Pulled Pork and Portabella Pizza; Pepperoni, Green Olive, and Jalapeno Pizza; Gin Hibiscus Martini

     Pulled pork is one of those foods that I never think about until it is right in front of me.  It isn't something I crave out of the blue, and it certainly isn't a staple in our household.   Every time I have it, though, I think, "why don't we have this more often?"  It is made from pork butt or pork shoulder roast, whatever you want to call it.  It is a really inexpensive cut of meat, and if you cook it slowly, it comes out juicy and flavorful without a lot of work.

     That being said, although it doesn't take much effort to make, it does take quite a bit of time.  I started working on the ingredients for this pizza on Monday.  I started with the pork roast.  It had been quite a long time since I had made one, and my memory on the mechanics of it was quite rusty.  The original recipe called for a 1½ roast to start (for two pizzas), cooked at 325º F for 3½ hours.  Well, Jeff and I don't ever do anything small, and as my brother-in-law Roger said, that size roast isn't even worth the effort.  I didn't see the original chunk of meat that Jeff bought for this recipe, but he cut me a 3½ pound piece, gave some of it to my parents, and there are still at least two packages of it in my freezer.

     I wondered how to adjust the time (and temp?) for my more-than-double-sized roast.  I'm not sure if I had a short attention-span, was too impatient, or not google-savvy enough, but I couldn't seem to find a comparable cooking time for this roast.  Jeff and I discussed it and speculated and decided that we should cook it for the 3½ hours, and then just let it sit in the oven with the heat off until it cooled.  We reasoned that we felt that 325º was a little high, and that the time for this size roast shouldn't differ all that greatly from the time for a roast that was two pounds smaller.  The residual heat from the dutch oven and the trapped heat from not opening in the oven would continue to cook it for at least an additional half hour - probably more.  Because the temperature of the oven was relatively low to begin with, it wouldn't burn, and because of the fat content in the roast, it probably wouldn't dry out either.

     I was a little curious on the instructions.  It didn't have me sear the roast first (which I thought every roast recipe started that way) - just salt and pepper and throw it in a dutch oven.  I took it a little further and instead of salt and pepper, I used Harley's Sweet Rib Rub.  This is similar to Lawry's Seasoning Salt, but with a little more pepper and kick to it, and the rub version has some brown sugar added to it for caramelization.  

PULLED PORK AND PORTABELLA PIZZA

Adapted from Revolutionary Pizza by Dimitri Syrkin-Nikolau

Dough:

1 cup cold water

2 teaspoons coarse Kosher salt

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

3½ cups bread flour

Roast Pork:

3½ pound pork shoulder roast

2 tablespoons Harley's Sweet Rib Rub

Sauce and Toppings:

8 ounces Negro Modelo (or other dark, rich beer)

½ cup Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce

1 cup and 1 tablespoon olive oil, divided

2 large Portabella mushroom caps (about 4 ounces), cleaned and trimmed

4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

4 ounces shredded Mexican Blend cheese

10 3"x3" wonton wrappers, cut into ½" strips

2 green onions, chopped

Make the dough:  Whisk together the water, salt, sugar, olive oil, and yeast in the bowl of a large stand mixer with the dough hook attached.  Add the flour and run the mixer on medium speed until the dough comes together and starts to cling to the dough hook.  Remove the dough from the bowl and knead for about three minutes or until the outside of the dough becomes smooth.  Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with a damp, lint-free towel, and set aside in a warm place for about an hour.  Cut dough in half.  Using your fingers, shape each half into a ball, making sure to seal up any fissures.  Reserve one dough-ball for another use.  Place the other one on a baking sheet, cover sheet and dough in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 24 hours.  Allow dough ball to come to room temperature before shaping.

Make the pulled pork:  Preheat the oven to 325º F.  Rub the roast generously all over with the seasoning blend.  Place in a Dutch oven and cover with the lid.  Roast for about 3½ hours without removing the lid.  Turn the oven off, but leave the roast in the oven for two hours.  Remove roast from oven and shred with two forks, incorporating any juices that may have collected in the bottom of the pan.

