You wouldn't think that Japanese eggplant would be such a difficult thing to find. I started at Cub (of course), but they only had globe. I was going to take the lazy route and just buy it, but Jeff said "either you're going to follow the recipe or you're not. We can find it somewhere else later." Little did he know I hardly ever stick to a recipe completely any more. He checked Festival for me to no avail. Jennifer tried Target and Lund's and couldn't find it either. So, we (Jennifer and I) decided to skip it. There were enough things going on for this to still be a tasty pizza - although we may have to revisit it when the right eggplants are in.
One of the recipes (the cheese pizza) came from a new book that Jennifer and her family bought me for Christmas. It was the first recipe I made in it, and I am thinking that the author may be a little anal. All of the measurements are in grams, which is fine - whatever works. But, they are so specific (2.2 grams of yeast) that I had to improvise in places. My scale, while it will measure in grams, is very limited. It only measures 2 grams at a time, and it doesn't do portions of grams. And, it doesn't start measuring until you hit at least 4 grams. I tried to trick it by putting what I thought was about 2.2 grams on the scale (it didn't register), then hitting the tare button to zero it back out. Then, I took the item off the scale to see if it would register a negative number that might give me a clue as to how much the item weighed. It didn't work. It still registered zero, but it was negative zero. Oh well. Improvising is part of the fun, I guess.
The author had many other specifics that I was unable to follow. Not just because it was a lot of reading after a long day of work, but because I would have had to take the entire Thursday off just to get the pizza on the table before 10pm. Also, I can't take a cheese pizza recipe that seriously. Note - if you're going to make this the way I did, you will need to start making the dough the night before, if not earlier.
Adapted from The Pizza Bible by Tony Gemignani with Susie Heller and Steve Siegelman
Dough:
pinch of active dry yeast
2 tablespoons cold water
1/4cup + 3 tablespoons (roughly 55-56 grams) bread flour
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
3½ cups bread flour
2 teaspoons salt (I used Kosher)
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons ice water (divided)
2 teaspoons (about 10 grams) olive oil
Sauce:
8 ounces canned plum tomatoes (roughly half of a 15oz can, reserve the remainder for the topping)
4 tablespoons tomato paste
pinch of dried oregano
1 teaspoon olive oil
Rest of the story:
Cornmeal for dusting
8 ounces sliced mozzarella
6 ounces canned plum tomatoes (or the remainder of the can), drained and crushed
2 tablespoons grated Romano cheese
pinch of oregano
1 tablespoon of garlic infused olive oil
Dough: In a small bowl, combine the pinch of yeast with the 2 tablespoons of cold water and set aside for about five minutes. Add the "55 grams" of bread flour and stir to combine. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for 10-18 hours. This is the "starter". In a very small bowl, combine the 3/4 teaspoon yeast with the 1/4 cup of warm water, and set it aside for about five minutes. Put the flour, salt, and olive oil into the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Stir at a low speed to thoroughly mix. With the mixer running, add the 3/4 cup of ice water. Then add the yeast mixture. Use the remaining two tablespoons of ice water to swish out any remaining yeast mixture from the small bowl and add it to the flour mixture. Run the mixer at medium speed until the ingredients start to combine. Add the "starter" and mix at medium speed until the dough comes together in a ball and clings to the hook (stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl, if needed, to make sure all of the ingredients get incorporated). Cut the dough in half. Place one half in a freezer bag and refrigerate or freeze for another use. Place the other half of the dough in a greased bowl. Lightly oil the exposed portions of the dough and drape a damp towel (or loosely drape plastic wrap) over the bowl. Set aside to rise for at least two hours (original recipe recommended rising it in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours; I set it on the counter in my 63º house for roughly 11 hours).
Sauce: Combine all sauce ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth.
The rest of the story (assembly): Preheat oven to 500º F, with a pizza stone inside, if using. Dust a pizza peel or board with cornmeal to cover. Stretch and roll dough out to a 15 inch circle. Shake the peel or board to ensure that the dough will still slip off its surface. Lift the edges of the dough and slide more cornmeal underneath, if necessary. Arrange the mozzarella over the dough. Spoon the tomato sauce over the cheese, spreading it almost to the edge of the dough. Slide pizza into oven onto the preheated stone. Bake for twelve minutes, rotating the pizza halfway though baking. Remove the pizza from the oven. Top with the crushed tomatoes and sprinkle the Romano over everything. Drizzle the garlic olive oil over the top. Slice and serve.
