been run over by a truck. I considered posting a picture of the carnage, but then recalled that this is a food blog and ice cream is infinitely more appealing than blood. For those of you who are curious, if you haven’t added Jumbo Empanadas as a friend on Facebook, feel free to do so now. And for the squeamish who just want the ice cream recipe, here it is, another winner from David Lebovitz.

Egg Nog Ice Cream (from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop)

1 cup whole milk

2/3 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

2 cups heavy cream

6 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg or to taste

2 T brandy

2 T dark rum

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Warm the milk, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan. Pour the cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top.

In a separate bowl whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warmed mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir into the cream to cool. Mix in the nutmeg, brandy, rum and vanilla and stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator. Once the mixture is cold, taste it, and grate in more fresh nutmeg if you wish. Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Blogging By Mail: 10 Items or Less

I constantly marvel at how other people get everything done that they do. One person who never ceases to amaze me is Stephanie over at Dispensing Happiness, (her blog is so appropriately named). Besides managing her own blog and monthly blogging event, she’s organized another round of Blogging By Mail with the theme of 10 Items or Less and this time 116 bloggers signed up to mail packages around the world. I’ve participated in quite a few rounds of BBM and I always look forward to receiving my package in the mail. This time was no exception and I was thrilled when I got a great box filled with Boston related food items from Pam of Cave Cibum.

In the picture you should be able to spot the following items:

-Charleston Chew

-Chocolate covered cranberries, (disappeared the fastest)

-Baking related tea towel

-Homemade cherry shortbread cookies

-Baking stationary, (as I’m a list maker, this has been put to good use)

-Johnny Cupcakes keychain, (very cute)

-Fluff (perfect for making Dorie’s Fluff filled chocolate madeleines)

-Necco Wafers

-Cupcake/Muffin wrappers in 2 sizes

Many thanks to Pam for the thoughtful package and to Stephanie for organizing the event. You two are wonderful!

Lobster and Cake: An Update

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. This is just a quick update to show that I really did eat some delicious lobster and make myself a very chocolately cake.

The lobster was simply steamed, cracked open and dipped in butter. Mmmm butter.

I can't say the decoration on the cake was my finest work, but it got the job done. Besides, the cake was served with my own pineapple-caramel-rum ice cream so that distracted from the plainness of the cake.

A note about the cake itself: I'm providing the exact recipe from epicurious, but I baked mine in 3, 8-inch pans and probably only for about 50-55 minutes. Other than that, I didn't change a thing.

Double Chocolate Layer Cake

(from Gourmet, March 1999)

For cake layers

3 ounces fine-quality semisweet chocolate such as Callebaut

1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee

3 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)

2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

3 large eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk

3/4 teaspoon vanilla

For ganache frosting

1 pound fine-quality semisweet chocolate such as Callebaut

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter

Special equipment

two 10- by 2-inch round cake pans

Make cake layers:
Preheat oven to 300°F. and grease pans. Line bottoms with rounds of wax paper and grease paper.

Finely chop chocolate and in a bowl combine with hot coffee. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat eggs until thickened slightly and lemon colored (about 3 minutes with a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a hand-held mixer). Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until combined well. Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well. Divide batter between pans and bake in middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Cool layers completely in pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Carefully remove wax paper and cool layers completely. Cake layers may be made 1 day ahead and kept, wrapped well in plastic wrap, at room temperature.

Make frosting:
Finely chop chocolate. In a 1 1/2- to 2-quart saucepan bring cream, sugar, and corn syrup to a boil over moderately low heat, whisking until sugar is dissolved. Remove pan from heat and add chocolate, whisking until chocolate is melted. Cut butter into pieces and add to frosting, whisking until smooth.

Transfer frosting to a bowl and cool, stirring occasionally, until spreadable (depending on chocolate used, it may be necessary to chill frosting to spreadable consistency).

Spread frosting between cake layers and over top and sides. Cake keeps, covered and chilled, 3 days. Bring cake to room temperature before serving.

So You Say It's Your Birthday?

Well it's my birthday too!

And I'm celebrating by eating some tasty tasty lobster and this cake that I made this morning.

Have a wonderful day everyone.

Hungry?

These shrimp topped deviled eggs are just an appetizer, a little something to whet your appetite for things to come, (although I’m not quite sure what those things will be, there will definitely be things).

In the meantime, a question…

What’s your favourite hors d’oeuvres or appetizer? To make or to be served, it doesn’t matter. Just curious.