Make the sauce and assemble:  Preheat the oven to 500º F with a pizza stone inside, if using.  Roll or stretch the dough out to a fifteen inch circle on a cornmeal dusted pizza peel or board.  Combine the beer and barbecue sauce in a small sauce pan.  Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce the temperature to low and continue to simmer for about ten minutes or until the mixture has reduced by half.  Let the mixture cool.  Spread the mixture over the prepared dough.  Spread 8 ounces of prepared pork over the barbecue sauce, reserving the remainder for another use.  Brush the cleaned Portabella caps with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  Grill the mushroom caps over high heat for a few minutes per side or until grill marks appear on the tops.  Slice mushroom caps and scatter over the pork.  Top the pork and mushrooms with the cheeses.  Fill a cast iron skillet with the olive oil, adding more, if needed, to bring the depth up to about an inch up the side of the pan.  Heat oil over medium-high heat.  Fry the wonton strips in batches, trying not to overlap the pieces in the pan, for two or three minutes or until just starting to brown (they will continue to cook when they are out of the pan).  Place fried strips on a paper towel lined plate to drain.  Slide the pizza onto the preheated stone or place in a greased pizza pan and put in the preheated oven.  Bake for 10 minutes or until cheese has melted and is starting to brown a little. Remove the pizza from the oven and top with the wonton strips and the green onions (it may be easier to slice the pizza before adding the strips and onions).

      My whole house filled with the smell of pork. The warm, homey aroma made me drool.  When I took it out of the oven, of course I had to sample it to make sure that it was done properly.  And, oh was it delicious!  As I was shredding the pork, every third fork-full ended up in my mouth.  It was moist and salty and rich.  I had forgotten how good this could be.  Now that we have a couple more of these roasts, I am going to have to put this into the rotation somewhere.
     It was really easy to shred.  I took two forks and just stabbed and twisted until it was one big pile of meaty goodness.
     While the pork was cooking, I decided to work on the sauce.  It called for a quarter cup of barbecue sauce and 4 ounces of beer (it actually called for a porter, but I didn't have one, so I used Modelo Negro) for two pizzas.  I was only making one, but I was going to make all of the sauce anyway.  I would decide later if I was going to use it all for this pizza.
     As the sauce was simmering, I ran outside to the grill to grill my portabella mushrooms.  I swathed them with a little olive oil and put them on the hot grates.  A couple minutes on each side was supposed to do it, but it ended up taking a bit longer than that to get some nice grill marks on the meat of the head.
   The sauce was supposed to simmer for 10 minutes, but I must have been at the grill for longer than that, and I think the sauce was bubbling away on the stove for closer to twenty.  I had about an eighth of a cup of "sauce" when I was done, but it was more the consistency of tar than sauce.

     It was delicious, though.  It was tangy and sweet with a little bitter after taste.  I decided to keep it and try again the next day.  I added this tar to another 4 ounces of Modelo and another quarter cup of barbecue sauce.  This time, I did only give it ten minutes on low, and it turned out beautifully.  It was thick, but not too thick; it was slightly sweet with that tannic finish; and a little bit spicy.
     I still had time before Jennifer and Roger arrived to start on frying my wonton wrappers.  I cut a few extra strips, because I knew I would not be able to resist trying them once they were fried.  And, I was right.  And, Jennifer was unable to resist as well.  It was a good plan.

 

     I had Jennifer start assembling the pork pizza while I scrambled to find ingredients to make another pizza.  I hadn't really picked out a recipe, because I thought, if we needed a second pizza, I could come up with items I already had in the fridge to create one instead of buying another whole set of ingredients.  I could have sworn that I had some bloody mary sauce left over from the pizza we had done the week before, but I ripped that fridge apart and could not find it.  Jeff came home in the middle of it, and I accused him of drinking it.  He flat out denied it, but I know that sauce must have gone somewhere.  Time was wasting, though, and I needed to develop Plan B.