As I mentioned, there were a lot of details that I glossed over. I hadn't read the recipes completely before I started in. I started measuring out the ingredients for the starter, then read that it called for something called diastic malt. I had never heard of that before. I had to Google it (what did we ever do before Google?). Apparently, it is a grain that has sprouted. Then, it is dried and ground into a powder. It is supposed to improve the texture, crumb, and browning of the crust. I thought I might try and see if Byerly's carried it, but with the snow and below freezing temperatures, my laziness won out. It was going to join the eggplant in the "items not used" category for this week.
Wednesday night, I started with what the cookbook author called the "tiga", which is the starter for the dough. Since I had no malt powder, it was simply water, yeast, and four. It was really thick, as I had been warned in the book, but I assumed that meant it was going to be like a paste. It was more like a mini pile of dough. I was instructed to let it rest at room temperature for 18 hours, so I moved on to the next thing - the sauce.
The original recipe called for "ground tomatoes" and "hand-crushed" tomatoes. I'm not entirely sure what "ground tomatoes" are. Did he mean tomatoes that were ground up? Or, did he mean tomatoes that grow on the ground, like ground cherries?? I went with the assumption that he meant tomatoes that were ground up. I'm not sure how that would be different than pureed tomatoes, so I threw whole (canned) plum tomatoes in my VitaMix along with the rest of the ingredients. It called for 4.5 ounces of the ground and 2 ounces of hand-crushed, so I was planning on using in 6½ ounces of whole tomatoes, but I over-poured and ended up with about 8 ounces. I read later that I was supposed to add the "hand-crushed" after everything was pureed - Oops!
After preparing the sauce for the cheese pizza, I started in on preparing the toppings for the lamb pizza.
Lamb and No Eggplant Pizza
Adapted from All the Best Pizzas by Joie Warner
Dough:
pinch of active dry yeast
2 tablespoons cold water
1/4cup + 3 tablespoons (roughly 55-56 grams) bread flour
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
3½ cups bread flour
2 teaspoons salt (I used Kosher)
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons ice water (divided)
2 teaspoons (about 10 grams) olive oil
Corn meal (for rolling out the dough)
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
Toppings:
14 ounces ground lamb
6 ounces thinly sliced red onion
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
28oz can plum tomatoes, drained and crushed
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons fresh thyme
8 ounces soft goat cheese, crumbled
2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Dough: In a small bowl, combine the pinch of yeast with the 2 tablespoons of cold water and set aside for about five minutes. Add the "55 grams" of bread flour and stir to combine. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for 10-18 hours. This is the "starter". In a very small bowl, combine the 3/4 teaspoon yeast with the 1/4 cup of warm water, and set it aside for about five minutes. Put the flour, salt, and olive oil into the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Stir at a low speed to thoroughly mix. With the mixer running, add the 3/4 cup of ice water. Then add the yeast mixture. Use the remaining two tablespoons of ice water to swish out any remaining yeast mixture from the small bowl and add it to the flour mixture. Run the mixer at medium speed until the ingredients start to combine. Add the "starter" and mix at medium speed until the dough comes together in a ball and clings to the hook (stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl, if needed, to make sure all of the ingredients get incorporated). Cut the dough in half. Place one half in a freezer bag and refrigerate or freeze for another use. Place the other half of the dough in a greased bowl. Lightly oil the exposed portions of the dough and drape a damp towel (or loosely drape plastic wrap) over the bowl. Set aside to rise for at least two hours (original recipe recommended rising it in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours; I set it on the counter in my 63º house for roughly 11 hours). Preheat the oven to 450º F. Lightly coat a 15-inch deep-dish pizza pan with a tablespoon or so of olive oil. Roll or stretch out dough and press it into the deep-dish pan, creating a thicker rim around the edge, going up the sides of the pan. Prick the dough with the times of a fork. Bake for five minutes. Remove it from then oven and brush it lightly with another tablespoon of olive oil.
Assembly: In a large, non-stick skillet, brown the lamb with the onion and garlic, cooking until no pink remains in the lamb. Drain well. Spread the lamb mixture over prepared crust. Spread the tomatoes over the lamb. Sprinkle with oregano and thyme. Top with the goat cheese crumbles. Drizzle with 2 teaspoons of olive oil and lightly salt and pepper. Bake for 25 minutes or until cheese starts to brown and the crust is golden.
Ok, the original recipe only called for 8 ounces of lamb, but the smallest package I could find was 14 ounces. I put it all in, rationalizing that if there were no eggplant in the pizza, the extra lamb would fill in the gaps. It may have been a little too much, but I didn't hear any complaints (or, at least, I chose not to).
The lamb and onions cooked up quickly and filled my house with homey, warm aromas - perfect on a night that was -10º F with a wind chill factor of -30º (why do I live here again?). I drained it, let it cool, and packaged it up for the fridge.
