The stomach bug has hit the entire family now. Judging from my scientific sampling (Facebook), it's hit a lot of entire families this week. We were making a fresh fettuccine dish from Mario Batali's book and I had about a half pound of the fresh pasta left over, so I decided to make chicken noodle soup for when the wife and others are feeling good enough to eat. It takes a bit of time but not so much effort. If you don't happen to have some leftover pasta dough, you can easily make some:
Crack two eggs, beat, add to about 1 1/2 cups of flour piled up in a ring (kind of like a flour bowl, or volcano) and start stirring in flour from the edges till it comes together, then knead it all together for about 10 minutes and wrap in plastic for a half hour.
The broth:
Add 6 chicken drumsticks, a half yellow onion chopped coarsely, one carrot cut into 1 inch chunks, and 1 celery stalk to a stockpot. I also added some leftover mushroom stems. Add about a tablespoon of salt and a couple of bay leaves, then add about a gallon of water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 1 1/2 hours, skimming the foam if you wish.
When the broth is done, drain through a strainer. Remove the meat from the drumsticks and reserve for the soup. Roll the pasta, then cut to fettuccine, then chop into 2 inch long pieces. Add the noodles to the broth, then coarsely chop the meat and add to the broth. The broth is probably hot enough to cook the noodles in about 5 minutes, or you can return the soup to a simmer for about 2 minutes.
Sure, it takes a bit of work to put together, but it beats the snot out of anything you'll get out of a can.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Deep Dish Pizza
OK, I am geeking out about deep dish pizza. Why? Because the secret to getting the pizza right is getting the crust right, which applies most of what I've been figuring out with bread baking for the last few months. Some review:
Yeast breads are either lean or enriched. Lean breads consist of just flour, water, salt, and yeast, and the protein structure comes from developing gluten in the dough; hence, hard bread flour and extensive kneading (and/or autolyse, but that's another show). Enriched breads add softeners such as sugar, butter, or egg yolk, and egg white for additional protein structure. What we want for our deep dish pizza crust is something in between, with some gluten but not too much so it keeps that flaky texture, and some enriching but not too much. We also don't want lots of extra protein because we're not baking a nice fluffy loaf, so the egg is out and we don't want to use bread flour - all-purpose will do perfectly. Here's my version:
The Crust:
8 oz warm water
1 tsp active dry yeast
13 oz all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp good extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp sugar
Dissolve the yeast in the water and let it sit till it starts to bubble a bit. Add the rest of the ingrediends and stir till the dough comes together, then knead with the bread hook on low-medium speed for only a couple of minutes. This is critical - we want a rather slack dough so it'll still be sticking to the bottom of the bowl a bit, and we don't want to fully develop all of the gluten so we're not going to knead the dough completely. When you pull the dough out of the bowl it'll be sticky and a bit stringy and lumpy looking - not like biscuit dough at all, but if you're used to baking bread, it'll be not nearly as smooth. Oil a bowl and place the dough in it, cover and let rise for a couple of hours. Then, divide the dough in half and use each half for one 8-9 inch pizza pan.
The Sauce:
3 shallots, diced (you could use sweet or red onion instead)
3-4 cloves garlic, diced
1 small to medium carrot, finely diced
3-4 tbsp olive oil
salt, pepper, thyme, basil, oregano as desired.
1 28-oz can of crushed tomatoes
Heat the olive oil, then saute the aromatics for 8-10 minutes until they're nice and soft and the shallots are just thinking about browning but not doing it yet. Pull the pan off of the heat and stir in the crushed tomatoes. That's right - the sauce isn't cooked, it is left raw.
The Assembly:
Heat the oven to 425. Press the dough into the bottom of the pan (dust first with cornmeal if you wish) and squeeze it about a half inch up the sides. It doesn't need to come all the way up the side as you'll see when it bakes. Add mozzarella to the bottom to coat the dough - you can shred it but I think it works better if you slice the cheese and lay it in the bottom, just don't leave any sizable gaps. Then, press hot and/or sweet italian sausage (raw) in a layer on top of the cheese so that it's about a quarter inch thick. That's probably 2-3 links of sausage, casings removed, per pizza. Now, toss in some mushrooms and ladle in the sauce until the 'shrooms are just covered. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the edges of the crust are nice and brown and the sauce is just thinking about bubbling. Remove from the oven and add about a quarter cup of parmesan sprinkled on top, then let it rest for 5-10 minutes before cutting and eating.