PEPPERONI, GREEN OLIVE, AND JALAPENO PIZZA

Dough:

1 cup cold water

2 teaspoons coarse Kosher salt

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

3½ cups bread flour

Toppings:
3 Roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 teaspoon dried basil
4 ounces pepperoni slices
2 ounces small pimento stuffed green olives, left whole
3 ounces pickled sliced jalapenos
8 ounces of shredded mozzarella cheese

Make the dough:  Whisk together the water, salt, sugar, olive oil, and yeast in the bowl of a large stand mixer with the dough hook attached.  Add the flour and run the mixer on medium speed until the dough comes together and starts to cling to the dough hook.  Remove the dough from the bowl and knead for about three minutes or until the outside of the dough becomes smooth.  Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with a damp, lint-free towel, and set aside in a warm place for about an hour.  Cut dough in half.  Using your fingers, shape each half into a ball, making sure to seal up any fissures.  Reserve one dough-ball for another use.  Place the other one on a baking sheet, cover sheet and dough in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 24 hours.  Allow dough ball to come to room temperature before shaping.

Assemble and bake:  Preheat oven to 500º F with pizza stone inside, if using.  Roll or stretch dough out to a fifteen inch circle on a cornmeal dusted pizza peel or board.  Scatter chopped tomatoes over the dough.  Sprinkle dried oregano over the tomatoes.  Arrange all but 9 pepperoni slices over the tomatoes.  Add the olives, distributing evenly over the pizza.  Cover everything with mozzarella cheese.  Arrange the remaining pepperoni decoratively over the cheese.  Transfer to the preheated stone, if using, or transfer to a greased pizza pan and put in the oven.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cheese is melted and browning.  Slice and serve.

  This pizza was very similar to the bloody mary pizza we had on a previous Thursday, but I had really enjoyed that pizza and wanted to kick it up a notch with some jalapenos.  I do love jalapenos on pizza.  I always have them add jalapenos when I order delivery.

     Jennifer had brought a 5 meat pizza from Costco, and that had been baking while we were assembling the other two pizzas.  Jeff came home just as that one was done, and we enlisted him for slicing.

     It didn't take long for the other two pizzas to cook, and we pulled those out and prepared for the post oven directions for the pork.

     Jennifer added those lovely, crunchy, wonton skins and some fresh, bright, green onions while I mixed up a cocktail.

GIN HIBISCUS MARTINI

3 ounces gin

½ ounce hibiscus syrup (recipe below)

½ ounce lemon juice

Hibiscus syrup:  Mix equal parts water and sugar in a small sauce pan (I used 4 ounces of water and half a cup of sugar).  Add 1 tablespoon dried hibiscus flowers per every 4 ounces of water.  Boil until sugar dissolves.  Strain liquid into a bowl through a mesh sieve.  Cover and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice.  Pour gin, syrup, and lemon juice over the ice.  Shake vigorously.  Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Enjoy!

.

     The pork and portabella pizza was wonderful!  It was sweet, spicy, homey, meaty, crunchy.  The pork had just melted into the sauce.  The mushrooms, although we felt they didn't add much to the flavor profile, did add to the moistness of the pork.  The wontons added a nice salty crunch, and the green onions contrasted the sweetness of the sauce beautifully.

     The impromptu pizza was everything I had hoped it would be (except that we burnt the edge of the crust a little bit).  The tomatoes were a nice foil to the salty olives and (mildly) spicy jalapenos.  Leaving the olives whole added a nice little pop to each bite that contained them.  I didn't miss the bloody mary mix at all.

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Brat Bagel Pizzettes; Athenian Pizza

The bagel pizza called for mini-bagels, but I couldn't seem to find them at Cub.  I have said this before, but it bears repeating... Shopping is not my strong point.  I don't mind one trip to the grocery store, but I absolutely detest having to go to more than one place in the same day (as far as shopping and errands are concerned).  So, I was not about to go to another grocery store to find mini bagels.  I found bagel chips and deemed that a perfect substitute.  Also, it called for Canadian bacon and at one point, I had purchased a whole pile of Canadian bacon, because it was on close-out at Cub.  I bought a bunch and froze it all.  I was positive that I had several more hunks of it in my freezer.  But, when I came home from work on Thursday, I could not find any.  now, that doesn't necessarily mean I don't have any left, but I wasn't about to go digging this late in the game.  besides, I had leftover cooked brats in my refrigerator, and I thought those would work just fine.  And, slices of them were the perfect size for the bagel chips.  I also used red chili sauce I had made for a previous pizza and froze...  Simple, easy, and everybody loved them.  There were no leftovers.