In the morning, before work, I mixed up the dough. Since the dough recipe for the cheese pizza made twice as much as the pizza called for, I decided to use the other half for the lamb pizza. I wasn't sure how that was going to work, since it was a deep dish, but I went for it anyway.
The instructions were very specific about when to add each ingredient and what speed and how long to mix after each addition. Being impatient and having a short attention span, I pretty much just put everything in at once and ran the mixer at medium speed until it became dough. At this point, the instructions were to knead it by hand (skipped that), form it into a ball (skipped that), and let it rest at room temperature for an hour before covering it and putting it in the refrigerator for 24 hours. I just removed the dough from the mixer, sprayed the now empty bowl with cooking spray, replaced the dough, sprayed the dough with cooking spray, covered it and left for work.
When I got home (an hour and 12 minute commute in the snow that day for a 13 mile journey), I started working on the dough. Just as I started, Jennifer and Jonah showed up. I put Jennifer to the task of completing the cheese pizza while I worked on the lamb pizza.
There was a lot of lamb. It practically filled the deep dish pan. As I was putting the tomatoes over the lamb, I started to wonder if Jennifer would like it. She is not a huge fan of tomatoes, and there were lot here. I know that almost half of the 28 ounces in the can is juice, but weight-wise, there was almost the same amount of tomatoes as lamb, even after draining.
Jennifer was a little more diligent than I was. She made sure to spoon the sauce into the center of the pizza as instructed by the recipe. Then, she used the back of a spoon in a circular motion to spread the sauce to the rim. I would have tried to pour the sauce to cover as much space as possible on the outset and zig zagged the spoon any which direction to get the sauce to go where I wanted it to.
There were two pizza stones in the oven when I had turned it on, and she read that we were to bake the pizza for six minutes on a stone positioned in the top third of the oven. After the six minutes, she rotated the pizza 180º and moved it to the second stone, as instructed. I had planned on ignoring those instructions and just bake it on one stone for 12 minutes, rotating it only if one side looked more done than the other - that way, I could enjoy my drink for a little while without having to do anything else.
1 ounce gin
¼ ounce Punt E Mes
¼ ounce sweet vermouth
juice of ¼ of a lemon
Place all ingredients into an ice-filled shaker. Shake vigorously for a few seconds. Pour into a chilled cocktail glass.
A couple of years back, I saw a lot of cocktails with the ingredient Punt E Mes. I was never really sure what it was and couldn't seem to find it anywhere. Recently, I started playing around with our computer software at work (I work at a liquor distributorship) and discovered that we carried this product. I immediately got some and brought it home. Then, of course, I couldn't seem to find any of those recipes I had seen earlier for it. It is a vermouth, and there are apparently several different kinds of vermouth. I imagine it is a bit like gin, where each brand has its own secret blend, resulting in a unique flavor profile. This is a little bitter, with a sweet after taste. It is very dark in color and a little bit thick.
I stumbled across a recipe for a Punt E Mes Negroni. It had equal parts gin, Punt E Mes, and sweet vermouth. We tried that first. While it was good, it was a little too bitter for our tastes, even with the sweet vermouth. It needed to be mellowed out a little. We reduced the amount of Punt E Mes and sweet vermouth and added lemon. It was much better. The first taste was crisp and citrusy, and as I swallowed, there was just a bite of bitter that gave it a nice little zing.
The cheese pizza was done first. Even after Jennifer added the crushed tomatoes, Romano cheese, oregano and olive oil, the pizza wasn't much to look at. It reminded me of the pizzas in the eighties that came in a box, and you assembled it yourself with their wimpy, thin, sugary sauce. The taste was far from that. I am usually not a fan of the cheese on the bottom, because it doesn't get the chance to brown and bubble and caramelize, but this was really good. The crust (despite the lack of malt) was crisp on the bottom with a nice soft texture inside. The sauce was bright and flavorful. The smooth, silky texture of cheese against the chew of the crust and the wetness of the sauce was amazing. We kept marveling that such few and simple ingredients could taste so good. We all agreed that the crust was much better than the previous crusts I had been making.
The lamb pizza took quite a bit longer to bake. When the goat cheese started to brown, we took it out of the oven. There was a lot of liquid in the bottom of the pan. I am not sure if I didn't drain the meat well enough, or maybe the tomatoes should have been drained better, or both. The crust, even though it had been pre-baked, was soggy in the middle and a little gooey. The outside edges appeared to have been boiled, which makes me think it was more of a tomato issue than a lamb issue, because I think if it was mostly grease, the crust would have been crisper, essentially deep-fat fried. The toppings, though, stole the show. It was rich and meaty with the nice, creamy tang of the goat cheese. I cannot imagine how eggplant would have improved it.
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