I had such high hopes for the bacon and lobster calzone recipe, and I was disappointed. It has all of the makings for a great meal, but I think my ingredients were a bit off. I fished out a lobster tail from the depths of my freezer. Unfortunately, it wasn't labeled, so I wasn't sure how long it had been in there. If I had to guess, though, I would say that it had been in there for more than six months (it's hard to justify buying lobster when I am unemployed). It was a big one, too - creating much more than the two cups of lobster tail meat that the recipe required. And, if 2 cups is good, 3 should be better, right? However, after tasting the end result, I fear that it was just too old.
I think I also may have cooked it too long. Usually, when I am putting seafood in a pizza recipe, and the recipe indicates that it should be cooked before it gets cooked on the pizza, I only partially cook it. Never having baked a lobster tail before, I seriously missed the mark. It was completely cooked when I took it out of the oven, and recooking it inside the calzones didn't do it any favors.Two other problems with my particular rendition of this recipe: the sauce was probably equally as old as the lobster, since it was also "fished" out of the bottom of my freezer and had no date on it; and the Asiago cheese never made it into the calzone, since the original recipe never gave instruction on when to add it. It is completely the recipe author's fault on that one. I refuse to take the blame there.
I debated about whether I would even mention this failure at all, since all of our uneaten slices landed in the garbage can. I decided that it should be talked about. The recipe definitely has merit, and with fresh ingredients and a little more care in the preparation of the lobster, I still think it could be fabulous. I will try it again after I have been gainfully employed for a bit.
Adapted from The everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin
2 tablespoon olive oil, divided
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 ounces onion
6 ounces tomato sauce
3 ounces diced tomatoes
2 ounces diced green pepper
1 ounce minced celery
2 cloves garlic
pinch of cayenne pepper
pinch of black pepper
1 teaspoon tabasco
1 cup warm water (about 110º)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 1/4 cup bread flour
1 16-ounce lobster tail (9 ounces of lobster meat after shelling and cooking)
3 tablespoons of melted butter
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
12 ounces ricotta cheese
1 1/2 ounces cooked crumbled bacon
4 green onions, minced
4 ounces shredded Asiago cheese
1 egg
1 teaspoon room temperature water
4 ounces shredded Asiago cheese
1 egg
1 teaspoon room temperature water
Make the sauce: Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, until flour turns a rich brown color. Add half of the chopped onions and stur until they begin to soften and brown. Pour in tomato sauce, whisking as you do so. Continue to stir until the flour mixture is completely dissolved. Add the diced tomatoes, the remaining onion, celery, garlic, cayenne, black pepper, and tabasco. Bring to a full boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for two hours. Sauce should be reduced to about one cup.
Make the dough: Combine the yeast, one cup water, and sugar in a bowl and set aside for at least five minutes. Stir the salt and flour together in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the yeast mixture and one tablespoon of olive oil and stir on a low speed until the mixture forms a ball around the hook. Continue mixing a little longer until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Let rest for an hour in a greased bowl in a warm, dry place.
Cook the lobster: Preheat the oven to 450º F. Flip the lobster tail upside down, so the pleopods (swimmerets or fin-type thingees) are facing you. With a scissors, cut along through the membrane on the left side, underneath the pleopods, from the body end to the tail end. Repeat on the right side. Cut across the end of the tail, where the meat ends, and the tail fans out, removing the fans. Remove the center membrane piece. Cut through the attachments on the inside of the shell, so that the lobster meat is still in the shell, but not attached (the shell will protect it somewhat from overcooking). Whisk the butter and lemon juice together in a bowl. Brush the lobster meat all over with the lemon butter mixture. Wrap the tail in aluminum foil. Bake at 450º F for about 15 minutes or until lobster meat is just starting to lose its translucency. Check it after 10 minutes to make sure it isn't being overcooked. Remove tail from oven and foil and let rest until it's cool enough to handle. Remove lobster meat and roughly chop.
Assemble calzones: Divide the dough into four pieces. Roll each portion into a ball. Stretch or roll out each piece into a 10 inch circle on a cornmeal or flour dusted board. Brush each circle with about one-quarter cup of sauce, leaving the edges bare. Dollup about 3 ounces of ricotta onto half of each circle. Press down with the back of a spoon to spread out over half of the sauce. Distribute a forth of the lobster over the ricotta on each of the four circles. Sprinkle the bacon over the lobster pieces. Top with the minced onion and Asiago cheese. Fold the half without the toppings over onto the filled side, forming a half-moon, and pinching the edges together to seal. Place calzones on a greased baking sheet (or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper). Cover with a damp towel and let stand for about thirty minutes. Preheat the oven to 400º F. With a sharp knife, cut slits into the top of the calzones for venting. Thoroughly whisk the egg and water together. Brush the egg wash over the tops of the calzones. Bake for 15 minutes or until crust is starting to become golden. Let rest a few minutes before cutting.
I had to research how to cook a lobster tail in the oven. Jeff and I have had lobster tails at home in the past, but he has always cooked them for us. He cuts down the back side of the tail, pulls the lobster meat up through the cut without cutting the membrane, so that the lobster meat is sitting up above the shell, and the shell protects the meat from the direct heat of the grill. He continually bastes it with butter until he feels that the lobster is done. It was cold outside, and I had no desire to pull out the grill and stand outside for any length of time. I went with a technique (and cooking times) I found on the internet, and this may be where I went wrong. It seemed like a reputable site, so I didn't even question that this delicate little piece of meat was going to be in a very hot oven for 35 minutes! I have lowered the cooking time in the above recipe dramatically - if you make this recipe, I suggest you check it before the fifteen minutes are up to make sure you aren't overcooking it.