BRAT BAGEL PIZZETTES

Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin

6oz bag bagel chips (such as New York Style Roasted Garlic Bagel Crisps)

3/4 cup red chile sauce

4 bratwurst links, cooked

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Red Chili Sauce:

10 nuevo mexican chiles (3 ounces)

2T olive oil

3 ½ oz yellow onion

3T chopped garlic

1 teaspoon dried oregano

14½ oz can petite cut tomatoes, drained

14½ oz can chicken broth

Sauce:  Roast chiles at 400º until slightly toasted on all sides.  Remove from oven and cool until they can be handled.  Discard stems.  Split the chiles open lengthwise and discard seeds and membranes.  Heat oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add the onion and saute until soft, about 5 minutes.  Stir in garlic and oregano and saute for a minute longer.  Add the roasted chilis, the tomatoes, and the broth.  Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the chiles are very tender, about 30 minutes.  Transfer the chile mixture to a food processor or blender.  Puree until smooth.

Assembly:  Spread the bagel chips on a greased cookie sheet.  Top each with a couple of teaspoons of sauce.  Top the sauce with a couple of slices of the cooked bratwurst.  Cover with mozzarella.  Bake at 350º F until the cheese has melted and starts to brown in spots.  Serve immediately.

The other pizza we made this week was Athenian.  It had all of the lovely flavors I associate with the Mediterranean area.  Salty feta cheese contrasted with the tangy, bright pickled peppers, red onions and oregano.  Kalamata olives reenforce the salty flavor of the feta, adding a little bit of fruitiness.  

ATHENIAN PIZZA

Adapted from James McNair's Vegetarian Pizza

Crust:

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

3¼ cups bread flour

1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup olive oil

Toppings:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 red onion, thinly sliced and separated into rings

6 ounces baby Portabella mushrooms, thinly sliced

1 cup pitted Kalamata olives

1 cup sliced pickled cherry peppers

3 cups feta cheese

1 tablespoon dried oregano

Make the crust:  Combine the water, yeast, and sugar in a medium bowl.  Set aside for about five minutes to allow the yeast to form a thin layer of foam on the top of the water.  Meanwhile, combine the flour and salt in the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Add the olive oil and yeast mixture and run at medium speed until the dough comes together and begins to cling to the hook.  Remove from the mixer and form into a ball.  Place the ball in a medium-sized, greased bowl.  Cover loosely with a towel or a piece of waxed paper and set aside to rise. It should double in size in about an hour.

Assemble and cook:  Preheat the oven to 500º F with a pizza stone inside.  Once the dough has risen, roll it out to about a 16 inch circle on a pizza peel or wooden board dusted with cornmeal.  Shake the board or peel to ensure that the crust is not sticking to it.  If it is, add some more cornmeal underneath the dough.  Brush the dough all over with olive oil.  Top with onion, mushrooms, olives, and peppers.  Sprinkle with the feta crumbles and scatter the oregano over the feta.  Transfer pizza to the preheated stone and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese starts to brown or melt a little.  Let rest for five minutes. Slice and serve.

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Shredded Turkey and Black Bean Pizza; Green Olive Pizza; Gold Member

     It's getting more and more difficult to prepare for pizza night with the kitchen remodel going on (or, right now, it is just the kitchen destruction).  In addition to removing half of the cabinetry in the kitchen, and the drywall on one wall in preparation for a sliding glass door to be installed, he has also decided to rewire the entire house.  He had to move the wiring that was in the wall where the door is going to go, so he decided to "clean up" what the previous owners had left for us 16 years ago.

     Consequently, I now only have one light in my kitchen instead of three.  I am missing one fixture altogether.  Only some of the outlets on the kitchen level work, and there are no lights in the south half of my basement (which has no windows, either, so that makes things interesting).

     When I was attempting to make the sauce for the olive pizza, I wanted to make quick work of it by using my Vitamix. First task was to find it, since all of my small appliances have been moved.  After it was found, I was trying to figure out where to plug it in.  