Yeast breads are either lean or enriched. Lean breads consist of just flour, water, salt, and yeast, and the protein structure comes from developing gluten in the dough; hence, hard bread flour and extensive kneading (and/or autolyse, but that's another show). Enriched breads add softeners such as sugar, butter, or egg yolk, and egg white for additional protein structure. What we want for our deep dish pizza crust is something in between, with some gluten but not too much so it keeps that flaky texture, and some enriching but not too much. We also don't want lots of extra protein because we're not baking a nice fluffy loaf, so the egg is out and we don't want to use bread flour - all-purpose will do perfectly. Here's my version:
The Crust:
8 oz warm water
1 tsp active dry yeast
13 oz all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp good extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp sugar
Dissolve the yeast in the water and let it sit till it starts to bubble a bit. Add the rest of the ingrediends and stir till the dough comes together, then knead with the bread hook on low-medium speed for only a couple of minutes. This is critical - we want a rather slack dough so it'll still be sticking to the bottom of the bowl a bit, and we don't want to fully develop all of the gluten so we're not going to knead the dough completely. When you pull the dough out of the bowl it'll be sticky and a bit stringy and lumpy looking - not like biscuit dough at all, but if you're used to baking bread, it'll be not nearly as smooth. Oil a bowl and place the dough in it, cover and let rise for a couple of hours. Then, divide the dough in half and use each half for one 8-9 inch pizza pan.
The Sauce:
3 shallots, diced (you could use sweet or red onion instead)
3-4 cloves garlic, diced
1 small to medium carrot, finely diced
3-4 tbsp olive oil
salt, pepper, thyme, basil, oregano as desired.
1 28-oz can of crushed tomatoes
Heat the olive oil, then saute the aromatics for 8-10 minutes until they're nice and soft and the shallots are just thinking about browning but not doing it yet. Pull the pan off of the heat and stir in the crushed tomatoes. That's right - the sauce isn't cooked, it is left raw.
The Assembly:
Heat the oven to 425. Press the dough into the bottom of the pan (dust first with cornmeal if you wish) and squeeze it about a half inch up the sides. It doesn't need to come all the way up the side as you'll see when it bakes. Add mozzarella to the bottom to coat the dough - you can shred it but I think it works better if you slice the cheese and lay it in the bottom, just don't leave any sizable gaps. Then, press hot and/or sweet italian sausage (raw) in a layer on top of the cheese so that it's about a quarter inch thick. That's probably 2-3 links of sausage, casings removed, per pizza. Now, toss in some mushrooms and ladle in the sauce until the 'shrooms are just covered. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the edges of the crust are nice and brown and the sauce is just thinking about bubbling. Remove from the oven and add about a quarter cup of parmesan sprinkled on top, then let it rest for 5-10 minutes before cutting and eating.
New York Pizza
New York pizza isn't that tough. For the crust, I use an Italian bread recipe from this book, but I add half again as much salt to the final dough. I also make the dough a bit more slack so it stretches easier. A bit of extra flour and/or cornmeal helps keep the dough from sticking to the pizza peel (cornmeal doesn't soak up moisture the way flour does, so it makes a particularly effective sliding agent). I measure the dough into 8 oz balls and then spin them to about 12 inch rounds. A bit of sauce (not too much), cheese, and just a couple of toppings finish it out.
The key to baking the pizza is to use a stone and to get the oven rip-roaring hot. I used to try to bake the pizza at 400 or less, and you end up with burned cheese and raw dough. Now I run it all the way to 525 and bake the pizza right on the stone. When the cheese is bubbly and nice and browned, the crust is crispy, done, and perfect.
Try this for a sauce:
dice a couple of shallots, half a carrot, and a couple of cloves of garlic and saute in a few tablespoons of olive oil. Add a can of crushed tomatoes, some thyme and oregano, salt and pepper, and simmer for a half hour or so till it tastes like sauce.
Favorite toppings:
Sausage chunks (pre-cooked - the pizza isn't in the oven nearly long enough to cook raw meat toppings)
Fresh tomatoes and fresh basil chiffonade
Ham and pineapple (try it before you knock it)
Lots of cheese.
The key to baking the pizza is to use a stone and to get the oven rip-roaring hot. I used to try to bake the pizza at 400 or less, and you end up with burned cheese and raw dough. Now I run it all the way to 525 and bake the pizza right on the stone. When the cheese is bubbly and nice and browned, the crust is crispy, done, and perfect.
Try this for a sauce:
dice a couple of shallots, half a carrot, and a couple of cloves of garlic and saute in a few tablespoons of olive oil. Add a can of crushed tomatoes, some thyme and oregano, salt and pepper, and simmer for a half hour or so till it tastes like sauce.
Favorite toppings:
Sausage chunks (pre-cooked - the pizza isn't in the oven nearly long enough to cook raw meat toppings)
Fresh tomatoes and fresh basil chiffonade
Ham and pineapple (try it before you knock it)
Lots of cheese.
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