The tail I had found in my freezer was pretty. It had orange and black striping on its fin-things (which I have now discovered are called pleopods or swimminets). When I started cutting through the membrane under the fins, the back of the tail shell shattered. That may have been a clue that it was old - I'm not sure - but I forged on.
Once I had gotten the meat disconnected from the shell, I stirred the lemon juice and the melted butter together. I placed the tail, still in its shell, onto a piece of aluminum foil and started brushing the butter mixture all over the belly of the tail and inside underneath it, being careful not to dislodge the pieces of shell that had shattered in the process. The tail was thawed, but it was still quite cold, as I had just brought it out of the refrigerator. The butter started coagulating as soon as it came in contact with the lobster. I decided that wasn't a problem, since it would keep the butter in place until it started cooking. Then I closed up the foil around the tail and threw it in the oven. A lesson in hindsight: I should have put it on a rimmed baking sheet instead of directly on the oven rack, because some of the spinier pieces of shell had punctured the foil, and some of the butter melted out and onto my oven floor (and also all over my counter after I had removed it from the oven).
While the lobster was in the oven, I started working on my dough for the calzones. I know I have mentioned this before, but I really love the smell of the yeast proofing. It smells like freshly baked bread, which is one of those foods I just cannot resist when it comes right out of the oven. I am also fascinated by the foaming up of the yeast after it sits in the sugar water for a bit.
The dough was waiting for its illustrious rise, and the timer had gone off on my lobster. My little tinfoil package smelled wonderful - buttery and salty and warm. After it had cooled a bit (and I had wiped up the butter pool on my counter), I opened it up and started slicing. It still was pretty. The back of the meat had turned that happy orange color seafood gets when it is cooked. I was disappointed to see that there wasn't any opaque parts to it - it was thoroughly cooked, if not overly so, and I was getting ready to put it in the oven again.
Next came my lobster chunks.
Once I had the onions and bacon sprinkled over the lobster, I sealed up the calzones (not remembering until they were in the oven that there was also supposed to be Asiago in there somewhere).
With those resting again, I was able to concentrate on the "Scrabble Night" pizza. I am not sure why the author decided to call this a Scrabble Night Pizza Casserole (it didn't seem to have anything to do with Scrabble, and it was a pizza, not a casserole), but I was willing to go with it. I brought out the Scrabble game that Jeff and I had purchased long ago and never played, and set it out on the table to see if I would get any takers when my people arrived.
Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin
1 teaspoon + 1/4 cup olive oil, divided
1 1/2 ounces tomato paste
14 1/2 ounces of canned tomatoes
6 ounces chopped onion, divided
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
2/3 cup water
pinch of thyme
2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
3 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound ground beef, browned (10 ounces after cooking)
4 Italian sausage links, casing removed, and browned (6½ ounces after cooking)
1 1/2 ounces diced green pepper
8 ounces ricotta cheese
Make the sauce: Heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil and the tomato paste in a small skillet over medium high heat. Cook, stirring constantly, for about two minutes. Put canned tomatoes, 2 ounces of onion, sugar, oregano, basil, hot pepper, water, and thyme into a blender and purée until smooth. Add to the tomato paste mixture and stir to dissolve the paste into the sauce. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 45 minutes or until sauce has thickened and reduced to about 2 cups.
Make the dough: Combine the yeast and water in a bowl and set aside for at least five minutes. Stir the salt and flour together in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the yeast mixture and one quarter cup of olive oil and stir on a low speed until the mixture forms a ball around the hook. Continue mixing a little longer until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Let rest for an hour in a greased bowl in a warm, dry place.
Assemble pizza: Preheat oven to 400º F. Roll, stretch, or press dough into a 10x15 rimmed sheet pan. Bake in preheated oven for 5 minutes or until crust starts to firm up. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly. Spread sauce over the dough. Combine the beef, Italian sausage, 4 ounces of onion, and green pepper in a bowl. Distribute over the sauce. Drop spoonfuls of ricotta randomly over the meat mixture. Combine the mozzarella and Parmesan cheese and distribute over the meat and ricotta. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until cheese is starting to brown.
I started first with the sauce. When I was making this sauce in large batches and freezing what I didn't use, it really did take a couple of hours to reduce it to the right consistency. By making just a little at a time, and reducing the amount of water added in the beginning, I brought the time down to about 45 minutes, and I wasn't taking up any (now becoming precious) freezer space.
The dough was soft and really pliable by the time I had gotten around to playing with it. I was able to hand stretch it into the corners of my 10 x 15 bar pan quite easily. It was a quite elastic, though, so it took a little manipulating to get it to stay in the place I had left it. Eventually, I gave up worrying about getting it completely into the corners, figuring that it would fill them in when it started cooking.
Looking back, I realized that, at this point, I should have prebaked the crust a bit. It was really a gooey dough, and there were so many toppings on it, that the crust didn't get a chance to firm up. However, I didn't prebake it, I just started putting the toppings on.
I topped the pizza off with the cheese, and Pam arrived. I put her to the task of making the espresso for our Black Martini.
1½ measures light white rum
1½ measures créme de cacao liqueur
1½ measures cold espresso coffee
She all ingredients with ice and strain into a martini glass.
It wasn't a particularly attractive drink, but it was delicious and belly-warming, which is what I was hoping for now that winter had arrived. I thought it's sweetness was perfectly balanced with the dark, bitter, coffee. Pam said she would have preferred hers a little sweeter. Jennifer was in my camp.
When Jennifer and the kids arrived, Pam and Gracie sat down for a game of Scrabble. I think that Gracie would have won, had she not lost interest and ventured into the television room (or maybe Pam lost interest and that prompted Gracie to leave).
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