     I have come to realize that most small kitchen appliances have really short cords.  Apparently, everyone (except me right now) has outlets at counter level - or at least that must be what the small appliance manufacturers think, because the cords won't reach from the counter to a regularly positioned wall outlet.  

     I thought I had a good set up going - there was a free outlet in the dining room (where most of my kitchen items have been relocated), there was a chair nearby, and a box of outlet boxes (ironic, right?) that seemed sturdy enough to hold up a running Vitamix without falling over.  I got it all set up and plugged it in.  I put my ingredients in and...  That was one of the outlets that was temporarily out of order.  Plan B was to plug it into the outlet under the coat rack and sit on the floor to blend.  It wasn't ideal, but it got the job done.

     I was thankful that the weather was decent again this week.  It was a little humid, yes, but it wasn't raining.  I was going to be able to grill the pizzas again instead of trying to work around the messes in the kitchen.

     Again, I had made the crust doughs the night before.  I cheated a little.  I made a double batch of one of the dough recipes to cut down on time and the need for counter space.  The olive pizza was supposed to have a whole wheat crust, and the turkey pizza had a white crust in the recipe.  The wheat crusts have not been a hit so far, so I opted for two whites.

     Last week, I had tried to grill both pizzas simultaneously, which, while the end result was fine, it was a little dicey trying not to burn the bottoms of the pizza while still attempting to brown the tops.  I eventually ended up pulling one pizza off the grill to finish the other by itself over indirect heat.  Once that pizza was done and off the grill, I put the other back on and finished it..

     This week, I was smarter.  I cooked the one side of both crusts, but when they were ready to flip, I pulled one off, uncooked side down on my board.  I flipped the other one and shut the burner off underneath it.  Then, I was ready to assemble.

GREEN OLIVE PIZZA

Adapted from All the Best Pizzas by Joie Warner

Crust:

3/4 cup warm water

1-1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1-3/4 cups bread flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

Sauce:

1 tablespoon minced garlic

9 ounces tomatoes

4 teaspoons tomato paste

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon fresh oregano

2 tablespoons fresh basil

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

The rest of the story:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup pimiento stuffed green olives

4 ounces grated mozzarella cheese

1 teaspoon fresh oregano

Make the crust dough:  Combine the water, yeast, and sugar in a small bowl.  Set aside for at least five minutes.  Combine the flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Stir to distribute the salt evenly through the flour.  Add the yeast mixture and continue to stir at medium speed until the dough comes together.  Turn the mixer off and scrape the sides of the bowl to ensure that all of the ingredients get incorporated into the dough.  Stir on medium speed until the dough clings to the hook and looks smooth and elastic.  Place the dough in a greased bowl.  Cover with a damp towel or drape loosely with a piece of plastic wrap.  Set the bowl in warm, dry place for about an hour.

Make the sauce:  Place the garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste, and salt in the bowl of a blender.  Puree until smooth.  Stir in the oregano, basil, and hot pepper.

Assemble the pizza:  Preheat a gas grill to 500º F.  If using a charcoal grill, build a coal fire on one side of the grill.  Close lid in order to heat up the entire grill, while you roll out the dough.  On a flour or cornmeal dusted pizza peel or board, roll or stretch the dough out to a 13 inch circle.  Brush the dough with 1 tablespoon of olive oil all over.  Place the dough, oiled side down, onto the preheated grill grates.  If using gas, turn the burners on the other side of the grill off.  Grill dough for about five minutes or until bottom starts to crisp and brown a little. Brush the top of the dough with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil.  Flip the dough over onto the cooler side with the uncooked side down.  Spread the sauce over the crust, leaving a small border around the outside edge of the dough.  Distribute the whole olives over the sauce.  Sprinkle the cheese over the olives.  Close the lid of the grill and cook for another 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and starting to brown.  Remove the pizza from the grill and sprinkle the fresh oregano over the top before slicing.

     Once the olive pizza was assembled, I closed the lid and assembled the turkey and black bean pizza on the board it was resting on.

SHREDDED TURKEY AND BLACK BEAN PIZZA

Adapted from The Everything Pizza Book by Belinda Hulin

3/4 cup warm water

1-1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1-3/4 cups bread flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup picante sauce (I used Pace Medium)

2 ounces diced red bell pepper

2 ounces yellow onion, diced

7-1/2 ounces canned black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 lb cooked, shredded turkey

2 ounces shredded cheddar cheese

2 ounces shredded Taco cheese (blend of monterey jack, queso fresco, colby, cheddar, and spices)

4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 teaspoon hot pepper flakes

4 ounces diced tomatoes

1 teaspoon cumin

1/4 cup minced cilantro

Combine the water, yeast, and sugar in a small bowl.  Set aside for at least five minutes.  Combine the flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Stir to distribute the salt evenly through the flour.  Add the yeast mixture and continue to stir at medium speed until the dough comes together.  Turn the mixer off and scrape the sides of the bowl to ensure that all of the ingredients get incorporated into the dough.  Stir on medium speed until the dough clings to the hook and looks smooth and elastic.  Place the dough in a greased bowl.  Cover with a damp towel or drape loosely with a piece of plastic wrap.  Set the bowl in warm, dry place for about an hour.

Preheat a gas grill to 500º F.  If using a charcoal grill, build a coal fire on one side of the grill.  Close lid in order to heat up the entire grill, while you roll out the dough.  On a flour or cornmeal dusted pizza peel or board, roll or stretch the dough out to a 13 inch circle.  Brush the dough with 1 tablespoon of olive oil all over.  Place the dough, oiled side down, onto the preheated grill grates.  If using gas, turn the burners on the other side of the grill off.  Grill dough for about five minutes or until bottom starts to crisp and brown a little. Brush the top of the dough with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil.  Flip the dough over onto the cooler side with the uncooked side down.  Spread the picante sauce over the crust, leaving a ¼ inch border around the outside edge.  Sprinkle the red peppers, onions, and black beans over the sauce.  Distribute the turkey over the beans.  Cover the turkey with the cheeses.  Sprinkle the tomatoes over the cheese.  Dust the cheese with the cumin.  Close the lid of the grill and cook for about 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and starts to brown.  Remove the pizza from the grill and sprinkle it with the cilantro.  Slice and serve.

     This crust had gotten a little misshapen on its journey.  It started out round, but with the humidity, it had stuck to the board.  Pam and I loosened it with the spatula, but it didn't really want to slide off of the board and onto the grill, so I picked it up with my hands and laid it on the (hot) grill.  It stretched a little on the way and landed in a strange shape.  Because the grill was hot, the crust immediately started setting when it hit the grates.  So, this one is what I like to call especially "rustic".  Jeff said it looked like the shape of Montana.  Either way, I was sure that it would taste relatively the same as a round one.

     The olive pizza was done just about the same time I was done assembling the turkey pizza.  The cheese was just starting to brown up, and the crust was getting a little crisp on the bottom.

     Now, I am normally not a fan of green olives.  They are starting to grow on me, but they wouldn't be my topping of choice.  However, this pizza was outstanding.  I loved that the olives were still whole.  It gave them a nice chew.  There was very little salt in the rest of the pizza, so their brininess wasn't overwhelming.  I am not sure that I noticed the pimentos or would miss them if they were gone, but I really liked this pizza.  The olives were nicely nestled in the pools of mozzarella, and the sauce was sealed in nicely by the cheese as well.  It was simple and delicious.

     I think I was a little too impatient to let the turkey and black bean pizza get the lovely browning that the olive pizza achieved.  We had already tried the olive pizza and were definitely ready to dive into the next flavor.  It looked good, it just didn't have as much browning in the middle as the olive pizza had.

     I thought the taste, though, was outstanding.  This is definitely going to be one of my go-to recipes for leftover turkey.  The turkey stayed moist and juicey.  The beans were soft and creamy.  The picante added a little zip (I may add jalapenos next time), and the tomatoes and cilantro on top were nice finishing touches.

     We really should have paired these pizzas with a nice tequila drink of some sort, but I had to find a drink that I had all the ingredients for and could get to through my kitchen construction (or de-struction, since that seems to be the phase we are in right now).  I settled for Goldmember - a slightly spicey, appley concoction that was probably more suited to fall.  It was a little sweet for me to have more than one, which might not be a bad thing in the long run.

GOLD MEMBER

2 measures apple juice

1 measure cinnamon vodka

1/2 measure butterscotch schnaaps

1/2 measure sour apple schnaaps

Pour ingredients into an ice-filled shaker.  Close lid and shake vigorously.  Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

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Olive Pizza Duel with Gingertinis

     I am not a great decision-maker, and I like to try new things.  One manifestation of this is that I make the next recipe in the pizza book - whatever it is.  This gets the decision-making out of the way, and we try things we wouldn't necessarily normally - just because it is the next recipe.  

    At one point in the history of pizza night, I found that if I were making two pizzas in one evening out of the same cookbook, I might frequently end up with two very similar pizzas.  Apparently, cookbook authors like to group similar recipes together.  I guess that makes sense, but I saw two similar pizza recipes from the same cookbook as some kind of parallel universe sibling rivalry.  Who is going to want to eat the plain blue cheese pizza, when there is also a garlic, blue cheese, and walnut pizza on the table?  Once, we ended up with two dessert pizzas (we, of course, ate them anyway and were happy about it).  

     Since I seemed to have a plethora of pizza-themed cookbooks (not to mention several other cookbooks that happen to have pizzas in them also), I decided (yes, a decision!) to have two books at my disposal and make one out of each every week.  At some point in the last year, I decided to throw a third book in the rotation, alternating the two new books every other week.  On a couple of occasions, two of the recipes from the separate books had turned out to be very similar - in which case, I would go on to a different recipe or use the book that wasn't "scheduled" for that week.

     Anyway, using my convoluted recipe scheduling formula, I still ended up this week with two olive tapenade pizzas.  I was marveling about this out loud while Jeff was in the vicinity and muttered something about having to decide which one to make and which recipe was going to be the non-tapenade pizza.  Jeff piped in and said I should make both and see which one we like better.  I shuttered at the thought of one pizza being left out in the cold while its other, more attractive brother was gobbled up and raved over.  However, I acquiesced, since I did not want to pick a new recipe to shuffle in or go off the "schedule" plan.

     After reading further into the recipes, I noticed that there were some obvious differences in them.  One recipe was for "tarts" or mini appetizer-sized pizzas, and the other one was a whole pie.  One was a mixed olive tapenade and the other was all kalamata olives.  The tarts had ricotta and Gorgonzola, where the whole pie had mozzarella.  

    The original recipe for the tarts called for a whole wheat crust, but I was gun-shy about making another attempt at whole wheat crust after the "rave" reviews I had from the last one.  I decided I was going to double the recipe for the crust for the whole pie and use half of the resulting dough for the tarts.  The other advantage to this was a more level playing field.  I didn't want either recipe to be ousted based on the crust.  If they were the same crust, there should be no problem there.

     

OLIVE PIZZA TARTS

Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin

3/4 cup warm water

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1-3/4 cup bread flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

7-1/2 ounces whole-milk ricotta cheese

1 cup mixed olive tapenade

4 ounces Gorgonzola cheese

Combine the water, yeast, and sugar in a small bowl.  Set aside for at least five minutes.  Combine the flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Stir together on a low speed until well combined.  Add the yeast mixture and stir at medium speed until the dough comes together, clings to the hook, and looks smooth and elastic.  Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover with a damp towel or drape loosely with a piece of plastic wrap.  Set the bowl in a warm, dry place for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 500º F.  Divide the dough into eight equal pieces.  On a cornmeal or flour dusted board, roll or stretch each piece out to a four inch circle.  Press each portion into a lightly greased tart pans, spreading the dough evenly up the sides of the pans (alternatively, if you do not have tart pans, pinch the edges of the dough up to form a rim and place on a greased baking sheet).  Divide the ricotta up evenly among the tarts, spreading them across the center of the tart.  Top this with two tablespoons of tapenade for each tart, followed by 1/2 an ounce of Gorgonzola cheese.  Bake for 10-15 minutes or until dough is browned and cheese has started to melt and brown.  Remove from the oven and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

     I started out, thinking I was going to cook the tarts directly on a cookie sheet when I remembered that I actually have tart pans.  There was a previous recipe that had called for tart pans, and I didn't have them, so I did the cookie sheet method and had told my sisters about the inadequacy of my kitchen equipment.  Shortly thereafter, they bought me two sets of tart pans (for a total of 12 pans) for my birthday.  Have I mentioned that I love my sisters?

     Even though I couldn't quite get the dough to fit in the pans just right, these were infinitely cuter than the flat disks they were before.  I hoped that their cuteness didn't give them an unfair advantage in the judging phase of the evening.

     Looking at the amounts of ricotta and tapenade, I didn't think that it would fill the tart very well, but it did.  I had to use the back of a spoon to sort of mush the ricotta to cover the bottom of the tart without ripping the dough.  I used the same method to spread the tapenade over the ricotta, so they didn't combine.  I wanted the layered effect.

     Next came the Gorgonzola (which I don't think is actually a true Gorgonzola, since it was made in Wisconsin).  I thought this, too, was a little skimpy, but I was going to trust the measurements.

TAPENADE PIZZA

Adapted from All the Best Pizzas by Joie Warner

3/4 cup warm water

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1-3/4 cup bread flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup Kalamata olives

1 teaspoon anchovy paste

1/4 cup olive  oil

8 ounces mozzarella cheese

1 teaspoon grated orange zest

Combine the water, yeast, and sugar in a small bowl.  Set aside for at least five minutes.  Combine the flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Stir together on a low speed until well combined.  Add the yeast mixture and stir at medium speed until the dough comes together, clings to the hook, and looks smooth and elastic.  Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover with a damp towel or drape loosely with a piece of plastic wrap.  Set the bowl in a warm, dry place for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 500º F with a pizza stone inside, if using.  On a cornmeal or flour dusted pizza peel or board, roll or stretch the dough out into a 14 inch circle.  Combine olives, anchovy paste, and olive oil in the bowl of blender.  Puree until mixture becomes a rough paste.  Spread paste over the prepared dough, leaving a small bare border around the outside edge of the pizza.  Cover the tapenade with the mozzarella. Sprinkle the orange zest over the cheese. Bake for 5-10 minutes or until cheese starts to brown.  

     I was anxious to see if the home-made tapenade was better than the purchased tapenade.  Mine was definitely smoother than the store-bought variety, thanks to my VitaMix.

     While the tarts were cute (as I have already mentioned), the large pizza had a certain elegance to it, with the contrasting colors of the mozzerella and the orange zest.  At least before it was cooked.  And, while it was cooking, we got our tinis going...

GINGERTINI

2 measures gin (I used Hendrick's - I love the refreshing cucumber-y finish)

½ measure ginger liqueur (I used Domaine de Canton)

¼ measure dry vermouth

¼ measure sugar syrup

lemon twist

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice.  Pour all ingredients (except twist) over ice and shake vigorously.  Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with the lemon twist.

    These were wondeful!  I thought that they were a little too sweet with the simple syrup AND the Canton, which is sweet in its own right.  Once I cut back (and eventually eliminated) the syrup, I thought it was perfect.  The zing of the ginger came at the first sip, and then I got a wave of refreshing cucumber flavor.  This is definitely a drink that will have to come back.

    Both pizzas were beautiful right out of the oven.  There ended up being no clear decision or ruling on the winner.  The tartlets were convenient - no cutting involved (unless you didn't want a whole one, but that certainly didn't happen).  One complete package - no worries about some of your toppings getting whisked away with errant cheese from someone else's piece.  The creamy, tanginess of the blue cheese went well with the tapenade, making it a rich little bundle.  The whole pizza was delicious, too.  The tapenade was almost indiscernible from the store-bought version.  It, of course, was better just because I made it, but I might be biased on that subject.  The mozzarella and orange zest combo cut the richness a little and kept everything together.  The reduced richness was nice against the smaller ratio of tapenade to bread.
   So, from a scientific standpoint, our experiment failed.  From a social standpoint, we had two great pizzas that had different merits and a lovely evening with our family.